Need creative advice for a retail window display

October 23, 2007 8:32 AM

I need suggestions and creative inspiration for a wallpaper/backdrop for a retail window display.

What's being showcased is a mini motorcycle, complete with a mannequin clad in motorcycle gear. The motorcycle and gear are black and white with gold trim. The retail window is 6 1/2 ft tall by 9 ft wide.

Ideally, I'd like the backdrop to convey a sense of motion without being disharmonious - but perhaps you metafites have better ideas. Thank you in advance.

posted by cameron.case to media & arts (10 comments total)

Screw the mannequin... get a big toy monkey, clothe him in biker gear and put him on the bike.
posted by ReiToei at 8:39 AM on October 23, 2007

What about literal motion? Scenes displayed on rollers that cycle through different locales or seasons or something?
posted by B-squared at 8:45 AM on October 23, 2007

Do the floor/platform upon which the motorcycle sits like the surface of a highway, and do the backdrop like trees blowing in the wind. You could make a couple of street signs for props. If you could add a hidden fan to blow on some leaves of the trees and the clothing of the mannequin, that would be sweet.
posted by iconomy at 8:48 AM on October 23, 2007

Can you hang the mannequin on wires so that its hands are on the handlebars but its body appears to be blowing back horizontally from the extreme velocity?

As for a background, how about speed limit signs? Get images of them online, print out as many as it takes to cover the wall.
posted by hermitosis at 9:31 AM on October 23, 2007

To keep the focus on the bike, why not take a lesson from anime (and Scott McCloud, "[When] a static character is shown against a streak or a blurred background... We have a sense that we are moving with the character, because that’s how we experience motion. When we are the moving object, we experience motion as the entire world sweeping past us in a blur") and make your background a blur of trees or other vehicles?

I like the idea of positioning the mannequin to look as though it is hanging on for dear life!
posted by eralclare at 9:50 AM on October 23, 2007

I came in this thread with a lot of silly ideas, but I think eralclare has the best one, so I'm just going to second it.
posted by infinityjinx at 9:59 AM on October 23, 2007

I came in this thread with a lot of silly ideas, but I think eralclare has the best one, so I'm just going to second third it, and quote infinityjinx.
posted by gummi at 10:02 AM on October 23, 2007

Wow! Some fantastic ideas here :)
posted by cameron.case at 11:00 AM on October 23, 2007

What eralclare said: get a good highres shot of a highway, blur it in photoshop, print the sucker, and position the motorcycle so it matches the blurring.
Simple, effective.
posted by signal at 12:49 PM on October 23, 2007

Maybe something like this blown up to cover the entire background? It conveys a sense of speed while being a bit abstract, so it's not taking too much attention away from the bike. For that size of window, you may want to divide the image up into three panels, mounted on foamcore. Kinkos or any company specializing in trade show graphics should be able to handle that for you. Foamcore is light, so you could hang the panels from the ceiling. Be sure to have grommets placed in each corner.

See those four little circles of light in the image? That might be a good thematic thing to repeat. I would do four red circular window clings on the inside of the window. That way you have the window clings in the foreground, the bike in the midground, and then this awesome, dynamic background. The window cling circles could contain adjectives describing the bike. Maybe three of them could be adjectives and the fourth one could be the brand name. Something like SPEED. PERFORMANCE. ADRENALINE. XYZ MINIBIKES.
posted by Ostara at 6:03 PM on October 23, 2007