Eastland Mall Bloomington, IL - The Mole Hole
Could you guess from the picture what store this was without looking at the title? I would sure be able to. Unfortunately, I feel like this is all too common for this store. This is The Mole Hole window at our mall. So, let's just start with the obvious: overcrowding! It's a complete mess!! The fact that there is no background behind the products blocking the store's interior just makes this window more confusing and crazy. In fact, I think the shelves shaped as a house are a really cool idea and would look great for a window display to catch people's eye, but it is completely drowned and lost in all the products within the window stuffed on the table. Of course there are also great products in the window with gorgeous patterns, but that doesn't mean you put everything in the window at once. I think this is a really ineffective window that will push non-loyal or new customers away. To get technical with analyzing the design principles of this window, let's first start with proportions. This window may be skinny, but it's tall. This store could have put some products and the cool house shelf on the table, then hung some products, decoration, or signage from the top to extend the window and grab attention in a good way, instead of piling everything from the middle down. Balance has the worst points in my book however as it is all about visual weight, and well...all the visual weight is at the bottom on that table! There is no equality of visual weight which hurts the success of the window. This goes for rhythm as well. There's so much going on that one's eye cannot travel smoothly and effectively. There is also no emphasis in the window, all the products are fighting for attention, which also makes it difficult for the eye to land, and there is nothing that "pops" to make people stop (in a good way) and walk in. In conclusion with design principles, I do not see any unity with all the design elements working together in this window. You may be asking, if this window is so horrible in your eyes, why stop and take a picture of it. Well, because I believe that contrast is a wonderful, interesting thing, and I think that you can't see success clearly if there are no mistakes or failures. Basically, this is a post on what not to do in a store window display, which is just as important as showing successful windows.
xoxo~ Ashley
