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Client: The Disney Store
Project: VM Manual
Brief:
Visual Thinking was approached by The Disney Store Europe to produce a new visual merchandising manual for each of its three current store formats. Developed for store managers and the Head Office team, the brief was to identify gaps in existing VM policy and develop updated policy content.
The new manual needed to demonstrate core principles that could be applied within all product categories, i.e. a complete VM learning tool, and not just ‘follow the pictures’ instructions.
Solution:
The Visual Thinking team started by conducting research visits to each store concept to identify and document the Disney Store VM and retail guidelines, rules and standards.
This enabled the team to develop a generic set of VM principles and techniques, which was to form the basis of the manual. The team then went on to develop the variants of the hardcopy information, which included copywriting, page design, and drawings. The preference was for line illustrations over VM photography, as they were less likely to become out of date, and therefore avoid expensive and complex seasonal updating.
Delivered over a nine-month period, content for all three manuals was completed and tested with end-user groups, prior to handover to Disney for final production and translation into European markets. Visual Thinking also provided training for the Disney VM Team in the use of the InDesign PC package, enabling them to update future content, maximising future value from the project.
