Archives for October, 2009

How to make Visual Merchandising work

October 26 2009

As we approach the festive shopping season, we are hopeful that some of our best ever window displays will be on show throughout the capital and for many of London’s foremost fashion designers and retailers.  With a wealth of visual merchandising experience behind us, I have written the following insight into how we work prompted by the following questions by local design students.

Do you aspire to create an art installation as well as a form of advertising?

When working on the visual merchandising projects we always consider the overall design of the job when deciding upon the final production method. We aim to create displays within the budget restraints but not compromising on the intended visual effect. Creative Directors at clients such as Joseph regularly supply us with a vision in sketch form and we suggest the best production method to achieve the desired effect.

How many of the Octink team are involved with projects of this type?

We often work on some very creative window displays where it is crucial that our project management, studio, production and installation teams are involved from the outset and all have an input to the project. Ultimately timely delivery and attention to the smallest of details make visual merchandising projects a success.

What sort of time scale do you have to work on from initial ideas to the final design?

Retail display work is very fast moving, and as such our experience is of having to operate and deliver within very tight deadlines.  As we approach the festive season, window displays in particular are ever changing, and we may only be given a matter of hours to deliver, often in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day!

Would you like to do more visual work in the retail industry?

Definitely! This sort of work is challenging and really gets the creative side out of everyone in our team, as well as allowing us to impart our experience and knowledge for the benefit of the project.

If you want to work with a window display specialist who is both knowledgeable and passionate about visual merchandising then give us a call on 020 8232 6868 or drop us a line .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Article by Simon Martin

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Octink discloses CommunityMark activity

October 19 2009

On 22 June 2009, Business in the Community announced that Octink were one of only nine new companies that were successful in achieving the CommunityMark standard for community investment excellence. We joined the roll of 20 pioneers that achieved the CommunityMark in 2008, and are proud that our efforts have contributed to a collective investment of over £42 million in our respective communities.

At Octink we have been engaged in activities involving employee volunteering, corporate giving and fundraising, gifts in kind and other commercial initiatives, specifically with local community groups and schools.  We are now pleased to publically disclose the details of these activities on our website as part of our on-going committment to promote the CommunityMark Standard to our friends and colleagues, client base, and supplychain. Find out more.

Article by Mike Freely

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