Rebellious Retail Displays for Dr Martens x Wednesday

This project sought to transform the store so that any visitor felt like they were being transported into a set on the Tim Burton show, intertwining a witchy-esque feel by draping the store in the signature black. The feature piece of this showcase was to be the colourful spiderweb window display, based upon the one featured in Wednesday’s school bedroom at Nevermore Academy.

This was going to be one of our most transformative retail displays to date. It would bring together a mixture of print and build to give visitors of the store a complete immersion into the theme of the collection. As this project included lots of multifaceted elements that would all need to come together for the final displays, we chose to apply CAD engineering to develop prototypes that conceptualise how they would look before the build began.
Our engineers took the design renders of the spiderweb and internal displays and placed them into our specialist CAD software, Solidworks, where they could test dimensions and materials, and understand how components would need to overlay and interlock to deliver the desired outcome. For example, for the base aluminium frame of the spiderweb that would span 1,800 x 1,800, our engineers developed detailed drawings that offered exact cutting measurements that were followed by our metal fabrication team and the Zund cutter.

The window display spiderweb was built from an aluminium frame that was placed upon a distressed wooden base. The circle frame housed an opal acrylic lightbox, which brought together vibrant blues, yellows and purples, alongside a black web that was a 3D layer on top. The layering effect of the spiderweb was made possible by our swissQprint Nyala 4 flatbed printer which enabled us to create the spiderweb lightbox with a layered printed effect. The opal acrylic was layered five times to deliver a 3D effect and was finished with a topping of varnish to give a gloss finish.
In front of the web, adhered to the window’s glass was 3D lettering made from 10mm acrylic and optically clear vinyl, that featured the phrase ‘Outcasts are in’. To develop this clear window vinyl, we applied our Efi Vutek machine.

Aside from the spooky spiderweb window display, there were several POS displays throughout the store that took inspiration from Wednesday’s world.
Two replicas of the featured spiderweb were developed to sit within the store, following the same build approach. These were accompanied by displays that featured floating books made from 1000 Mircon card, alongside revamped photo frames painted black with photographic quality prints of the limited-edition line inside, printed by the Nyala flatbed printer. To spotlight each of the boots and backpacks featured in the collection, we utilised five Victorian-style plinths made from MDF which were sprayed with a concrete spray to give the stands a dark, distressed aesthetic. To create the plinths, we utilised our CNC machines which allowed us to cut to the desired shape with incredible accuracy.

To transform the Dr Marten’s store into a Tim Burton masterpiece overnight so that it appears as if by magic to passersby, we needed our elite team on the job!
This team included:
• Edward Hillam – Project Manager
• Calum Maltman – Project Coordinator
• David Shackleton – Technical Support
br> The final installation was the perfect mix of our Northern and Southern teams coming together and following a detailed plan laid out by our project managers, meaning a seamless integration.

The project was developed in the span of three weeks and live in store for one week. Since the launch, the product lines featured in the collection have already sold out.