The winning piece, designed by Neha Suchak.
MY COLLEAGUES and I spent Friday evening in New Delhi in the company of the high and mighty of India's visual merchandising and retail design industries. It was POP Asia's first VM&RD Retail Design Awards night, and we took home two awards! Our first award of the night was for the best hypermarket. The team cheered when HyperCity was announced as nominee and then again as winner. I knew we would win: HyperCity created history in India as its first international and real hypermarket. The citation was worth it and delightful. As the nominees for the best window display flashed on screen, it thrilled me to see how smaller retailers could execute such remarkable windows. All of them were winning pieces. When our “Do Your Denim” window display (set up last June) was selected as the year's best, the team went on screaming mode. Neha, who designed the winning theme, and I went up on stage to collect the award—a well deserved one, I think, and a strangely designed one, I think. It looked like a skyscraper about to melt under the harsh sun. I told the audience that it was “a fantastic encouragement to the industry” (a subtle reference to the fact that my company leads the industry), and pointed to the screaming team at the back of the room. The melting building will be displayed in our office to join countless other awards, but this one stands out: it is the first ever that the company has collected for visual merchandising! Two fantastic awards, a fun raucous team, and heavenly tikkas and kebabs made for a lovely evening in New Delhi.
