9 Ways to Use Artificial Fruit

Artificial or fake fruit can sometimes look cheap and tacky, however when you find quality product that appears genuine in appearance and feel, it presents a multitude of opportunities. Rather than buy real fruit and dispose of it when it deteriorates, artificial fruit offers greater utility. The bright and natural colours derived from fruit is immediately relatable. While an audience may not be drawn to it immediately, they will subconsciously draw comfort from its presence. Here are 9 ways you can use artificial fruit.

1. Home Décor

In a family home, often you will find a fruit bowl in the kitchen, on the bench or a table. It is a sign of healthy living with healthy food readily available. Many will have grown up in an environment such as this and as a result, will easily relate to the presence of fruit in a bowl. Making the fruit bowl a feature piece inside the house is easy, though for longevity the use of quality artificial fruit is desirable. Real fruit will begin to lose its colour, it will decay and smell and generally become unattractive. Artificial fruit won’t deteriorate or attract fruit fly or other vermin. As a result, it will maintain its appearance long after real fruit has lost its lustre.

A bowl is not necessary to create an impact. The use of a vase, a jar or a basket can equally create the desired result. It is here where you get creative and build something unique to your environment.

As a home décor piece, artificial fruit in a bowl provides at a bare miminum, a visage of healthy living and therefore will provide a degree of comfort.

2. Exhibition & Open Homes

Like home décor, the same advantages offered by artificial fruit exist for open and exhibition homes. While home décor may satisfy one’s emotional well-being, the use of artificial fruit from a commercial perspective helps with the marketing of the home. Marketing can be expensive particularly when trying to promote the positive attributes of a house. However, using artificial fruit to create a relatable and engaging environment allows a positive emotional connection with potential buyers.

Selling a premium product means a premium price. As a result, engaging the buyer in a relatable manner is critical to securing the deal. Artificial fruit is a cost-effective process to decorate the living space in open and exhibition homes.

Use artificial fruit as an attractive display either in a fruit bowl or by creating something more enduring.

3. Visual Merchandising

Use artificial fruit in visual merchandising to complement colour themes in fashion, homewares or furniture. Artificial fruit is an excellent tool for enhancing displays by allowing familiarity to engage the audience. The variety of colours and types of artificial fruit available allow different seasons and themes to be enhanced through clever placement. The bright green apple or the yellow of a lemon are great summer colours. Oranges lend themselves to Autumn. Use grapes and red apples to enhance displays based around winter. Colour blocks can also be created to build on themes using a critical mass of one fruit variety.

Using artificial fruit as a visual merchandising tool is also an economic means of merchandising displays. Real fruit is obviously perishable. Further, imperfections can detract from the display’s appeal. Artificial fruit will allow the display to remain in place for longer without the need for remedial action.

4. Movie / Theatre Props

Use artificial fruit as a movie or theatre prop to allow for continuity when production involves a period longer than one day. Beyond one day, real fruit will begin to break down resulting in discolouration of the fruit. If filming is required for a given scene over multiple days, it will be essential that props maintain their integrity to ensure there is no break in the continuity. Breaks in continuity damage a production’s credibility. As a result, using artificial fruit to maintain consistency will ensure a more seamless production.

Artificial fruit lends production companies endless opportunities for use as props. As artificial fruit will not deteriorate under normal storage, it can be used in different productions so therefore it becomes a valuable tool to have available for props.

5. Photo Prop

Like movie and theatre props, using artificial fruit as a photographic prop enhances relatability to a still shot. Further, continuity is maintained when a series of shots are tagged together. Use artificial fruit to complement the feature piece in stills around the home or in commercial settings. The bright natural colours of fruit are always engaging and easily draw the eye whether in focus or not.

6. Kid’s Toys

Use artificial fruit as a play toy for children. The more authentic the artificial fruit, the more fun kids will have. Kids love role playing with artificial food and it presents valuable cognitive learning for them. Role playing as the grocer, shopping like mum or dad or serving food in a restaurant all offer alternatives for kids to learn life lessons.

7. Education

Use artificial fruit as an educational tool. It is suitable for use in school, at home and child-minding centres to allow children to identify with healthy eating. Further, it can be used to identify food groups, shapes, and colours in a relatable way that kids will be engaged with. Many word-based problems in maths or even spelling can involve fruit. With artificial fruit, kids are given the opportunity to visualise what the question is asking. This placed them in a better position to give an answer enhanced by the visual cue.

8. Hospitality Décor

Like visual merchandising, when artificial fruit is used for hospitality décor, it removes the need for real fruit when exhibiting fruit displays. Displays in the hospitality industry require fresh looking fruit with a minimum of imperfections. Real fruit will attract fruit fly and when it is sprayed with water to enhance its appearance, rot can develop, or mould can grow thereby detracting from the display. Using artificial fruit will allow the display to last for longer and provide a consistency in appearance not achieved with real fruit.

9. Craft – Artificial Fruit Wreath or Fruit Bouquet

Use artificial fruit for craft and create a decorative piece for home or as a gift. Designing and building a fruit wreath or a fruit bouquet is not difficult, all you need is some imagination and the tools which are easy to source. Hang the wreath from a wall or a door as a feature piece whilst using the bouquet as a centre piece for a table or bench top can make a powerful statement. Interspersing artificial flowers, leaves or vines among the artificial fruit enhance the artwork’s visual appeal.

Ongoing Benefits of Artificial Fruit

One of the underlying benefits in using artificial fruit is its longevity. Using real fruit as a prop, in décor or as visual merchandising has a limited shelf life. Meaning, it will deteriorate and lose its colour. The use of quality artificial fruit will overcome this and allow for a more enduring and cost-effective display. Artificial fruit can be reused, the same cannot be said for real fruit which will usually be disposed of once it starts to decompose.

Artificial fruit also provides a consistency in colour. Real fruit will usually possess some imperfections. Whilst some imperfections add to the genuine appearance, colour variations can detract from the effect sought. Artificial fruit allows for consistency in appearance, enhancing displays and providing continuity.

Finally, artificial fruit won’t release odour or attract vermin. As food ripens, fruit fly or other vermin are attracted. This accelerates the rate at which real food will spoil. Using artificial fruit overcomes this and ensures the display or usage can retain its appearance.

There are many ways that artificial fruit can be used to maximise its utility. Your imagination is the only the only obstacle. If you have used artificial fruit in a creative way, feel free to share in the comments below. If you have any questions as to the suitability of artificial fruit for use, feel free to pose a question in the comments section and I will respond within 24 hours.

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