The
Laws of Composition and Psychology in the Visual
Merchandising.
Galun D., Ph.D.
Local merchandising
is of great importance for effective
visual presentation. Let us
define its basic types: facing presentation, profile presentation of products hanging on racks and
presentation of folded products.
‘Front’ (facing) is from the French
‘front’- the forehead, the front
side. The front presentation is considered to be presentation of the
product in the plane paralleled
to the forehead. This is the most
advantageous product presentation, as you can see all the parts of the product, finishing, overall shape
and silhouette in this position.
‘Profile’ is from the French ‘profil’ -
side view of the
subject. Profile (lateral or side) presentation is a product placement sideways
to the consumer. This method is the most economical in terms of capacity, as allows you to place
the visible product in more per square meter. This method is standard.
It does not give a full idea of the product for the consumer and it requires further stimulation methods
of his attention in contrast to the facing
presentation. The profile presentation is a line, the facing one is a point in respect of composition. The point is
a pause, rest and the line is movable tension [1]. Both of these elements form
by its crossbreeding its own language, the language of product presentation. The presentation of folded products is displayed on the tables and
shelves, as already noted. Products are formed by
piles of different types and sizes.
Typically, there are two characteristic
types of stacks for
the category of masmarket:
folded and laid out. Merchandiser should decide how much of the profile, the front brackets and shelves to use when
applying the mobile shop
equipment. It is worth to mention that the facing presentation is the emphasis
that should be used for the purpose
of attracting attention. The presentation cannot consist of accents
merely, such as facing presentations, otherwise it will be hard to perceive visually. Attention
stability is determined by the duration of maintaining the concentration. To maintain the concentration it needs to alternate tension
and relaxation through an appropriate placement of elements different
in charging, i.e. facing and profile bars.
Besides,
you should remember that capacity of the brain to process a large amount of
information is very limited when using only the facing or only the profile
presentation. According to the observations of Miller, "the magic number”
of seven can be used as a limit for
making absolute judgments.
[2] So, it is not recommended to place
the profile or facing bar over seven
item. Despite this feature of
perception, there are stores with ubiquitous facing hanging
of at least two,
often three levels of height. Such a presentation is characteristic for Asian countries. As for Russia, its most striking example
can be seen at the commodity markets.
Short-term memory is a working tool of
consciousness and its size is limited. We are able to process some amount of
information for some time. The size of short-term memory is often measured by
bits of information, which are data groups that can be processed as a unit. As
a fact, the volume of short-term memory is limited by four to seven bit of
information. It should be considered in creating a facing presentation row,
placing the profile hanging bars one after another and the forming of themes in
a store in general. Merchandiser has to decide in what order to place each item
or color model on the separately taken wall bar after the product is sorted by
groups up its volume and degree of importance. A scheme of organizing incentives
in a meaningful whole - the tendency to complete the picture in case of loss of
some elements [3] is used in merchandising within the Gestalt psychology. The
following methods are based on this consumer's ability.
1. In the
case of hanging by the range, a group of products formed by length looks more
attractive. Hanging should start with short pieces and finish by the longest.
For example, in order to place some dresses on one bar, it is necessary to hang
the items of a short length at the beginning and length of all the next items
should be increased to the end of the bar. The products are sorted by the tone
and color within each group.
2. Tone
sorting involves placing a product or family of colors from light to dark.
Luminosity or tone is the degree of deviation of the color from black, measured
by the number of thresholds in the practice of colorimetry. This is one of the
most primitive methods of local presentations. It can be applied to any product
in any condition whether it be grouping by the range or capsule grouping.This
method assumes placing items of colors and tones together, then placing the
product of the same color but darker in tone and thereupon are products of the
darkest tone.The sequence can be both vertical in the case of double-deck
hanging and shelf placement and horizontal as well when use a usual profile
hanging or laying out of two and more stacks on one shelf. The sequence can be
vertical, in the case of double-deck hanging and shelf placement, and
horizontal as well, if use an ordinary profile hanging or laying out of two and
more stacks on one shelf. Why are these two? Everyone knows that the force of
gravity affects the world of objects in our environment. The direction of
effect on the body or objects is at a right angle to the surface. If a
geometric form is gaugible, it can be represented in the form of plane
Cartesian coordinate of two-dimensional space - both horizontally and
vertically.
3. Color sorting involves placing items in the
color sequence defined by color spectrum. Primitively painters express this
sequence by proverb: "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain”. Reading from
left to right or top to bottom simplifies memorizing the sequence of six color:
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. The black color is very popular in
the clothes. As it's also the most commercial, it is added logically as the
latest after violet in a color stretch and white is the first. This principle
is often used in assortment grouping, but it may also be applied in grouping by
capsules. Besides, this principle is suitable for hanging and laying-out both
vertically and horizontally. Color sorting can be facilitated to a simple
placement of one model in all available colors within the range. In this case,
the colors are sorted in the order given. Grouping approach in tone and color
can not be considered fully harmonious as there may be no proportionality of
excitator (color , as example) of human stimulus-receiving abilitiy in a case
of a large quantity of goods of the same color and tone. For instance, an arm
of 150 cm length , fully hung with black trousers, affects eyesight
destructively. In the case of grouping by themes you can use one of the two
principles of hanging and laying-out: symmetry and rhythm.
4. Symmetry. They borrowed the
principles of bilateral symmetry for the visual merchandising from the nature.
In the case of mirror symmetry the object has a single plane of symmetry
relative to which his two half are mirror symmetric. Bilateral symmetry (from
"bi" - two and a Latin "lateralis" - side), bilateral
(doublesided) symmetry among organisms is expressed in the fact that their
bodies are divided by the median plane to the right and left halves appeared as
a mirror image of each other [4 ]. The appearance of bilateral symmetry among
the animals during the evolution is connected with crawling along the substrate
(across the bottom of pond). That's why there are dorsal and ventral, right and
left halves of the body. In the case of product presentation bar is halved
exactly in the middle and its left and right sides are symmetric. Vertical
symmetry is considered as the most effective in terms of psychology. The
symmetry may be divided into color and assortment at the local hanging. Color
symmetry means similarity in the disposing of products of the same color at the
opposite sides from the middle of the bar or shelf. Assortment symmetry implies
the same similarity in the same locating not by color, but by the assortment.
As for human perception color is more important, first of all it is recommended
to follow the color symmetry, and the assortment could not be adhered.
5. Rhythm is an alternating of geometric
shapes, spots and lines, which is more or less harmonious and thus attractive
for the eye. Rhythm sets the motion of product presentation and makes it an
artwork. It turns out that a plot can be developed by creating a movement within
a closed product composition in the context of one ordinary bar. This is
accomplished by such means of movement initiation as reflections, repetitions,
internal loops, rhythmization of compositional elements. In this case, the eyes
of the consumer are in charge of timebase function of the plot. It is exactly rhythmic shivering
of pupils and look moving cyclically on plane
of hanging or laying-out provides to
the viewer the necessary induction
and, ultimately, mental relaxation.
Certainly, it is possible only
when the viewer is interested in the capsule and will switch
his internal attention
to the rhythm of composition. Rhythm of
product presentation is repetitive contrasting changes
inside the composite structure. In this case, the term of
the composite structure includes bar
or shelf, and contrast changes are expressed in the representation of the product of different
colors and assortment. Rhythm can
be color and assortment, like symmetry. The
color rhythm means repeating of sequences of
concolor items defined by merchandiser.
We mean the corresponding repetition of products of one
assortment appurtenance by an assortment rhythm. The rhythm can be expressed by
color verticals or horizontals in placement of piles of the folded items. The vertical
is formed by stacks of jersey of one color placed one under another, and the
color horizontal is formed by piles of products of one color laid out side by
side.
6. The simplest procedure of sorting the sizes of products from the
smaller to bigger is referred to local presentation. Thus the products hanging
at the left of the bar have to be of the smallest size, and products of the
biggest size take place from the right as the last in the article. Products are
located from the bigger to the smaller from top to down in a pile. Such an
arrangement is explained by the psychological aspect of
the human information perception. As
most people in the world are right-handed and they used to
receive the information from left to
right and top down. We
write and read under these
two directions. In addition, this is the most popular movements of the head, as they accompany
generally used words "yes" and "no."
1.
V. Kandinskiy. Selected works on the history
of art. - Moscow: Gilea
2. I. Rok., Introduction to the visual perception: Book 2, translated from English. / Ed. B. Velichkovskiy, V. Zinchenko. - Moscow: Pedagogics, 1980.
3. J. Godefroid. What is the psychology: in 2 volume, ed. 2nd, stereotypes. Vol.1: Trans. from French. - Moscow: Mir, , 1996.
4.
F. Parmon. The composition of
the suit. Textbook for high schools. - Moscow: Legprombytizdat, 1997.
About the
author:
• Last name, first name in full. Galun Dmitry
• Degree (if any). Ph.D.
• Name of educational institution. Moscow State University for Design and
Technology
• E-mail address. galund@mail.ru
• Mailing address (be sure to index). 107 113, Moscow, Russia, 3d Rybinskaya
1/40-41
• The category of
the article. Engineering
• The number of magazines you wish to receive. 1