Sea Change

NEW YEAR = NEW VMSD.

The year 2025 marks a phase of reinvention for both VMSD and our International Retail Design Conference (IRDC), now entering its 25th consecutive year.

Taking place in Providence, Rhode Island, Oct. 22-23, and co-locating with the 2025 Shop! Association Ideation Conference & Retail Challenge (Oct. 20-21), IRDC 2025 is going to be the backdrop to some one-of-a-kind, disruptive experiences reflective of the bigger trends we’re continuing to see in retail design. “Creating an experience” is still a much-used “buzzphrase” and this year’s IRDC will be bringing that concept to reality. (For more trends impacting retail in 2025, visit vmsd.com for our web exclusive/Trends Forecast written by longtime VMSD contributing writer Lauren Mang.)

Similar to the changes being enacted to IRDC, you’ll begin noticing some aesthetic refreshes to the printed and digital pages of VMSD in the near future – it’s now been a little more than 10 years since our last total redesign. (Where did the time go?!)

In the spirit of newness, this annual January/February “Look Book” issue showcases a range of noteworthy new retail products, from fixtures to mannequins to props to lighting and more. In addition to a renewed focus on sustainability, suppliers and manufacturers are also “coloring outside the lines” with bold designs and statement-making pieces.

Even with all the new, you can’t forget the tried and the true: For a second year in a row, we recognized a holiday window display with our Gene Moore Window Award, chosen by our panel of Window Wizards. New York-based Tiffany & Co. took home the honors for its 2024 holiday windows, designed by Christopher Young, Creative Director, VP for Global Creative Visual Merchandising and the Tiffany Archive, Tiffany & Co. Part of our annual holiday window recap (pg. 14, penned by VMSD Managing Editor Olivia Taylor), check out images of our winner as well as other windows from retailers around the globe.

In the coming months, stay tuned to the magazine and vmsd.com for coverage of our 2025 class of Designer Dozen winners (to be featured in our March/April issue), as well as in-depth coverage of the upcoming Shop! MarketPlace trade show and conference, to be held in Charlotte, N.C., this April 8-10.

Cheers to 2025 – and all things new.