I once worked in an icecream shop in Tokyo making waffles and preparing all of the fruit and chocolates and nuts and other delights that got whipped up into the icecream.  It was a pretty sophisticated icecream shop.  Passionflower serves up dessert culture right in the heart of the city, Bourke Street, Melbourne.  Its looks pretty sophisticated too!

Check out their website which is bright colourful and in keeping with their Melbourne street presence.  Hmmm icecream … perfect for the coming summer months. 

It is that time of year where the SALE sign hangs prominently in every retail shop window.  Some shops bang out the same SALE sign every season, the off the shelf red and white variety, others invest a bit more design time and effort knowing that SALE time brings its own reward for effort 

We have a couple of clients who use the SALE sign as another way of window dressing their shop, in other words they periodically put time and effort into marketing their shop even during a SALE period.  FIG are a good example.  They engage graphic design group, Mahon and Band  for their creative.  Here are some examples of SALE signs we have printed and installed  for FIG over the past couple of years.

FIG

Bayside Beauty Therapy had already had some signage done by some other company but after seeing what we did at Tease Me Hairdressing she realised she wasn’t all that happy with what she had had done.  So John went out to see her and gave her some advice. 

1.  The sign below the AVEDA decal was way too small so a waste.  To make full use of the light above John suggested a much bigger sign to overlay the two windows and really let passers by know who you are.

2.  The large postage stamp window decal was already coming away and stuck in the middle of the window didn’t really enhance the space.  So John suggested more of a holographic treatment which screens inside activity at night. Sorry our photo has not provided a good shot of this same image which now fills the window space.  Light issues!

3.  At base of image he created a translucent purple decal (ie: purple printed on clear film for aesthetic and colour translucency) to match the logo colour and overlaid with logo text – web address, and phone no.

This was all done on a budget of $1400.  There are cost effective ways of promoting your business effectively and aesthetically.  Good advice is important.  You be the judge …

Before

After

Love the copper framing of the windows and doors.  Love copper full stop, particularly when left to age.  We used it as a bulkhead overlay above the vanity mirror | cupboard in our bathroom and left it to discolour.  Here it has been used to frame the windows and doors to great effect. Copper is a pretty strong visual element so you wouldn’t want to go all out and compete with a graphic that is equally strong and intimidating. Carina Sherlock have kept it simple; retail door and window decals in in soft greys and whites: trading hours, logo, open & closed, shop number etc.  But hey it’s okay to pack a punch if you’re having a sale, go all out with fluoro green cos that’s a short term install. By the way this is Carina Sherlock’s first retail store …. check out their website for more details!

Starting with good bones always helps – good paint job in white and copper framing here for example , then use decals to dress up doors and windows. If simply a paint job then perhaps add a bit with vector graphics, printed images and illustrations, black and white photos that can then be printed on all types of film: translucents, transparents, opaques. Decals are a pretty inexpensive way of keeping your retail store looking good without blowing the budget but gotta get the basics right first then work with the look and feel of your store to create a range of seasonal or promotional graphics that can be changed and updated as required.