New York City 2009 Holiday Window Displays

Some people hate shopping during the holidays, the crowds, the headache of parking, the lines - but i love it. I love the hustle bustle, and i LOVE the decorations. It's amazing what these department stores can do with their design budget, my local Nordstrom for instance is full of paper made woodland creatures and the Anthropology is a poofy recycled textural dream.

Like last year, I wanted to share some imagery from the best of the best in holiday decorating greatness from New York City department stores.

Macy's 2009 recreates A Miracle on 34th StreetLord and Taylor's 2009 Crystal Encrusted Winter Wonderland

Bergdorf Goodman's 2009 Compendium of Curiosities (very Alice in Wonderland)
like to gaze at window design? check out another normal for lots of eye candy

Merry Christmas From Kiva Systems

My father works for an interesting company that makes robots - yep robots. These guys are for warehouses and pack internet orders for places like Staples ...and are actually quite 'smart.'

For the Holidays the company filmed the robots putting themselves away to charge for the evening to the tune of The Nutcracker Suite. For more visit Kiva Systems.

Electrobel Lights a Few Candles for The Holidays

Famous Brussels bring us this ethereal and amazing animation made with candle light to celebrate The New Year and Electrabel.


And knowing how awe inspiring a feat this spot would be, the group kindly made a Making Of Video...It took an army of animators, days of testing, hundreds of thousands of tea light candles and thousands of still images to produce the final 35 second commercial. The director is Raf Wathion of Dutch Production Company Czar.

New York Department Store's Holiday Windows 2008

As a former Production Designer and Set Decorator my absolute dream job would be to design store fronts in New York. Every year the biggest retailers outdo themselves with magical, otherworldy, and completely awesome vignettes.

Each store has a unique theme that is always fitting to the brand itself. This year, Barney's celebrates the anniversary of the peace sign with a hippy trippy display right out of the 60's. Sak's Fifth Avenue's display is a snowflake story book adventure, Macy's is a bright and colorful futuristic toy store, and Lord and Taylor's is a nod to traditions in an elaborate Christmas scene. The Bloomingdales scenes look like they were ripped from the 60's ad campaigns from Mad Men, and Bergdorf Goodman is an eerie but elegant winter scene with intricate white details and woodland creatures.

Barney's
Sak's Fifth Avenue (video)
Macy'sLord and TaylorBloomingdalesBergdorf Goodman

A Charlie Brown Ad Agency

It's the time of year when creative agencies start creating their interactive and often amazing Christmas Cards. This one is a realistic look into the world of an Ad Agency - told through the eyes of the Peanuts gang at Christmas.

Scrabble Finds it's Visual Equal in New Print Campaign

More great work for Scrabble this holiday season, this time thanks to JWT Santiago. These print ads are so simple but so perfectly matched for the game. Though I am left thinking - Submarine? My word painting would probably be more like "sub" with a sandwich cut in threes, but then that's not as visually interesting now is it?

Stella Artois Crafts the Christmas Spirit

Lowe Roche and Lowe London created this magical holiday commercial along with Pysop to echo the master craftsmanship that goes into a Stella. In the video a mater crafstman creates an intricate and magical paper wonderland.

You can view the film on a special Stella Microsite where you can also download instructions to make your own paper decorations, or send a friend a star - an invitation to meet over a Stella. There is also a short history of the beer - turns out Stella was originally made just for the Holidays but became so popular it eventually became available year round - who knew?!