It probably shouldn’t have taken five hours to visit the 29 shops/installations on the Look.Stop.Shop walking trail, but it did. I guess that’s just the charm of it all ­– walking at your own pace, chatting with the shop owners, marvelling at each installation and drinking a coffee along the way.

The trail is part of the 2011 State of Design festival in Melbourne and includes small boutiques to large department stores, invited to create unique window displays/installations as a walking tour for the duration of the festival.

The walking trail is up and running for the next week still, so even if you don’t have five hours, just try and pop by during your lunch break to enjoy the efforts of those involved.

To make it easier for you, we selected our top ten installations:

Obus
4/289 Flinders Lane
Responding to the festival theme, ‘Design That Moves’, Obus has created an installation of painted wheels decorated with Melissa Shoes.

Obus

Lord Coconut
Suite 3, Level 4, Carlow House, 289 Flinders Lane
As part of the SoD festival, mens’ jeweller, Lord Coconut, initiated his inaugural exhibition, commissioning jewellers to address the theme ‘Apparent Motion’. The results are on display and are, of course, for sale.

Lord Coconut

Geyer
Brightening a derelict wall in Flinders Lane, Geyer has created an installation of white lanterns climbing the wall of the building.

Geyer

Geyer

Bison Australia
Shop 9, Howey Place, 271 Little Collins Street
Quaint homewares store Bison has filled its window with beautiful coloured stonewares and a paper lantern.

Bison

Bison

Sportsgirl
Shop 18-23, Centrepoint, Mall, 283 Bourke Street
One of the larger retailers to come on board, Sportsgirl has created a giant mirrored installation in the front centre of the store emblazoned with the words, ‘right’, ‘moving image’ and ‘look stop shop.’

Sportsgirl

Akira
Shop F04, Level 1, GPO, 350 Bourke Street
At the entrance way to fashion designer, Akira’s store, to the backdrop of a beautiful old wooden door, Dana Harris has created an interesting display of vivid cotton reels on a wooden bench.

Akira

Design Dispensary
322 Little Lonsdale Street
A light-hearted installation of being on the move ­- brightly-coloured hotair balloons intermingled with travel books.

Design Dispensary

Jurlique
Shop 143, Level 1, Melbourne Central
It looked a little like Christmas with this giant tree at the entrance to Jurlique. On closer inspection, the tree is made from glass bottles each holding different flowers and herbs.

Jurlique

Jurlique

Hill of Content Bookshop
86 Bourke Street
You really have to walk for this one (it’s probably the furtherest on the map) but it’s well worth it. Hill of Content have paired up with Illustrators Australia to create ‘Moving  Stories’ a series of animated dioramas from some of Australia’s best book artists, which are all displayed in the window.

Hill of Content Bookshop

Hii od Content Bookshop

Pieces of Eight Gallery
28 Russell Place
Using a great entrance to further effect, Pieces of Eight has created a mini cityscape with dozens of cardboard houses in each window quarter.

Pieces of Eight Gallery

The walking trail runs until 31 July. Head to stateofdesign.com.au for more information.