Visual merchandising is a flexible cost-effective way for retailers to promote and sell their products. It makes use of creativity and originality and is seen as one of the most interesting approaches to optimize the marketing strategies. Imagery can be created throughout the entire store, but especially in the displays, where we gather our experience, originality and creativity to bring the best for customers.
The first impression a customer creates about our store can directly affect the overall ambiance of the shopping and can positively or negatively affect the consumers’ shopping habits with us. We shouldn’t treat the customers just as passers-by, but as our friends, persons that come and are meant to stay. This is the reason why we need to create aesthetically appealing areas where customers fill enjoyed and satisfied and where the process of shopping is transformed into an extraordinary experience. We must mediate the act of shopping people really enjoy and we should do our best to make it stay that way.
A store designer should always be familiar with the latest trends, the target, and the products he is dealing with. He must also apply in his store the new things that appear in terms of technology, art, design and so on. A good designer must tell a story in his displays, present the merchandise simple, without making it unavailable for customers, focus on the best a store can offer, provide the best product placement. He must have skills needed to understand and apply the tool of science in his work, linking it with creativity, so as to create the most compelling store layout.
We’ve created this article around the idea of kinetic art, an artistic form of expression that can effectively be used for an aesthetical aspect of your store. The concept of kinetic art is a relatively new form of art that embodies not only aesthetic background, but also technical. There is a trend now for exterior designers to install kinetic sculptures because of their possibility to attract the viewers in the process of creating meaning. The novelty that it brings is certainly the main reason for which so many retailers and designers choose this type of sculptures as a way to improve the environment design.
The effective aspect that kinetic art has isn’t connected only to its novelty. Placing a “moving” object inside your store eliminates the feeling of stagnation. If you didn’t invest very much in creating an exciting layout of your store, you definitely need to think of something that might cheer up the atmosphere.
The Aesthetic of Kinetic Art in Retail Spaces
Before presenting some kinetic art ideas to use inside the store, let us understand first what is this need for “moving” assemblies and where does it come from. Kinetic art is connected to any type of art that makes use of movement, which is exploited so as to produce in the viewer’s mind the feeling that his position towards that assembly is important in creating its shape and also its meaning. Most often, kinetic art refers especially to sculpture for its ability to create movement in a three-dimensional manner. Some traces of kinetic art are to be found first in Impressionist movement, back to Manet or Degas, and then in Surrealism.
Naum Gabo is believed to be the first to actually make use of the principles of kinetic art when he talked about “kinetic rhythm” when describing his artwork. Kinetic art has many connections with technology, some techniques being used to create movement in the assemblies. As a result, we can see now the most interesting and inspiring kinetic art exhibitions at MIT Museum, considered one of the most important centers of kinetic art in the world.
The affinity of kinetic art with visual merchandising is to be found in the creative and technical aspect that both have. Taking into account that in your store you make use of both, technical and creative procedures, you may consider crafting an assembly that is based on the principles of kinetic art, just the way that they’ve been described so far.
We’ve already inferred that there is a way to create your own kinetic art inspired displays by using props, fixtures, lightning, items that you actually sell and other elements that you generally use in your store. A kinetic approach doesn’t necessary imply the fact that you need to use technology to make that structure “move”, you can set the entire thing in such a way that, when it is watched from different angles, there is a shape that can be detected. Generally speaking, a kinetic assembly is meant to create two or more images that can be seen from different perspectives, providing this way an element of surprise.
So in order to create this kinetic arrangement, you either purchase a kinetic sculpture, or you simply use imagination to produce your own kinetic art inside the store, only by using some elements that you already have. A DIY installation might be really appreciated, being perceived as a way to demonstrate that you take very seriously your duty to create an enjoying environment for your clients or for your staff also.
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