OUGD405 Brief 01 Context Within Commerce

When looking at the design of something that is for all intents and purposes for display, it made sense to take into account the way the products were displayed within the shops.

 The large cube shaped stands that are used in TK-Max are such a hight that only a fraction of the products on display can really be clearly seen. They are also qhite densely spaced which once again reduces the number that can be seen by the customer. This layout, in short, requires the customer to be very determined to by a picture frame. The design of a frame filler in this situation would not only need to be eye catching but also provide the maximum amount of information, so that nothing that can be controlled by the frame filler design gets in the way of the customer buying the frame.

 As well as the stands shown above, shelves were also utilised to stack frames on. This means that a number of frames are completely obscured making any time spent on the filler design obsolete, it is possibly becoing easier to understand why little time is spend on these designs. However, the close positioning of these frames suggest that during the design process it might be productive to take into account the areas of the frame fillers that are vissable went arranged like this to allow the most versitility in display arrangements. So often the displays lay below the normal eye line, this meants that the most visable area of closely positioned frames is the top section. This could be incorperated into the final designs by putting the most important information at the top of the frame or the text is distorted to be red at a certain angle or the design is most eye catching in this area.

As can be seen both above in TK-Max and Clas Ohlson picture frames tend to be grouped together, especialy in the cheaper shops. This suggests that my designs will need to be descidedly different to existing designs to be able to catch the customers eye.

 The way photo frames are often stacked on shelves as is shown below means that they are viewed from numerous different angles my designs will have to stand up to rigorous testing in this area so that they make visual sense at all angles. There could even be a way of making use of the fact that the customer can move around the object varying in distances and perspectives. The designs could look like one thing from a distance but come into focus as something else when the customer is closer.

 Another problem with the way these frames are often displayed in shops is the glare that comes from the florescent lighting and shines off the glass in the frames. This could be an aesthetic starting point for the final designs but could also be taken into consideration during production; perhaps particular kinds of matt paper could reduce this glare and make the designs clearer.