Window Display Props

I Want Your Job: Tim Oakley, Sonic Boom Window Designer

“Come on, I have my own beer fridge!” boasts Tim Oakley when asked about the perks of his job. It’s true; located in the midst of his subterranean workshop is a mini-fridge stocked with Steam Whistle. “Want a beer?” he offers politely, even though it’s barely noon.

For the past six years, Oakley has been creating window displays for Sonic Boom , which showcase a new record release roughly every six to eight weeks. Working out of the back basement of the store, Oakley spends his days surrounded by mannequins, chop saws, and fake fur, all of which have been featured in his large-concept designs.

Oakley’s equipment, however, is going to be packed up over the next few months and moved to Sonic Boom’s new home, next to Hero Burger on the Bathurst-facing side of Honest Ed’s. Earlier this week, the store announced it would be forced to abandon its decade-long home in September, as the building’s landlords have offered up the space to make way for a Dollarama (and collect higher rents in the process).

“It’s tragic; there were tears,” says Oakley about his reaction to the news. “Like, a lot of them. To have to move for something like that—it’s horrible.” Still, he’s optimistic about the move, especially since the new store is only a stone’s throw across a busy intersection away. “It’s really going to feel a lot like the normal Sonic Boom. We just have to figure out a few things, including the windows,” he says. “Hopefully I’ll do three windows and rotate them a bit more frequently, and then also do one window at the new store in Kensington .” The old loading dock of Honest Ed’s will serve as Oakley’s workshop, providing him with a new—albeit somewhat smaller—place to dream up his creations.

Reluctant to describe himself as an artist, Oakley, who has no artistic training, and was planning to be a sci-fi writer when he moved to Toronto in 2000, is first and foremost a Sonic Boom man. He “fell in love” with the place when he started working at the store as a cashier, and when the staff suggested creating art displays to supplement album-promo material, Oakley jumped at the chance. Even though he had no experience with design, the store let him conceptualize their first display, a Chemical Brothers release. The rest is history; Oakley’s windows are the stuff of Toronto legend. “If the store hadn’t been behind it, [the displays] wouldn’t exist,” he says. “I owe this place so much for having nurtured this.

Budget Friendly Window Displays Using Dress Forms | Mannequin Madness

In Western movies the general store was the ONLY place in town to buy goods for miles around. So retailers did not have to put any effort into making their window displays look enticing. Just having something in the window was enough.

Although times have changed, many retailers lose opportunities to generate more sales because their window displays lack imagination and pizazz, just like those in the western movies. Eye catching window displays, don’t have to be expensive just creative! (and well executed which is why a skilled visual merchandiser is helpful)

Look at how creative this window display where besides the dress form the only props are dirt filled ziploc bags with fresh flowers growing out of them.

Retail window displays are like a giant billboard announcing to everyone who passes by what you have inside. Simply putting the items you are selling into your store window is not enough to grab people’s attention anymore, you have to engage them. Good lighting, props, signage and mannequins are all tools to create engagement.

Nothing beats a full size mannequin with arms, legs (and preferably a head) for engaging the attention of passerby. But dress forms are more economical to buy than a mannequin and are much easier to dress and maintain. So if you use dress forms, this means the items on it or props surrounding the dress form have to be more significant in order to draw attention. We sell a wide variety of new and used dress forms at Mannequin Madness.

We saw some excellent examples of creative uses of dress forms from one of our favorite blogs, Retail Details . Becky Tyre, a visual consultant and owner of Swirl Marketing, writes the blog and if you ever need inspiration for coming up with creative ideas to make your store more visual appealing, read her blog or hire her as a consultant. Many of the photos in this post are from her blog.

Anthropologie is THE industry leader for imaginative retail displays on a budget. We salute them for helping to promote the same concept that we we’ve being saying over and over again “: eye-catching window displays do not have to be expensive to produce (just well executed).

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