The ramifications of architecture and design in shops and shopping centers have become the subject of academic study and business strategy, reflecting the expansion of such premises' role in social and trading environments. The use of furniture, materials, illumination and color can all be significant factors in guaranteeing the customer's interest in the products on sale and the associated 'brand', quite independently of those items themselves. This is both a store of inspiration for designers and a potted history of the shop window and its associated themes - the development of consumerism, the seduction of the passer-by, the juxtaposition of permanence (the window itself) and change (the window's contents). The book is full of artful and imaginative examples of shop windows and interiors, as well as thoughts on both how to make the window more attractive and effective, and why this should be so.