Once Upon a Springtime

Since 1946, the Macy’s Flower Show has been held in its three flagship stores in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The annual two-week extravaganza brings a fresh spring feeling, with the colors and smells of a perfect flower garden right inside the store — including various flora, fauna, graphics, displays and special events. While the gardens assume different forms from store to store, there are some elements that remain consistent, such as the signature centerpieces.

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From Sunday, March 25 to Sunday, April 8, 2018, the Macy’s Flower Show presented a twist on classic fairy tales with a “Once Upon a Springtime” theme. Thousands of visitors immersed themselves in the stores’ enchanted gardens, where spring’s beauty met the whimsy of a fairy tale.

This year, Ferrari Color had the opportunity to help Macy’s bring its Flower Show to life in San Francisco’s Union Square flagship store, producing window graphics, wall murals and floor graphics.

A project this big takes a lot of planning and preparation. So, working hand-in-hand with Macy’s corporate team, Ferrari Color meticulously designed and produced all of the graphics. “Ultimately, Macy’s Corporate has the final decision on the images,” says Shara Meredith, director of marketing, Ferrari Color. “We worked closely with their team to get size, colors and design just right before our final submission. All the parts and pieces had to be checked and rechecked to assure everything was perfect — and had the approval of Macy’s.”

From start to finish, Ferrari Color’s team had approximately three weeks to design, get approval and install the graphics. For a job of this scale, three weeks was a short amount of time, so Ferrari Color needed to keep everything on schedule.

Floor graphics representing seasons were an addition to the show. These durable graphics were produced using floor vinyl with laminate to protect the images from the thousands of shoppers visiting the event.

Floor graphics representing seasons were an addition to the show. These durable graphics were produced using floor vinyl with laminate to protect the images from the thousands of shoppers visiting the event.

Floor graphics representing seasons were an addition to the show. These durable graphics were produced using floor vinyl with laminate to protect the images from the thousands of shoppers visiting the event.

The massive (72x48˝) butterfly wall was created using 21 different pieces. The butterfly prints were produced on a photo matte paper and mounted to 0.5˝ Gatorboard panels for extra stability.

These nature prints were produced on 4mil repositionable vinyl, which is easy to remove, has an opaque backer and won't leave any residue when the graphics are taken down.

Storybook-themed wall graphics added to the atmosphere of the event, and were printed both single- and double-sided on clear vinyl.

The Macy's store windows are a huge piece of graphic real estate and perfect to advertise the Flower Show — plus it is a major show stopper in Union Square.

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The most challenging part was the installation. Because the Union Square store windows are very tall they required special scaffolding to install the graphics, Meredith explains. Additionally, Ferrari Color could only install the graphics outside of business hours in the nation’s busiest shopping and tourist areas. “Our team of specialists did a great job though, and the job was done on time and looked fabulous,” she says.

Since this was a temporary display, all the graphics also had to be removable without leaving residue or damage. At the same time, the event gets a lot of traffic and had to stand up to a lot of people. The challenge was to use substrates that would wear well and be easy to take down when the time came. “We had this in mind when we chose the products with the Macy’s team, and everything went up well, stayed in place and came down easily,” Meredith says.

For this annual special event, there are a lot of moving pieces and Ferrari Color served as a partner to Macy’s to ensure the graphics in the Union Square store were up to the high-standards the company expected and everything went smoothly.

“Macy’s was very pleased with what we were able to accomplish,” Meredith says. “The Flower Show is always a highly anticipated event, and we wanted everything to go smoothly for Macy’s. They were happy with the timelines and both the public and Macy’s were pleased with the results. There were thousands of visitors to the show and all the graphics looked as good as new when the show was over.”