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The Window Graphics Program
By Jim Hingst
In developing a window graphics program that satisfies the needs of the store owner, your designer needs good information. Before going on a sales call, prepare yourself by doing some pre-call planning and take the time to visit the location. Don’t forget to carry your camera with you and take plenty of pictures.
If the store owner has several locations, you may want to visit some of the different stores. If you’re approaching a smaller chain, the chances are that the architecture will vary from one location to another.
Once you conduct your initial sales interview with the prospect, be prepared with questions to initiate and sustain a dialogue. Here are few questions that you may want to ask:
*What are the company’s existing corporate colors, logos, and design motifs? What liberties can the designer take?
* What changes to the store’s identity are planned?
* What are the company’s key advertising and marketing themes?
* How are they perceived by their typical customer? How would they like to be perceived?
* Which of the store’s product lines are the fastest moving and most profitable?
* Who are the company’s primary competitors?
* What challenges does the company face in the future from these competitors?
* What are the company’s plans for future growth?
In addition to helping your designer, the answers to these questions will help you better understand the prospect’s business and his or her competitive environment. This will help you prepare your sales proposal.
Window Layouts
Graphics producers have used several different “tried and true” formats in designing window graphics programs. Three popular formats are the valance, the showcase, and the pictorial.
Valance. I’m frequently asked what part of the window is the best to decorate. In most cases, I recommend a decorative band along the top of the window.
Here are my reasons:
In a strip mall, parking spaces are often located right in front of the stores. Any decoration on the bottom portion of the windows is blocked by parked vehicles. By decorating the top of the windows, graphics are usually visible from the street. Make sure that any overhang, canopy, or awning doesn’t obscure the graphics.
The space at the top of window is usually unused dead space. A decorative valance is also useful in concealing lighting fixtures above a window display.
Some store owners are concerned that youthful miscreants will vandalize their window graphics. Rarely are these fears realized. Still if this is a concern, applied graphics at the top of a window are out of reach.
Showcase. The showcase is one of the most effective window graphics design formats that you can use. It forms a border along the perimeter of the window. The primary function of this format is to frame all of the design elements within it and to visually tie the design together. This layout is especially effective in focusing attention on window displays.
Decorative borders along the sides of the window should be narrow, typically no more than six to eight inches in width, so that they don’t visually compete for attention with a product display.
Pictorial. We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. In recent years, store owners have used large format pictorials printed on perforated vinyl films to transform their windows into billboards. Large format pictorials with bright colors have visual impact that attracts attention to a store location.
The one-way vision perforated films allow passers-by to view the graphic but not see into the store. Customers on the inside of the store can see outside. The perforated films also allow light into the store, so it doesn’t feel like a dungeon indoors.
While large format graphics can be effective, you don’t need to cover every inch of glass with vinyl graphics. In some cases, covering the entire window with a pictorial can erect a barrier between the shopper and the interior of the store. The objective of a window graphic is to attract the attention of the viewer, to draw attention to the shop owner’s merchandise, and to give the shopper a reason to walk through the front doors.
Window Displays
After completing grad school, I worked as an assistant store manager for Jarman’s Shoe Store in Chicago’s Loop. Every couple of weeks, I had the job of arranging the displays in the window. Wasn’t that overdoing it a bit? Not at all. The business survived on its walk-in trade. And our best merchandiser was the window display.
According to the Point Of Purchasing Advertising Institute (POPAI), window displays account for about 25 percent of a store’s sales. Depending on which industry report you read, the typical shopper spends an average of six to eleven seconds looking at the merchandise in a store window. Had I only known then what I know today, I would’ve done things differently.
The big department stores have turned the decoration of their windows into an art. Often compared to theatrical productions, the primary purpose of window displays is to attract the attention of the shopper with interesting and creative product arrangements and then lure the shopper into the store with the latest and hottest selling products.
That’s the toughest part—getting a new shopper into your store. People are creatures of habit. They go to the same stores over and over again. For retailers to break these patterns of behavior, they have to do something dramatic. Scenery, lighting, props, and (the stars of the production) mannequins can set the stage for an effective product display.
The smaller retailers don’t have a display artist on staff. Here’s where you, the sign maker, can help the local shopkeepers—by providing materials for their displays! These materials might include digitally printed background scenery.
Large format digital prints can show products in use and they can set the stage for the display to create an atmosphere which sets the mood for the shopper. Using metalized specialty films is also effective when used for eye-catching backdrops.
Design Tips
Some of the same principles that apply to print advertising and good sign design also apply to creating either an interesting window graphic or an enticing window display.
The first rule of thumb is to keep the layout simple. Too many words, colors, and design elements create visual clutter. This advice also holds true for merchandise displayed in the window. The display shouldn’t be overcrowded with products. To maintain visual interest, products should be displayed at various heights.
You’ve probably heard designers talk about “white space” or “negative space.” These terms refer to the unused open areas of a layout. Any type of design needs some visual breathing room. This open area should represent 30 to 40 percent of a design. The tendency, though, is to throw everything into a layout (including the proverbial kitchen sink).
If your design includes copy, keep the message short and sweet. Lettering should be big and bold and easy to read at a distance.
Remember that, when using a block-style letter, the maximum viewing distance for one-inch-tall characters is twenty-five feet. Small copy and fine detail are generally ineffective—especially if they’re printed on perforated window sheeting.
Keep your design modular by dividing the overall layout into smaller sections. If you’re applying the window graphics at several different stores (with windows of different dimensions), the modular components will allow you to more easily improvise and adapt the design from one location to the next. Typical modules might include various striping sections, the company logo, company name, product or service offerings and slogans, store hours, and a pictorial.
In designing window graphics, lighter colors are much more visible on glass than darker colors. If you must use a dark color (because it’s part of the corporate color scheme, for example), outline it with a white border.
There’s another reason to avoid dark colors such as black and chocolate brown. These types of colors can absorb the sun’s heat and cause vinyl-covered glass to rapidly expand while cooler areas stay rigid. With part of the window expanding and other areas contracting, glass breakage is possible. Large areas of dark color next to regions of very light, reflective tones can also cause heat gain and glass expansion. Films with extreme gray-scale differences can result in glass fatigue and early failures.
Reflective sheeting applied to glass also poses a breakage hazard. The rigidity of stiff, reflective material may not allow the applied area to expand at the same rate as uncovered areas.
Material Selection
The material that you select for a job will depend on a couple of factors: With respect to durability, what are the customer’s expectations? Not all calendered films are the same. Be sure to read the manufacturer’s technical data sheet prior to material selection.
In what type of environment will the graphics be applied? Heat and intensity of UV light varies greatly from one part of the country to another. It’s not just UV light that degrades vinyl graphics. High heat also accelerates the aging process.
What is your customer’s budget? If the budget will allow it, convince your customer of the merits of using a cast vinyl film for long-term durability.
Interior or exterior application? When I was at the 2009 Global Shop Show for the Point-Of-Purchase market, I discussed window graphics with a number of store designers. The most frequently asked question was “should window graphics be applied to the inside or the outside of the store windows?”
In most every case, window graphics should be applied to the outside of the windows. Here are three good reasons:
1. Applied on the inside of the window, the reflective glare on the glass will kill the visual impact of the graphics.
2. Many windows today are tinted, which alters the colors of the graphic.
3. Application of vinyl graphics to the inside of the window often requires moving displays and shelving, as well as disrupting store traffic. Moving merchandise and store fixtures around slows down the installation and adds to the cost of the application. Exterior applications, on the other hand, pose no inconvenience to business operation, and installers may apply them after hours.
To read about the window graphics application process, check out my feature “It’s Not Just Window Dressing” in the July 2009 issue of Sign Builder Illustrtated.
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