Retail Design and Balance

7th May 2011

The thing about working within the retail sector is that you are always going to have competition. No matter where you are or what you sell, there will always be another shop nearby that is looking to win over the same potential customers that you are. Even though today’s shoppers have less disposable income, they have a near infinite choice of where to spend it. Therefore, to ensure you get more than your fair share of customers, it is vitally important that your shop’s visual displays are as appealing as they can possibly be.

All human beings respond emotionally to visual stimuli, so an effective retail display is one which will arouse desire within a shopper. This is where ’balance’ can come in. Some retail designers believe that displays which have a lack of balance create an impression of instability and so stimulate anxiousness within a shopper. The shopper is unaware of these feelings, but subconsciously they feel compelled to find a different display which will give them feel more positive.

Using this rationale, it is clear that the most effective retail displays will be ones which have visual balance. To the human eye, dark colours seem heavier than light colours, and large objects seem heavier than smaller objects. Therefore, when creating a display, it can be best to put darker, larger items at the bottom and have lighter, smaller  items at the top to achieve ‘balance‘.

To learn more about effective retail displays, contact us here at Barber Design.