Visual Vanguards, Part IV

FIRST PLACE
Non-Holiday Window Display
“Mother’s Day Windows”
Hudson’s Bay, Toronto

Talk about doing the dishes! Each display Hudson’s Bay created for its Mother’s Day windows featured a scene incorporating dinnerware – from cups and saucers to cake stands, as well as broken plates.

With the theme being rolled out to other HBC locations, vendors stepped in to source props. For a uniform appearance, Ana Fernandes, creative national director, Hudson’s Bay, and her team had to specify very precise details, like how the broken plates should be fractured. “It was a bit hilarious working with the broken plates, because even that had to be a science, believe it or not,” Fernandes says.

One hurdle was creating the illusion of an endless sea of dinnerware – Fernandes and the creative team “came up with a vinyl background that mimicked stacks of plates,” while cake stands in another window were substituted with painted wooden props fastened with dowel rods to avoid toppling.

And what does a retailer do with hundreds of plates and cups at a campaign’s end? Hudson’s Bay donated the usable items to local area shelters.

Read more about the 21st annual Visual Competition winners featured in VMSD's July 2015 issue by clicking here, and be sure to check vmsd.com throughout the month of July for parts V-VII of this Visual Competition coverage.

Click here to read about the Best in Show winner.

Carly Hagedon

Carly Hagedon is the Editor-in-Chief of VMSD magazine. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, where she studied Journalism—Magazine Writing and American history. She also currently serves as a board member for the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).