Spring Festival is a time to rejoice with one’s family and look forward with hope to the exciting opportunities of the New Year.
Celebrations for the Year of the Ox are also one of the most expected retail opportunities of this season, and big brands have carefully crafted their visual campaigns. In Beijing, like in the rest of the country, the windows of high-end and popular stores have dressed in a triumph of red and rich golden motives.
At 5 Star Plus, we know that creative windows design is crucial for retailers to communicate the perfect festive mood during Chinese New Year. Our design team has scouted popular shopping locations to bring you a gallery of exciting and creative window design examples.
Paper-inspired Designs
With historians dating the invention of paper around the second century BC in China, paper decorations hold a special place in traditional aesthetic. Paper decorations for the Spring Festival include symmetrical pattern paper flowers and red paper lanterns.
GAP
The decal stickers remind of symmetrical paper cutting decorations to glue on house windows for good luck.
BOSS
Lanterns originated in the Western Han Dynasty, more than 1,800 years ago. During the Spring festival people hang up red lanterns, which symbolize reunion, to create a festive atmosphere.
Fan-inspired Designs
Fans have a long tradition in China, dating back to the Shang Dynasty. Fans symbolize “kindness” and “good deeds”, because the words “fan”扇 and “good” 善are both pronounced “shan”.
Chow Tai Fook
Chow Tai Fook windows display is playful, with small size props in folded material that remind of Chinese folded fans.
Elegant Prosper
Folding white fans create the elegant structures making the background for EP festive red gowns.
Characters-inspired Designs
The designs inspired by lucky wishes for the New Year combine the beauty of Chinese calligraphy with the festive meaning associated with the words. Auspicious characters are usually written in black or golden ink on a red background, and often hanged to inside the house or at main doors.
Lacoste celebrates the Year of the Ox with a blow-up of the character 福 (fú) signifying good fortune, blessings, and happiness.
Swarovski chooses to incorporate the character 吉 (jí) to their Spring Festival campaign featuring Chinese actor Wang Yibo.
Spring-inspired Designs
Spring Festival also celebrates the natural recurrence of seasons, welcoming the vitality of Spring and leaving Winter behind. For this reason, flowers and fruits are often present in New Year designs: peonies, peach blossoms, and tangerines signify good fortune and represent future growth.
The white and pink flowers give a festive and vivacious look to Ai Mer window design.
Atelier Cologne
The mandarins and tangerine plants decorating the space at Atelier Cologne are symbols of fertility and future prosperity.
Prosperity inspired Designs
Symbols for money and prosperity are a not so subtle but very auspicious decoration. Red envelopes are usually gifted during times of celebration, but during Spring Festival they are particularly dear to children (because they are said to keep them safe from the terrible Nian monster).
Cartier
Cartier window display includes narrative elements of the brand’s representative panther playfully trying to catch one of the Red Envelops of the display.
Canali chooses to decorate their store windows copper coins, a traditional Chinese element that symbolizes wealth and prosperity.
