Shop windows – another member of the team

12:00 AM, 15 December 2013

Who can resist the allure of temptingly gorgeous books beckoning out from an eye-catching window display as they walk past a bookshop?

With a little bit of imagination and some well placed props, your shop front window display can work just as effectively as one of your real-life shop floor booksellers. It’s an inexpensive but effective platform for advertising your stock and showing off your point of difference and creative nous. Whether your shop front window display is clever, simple, elaborate or just downright pretty, it’s a good way to entice customers new and old into your shop.

Customers are constantly commenting on the window at Unity Books Auckland.

'They mean it in a nice way but some customers say that they had attempted to avert their gaze as they walked past but alas…' laughs owner/manager Jo McColl, whose recipe for a successful window display involves a little bit of everything arranged in pockets of interest with a connecting thread between these pockets.

'For example a book about New Orleans next to a jazz book, next to a blues bio, next to Bob Dylan, next to David Bowie, next to a stand-out fashion volume… and so the thread goes on,' she says.

McColl likens this to an enormous and wild dinner party – book placement means either success or failure for the books, which must spark off each other.

'The Margaret Thatcher biography next to Christopher Hitchens is perfect.'

'Our window is a chance to signal to the public that all kinds of books exist on any number of subjects. There’s something for everyone, even non-readers,' she says.

'I like to indicate to the world that Unity is interested in pretty much everything.

Come the festive season, McColl isn’t keen on the whole whizz-bang Christmas treatment. But for the past few years has had young designers decorate the front window with beautiful illustrations with a very loose Christmas theme.

'And certainly no Christmas music in the shop!'

Unity Wellington finds out that non-living displays work best
One hot summer, Unity Books Wellington’s manager Tilly Lloyd had an idea to put real tomato plants in their summer window display.

'The skylights provided so much sun. We abandoned the idea when the heritage seeds needed too much care.'

She says they view their window as their own curatorial and marketing property. Their Willis Street location offers great foot traffic and Lloyd says the window is a way for Unity Books to create a quickening of interest or excitement.

'And maybe even to titillate,' she says.

Unity Books Wellington is well-known for their clever and witty window displays which usually have a subtext. When Unity staff members review books on the radio, Lloyd likes to display the title in the window alongside an old Bakelite radio while the review is airing. (link)

She says the essential ingredients for a successful window are change, plenty of subtext, humour, spot lighting and IQ.

'And plenty of props.'

New releases, launches, events and seasons all influence themes for their window displays.

'Some things, with a good tweak, can last well more than a month. Others are like delphiniums, a three day wonder,' says Lloyd.

Panning for gold at Page & Blackmore in Nelson
Maclean Barker at Page & Blackmore Booksellers in Nelson has a background in photography, loves anything arty and confesses she’s a bit of a hoarder of potential window display props.

For a minimal but effective window display for Paul Bensemann’s Lost Gold: The 100-year Search for the Gold Reef of Northwest Nelson, Barker used only three props – an old tin pail and shovel, and some rocks she painstakingly handpainted gold.

She says a good window does take some thought. And if you change out the window every couple of weeks, you can build into the customer psyche.

'If you keep changing the displays, they’ll keep watching,' she says.

In addition to props, she recommends using colour and getting other local businesses involved for community spirit.

'If you’re doing an Indian window, you could use props from the local Indian shop.'

A highlight for Barker was her window for The Forrests by Emily Perkins. Barker used black with fake green foliage. The Manager at the time liked the window so much she posted a photograph online, which prompted Perkins to thank Barker for her effort.

'That was a real buzz for me,' says Barker.

'I spend half my time looking for props. I have boxes of sand and shells at home and bits of old curtains, which come in handy. Last year I literally put a whole beach in the window. I brought in some coarse sand. It was simple but effective,' she says.

'Sometimes less is more.'

Or is it ‘more is more’?
Manager and window dresser extraordinaire Jenna Todd from Auckland’s Time Out Bookstore has a different approach.

'When I first started, I really liked minimalistic, balanced windows – but I’ve started working with ‘more is more’. It’s good to squish everything in there to make it look busy and exciting,' she says.

'I think a bit of organised chaos works the best.'

Todd’s creative window displays were recently acknowledged by cult New York website Flavorwire in a photographic feature 30 Excellent Bookstore Windows from Around the World alongside other stunning international bookshop windows.

'That was really cool and a nice surprise. Our social media had a flurry of excitement, which was lovely. It was also wonderful how we were congratulated by our fellow booksellers from all over the world,' she says.

A photographer with an art school background, Todd naturally eased into her role as specialist window dresser at Time Out.

'I have a good eye for what looks good and what doesn’t. It also comes in handy for making props. I’ve drawn Parisian buildings, built a Gothic graphic novel city, made hundreds of origami lilies, sewn signs and painted murals,' she says.

Every January the staff plans their window displays, which are changed out every couple of weeks, for the entire year. The themes are usually determined by seasons and annual events with some gaps in the calendar for new releases and publisher prizes.

Again, props are key. Todd says there is a huge amount of props including suitcases, trees, a wooden moa, typewriters, a writing desk and a bicycle stacked away in the shop in an unused shower upstairs and on the mezzanine floor.

'You name it, we’ve got it. I’ve put a lot of my own hand knits in there for the craft windows. We have quite a bit of fun with a male mannequin we have. There was a bit of a ruckus a few years ago when I used this with the sex issue of Granta for a Valentine’s window.  This was mostly admired, though there were a few complaints: ‘This is the Mt. Eden Village, NOT K’ Rd.’'

Like McColl, Todd has also banned Christmas music from the shop.

'And you’d never catch us wearing Santa hats. But we do try and have a really eye-catching tree display,' she says.

'I’m hoping our plan for this year’s window works. If it does, it will look extremely cool!'

Feature by Kiran Dass