A small retail display can convey its message rapidly, but it’s also easy for a small retail display to send the wrong message. A shelf display, tabletop display, or shop window can appear very interesting and detailed up close, yet from an average shopper’s eye line, it can become a confusing jumble. A focal point is the item that the shopper’s eye first lands on in a display. It gives the display a clear entry point, so the shopper isn’t challenged to look at every product individually.
Creating a focal point in a display doesn’t mean that every product other than the focal point is unnecessary or unimportant. It means that one item or one grouping of products or one color section or one shape will be the main focus for the eye, and the other items will be secondary to it. In your practice beginner display, this could be one individual product, displayed with one of its faces pointing forward, placed slightly higher on a riser in front. Or it could be a grouping of several products (for example, by color). Or it could be the one product story placed front and center on a tabletop display. The point is not drama, or making something that looks like a magazine cover. It is about visual order.
One of the ways you can practice picking a focal point is by using three to five products in a single display location at a time. Select the one item or one group or one color grouping that you want to catch attention first, and then place the remaining products around it, spacing them apart more liberally than you initially feel comfortable. Step away from the table and see if your eye finds its natural entry point easily. If your eye skips back and forth between a variety of products, and signs, and props, the display is giving your eye too many places to go at once. Try lowering one product on a prop, removing or reducing a competing color, or removing one prop rather than making a major change to the whole layout.
Varying the height of products on the display helps them stand out to a certain degree, but only when you use height variation judiciously. You could use a riser, a display cube, some gathered fabric, or a piece of shelving to make a display more dimensional. Height can work in your favor if used as a way to bring your lead product into a better visual line with your customers. The trouble arises if you use height equally on all the products or in different ways that all compete for the viewer’s eye. The display quickly becomes a series of equally-sized peaks that are all vying for attention. If you’re using raised elements, keep the tallest one with the lead product, and have the others sit below or in back. This allows your eye to take a more natural route from your lead product to your supporting products.
Color also plays a part in where your shopper’s eye lands first. In a monochromatic palette, a brightly-colored item will draw the eye, whether it’s center-stage or not. In a more colorful display, the darkest piece can become the eye magnet, when placed against a lighter-colored background. Before you add in more products in a display that’s becoming increasingly cluttered, consider the overall color of your display and the role that color can play in your focal point. If your display is two equally-strong, unrelated colors, it may feel split. In that case, you can try grouping more of one color, or you can try having one strong color in just the area of the lead product.
The addition of signs and price labels should be helpful to the overall design of your display, rather than obstructive to the product. A price label that sits directly in front of one of your products can break up the view of the product. A large sign on a tabletop display may unintentionally become the focal point. Try to place signs and labels next to the lead item, slightly below the main eye-line, or at the point where your eye lands last. The display should tell the shopper to look at your featured product first, then lead them to the necessary information, without any interruptions.
Sometimes it’s hard for you as a designer to recognize where your eye should have landed, especially with all the effort you’ve put in making the display work. A helpful solution is to take a photo of the finished display at eye level. If you stand over a tabletop display, or look at an upright display in a shop window, the photo won’t represent the shopper’s view. Look at the photo briefly (don’t take your time with it), and then ask where your eye landed. If it did not land where you expected the lead item, then you’ve identified the focal point problem to be corrected (you did not, in fact, fail to create a display). You simply need to make a tweak: add some space, add a riser or lower a product height, adjust the color of a product, or move a sign. Take another photo to see if the change made the display more readable. Often the first photo will make it seem that the main product is hidden behind a product behind it; in a second photo, you’ll be able to see the main product before the secondary.