Visual merchandising students win furniture market scholarship contest
Pictured above are the students who participated in the Fine Furniture Company’s furniture market contest as part of the branding, licensing and ownership class. Photo By: highpoint.edu
By Isabelle Germino// Staff Writer
The furniture industry in the U.S. generates more than $100 billion a year in sales. High Point is located in the heart of the furniture industry and provides High Point University students with unique opportunities to get involved in all angles of the industry ranging from business to design.
This year, Dr. Victoria Brown’s branding, licensing, and ownership class had the opportunity to participate in a competition that earned six students $500 each towards their tuition. As part of the classwork, Brown’s class created mood boards to present to the Fine Furniture Company.
The students were assigned these projects during the first week of school and were given until Sept. 13 to complete them. They also had several opportunities to review their work during class with Brown, assistant professor of visual merchandising design.
After their projects were completed, the Fine Furniture Company selected six boards to display at the upcoming High Point Furniture Market and invited their creators to attend the event as well.
“At market, our boards will be presented and we will be networking with people in the industry,” said Gabi Berger, junior and visual merchandising major. “We get a number of opportunities living in High Point to gain exposure with the furniture industry and this contest is one of the many connections we have with market.”
Each student was randomly assigned a target audience and given the task of creating a mood board that would appeal to that specific group of people. Mood boards are displays made up of images, materials, texts or other pieces that are meant to evoke certain emotions or convey certain concepts. The target audience options were Millennials, Generation X and Baby Boomers.
Together, these groups represent the consumers who would be most likely to buy furniture. All three groups have different tastes and in order to cater to one group, several factors must be taken into account when creating a mood board to appeal to that specific group. These factors include age, income, shopping habits and occupation; all of which impact the way each group buys products.
The winners of this contest were Alana Isbell and Hayley Mitchell for the Baby Boomer group, Alexandra Cote and Emily Kurek for Generation X, and Gabi Berger and Katie Switow for the Millennial group.
“Winning the contest is a great opportunity, but everyone who entered had wonderful designs that easily could have been presented at market,” Berger said. “The networking event is open to all in the class even if only the six designs that won will be presented.”
The opportunity to create mood boards for an active and successful furniture company is one that is unique to HPU students due to its many benefits. Not only is the project a good resume builder, but it also helps to create networks and connections for the students.
“This project has been a great learning experience for me, and it’s nice to see hard work pay off,” said Cote, junior and visual merchandising major. “I’m thankful for the opportunity to participate and I’m excited to see where it leads in the future.”