YCN... Mailshot Inspiration

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By-Invite-Only

Chloe found these examples of tickets, invites and a mini magazine/leaflet with a vintage theme. By Invite Only is a handcrafted jewellery brand with a rustic art direction, with an old circus theme. This is what has inspired Chloe's thoughts for the mail shot. They are well designed pieces which get the theme across well. We especially like the stock used for the leaflet, and think this would work well with our photographs of the Pearl Lowe range. We also like the foiling on the front, as it gives it a luxurious finish. We would like to create a similar high quality effect with either foil blocking or laser cutting. 

Here are the invites I found:

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Jaeger

I have found this invitation to the Jaeger London Spring/Summer 2010 London Fashion Week show on behance. I like the simplicity of the invite, with only the most important information showing. The invite is given a luxurious finish with the gold foil. We are thinking about adding some sort of finish to our invites.

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h&m

These H&M invites again are simplistic, with a luxurious quality foil finish on the text. I really like the stock they are printed on to, if we could do so something like this it would suit our eco theme. The simplistic stock with the fancy foiling is the same kind of message we want to give about Peacocks - luxurious clothing but with an environmentally friendly background. 

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laser cut invite

Another laser cut invitation, where the contrasting colour is shown through the gaps. We could use a contrasting colour inside our invitation to really make it stand out. I like that its quite different just the text being laser cut compared to laser cutting an image or pattern. This would be good to try in our invites.

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YCN... Eco Friendly Designs

As we have thought about making our designs eco friendly, I have done a bit of research into some of the existing eco friendly graphic design thats out there.

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Think Green

A range of printed materials, including stickers, posters and postcards were also produced to reinforce the campaign messages and, in line with the environmental nature of the campaign, all the items were produced using the most environmentally friendly techniques and materials such as vegetable inks.

I like how simplistic these designs are, with text only, and it being the message and the concept that is the most important part of the design.

We could take the brown paper bag idea, and propose that Peacocks print onto paper bags instead of plastic ones, or we could create canvas bags.

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lovelyasatree

How to be an environmentally friendly graphic designer:

Obviously this is only a mock up, and the only resources we can really use are the college printers, but if we were really proposing this campaign we should use recycled paper and find a greener printer.

Case Studies:

Thomas Matthews

Ten ways design can help fight climate change - A6 brochure from waste make-ready sheets, french-folded and printed on the plain side.

I like this idea of up cycling, its something I've seen about before. It might be more suitable for screen printing, but I think it could look really good and it is obviously helping the environment. I don't know if it would match the style of our designs, but it is something worth considering.

Hudson Powell

Brochures, menus and business cards for restaurant, Canteen, in London. Although designed more with aesthetics in mind than the environment, all items are printed on off-white recycled paper using a minimum of ink for a beautiful and sophisticated effect that keeps the environmental impact to a minimum.

I really like these simplistic designs that don't waste any ink, I think they look sophisticated and on trend, something we do want to represent about Peacocks, so this could be an idea for the mailshot or some other piece of design.

Composite Projects

- The compact size of the booklets makes optimum use of the printing sheet. The guides have three sections defined by alternating coloured (100% recycled Sugar Paper) and white paper.


These design on recycled paper look really good, and I like how the colour works with the paper. They look more interesting than a standard print, and I think printing on to recycled paper could be what makes Peacocks stand out against other fashion stores.

- Report on green consumer behaviour

- No excess packaging, self-packaged, the cover wrapping around the contents to become the envelope.

- Recycled paper

- Colour-set is manufactured from 100% recycled pre-consumer fibres.

This is another good idea to self-package the product, it could be something Chloe considers when designing the mail shot. The envelope could open up to be the invite. This would save bits from being lost, and keep everything together, while saving paper.

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Upcycling

My friend bought this interesting towel from Liberty in London, where an old tea towel has been brought to life with a new design screen printed on top. 

Tickets - From D&AD New Blood exhibitor [harrysmithdesign.co.uk] So many train tickets must be wasted everyday as they have no use once the journey is over, but this is a great idea, to screen print over the ticket to turn it into a new ticket. This idea stood out after the exhibition from all the others as it looks good, but is good for the environment too.

- Some more examples of up cycling to consider

These very modern type focused designs are to promote a traditional village green festival. The problem is that an event needs advertising but the organisers and designers wanted the promotion to be environmentally friendly in fitting with the event. To solve this problem, the designers used 100% recycled materials, including the t-shirts, which are old T's with the new logo printed over them. The typical audience may be older people, but the new modern design of bold typography and simple imagery representing bunting will also draw in younger crowds as they are 'cool' designs. The audience will interact with the pieces by using them, visiting the event and then re-cycling the designs.

- This is another example of how good printing on to recycled paper can actually look when combined with the right colour choices. I like the paper bag examples, this is something I want to try out.

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Following this research, I have thought about how we can bring the environment in to our designs. [see blog post]

YCN... Fashion Branding & Advertising

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Chloe has found these examples of branding, showing how different objects can be created where all the designs work together as a set. These examples contain: mailing label, vertical business card, promo stickers, sticker tags, and handing tags. By sticking with the same font, colour scheme, and focus with the shape of the circle, it is obvious that all of these items are part of a set. As Peacock's methods of advertising at the moment are a bit all over the place, as I found out when I researched into them, [examples here], one of the main things we said we wanted to achieve was to make all of their branding link in together.

These examples are for a clothes store, and I really like the 'g', as its quite clever how it is made up from a coat hanger. I like the designs, but think they are quite simplistic, and I'm not completely sure who the target audience is, apart from it being females.

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I found these sophisticated adverts by Neville Brody and would like to try creating some advertisements in a similar style featuring Peacocks clothing and photographs from the Pearl Lowe range. I think these adverts could be quite timeless, and would appeal to both the younger generation and the older generation shopping at Peacocks. They are a good mix of type with the image, and I think this could work well to try this.

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To potentially go for a different approach, I've researched high fashion adverts, scanning these in from magazines. While these may be suited for a different target audience, the sophisticated style of these adverts may be something we try and get across with out Peacocks adverts.

YCN... More Website Design

Following on from originally just looking at the websites of the fashion stores on the british high street with the same target audience as Peacocks, I'm now looking at a few more examples of well designed websites that will help me to create my own.

These two were recommended by Chloe:

aubinandwills

I like how this layout it so simple, so it allows for a patterned background. Everything is set out really well, so that everything is easy to find, yet the page retains its simplicity. The sleek style makes it seem very professional and a luxurious brand. Also in the image, the way the blouses are laid out is a good way of showing this range, as compared to just using one image of a model wearing one of the blouses. This could be something I try with Pearl Lowe's range of dresses. 

editer

This layout for a fashion blog is again very simplistic, with the focus being on the images. By having three columns, its a bit different from the other website layouts I've looked at, and so could be an interesting structure to try out. 

frankie

This is quite different from the other website designs as theres so much going on. The header takes up so much space, but as a girly girl, these patterned headers are appealing to me. I like the pastel colour scheme and the whole look of the layout gives you an understanding of what will be on the blog. I have included this layout as it looks really good, but I don't think the structure of this blog would work for a clothes website.

anthropologie

I like how the images have been edited to make them more exciting on the page. This looks more interesting than a website where the images are just placed in equally spaced gaps, however, it could be quite hard to create this look and keep the page layout looking simple. I might have a go at editing some of the images I have of the Pearl Lowe range to experiment with trying a similar effect.

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This website design for this shop is quite unusual, which matches with the style of the shop and what they sell. It appeals to be because I am a more image based person. As most of the websites I have looked at have been very simple I thought it would be interesting to show this example, although this isn't the style of website I will be wanting to create for Peacocks. The website is quite hard to navigate through as a shop so people would lose their patience if it was a clothes shop. I like how when you rollover the items at the top, they become colourful.

liberty

This is quite similar to the design of the Aubin and Wills website, again with a good mix of simplicity and pattern. There is a good mix of the old and the new, with the style of the logo and the print background, against the simplicity of the layout. As Pearl Lowe's range is vintage fashion, but Peacocks is going for a more modern approach and younger customers, this would be something good to try.

I've looked more into Liberty's methods of promotions by looking at their online magazine and their newsletter. I'm a big fan of Liberty's design style, however, their target audience is completely different to our target audience for Peacocks.

I love the simplistic layout of their modern magazine which lets the images stand out, in contrast to their busy, traditional prints.

An example of a Liberty newsletter with a focus on colours.

YCN... Inspiring Vintage Style Graphic Design

Not all of the graphic design that inspires us will be specific to the fashion industry, and it is important to look at other areas of graphic design so we don't end up creating something that is already existing. I have done this research mainly to inspire my initial designs for the posters as I was feeling a bit stuck as I didn't feel the designs represented what I was wanting to communicate about Peacocks.

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Pearl Lowe's Official Website

I have included some designs that are relevant to the fashion industry, such as Pearl Lowe's actual website, which probably appeals more to me as an image based designer. For example, I like the flower imagery behind the logo.

Pearl Lowe's website is a good example of the mix of luxurious vintage elegance with modern design.

While the photographs at the bottom of the page are a bit creepy with the massive eyes, I like how the images aren't just placed equally in rectangles, but the wonky edges make a nice change.

Here the Peacocks logo is shown white on the image on the right then black on a black picture on the image in the centre. This doesn't look right and is hard to read. Getting the consistency of the logo right is something we want to do with out campaign.

I really like the patterned backgrounds, and I think they represent the type of clothes Pearl has created. Having the links at the bottom of the page again is quite unusual as you would except them to be at the top. Its things like this that make this website stand out and be remembered. I don't think this type of design would be too practical as an online clothes shopping website, I think I'll have to tone it down a bit and add a bit more white and simplicity into if I was to create a design like this.

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theavalonrose

I found this website from a google search, it is a website selling vintage style website designs suitable for online jewellery stores and such. I think the graphic design is a bit basic compared to what we are trying to create, but I do like the imagery used. The overall style would make it clear about the type of products being sold. I think this is a bit too vintage like for what we are trying to create, but it is a good example to show that I want to create something in between this and the simplistic styles of the websites I have researched.

An example website:

Lots of examples of websites they have designed:

Example imagery:

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I have found this amazing blog vintagemeohmy, which contains lots of different examples of vintage graphic design. I looked through for ages and found loads of lovely pieces, most of them not relevant to fashion at all, but still inspiring. Here are some pieces that really stood out to me:

I think I want the type I use to be sans serif and quite simple so it is easy to read, but I could link back to this decorative style with the use of swirls, maybe creating a border.

 

Some of these examples are genuinely vintage graphic design, where some are modern takes on the vintage style. I especially like the above example on the right, as the old, black and white image has been updated with brightly coloured shapes and modern text. This is something I could re-create with the vintage style of the Daisy Lowe photographs, and then I could add modern type and bright colours to it.

I think it is the type and the colour schemes used that make all these designs stand out as being vintage. And the use of lines and dots and swirls to decorate the designs. These are things that I will have to think about while continuing to develop my designs, to ensure it is obvious I get the theme I am going for across.

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Chloe has found these nice typography poster designs, which are a nice mix of vintage and modern. Again, I think it is the decorative swirls that add to the vintage theme, so this is something I should try in my designs.

I will try and link these vintage styles back in to my design practice work, for starters, as I create the website.