For the lab portion of my Visual Merchandising course, we had the assignment of working within the Starkville, MS community on a weekly basis. We were split into groups and given a goal for each visual display, working in Barnes and Noble on campus at Mississippi State University. During lecture we were given the tools and rules of aesthetics in visual merchandising in order to complete our assignments in the weekly lab. Each group had full creative freedom to develop the story of each display we made. Each week was a new learning experience for us all, rather we had worked in visual display and retail or not. This community engagement was able to give us a real working opportunity and great feedback from our peers and the patrons of Barnes and Noble Campus, while simultaneously challenging our ability to work at a fast pace, teamwork, creativity, and utilizing our visual merchandising toolbox.

In the final weeks of classes, as a swift change, each group assigned a different local Starkville business to create a story and visual display that catered to each business and their consumers. Our group was assigned Dunkington Art & Jewelry, where we created a display that catered to the upcoming holidays such as Mother's day and Father's Day, along with products that would cater to the upcoming Graduation season.

See below for the slideshow of our final project.