Acrylic displays continue to be popular as retail merchandisers, particularly as counter displays. While acrylic displays are most commonly used in the cosmetics, jewelry, and consumer electronics industries, they can be used to merchandise products across a broad range of industries and product types.
Acrylic, also known as PMMA, is a rigid, transparent plastic which owes its popularity in the merchandising world to the fact that it is widely available and extremely clear (a great attribute for achieving product visibility). Acrylic can be easily cut on a CNC machine or laser cutter, bent in a variety of shapes, glued, printed on, and purchased in many transparent and opaque colors. It is a great alternative to polycarbonate plastic when material strength is not a critical requirement.
Acrylic can be used to make lightboxes, dimensional letters, stand-alone displays and accents for wood and metal displays to create a higher-end look. Our objective in this 3-part blog series is simply to provide numerous examples to show how acrylic can be used to create effective POP displays. Many of the examples we’ll show are very basic, but our intent is to focus on acrylic POP display applications that have high utility for product manufacturers who are looking for ways to merchandise their products.
In Part I of this series we’ll look at the first 10 examples. Let’s get started.
1. XBOX Display– We designed this countertop XBOX display specifically to be made of acrylic to create a premium look. We considered using MDF, but acrylic turned out to be a better choice primarily because of its clean finish. Two things to point out on this display are: (1) the large radiused corners which we achieved by heating the acrylic and bending it to the target shape using a jig, and (2) the 3-D laser-cut acrylic logo letters which provide dimensionality and greater perceived value.
2. Descente Branding Box– We designed this Descente branding box out of MDF which we painted black. We laser-cut the white acrylic logo letters which popped nicely off the black background. We could have made the black box out of acrylic, but it was more cost effective to use MDF for the box.
3. EZVIZ Security Camera Display– The EZVIZ counter display shown below is another example of how acrylic sheets can be cut on a CNC machine to create several different shaped parts which are then glued together. The graphics could have been direct printed on a flatbed printer, but in this case, we added clear plastic channels so the graphics could be interchangeable. We also created removable product panels that attach using stand-offs so products can be easily changed out without having to make a new display.
4. iPhone Product Category Identifier– We used frosted acrylic with a 1-color silk screen to create a product category identifier for iPhone accessories. The acrylic box features a rear pocket that enables the box to attach to a telescopic metal tube arm that hangs on slatwall. This is an example of how acrylic and metal can be combined effectively.
5. Bodyography Cart Display– Like the display above, the beauty cart shown below is an example of combining metal and acrylic. The main cart/cabinet is fabricated using sheet metal, but we created a topper out of black acrylic. The acrylic topper has a diverse laser-cut hole pattern to hold many different types of products. We silk screened the logo and added a header which combined branding and a mirror.
6. Nina Shoe Glorifier– The Nina 3-shelf shoe glorifier was designed as a stand-alone acrylic display. Simple in its construction, the main body of the display is made of a single piece of heat-bent acrylic. The 3 floating shelves and screen-printed logos help build the brand and put the focus on the shoes.
7. Mota 3D Letters– We built a drone display for Mota which was made primarily out of MDF but also featured a clear acrylic case on one for the shelves to show unboxed product. We used 3D acrylic letters to highlight the Mota brand and the “Where Drones Live” tagline. The 3D letters gave the display a nice extra touch that we could not have accomplished with silk screening.
8. Roshambo Baby– Roshambo Baby has a line of Italian-made, chewable, polarized baby sunglasses. We created the 4-sided spinning acrylic countertop display shown below. Acrylic proved to be a good material choice to create a clean white look which our customer wanted for the baby market. In addition, it worked well with the graphics and easily accommodated the pusher system that we installed.
9. The Safe Cig– We designed the electronic cigarette display shown below for Safe Cig. We chose acrylic, in part, because the display required LED lighting. We incorporated a digital media player, screen printed graphics, lighted cubbies for boxed product, and a large product replica attached to the side of the display.
10. Trilipiderm Counter Glorifier– We’ll wind down today’s post with another cosmetic display that we designed for Trilipiderm. This simple all-acrylic counter glorifier combined black, frosted and clear acrylic. It was designed to enable the consumer to touch and feel the product while also reinforcing the brand and the product’s value proposition with simple and clear messaging.
Be sure to check out Part II of this 3-part series where we’ll share 10 more examples of acrylic displays.
Jim Hollen is the owner and President of RICH LTD. (www.richltd.com), a 35+ year-old California-based point-of-purchase display, retail store fixture, and merchandising solutions firm which has been named among the Top 50 U.S. POP display companies for 9 consecutive years. A former management consultant with McKinsey & Co. and graduate of Stanford Business School, Jim Hollen has served more than 3000 brands and retailers over more than 20 years and has authored nearly 500 blogs and e-Books on a wide range of topics related to POP displays, store fixtures, and retail merchandising.
Jim has been to China more than 50 times and has worked directly with more than 30 factories in Asia across a broad range of material categories, including metal, wood, acrylic, injection molded and vacuum formed plastic, corrugated, glass, LED lighting, digital media player, and more. Jim Hollen also oversees RICH LTD.’s domestic manufacturing operation and has experience manufacturing, sourcing, and importing from numerous Asian countries as well as Vietnam and Mexico.
His experience working with brands and retailers spans more than 25 industries such as food and beverage, apparel, consumer electronics, cosmetics/beauty, sporting goods, automotive, pet, gifts and souvenirs, toys, wine and spirits, home improvement, jewelry, eyewear, footwear, consumer products, mass market retail, specialty retail, convenience stores, and numerous other product/retailer categories.