Harvey Nichols – Christmas windows

It’s our utmost pleasure to have worked with the world-famous department store, Harvey Nichols, on their Christmas window displays for 2021.

The official press release sets the scene perfectly, “After declaring a collective ‘bah, humbug' to Christmas last year, our 2021 campaign offers a different sentiment that's designed to spread joy and happiness with bright colours and beaming lights.

Transforming the facade for the festive season, this year the iconic Harvey Nichols windows feature modern stained glass panels, flooded with light to reflect a glorious pattern of Christmas-coloured hues inside and outside the windows.”

The window displays are in Harvey Nichols stores across the UK and Ireland, including Knightsbridge, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and Dublin.

After the initial concept had been shared with us by the Harvey Nichols visual merchandising team we shared our thoughts on how to produce the concept. Collaboration is often key, especially when undertaking a vision such as this. So, once the production had been planned, the project cost was provided and signed off, and the artwork was supplied, it was now our job to sample the artwork colours before going to print on the final iteration. The client had already selected the colours and matched their references to the light gels to be used throughout the display they were planning on combining textures into the finished prints and designs.

Once we were happy with the prints, the samples were then sent to the client for checking with the lights that they were planning on using. It was important to make sure that the prints cast the correct shades, and the colours were vibrant and a good match when in-situ. Slight tweaks were made to the colours before the final prints were produced. This is par-for-the-course and usual that some adjustment would be needed for a job of this scale – one going into a certain environment, and affected by other variables around it. We often spend time colour matching or tweaking prints to suit a certain space or quality of light at their final installation.

Another example of colour testing is our work for the Picasso exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.

After our testing process, a double strike of colour with a 15% underpin in white ink was chosen as the final colour option. The actual prints were reverse printed direct-to-media to 6 and 10mm petG panels, a strong resilient material that is less likely to shatter, being a polyester substrate.

The latticework was cut from black 3mm PVC and applied to the face of the prints to create a lead pane glass effect.

All finished prints, complete with latticework, were sent to the Harvey Nichols visual merchandising and set build department for integration into the final scheme before installation.

Glistening lights and hand-painted baubles that wrap around the flagship store were added to the festively vibrant window displays alongside the illumination. Each window features different colours to evoke an emotion; the yellow creates a sense of energy and excitement; orange grabs attention for a happy and uplifting effect; and blue projects feelings of calmness and tranquillity.

We’ll leave the last word to Janet Wardley, Head of Visual Display at Harvey Nichols, “In true festive style, our 2021 Christmas window scheme was designed to help spread holiday cheer by using uplifting colours to evoke emotion, joy and happiness. We wanted to create something that would bring a smile to customers faces, and what better way to do that than with bright mood-enhancing coloured patterns that appear both inside and outside our stores.”

We think between us, it’s exactly what we’ve managed to create. It truly is satisfying to actualise a vision and a concept into a successful reality as we have done here for Harvey Nichols.

Please get in touch if you would like The Graphical Tree to work with you on your own retail window and campaign displays. You can call us on 020 7580 4405, or email us here ~ print@thegraphicaltree.com