Bambi’s Boxes, Part I.

LV display in London, UK back in April ’12

I have decided to dedicate a part of this blog to a somewhat overlooked art (in the country): display design. As defined by TheFreeDictionary, display design is

“a field of the decorative arts that includes the temporary festive decoration of streets, public squares, and industrial sites; window dressing; and the design of decorations and displays for demonstrations, public holidays, athletic events, parades, and various types of exhibitions. Display design makes use of the expressive resources of architecture, sculpture, painting, graphics, theater, film-making, and lighting. It thereby provides the most large-scale examples of a synthesis of the arts. Display design interacts with the existing architecture but, in contrast to it, usually has agitational content.”

In other words, it’s the conceptual thought that goes into the vitrines that make selling products more visually stimulating. The posts revolving around this subject (titled Bambi’s Boxes since vitrines are essentially boxes) will depend on how often I discover an intriguing display in Lebanon and how long/if I can gather some background info about the creator(s) behind it. Given that displays do not change frequently, these posts will probably be about once or twice a month and if you’re not a fan of this sort of thing, there’s still the usual lists, film clips, letters and random ramblings that will continue to be posted regularly.

So without further ado, I’m going to start this off with one of the giants in display design: Louis Vuitton.

LV in Beirut, Lebanon in February ’12

This past year, they have had vitrines with giant cupcakes, white carousel horses (seen above), and multicolored arrows. Like every smart brand, they’re vitrines are identical in all their stores across the world – but not to the same degree or a complete copy/paste layout. Based on size of the shop and structure of the window, they can vary in arrangement. Sometimes, the design is applied on the interior of the store as well, being incorporated into the presentation of the products. The themes are usually concepts coming from commissioned artists.

Worldwide this season, LV has a pop-up collaboration with Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese artist, and it’s all about tentacles – her work shows her obsession with the idea of accumulation. Using this, Louis Vuitton partnered with the artist to create a new polka dot collection. The “Polka Dot Artist” is also featured within some of the displays in dolled up mannequin form. She looks like a Japanese Anna Wintour. These pop-up stores are featured in Singapore, Hong Kong’s Pacific Place (until Sept. 8), Tokyo Shinjuku Isetan (until July 31), Tokyo Dover Street Market (until Aug. 26), New York Soho (until July 31), Paris Le Printemps Department Store (Aug. 23-Oct. 21) and London Selfridges Department Store (Aug. 24-Oct. 19). You can check out the collection here.

The vitrines feature tentacles and venus flytrap-like plants with eye ball centers that allude to Little Shop of Horrors creatures in my opinion. Here’s a trailer of the movie so you can see what I mean:

The vitrines in Beirut now:

5 thoughts on “Bambi’s Boxes, Part I.”

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Humberto says:

May 11, 2013 at 3:19 pm

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im

Alexandria Designer Bathroom says:

November 7, 2013 at 9:40 am

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- Farrah Berrou says:
  
  November 7, 2013 at 9:52 am
  
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