The Elements of Visual

Three very different types of elements went into the Visual Presentation of the Year awards, sponsored by VMSD as part of the annual Association for Retail Environments design competition for 2013.

Wolverine Co. (Rockford, Mich.) displayed salvaged equipment from its original tannery around its 1800-square-foot pop-up company store on Elizabeth Street in New York’s NoLIta neighborhood. The store, which was open from September 2012 until February 2013, won A.R.E.’s Grand Prize for visual merchandising.

Among the elements in play were an old parts bin used to showcase boots and hats; leather dryers used as table bases and wall hooks; industrial ceiling fans and carts, file cabinets and a time clock from the original tannery.

Decor sourced from antique dealers and flea markets includes an authentic working Wolverine retail sign from the 50s and framed vintage Wolverine advertising images dating back as far as 1916. Even the curtains on the dressing room were held up by metal rings from a leather-stretching apparatus.

Awards of Merit went to Hambar, a restaurant in Montreal’s Hôtele St-James, which suspended hams in a brightly lit glass showcase near the entrance; and to Solara, a shoe store in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Canada, which created a ceiling treatment of more than 6500 discontinued ladies’ shoes, sandals and boots in various styles, sizes and seasons to cover its 1120-square-foot ceiling.