New Trend-Driven Merchandising Concept Set to Debut at Summer Markets
IMAX Worldwide Home is once again collaborating with retail strategist, designer and author Connie Post to deliver a new merchandising concept designed to emotionally connect with consumers. The new décor program, set to debut at the Atlanta Market, follows five years of highly successful introductions in the designer’s Essentials and ColorPost collections.
Focused on developing transformational retail concepts, Post conceived Concepts by Connie Post™ to deliver a broader and more complete décor offering driven by color and trend-setting design. “My role in the home furnishings industry has long been to create visual identities that make retailers across the country, and around the world, stand out in their marketplaces,” Post explains. “Concepts takes my work with IMAX Worldwide Home to a new level, providing all the elements necessary to enable consumers to easily and affordably update their spaces, with minimal effort on the part of retail salespeople. The concept is self-explanatory: Consumers see it, they get it, and they want it.”
In Atlanta, retailers will find two collections – Eclipse and Eden – that Post says are complete with all the elements required to change and improve a space, including lighting, mirrors, decorative accessories and accent furniture centered around a trend-forward theme.
Eclipse Collection
Indeed, retailers can expect to truly see things in black-and-white this season thanks to the new Eclipse Collection. Inspired by extreme light and darkness created when a moon or planet moves into the shadow of another heavenly body, the sophisticated look is filled with architectural influences. Viewed through Post’s designer lens, the focus is on blending the linear with the curvaceous, and the traditional with modern appeal.
Watch for the shapely curves and intricate patterns of 18th-century transferware ceramics, along with sleek lidded jars and vases with plank tops and clean, rectangular silhouettes. Post’s fretwork hurricanes are designed to spotlight the ever-changing light and shadows of burning candles, while a hobnail, milk glass lamp topped with a black shade lined in gold foil makes a sentimental silhouette hipster-chic. A trio of slender, matte black vases with a mid-century vibe looks equally striking showcasing sprigs from the garden, or as visually interesting, sculptural accents all on their own. Graphic print trays feature glass bottoms, making these art pieces highly functional. Finally, the designer brings Eclipse full circle in her play with light and dark by incorporating disc-like shapes and negative space in everything from classic candleholders to metal nesting tables.
Eden Collection
When it comes to temptation, Eve and her apple have nothing on designer Connie Post. For her new Eden Collection, Post branches out with golden organic forms, leafy design motifs and wood details. As the star attraction, the tree inspiring this garden of delights is rendered in dramatic sculpture, the frame of a stunning porthole mirror and the dimensional carving on the lids of wooden boxes (watch out Pandora!). Leafy details add glimmer to nature’s work on decorate vases, lovely, leaf-shaped nested dishes and a hurricane lantern. The designer ties her new take on one of mankind’s oldest stories with rope details on mirror-lined wooden trays, a leafy motif marking a wood mantle clock, elements of natural rattan and a trio of carved wood-topped nesting tables on which to set something refreshing while you drink it all in.
“The collaboration with IMAX has been one of the most fruitful and enjoyable projects of my career,” Post describes, “mainly because they understand that great product design is not about throwing something up on the wall to see what sticks; it’s about understanding what makes consumers tick today, before the first sketch is ever drawn. I can’t wait for the reaction in Atlanta, because I believe we’re about to cause quite a stir once again!”
