Cass Art is an art supply shop based in the UK. We were tasked with created a window drawing for their store in the Northern Quarter of central Manchester. The design needed to advertise their 20% off sale, however because it was a one day only sale, they also wanted it to act as a way to attract customers into the store after that date.
The illustration was created alongside their 20% off everything sale, and we wanted to leave a space within the drawing that could be used to frame messaging and also create a focal point into the store.
The “20% off everything” offer was only on for one day, so we created the option to remove this and add another message or leave it blank. This had to be done in a way that didn’t impact the other artwork, which was where the bee frame was decided.
The bee was chosen because the worker bee is a symbol of Manchester, which allows the drawing to last longer in its environment, and the shape of the wingspan worked well in having different messaging. The 22nd May is also the anniversary of the Manchester bombings so the final decision of using the bee was to pay our respect to Manchester in that, as it coincided with the illustration dates.
A rough sketch had been created, but a majority of the illustration was mapped out and drawn freehand on the day. Within the botanicals, art supplies such as paint tubes were created in a similar outlined style, with a slight bit of colour to allow them to subtly pop out. We did this to reflect the items sold in store, and that could be found in the sale. The live drawing during the day attracted a lot of attention to customers, which brought many people in store to the sale.
