GOLDSMITHS

A Christmas Window Package for Every Store

Goldsmiths wanted a traditional Christmas window display to showcase sparkling diamonds, jewellery and watches. We designed a winter wonderland, which then went to our workshop to be manufactured as a kit-of-parts, before being rolled-out to all stores. Would every store be able to re-assemble the design in the same way – we had 87 opportunities to find out!

Goldsmiths are a brand with more than 230 years of experience, their first showroom opened in Newcastle in 1778. They sell fine quality jewellery and watches, and today have over 87 retail outlets across the UK. They are industry leaders and as such, run the largest distribution network of luxury watches, including, Rolex, Omega and TAG Heuer.

We were commissioned to create a Christmas window to draw in customer’s looking for the perfect Christmas gift.

DESIGNING & IMPLEMENTING A CHRISTMAS WINDOW

Goldsmiths approached us with a vision for their Christmas in-store promotional campaign – they wanted something traditional and beautiful that could be replicated in the same style across all stores.

We came up with a Scandinavian style snowy village design, that would seamlessly incorporate Christmas with digital screens, jewellery and pricing and still look festive. Customers who walked past Goldsmiths would see the price ranges and products and feel confident that there would be something inside that would make a great gift, which they could afford.

The window design needed to be straightforward to manufacture, distribute and install with clear visual guidelines for each store detailing how it should be put together. Every store had a different window layout, space varied as did access. It was important that the ‘look’ could be replicated as easily as possible, to maintain brand consistency and quality whatever the space and layout of the store.

FESTIVE RETAIL DESIGN

We started by sketching concepts and themes – creating mood boards to find the right ‘look and feel’ for the project. Goldsmiths is a heritage brand but is not unaffordable. We wanted to create something that would position the products as high quality gifts that could be treasured forever, making clear that they were also affordable.

The final retail design included a few miniature wooden buildings, a carved tree, little scrolls of paper, wooden signposts. The main element of the window design was a tall, slim, rotating, carved wooden Christmas tree, powered by a motor in the base, to display products and prices. The prices were shown on coloured, carved gift tags that hung from the branches of the tree. The price tags were themed by colour and were replicated across signage on digital screens.

As you moved down the tree the price tags reduced to demonstrate to the customer, available products that could be purchased for various budgets.

The movement of the tree in the window caught the attention of passing shoppers and because it rotated it meant there was more usable space to fill with products.

A PRACTICAL
WINDOW
DISPLAY SOLUTION

Once the designs were approved our factory became a Christmas workshop with a mass production of trees, wooden frames and other elements, which were distributed to each store with a visual guide of how to put the look together. This was not as straightforward as it sounds, as each store was different, with the location of plug sockets, doors and windows across the stores a bit of a mystery.

“All the windows were different. Some stores had three huge windows, some had two small ones, some had weird triangles. Our design had to be able to adapt to the space available.”

Lee Grosvenor, 3D Creative Manager, Impact Retail

We also had to factor in that jewellers remove all products from the window each night. This meant that the Christmas window display had to be easy to move around and restock with products each morning. We made sure that the visual merchandising elements did not get in the way of the products and staff.

Everything was designed on platforms, which jewellers use to easily keep groups of jewellery together. By creating a visual layout for different elements on specific platforms, we could make sure the look and feel of the design remained the same whichever staff member dressed the window each morning. Maintaining brand consistency and style across all stores.

QUALITY CHRISTMAS ELEMENTS THAT LAST

Much like our Christmas decorations at home get boxed up and put in the attic for another year, retailers are often keen to reuse Christmas display materials to avoid waste. We were pleased to see Goldsmiths use the rotating trees, which were quite large with moving parts and a motor, again the following year, testament to the quality of their design and manufacture.

We’re always happy to think about Christmas in retail! If you’d like to talk to us about your Christmas windows or Christmas retail marketing materials please do get in touch, even if it’s in January!