This time we are featuring people who do something a little different with their photos, I'm going to call it the 'Abstract' round.

Instagram is great for sharing photos, but with a bit of flair, creativity and a lot of help from phone apps like Picfx, Blender, Diptic and Grid Lens, you can create amazing pieces of art directly on your phone. This style is emerging from the depths of Instagram and I absolutely love it. I hope you enjoy it to.

chucknewham (Chuck Newham)

133 photos, 510 followers

nadyazhry (Nady Azhry)

312 photos, 3189 followers

hallwood (ʜ ∆ ʟ ʟ w o o d)

489 photos, 10,916 followers

frozen_light (Rob Simonsen)

263 photos, 3017 followers

p67_bylynettejackson (Lynette Jackson)

534 photos, 2756 followers

nois7 (Robert Jahns)

109 photos, 2511 followers

Have a suggestion?

We hope you like our suggestions, if you know of an Instagram user that you think we should follow please let us know using the comments form below, we'd love to hear about them.

If you can't wait until next month and you'd like to see even more, follow me @waggit or search for “Waggit” in Instagram and see who I'm following. Remember to come back next month for even more.

Story telling at its best!

This month we are inspired by this set of beautifully designed limited edition 'Johnnie Walker' whisky bottles. These are illustrated by Chris Martin and commisioned by 'LOVE'  to co-inside with the grand opening of the 'Johnnie Walker House' in China.

The Johnnie Walker House is a dedicated space designed to educate Chinese consumers in the history and heritage of Scottish whisky. The commissioned Illustrations were created to tell the story of ‘Johnnie Walkers’ epic journey from Scotland to China over a hundred years ago.

The interior of the house was designed by using different raw materials that are used in the making of the whisky. The walls of the house are beautifully adorned with the various illustrations, to represent the story behind the brand. In one room it has been reproduced in copper to create a striking art installation covering an entire wall.

Different selections of these beautifully crafted  illustrations were then applied to a set of limited edition whisky bottles to commemorate the opening of the ‘Johnnie Walker House’.

To resinate with the location of the exhibit the bottles were made out of porcelain instead of the traditional glass which adds to its authenticity. The material acts as an excellent base for these distinctive illustrations which have been inspired by the traditional blue and white willow drawings of the region.

In Summary..

The Strength of this packaging lies in the simplicity of the colour palette. Considering the illustrations are very detailed and intricate the product still remains light fresh and true to its origin. The detailed story lead illustrations combined with the authentic material and application make these bottles a real show piece.

If bottles could be sold like this in store without the need to include consumer information, 'Bar Codes' and 'Sell By Dates' product design would be a lot simpler. Though for retail production being this simplistic and radical would blow the mind of the consumer and in reality leave them in a haze of confusion in the isle of their local supermarket. I’m certain though that there is something here we can learn from, commercialize and build on for the next brief that lands on the desk!

Get involved..

Have you seen an amazing piece of packaging that you think we should be shouting about? If so leave a comment and we will try to feature it in another issue!

For new users Instagram can be a bit dull if you don’t know what your doing. Especially if you start following your friend who only posts up photos of their cute little cat wearing ear muffs. This is fine to begin with, but it can get a bit mundane after a while, there’s only so much of little Moggy one can take!

So where do you begin, how do you find the cool stuff? You start right here! Hoorar!

Every month we will showcase 5 of the best users from Instagram that we have found. We might base each blog on a different style, but we’ll see how it goes. It’s worth noting that we won’t be featuring the most followed users, but the ones we think are the best! So here we go, I hope you enjoy!

1. taylor

244 photos , 1510 followers

2. leeturner

225 photos, 477 followers

3. 13thwitness

474 photos, 19582 followers

4. scotspix

4433 photos, 2977 followers

5. trmphotography

1260 photos, 13665 followers

Have a suggestion?

We hope you like our suggestions, if you know of an Instagram user that you think we should follow please let us know in the comments below, we'd love to hear about them.

If you can't wait until next month and you'd like to see even more, follow me @waggit or do a search for my name in Instagram and see who i'm following. Remember to come back next month for even more

To ensure that your new product stands out against your competitors you need to create contrast within your design and brand innovation. You packaging will play a major part in this role. Your product may be the best product on the market but unless you can rely this to your consumers then your product will remain hidden on the shelf.

Unseen is unsold

Make sure that your product stands out! Studies have shown that a new product has a visibility of less than 40% so launching a new brand is always a challenge.

Common product failures are generally not down to the consumers rejecting the product but down to the product becoming lost in a sea of competing brands. For success you need to make sure that your product stands out from the crowd, giving your consumers the time consideration a new product needs to succeed.

How to maximize shelf visibility?

Less is more

You have approximately 5 seconds to grab the attention of the consumer. To make sure that this time is used wisely your packaging must be prepared. Do not over whelm your consumer with too much information. In this case less is definitely more if you try to over complicate the design and fill your packaging with unnecessary clutter it will have the exact opposite effect, encouraging your market to revert back to tried and tested products that they are already familiar with.

Keep all of the most important information on the front of the packaging. It has been discovered that less than 10% of consumers flip the packaging over to look at the back. Don’t miss out by relying on the back of the packaging as a marketing tool to initially capture your audience.

Colour & contrast

Try to stand out and earn your place on the shelf. Go big, bold and eye grabbing, draw them in with a punchy strapline, bright colour or something that will make them smile!

Create a contrast to competitive brands, by colour, structure & construction.

Colour is the strongest tool in grabbing the attention of the consumer. The best way to summarize is, to break the rules (of the category). Research your competitors brand and look at what you can do that will benefit your packaging and create a strong positive contrast against other competing brands.

Create interest & get involved!

Design packaging that will engage your consumers with your new brand. A good example of this is the new packaging for the ‘Hugh Jackmans, laughing man coffee tea and chocolate brand’. The new packaging for this product is centered around making people happy. The laughing man motto ‘is all be happy’.

To embrace this message the design team focused on creating a unique concept to illustrate their ethos while including the consumers in the process. The new brand encourages interaction with the market by inviting consumers to upload their own laughing face on the website for a chance to be used on future packaging. Not only does this engage the consumer but also drives important traffic to the website which acts as another powerful tool in launching your product.

Attention to detail

The attention to detail is key in creating effective packaging.

Consumers purchase and formulate their opinions of new products by the packaging only, simply because until a product is tried and tested we have nothing else to formulate an opinion on. Make sure that your packaging remains true to the product inside and really gets across your selling points.

Consumers who will be interested in what your product has to offer will only buy if the packaging appeals to their interests and ethos, whilst truly representing the product. Make sure that your product is packaged appropriately. For example if you are promoting a product that is environmentally sensitive you may not want seal the product in a plastic sleeve, use an appropriate material and seal with a sticker instead! Don’t let your product down at the final hurdle by over looking the attention to detail.

Finally create an emotional connection to ensure your consumers return

Make sure your product emotes a sense of happiness, fun or relativity. This way you are proceeding to build a positive perception of your brand in the subconscious of your consumers. If you manage to do this then your product will do the rest!

To appeal to this increasing demand many companies are embracing this change by creating new environment sensitive packaging to showcase their products and their ethics.

Environmentally friendly needs!

Planet sensitive packaging covers a multitude of diverse subjects but here we are just going to look at a few examples of who is doing it well.

Packaging for Technology

Apple are one such company who have really taken this concept on board. The New MacBooks come in much smaller boxes with less foam, less packaging and paper. The packaging has been carefully designed to reduce the amount of packaging by 41 percent in comparison to other similar Apple products. Smaller boxes are much better for the planet. As well as for obvious reasons by reducing the use of resources, Apple are now able to fit more boxes on each shipping pallet. This means more products will fit on each boat and plane. Fewer planes and boats now have to be used, resulting in fewer CO2 emissions. It’s only one minor change but a change which an international company such as Apple has an increasing positive impact on our environment.

Moving away from the ever popular technology sector and into food we come to discover that Waitrose are also pulling their weight!

Food Packaging

The way consumers buy meat is set to change forever following the introduction of the new style ‘waste reducing’ eco packaging.

Familiar meat trays will become a thing of the past as Waitrose introduces snip and slide packaging that will remove 90 tones of plastic waste from customers’ bins every year. The packs can be easily snipped open and the contents slid into the pan, saving time in the kitchen as well as space in the refuse sack. Using ‘flow pack’ technology, already used for foods such as bagged salads and crisps, the packs are robust yet lightweight enough to withstand other items being placed on top of them in the shopping basket.

From these diverse companies and the billions of other companies involved I believe this is an area of packaging design which we are really stating to get to grips with!

Packaging is so critical today and consumers are more demanding than ever about how products look as well as how they can reduce waste.

Design meets planet sensitive innovation!

I believe that Puma are a strong company that are really showcasing both of these factors, creating a vibrant visual impact as well as adhering to the concerns of the environment.

Puma are due to launch a new range of packaging for their footwear which saves on materials and creates advertising that will outlive the purpose of the packaging.

Boxes contribute to millions of tons of waste each year. Nike have considered this and are due to launch a new packaging concept which will eliminate the use of boxes. The idea is to create a cardboard insert which will be encased by a re-usable bag, therefore cutting down on the amount of redundant materials used by 65 %. The packaging also has no laminated printing, no tissue paper and weighs less for shipping while also eliminating the need for a plastic retail bag.

Millions of shoes shipped in this bag will reduce water, energy and diesel consumption in the manufacturing process by more than six percent per year. In summary: 8,500 tons less paper, 20 million megajoules of electricity saved, 1 million liters of fuel oil and 1 million liters of water will be conserved. During transport 500,000 liters of diesel will be saved and by replacing traditional shopping bags, the difference in weight will save almost 275 tons of plastic.

This is a fantastic case study to show that the need to create environmentally friendly packaging does not have to compromise the creative and visual effect required to capture the attention of the consumer.

As designers if we can follow the same policies when producing new packaging for the next design brief that lands on our desk, we can make high emissions, excessive energy and wasted materials a thing of the past!

Ryan Taylor (@ryanhavoc) is a freelance web designer and a regular contributor to .net magazine. He very kindly awarded us the CMS website of the month, interviewed us and featured it in the showcase section of the magazine. It's great to be noticed by our fellow peers so we'd like to thank Ryan for this accolade,  it's very much appreciated!

1. Make the interior (and exterior) of your store as inviting as you can…

• A tidy store is a must. De-clutter! Remove anything that isn’t adding to your brand.
• Keep the decor, floors and windows clean. Ensure the flooring is suitable for you target customers. Try out different fragrances to keep the store smelling fresh.
• Make the most of the space you have but allow plenty of room for movement, remember your customers may have large trolleys or buggies with them. Don’t make them feel claustrophobic – sometimes there is commercial benefit to having empty space!
• Ensure you have good lighting that helps the customers navigate the store and highlights key promotions. Use lighting to draw them into the store, don’t have any dark corners!
• Use music to enhance the atmosphere – unless you are running a library a little background noise makes customers more comfortable to have conversations as they feel they are less easily overheard. Ensure your choice of music is relevant to your target customer AND make sure you’re not in breach of any public performance rights!

2. Present your products clearly, full shelves, clearly and correctly labelled.

• Products must be clearly and correctly labelled, with more product information available as required. Pricing and offers must be understandable
• Shelves should be well stocked but not over full and cramped as this will not only look bad but detract from the product itself. The last thing you need is for a customer to attempt to take a product off the shelf and cause an avalanche – they will be embarrassed and your product may well get damaged!
• Allow the customer more information about a product but not too much that the offer and pricing is misunderstood.
• Packaging should be not only informative but ideally part of the overall merchandising appeal
• Some products can be purchased pre-merchandised within an attractive free standing display unit – but beware – too many of these can over crowd the store!

3. Analyse everything… know the commercial basis for every decision you make – because after all, you are running a business…

• Know the cash margins every product contributes, the volumes you sell and determine what value each product has in your range. Don’t forget to consider the value-add of certain products e.g. tend to be purchased with other key items…
• Define the maximum SKU count your store(s) can accommodate and stick to that. If you want to list a new item ask yourself what it replaces… consider the impact on your profitability as well as your aesthetics and product presentation when making a range
• Trial changes to find out what impact they have – try different layouts, new products, different promotions. Ask customers what they think and also measure the sales and margin impact. You’ll only know if a change improves things if you try it – and keep an eye on your KPIs!

Summing up – Why you need to really focus on your visual merchandising…

Visual merchandising can make a good retail outlet great. Investing a little time and effort in giving your store a facelift can make a world of difference. Engaging some professional services to help with your branding, your window displays or your in store signage can make you really stand out from the crowd. Ruthlessly looking at your products profitability in the context of what presence on the display space you give them could give you competitive advantage… in a crowded market you need to pull out all the stops to give your customer the shopping experience they really want – but you can expect to reap the rewards when you get it right.

This article is part 1 of a 2 part feature. Part 2 will explain what what can be done to make a difference, for maximum impact and minimum investment.

Why is visual merchandising important?

Clare says: The single and most important reason is to engage and inspire shoppers…

In considering the importance of visual merchandising on retail businesses the single and most important reason is to engage and inspire shoppers, to encourage them to buy more of the products you want them to, increasing your sales, margin and return on space – after all, you are running a business! That engagement process of course starts even before they have set foot in your store…

Kelly Says: First impressions count…

The exterior of your premises should be instantly appealing with clear, consistent branding applied to your signage. The entrance reflects the personality of your store and must entice the passer by to enter.

Creative and inventive window display…

An excellent opportunity to bring more custom to your store. Customers have only a few seconds to view and be attracted by your displays so keep them simple, bold and uncluttered. Cluttered, stale, or badly organised displays, are liable to do the exact opposite and turn those potential customers away.

Ensure any special offers are clearly readable and not too big / small, bearing in mind the demographic of your target audience. If your window space is limited try using bright colours and lighting to draw the eye, maybe even motion. Change the displays frequently based on how often your customers visit the store. A fantastic but dated display could do more harm than good.

Seasonal displays are a perfect opportunity…

Turn every browser into a customer. Use every opportunity that you can buy a card for – think Mothers day, Fathers day, Easter, Halloween, Christmas etc… I can remember my Mum taking me to Selfridges every Christmas just to see their displays! Could you make your store the one to visit?

3 key areas to be aware of in your visual merchandising approach

1. Avoid overwhelming / confusing the customer – Clare says…

It is very easy to be attracted to new product opportunities and be constantly adding to the range / choice you offer. The issue is that what can happen is that the sales you are achieving are simply shared between more SKUs, making your business more complex and putting you at risk of carrying excess stock.

Range proliferation can strangle a business from a cash flow perspective, so getting the balance right is critical. Too little choice will put customers off, too much will confuse them.

Ideally you should analyse your retail space to understand what the maximum number of products you can present at any given time is. Then be ruthless. Every product is costing you money both to stock and also it occupies your high cost retail real estate – if it hasn’t earned the right to be there, and it isn’t a product typically connected to the purchase of a high margin line (therefore earning it’s right by virtue of a related sale) then get rid of it – make way for a product that will earn you some money! Remember – focus on your return on space…

…Avoid overwhelming / confusing the customer – Kelly says…

It’s important your store is inviting and uncluttered. There’s nothing worse than walking into a messy store and feeling totally lost and overwhelmed with the amount of stuff in your line of sight! It will make potential customers walk out, trust me, I’ve done this myself.

Try to reference the layout by colour within a product category to ease the shopper’s identification of products they need or matching products. Take a leaf out of the online/e-commerce store design and display products with other products that they work well/look good with.

2. Make sure your ideal customers can feel at ease, to linger longer: Clare says…

Once you’ve got the potential customer in the store and have presented a beautiful, profitable range, you need to retain them for as long as possible – typically the longer they stay, the more they will spend…

…Make sure your ideal customers can feel at ease, to linger longer: Kelly says…

If you make your customers feel at ease, they will linger longer. Music, lighting, colours etc can all have a huge effect on the stress levels of the shopper. How many times have you left a store because it was too bright or the music too loud?

Try appealing to all 5 senses sympathetically and be aware that the demographic of your target market will feel different in different atmospheres.

For example:

• Sight: Use lighting to change the mood of the store and to highlight products on offer.
• Hearing: Music in stores has a huge effect on our stress levels. You may assume a toy store would play children’s songs or nursery rhymes? In fact the parents will feel a lot less stressed if the music is something softer, possibly classical.
• Touch: Allow clients to handle or test the products. This encourages conversation and rapport with your clients.
• Smell: Certain fragrances are calming such as Vanilla or Lavender or Citrus to uplift. Try using seasonal fragrances to evoke a sense of magic, cinnamon around Christmas time.
• Taste: Not always possible but if you can offer free tasters they are a sure fire way of selling more product. Last Christmas Eve I queued up for our turkey in the local farm shop. They had a plateful of sausages for us to try while we waited.  Guess what else I bought before I left?

3. Make sure customers can find products in store, and that they have the information they need to buy with confidence: Kelly says…

Your in store signage must be clear and concise. Too many signs will act like a hundred shouting voices, not enough and your customer won’t know where to go.

Keep it simple and in line with your existing store branding. Use fonts and colours that are easily readable from a distance, avoid script or fussy, ornate styles.

Products need to be presented in a way that the customer can understand exactly what they do and how they help them. This is where good Point of Sale and freestanding merchandise displays really come in to play.

Point of sale (POS) or checkout is the location where a transaction occurs. Use this area to display new products, special offers or “no brainer” purchases, for example lip balms, pens, small handbag sized items.

You can be really creative with these displays. Keep them simple and bold. There are hundreds of off the shelf display products you can purchase usually in plastic or cardboard.

Be creative with the products themselves. For example, if you were selling say paper napkins, create origami animals from them – instantly more appealing.

If you have own brand products invest in working with a design agency that specialises in packaging design so that your product appeals exactly to your target customer. The right packaging design can make or break a product, especially if it’s new to the market or has huge competition. A good brand and packaging designer will draw out the brand story and encapsulate that into the design, giving your product maximum shelf appeal.

The prank collective said: "We wanted to see what would happen if New Yorkers were given the opportunity to amplify their voices to say something nice.”

As you can see from the video, the New Yorkers did just that!

We love this, it made us smile.