May The Summer Days Last Forever is all about holding onto the memories made over summer and making those memories stay alive through the darker months. The idea is based on preserving Summer by pressing the flowers and keeping those memories alive. Each individual flower and leaf has been collected and pressed then digitally scanned and cut out.
During day light when the shop is open the display will be filled with dried flowers placed in an intricate pattern inspired by the work of Marian Bantjes. However when the shop closes and it gets dark the UV lights will turn on and the flowers will shine. In the Autumn day time gets shorter and I wanted to create something magical which could happen in the evening, a spectacle for people to come and see. I saw a similar piece using flowers in test tubes with UV lights shining on them at the Saatchi Gallery by DIS/ORDER, an art collective and design studio based in Kyiv.
This is what the window display would look like in daylight. Each individual flower has been pressed, dried, scanned and then digitally cut out and arraned into this pattern. This has been a very time consuming process but I believe this reflects attention to detail that John Lewis as a company have. The hanging glass pannels would showcase products. Products will be pressed in between the two panels and glass cubes would also hang for bulkier products to be displayed.
This is what the window display would look like at night with the UV lights on. The flowers will be painted using invisible fluorescent paints, which are completely invisible in daylight and glow when viewed under ultraviolet backlight. This type of paint will react to ultraviolet black light because of the phosphors in the paint. Under ultraviolet light the paints will glow luminously. A backlight will be needed around the side of the display to allow the flowers to glow.
My idea for the dried flowers came from a personal love of pressed flowers and patterns. A big trend which has been predicted by WGSN which will be seen during Autumn 16/17 is dried botanicals.
“Earthed embraces the onset of autumn, drawing inspiration from the natural withering dark fairytale landscape as it transitions. Dried flowers and curled-up leaves offer a dark yet romantic update to the favoured woodland floral print. Photographing wild florals as they begin to wilt and shrivel, capturing the beauty of the colours as they dry. Pressing flowers can create a gentle etched flora and fauna. Scatter motifs in sparse repeats and fill negative space with fallen petals and leaves. Giant hydrangeas and creeping ivy are key plants for the season.”
To support the window display wrapping/tissue paper has been created which can be used to wrap products at the checkout. Paper bags have also been displayed so the campaign can be seen not only in the window display but on people as they walk out of the shop carrying their bags. This pattern can also be used on point of sale and on stationary products.An alternate pattern has been made from the UV window display. Both of these patterns would be used at the same time within the store.
A typeface has been created to be used on point of sale within John Lewis to allow consistantcy with the window display and advertisements within the store. The quote to the right “Hello Autumn” is an example of how the typeface could be used. The full typeface can be seen on the following page.
