Festive Forecast
Published: 16 February, 2011
With a wealth of different decorations, designs, displays and decisions, choosing a theme for Christmas can be a stressful and time-consuming experience. Here, some of the industry’s leading suppliers give their views and advice on the trends for the 2011 festive season.
Caroline Gamester, managing director of LDJ Design & Display, thinks there’s a new focus on nostalgic and hand crafted trends mixed with ethnic embellishments, texture and colour.
“Christmas combinations that we see appearing for 2011 combine eclectic influences, such as the Far East with a sumptuous jewel-like feel, depth of colour and warmth using rich purples, deep reds and shimmering glitters,” she says.
“In contrast to this are craft and Scandinavian influences that are very on trend, as are nostalgic, folklore and heritage colour combinations, red and white with green accents.”
Gamester also sees handcrafted decorations making a comeback, adding authenticity to traditional shapes such as trees, snowflakes and stars.
“A mixture of both of these trends can be seen with bold shapes and patterns and block colours broken up by areas of intricate detail,” she explains. “This trend has a more earthy and ethnic appearance introducing elements of vibrant orange, zingy turquoise and cool copper.”
Sharon Petersen, UK project manager at First Christmas by Rosenau agrees. “As far as colours are concerned, classical greens with gold and red baubles will still be very much in use, but this year will also see the inclusion of tones of copper, caramel, sand, champagne and even orange.”
Gamester also predicts a move towards more delicate tones of golds, muted greys and pale pinks and natural textures combining soft shapes and layers.
The natural theme is also something Springfield is working on.
“While 2010 saw lots of big, bright colours, a softer natural look is going to be one top trend for 2011, moving away from cerise-type colours and instead to soft tones and natural materials like ivy,” says managing director Adrian Ford.
Adam Nicolson at Imagination disagrees, predicting that bright colours, popular in 2010, will be snapped up again this year.
“Colours and fashion wise we saw a real turn towards more exotic colours with the use of highly stylised pinks and greens to create a real twist on the traditional,” he says. “We see that trend continuing into 2011 along with multi-coloured schemes that create a brilliant dazzling effect.”
Show time
Nicolson can see a move towards whole-centre displays and advises management to consult tenants in the planning process.
“The trend with regard to the whole display has seen a definite movement away from the ‘less is more’ approach as all tenants want a share of the display, no matter how far off the beaten track they are. We always talk to tenants prior to designing a display to get a feel of what they think is required. We find that goes a long way to keeping them, and therefore centre management happy.”
Petersen recommends what she calls ‘Christmas worlds’ within a centre – standalone displays linked together by the same decorative styles – or full media concepts where not only decorations but all other elements of the retail marketing mix are implemented using a common theme or story.
After a few years of ultra-modern designs flooding the Christmas scene, traditional decorations have been back in vogue since last season and it seems it’s a trend that’s here to stay.
“Traditional themes incorporating Santas, elves and workshops are always popular,” says Andrew Bontoft, financial director at Seasonal Displays & Decorations. “If a Christmas display is too contemporary, you lose what you’re doing it for because children don’t get it.”
According to Paul Dove, managing director at MK Illumination, it depends on the design of the centre. “Modern centres want abstract, cutting edge design with the older malls opting for a more Christmassy Christmas with grottos and that sort of thing.”
MK Illumination has launched a ‘Traditions of Modern Times’ range with traditional shapes and concepts designed with a modern twist. As part of this theme it recently developed an ornate reindeer head for The Light in Leeds.
“Traditional is always an underlying theme and people are looking for a reinvention of the traditional, mixing it with contemporary,” says Ford. “People still want Christmas decorations to say ‘it’s Christmas’ but it’s a case of taking traditional values and bringing them up to date.
“Sometimes you see designs and you’re not sure whether it’s a permanent lighting rig or part of the Christmas display so it has to be new and fresh.”
Bontoft thinks the Christmas 2011 themes will be much the same as last year.
“Traditional will be popular as will arctic,” he says. “Particularly penguins, igloos and icebergs – it works well because arctic is cold and wintry and the animals are cute and cuddly.”
Seasonal Displays & Decorations have also been working on Swiss, woodland, Narnia and yellow brick road themes.
Meanwhile Adam Brand, UK sales manager at Globall Concept, has seen a rise in demand for motifs – particularly shooting star designs – for use in both indoor and outdoor locations particularly entrances and car parks.
Lighting
Lighting has also taken a step back through time. “As part of the continuing traditional theme there’s been a move towards traditional lighting – the old florescent-like warm whites and golds,” says Brand.
Dove agrees: “LED technology has evolved so you can get a new softness to the light – traditional warm white lights have been popular and we expect to see more of the same this year.
“Bright white can be very clinical but it does work in the more modern shopping centres. Mixing warm white with bright white is another option.”
Ford predicts DMX lighting will make an impact this year. “The lighting is colour-changing and controlled so that it can be programmed to change in time to music or move in streams up and down a Christmas tree,” he explains.“It’s about making lighting do more. One year you might want white lighting and the next red – with DMX all you have to do is flick a switch to change the colour saving you having to buy a new set of lights.”
You can also get fully-programmed light curtains that spell out words or produce light shows – central features like this work to bring people in to the centre and can easily be changed to appeal to return visitors.
“Technology is now playing a huge part as it allows us to create displays that evolve and change through lighting and animation programmes,” says Adam Nicolson at Imagination. “Customers can leave a shopping centre to a completely different coloured light show from when they came in but the trick is to make sure they notice. Light animation programmes really catch the eye as patterns swirl and sparkle making full use of large focal areas.”
Animatronics
Seasonal Displays & Decorations has a range of animatronics including owls and trees and a giant display of talking robins which proved popular in the Piazza shopping centre in Paisley and Hill Street shopping centre in Middlesbrough.
The talking robins sit on a giant bird table and when customers press buttons on the base of each bird, one sings and one gives opening times and other information about the centre.
The company also devised an Aladdin display for a shopping centre in the Middle East involving a 9ft Genie inside a 12ft lamp. The Genie rises 30ft up into the atrium and four times an hour at random it’s triggered to give out a present to the lucky visitor waiting underneath.
“Technology plays an important part as we try and devise all sorts of footfall drivers,” says Nicolson. “Grottos and animations are a main stay for some centres and do provide the focal point for many a Christmas experience, but where there is competition we have to come up with a range of alternatives from vintage merry-go-rounds to the latest 3D cinema installations.”
As part of its contract at the Trafford Centre, KD Decoratives built semi-translucent animatronic baubles which opened up to span 4 meters across.
“We’re focussing on animatronics,” explains director Richard Kitchen-Dunn. “Seventy per cent of the characters and decorations at The Trafford Centre were moving and we also built 3D cinemas for children, seating 20 to 40 people, in grottos and vacant units.”
More for less
With budgets under strain again this year providing extravagant displays for a relatively small cost is something else that many suppliers are tapping into.
Globall Concept’s Brand gave some tips and advice on how to drive costs down.
“A lot of our clients bought garlands and used them as in-fills between lighting strings to help with cost-cutting,” he says. “Giant inflatable decorations are a good solution because they’re easy to transport, they come flat-packed and aren’t breakable like the fibre-glass options.
“The initial cost is the same as decorations made from other materials but the cost to install is substantially different as are the storage costs so it’s the behind the scenes costs that are being saved.”
A pre-lit tree, a conical frame with branches of garland and lighting wrapped together saving the need to buy separate lights and decorations, are another option.
In line with both cost-cutting and restrictions on space, Bontoft suggests putting Christmas decorations into vacant units or creating window displays.
And centre managers worried about sustainability should look out for biodegradable products.
MK Illumination is experimenting with an organic range made from recycled plastic and wood. According to Dove they are “100 per cent biodegradable as well as being light and robust.”
Kitchen-Dunn has recently returned from the Christmasworld exhibition in Frankfurt and is positive about the possibilities. “We’ve got some beautiful things coming out this year,” he says.
