Tag Archives: Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design

Holiday Window Displays 2017:

It’s that time of year again! Before the turkeys are on dinner tables, window displays at iconic New York City department stores are already bringing in Christmas cheer. New York City is known for jaw-dropping holiday visuals, and here are a few I think are worthy of checking out this holiday season!

Bergdorf Goodman, Fifth Avenue –

The display pays homage to seven of New York City’s well-know cultural institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The New York Botanical Gardens, and the New-York Historical Society. It captures the city’s appreciation for art, history, music, and film with their presentation entitled, “To New York With Love”. As onlookers peruse the windows, they can expect to see displays featuring bejeweled dinosaurs, a large-screen montage of black-and-white films clips, soft-sculpture plant life, neon musical instruments, papier-mâché portraits and sculptures, and signature glass objects.

Macy’s, 34th Street –

Despite tough times for department-store chains, Macy’s has once again shown what it can do when it comes to the magic of the holidays. This year’s window theme is “The Perfect Gift Brings People Together.” The department store has six holiday windows on Broadway and 18 other windows,  including the perennial “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus,” which has had a place of honor for the last 10 years. One window features a Christmas tree as the centerpiece at home Another captures the busy city with an ice skating rink. A third has Santa as a theater conductor during a holiday show.

Lord & Taylor, Fifth Avenue –

Features five animated windows along with fashion windows and an additional 13 smaller windows filled with holiday flair at Lord & Taylor. Each incorporates snow globes to help tell the story. The windows depict a circus scene, polar bears playing in the Arctic and Santa’s workshop. The Lord & Taylor windows are built off-site and take six months to create starting from the vision to the final production. Up to 75 different skilled tradespeople work to put the windows including carpenters, electricians, and skilled painters.

Saks Fifth Avenue –

Saks Fifth Avenue celebrates the 80th year of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with its 14 animated holiday window displays along Fifth Avenue this year. Each window features a different scene from the popular fairy tale, including Snow White dancing with the woodland creatures, the Seven Dwarfs coming home from the diamond caves and the Wicked Queen and the poisonous red apple.

Discovering a Major: Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design

by Kate Kim as told to Emily Bennett

Kate Kim

Kate Kim

I am currently in my final semester in Fabric Styling, but I got my Associate’s degree in Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design.

A display I designed for Sol Republic headphones

A display I designed for Sol Republic headphones

The Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design (VPED) major focuses on the visual aspects of designing displays and equipment, and the overall merchandising of a store. We also gain experience designing “pop-up shops”, which are gaining popularity in today’s market. People who choose this major generally have goals of becoming visual merchandisers, merchandise display designers, store layout designers, or window display designers. This major was the number one factor why FIT was my top choice. There is no other program like VPED in the whole country! What really drew me in was the fact that it specializes in a specific industry, yet it provides so many various opportunities career-wise. Because of the classes I took, I have experience creating visual presentations and displays for brick-and-mortar stores, pop-up shops, museums, showrooms, exhibition and event spaces as well as experience in event planning, set design, mannequin styling and even more! Right now I am interning with Michael Kors.

A Point of Purchase design encouraging voting

A Point of Purchase design to encourage voting

Mannequins I styled that were on display in the windows looking out onto Seventh Avenue

Mannequins I styled that were on display in the windows looking out onto Seventh Avenue

  I chose VPED because I was fascinated with the idea of capturing people’s attention on the street with a window display, therefore creating interest to come inside to shop. Some of the classes I really enjoyed were Display Graphics, Point-of-Purchase Display Design, Design and Rendering, Event and Promotion Design and Exhibition Design. I think the most interesting class I took was the Exhibition Design one. We had to design a pop up shop layout as well as the merchandise displays. I remember working on the 7th Avenue window with a group to create props and design a window to display merchandise. This was seen by everyone who walked by the school!

A design for the pop-up shop version of Bonobos

A design for the store Bonobos

The greatest thing I learned from attending FIT was mastering several computer graphics programs as well as familiarizing myself with the fashion and visual design industry.

Find out more about Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design here!

Note: Starting in Fall of 2015 the Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design major will no longer be an Associate’s of Applied Science Degree. The College has changed it to a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. The College recommends any students interested in pursuing a BFA in VPED to first complete their Associate’s Degree in Communication Design.

–Emily–