Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
Brief #8 Produce the branding and promotional materials for a fictional custom t-shirt start up company.
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Brief, Deliverables & Collaboration
Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Brief -
Concept -
Produce the branding, packaging solution and point of sale website design for a fictional customisable t-shirt company.
Motif printed fashion is a fictional start up t-shirt brand which allows customers to create their own t-shirts, tote bags and scarves from a swatch book of different patterns created by both myself and Sarah. The brand aims to be affordable but also completely personalised, as the customer is not only able to choose the print pattern that appears on their chosen products, but also the colour, pattern position and style of the product. This made to order concept means that the patterns are the focus of the brand and therefore need to come through into the branding.
Deliverables A brand for the t-shirt business presented in a brand guidelines booklet with a business proposal plan, a packaging solution and necessary promotional items, such as business cards and swing tags, and a point of sale website, plus a swatch book of t-shirt patterns.
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Background & Concept
Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Background The background for this brief came from Sarah being a print designer (as well as a fashion designer) and pattern design being an area I wanted to explore more. We decided to propose a business where we each could bring our own skills into it and each learn from the others skills. We have communicated and discussed throughout the entire process of the brief all of
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
Primary Research the details together so I have influenced how the t-shirts and patterns have been produced and Sarah has given her input into the branding and packaging side of it.
The majority of primary research I have completed for this brief has been working with Sarah to produce the swatch book of different patterns and learning how t-shirts are produced through cutting the patterns of fabric from a block and then learning how Sarah adapted these patterns to be able to add customised areas of print patterns to each t-shirt.
As our intial thought was to launch Motif as a start up business, I did a large amount of research into the costings of different things the brand would need and worked out pricings for products so that we would turn over a profit. However, as we have both decided that neither of us currently are able to launch it, I decided to research and produce a business plan which outlines our proposal for how the brand would function.
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Contextual Research
Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
Contextual research After discussing our initial thoughts for the brief, it was clear Sarah and I had the same sort of ideas for where we wanted to take it so the main contextual research I undertook was looking for examples of other clothing companies and fashion designers which used a similar aesthetic to what we were aiming for. I looked into different brands that appeared fresh and affordable, but at the same time were easily adaptable as that was one of the most important elements of the design for Motif.
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Design Development
Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
Initial design development After deciding on the name ‘Motif’, meaning ‘a decorative image or design, especially a repeated one forming a pattern’, and doing some initial research into the aesthetic we were aiming for, we both decided on wanting a simple text logo design. One of the most important things I decided about the branding was that it had to be easily adaptable as that was the main selling
point of the brand. The logo we decided on, the one at the far right of the bottom row, was the one which I had developed the furthest and which seemed to have the most potential for adaptation. The logo and brand style also needed to be clean and simple to allow the patterns to sell the products.
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Brand Guidelines & Business Plan
Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Business plan -
Brand guidelines I chose to present the brand guidelines through a booklet which also contained the business plan, as if it were a ready made business ready to launch. The brand guidelines book also contains examples of the t-shirt and tote bag flats which the customer can choose through on the website to decide where their chosen pattern will appear on their chosen product.
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
The logo I produced is adaptable where the patterns from the swatch book appear throughout the shape, and a single colour from within the pattern is picked to outline the logo text. This means it is adaptable if the patterns in the swatch book were to be renewed.
After researching how to launch the business and looking into all the necessary costings, I decided to present the business plan to show how the business could function, and to present the concept of the customisablity.
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Products - 4 example t-shirt designs plus promotional materials
Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
T-shirts As examples of the products that Motif would sell, Sarah produced 4 simple t-shirt designs, two male and two female. The designs for these all came from the flat drawings I produced and of the four patterns we printed onto fabric to produce the t-shirts, two were by Sarah and the other two were mine.
As the concept behind Motif is that it produces ‘hand made, custom, made to order’ products, I tried to add feeling of personality and individuality to the brand in the way that each product that is ordered from the website will be posted out to the recipient with a postcard of their chosen print, a business card and custom swing tag.
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Packaging & promotional materials
Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
Packaging solution Originally, I had planned for the packaging to be in the form of a cardboard pizza box shaped package. However, after developing the branding further, I decided that keeping the personal touch to it would compliment the products and concept of the brand more, so the final packaging solution ended as using tissue paper with ribbon and brand stickers, sent in postage packaging.
This was complimented by the swing tags for the garments where the details the customer has chosen are filled out by hand before the products are posted to the customer. Using tissue paper and ribbon would make receiving a Motif delivery feel for the customer as though they have received a present, adding more of the personal touch we have aimed to bring into the brand.
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Web Store
Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
Website The main point of sale for Motif is online through the official website, and the main promotion for the website would come from social media sites.
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014
Web Store - Customisability
Brief #8 - Printed Fashion
Self initiated collaboration with Fashion student Sarah Fox
Customisability Due to the main concept for the brand being the made to order aspect, the website needed to be designed around the idea that the user could select different options for different questions so that they could build their own t-shirt or tote bag design. I looked into different platforms that this could be run off (such as bigcartel.com) until deciding to simply design the website how it would function if we were to launch Motif as a business.
Andrea Hannah Cooper - OUGD603 Extended Practice 2014