TOP DESIGNS 2010 Inside Professional Practice Kerrie Thornton Kerrie is a co-owner and general manager of Babycakes - designers + producers. Babycakes design and produce artisan style cakes, bespoke stationery and table styling for wholesale, corporate and events. All designs and sweet products are created by hand on the premises, using the best local and seasonal produce available. Following her love of food, Kerrie started a joint venture four years ago with her sister, a pastry chef. They had styled their older sister’s wedding, and subsequently received numerous requests and referrals from friends. As well as overseeing the general operation of the business, Kerrie designs all of their product ranges, including packaging, branding and promotional material. She is a trained graphic designer, has been working in the industry for 10 years and taught Graphic Design at Swinburne Tafe for two years. www.babycakesbydesign.com.au How do you get new business?
Harvest Picnic Hanging Rock 2010, © Babycakes 2010
As we have been in operation for 5 years a lot of our new business comes from referral. This is the best form of advertising for us as it is a personal recommendation. Best of all a compliment comes free of charge! In terms of outwardly seeking new business we promote ourselves in two ways advertising and trade shows / festivals. We advertise in one national wedding magazine which comes out quarterly. 70% of our custom orders are for weddings, which means we are seeking a new audience each month. These magazines are important as they often showcase our latest collections and trends.
We partake in a couple of trade shows and festivals each year - Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, Good Food and Wine Show and Taste of Melbourne as well as some regional markets such as the Harvest Picnic at Hanging Rock and Werribee Mansion. These events are a fantastic as it gives us the opportunity to meet the public and promote our new products as well as gain feedback. It is a great way to promote and endorse our brand as these events often have a larger budget for marketing and promotion which we can be a part of. e.g. television interviews, editorials in newspapers and magazines and cooking demonstrations.
Tell us about some of your clients We have two streams to our business: wholesale and custom. The wholesale side makes up 80% of our business. We have created a range of products including cakes, muffins, macarons and tea cakes that are sold to cafes, restaurants/event venues, retail outlets and caterers six days a week. Some of our clients include: David Jones, Alliance Catering (Spotless), IBM, Melbourne Water, Middle Brighton Baths and the Pantry. The other stream is custom orders. These are individually designed products for one off events e.g. private wedding or corporate function. These products have a much longer lead time and usually more complex in terms of the design, production and embellishments. Some of our clients include: Tiffany & Co., L’Oréal, Cristina Re Designs and Diana Ferrari. Di Bella Coffee book launch - espresso cakes, © Babycakes 2010
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TOP DESIGNS 2010 Inside Professional Practice How do you establish the needs of your clients/products? We meet with all of our clients to showcase our products and discuss with them their requirements. For our wholesale customers - we provide a wholesale kit which includes our current menu, pricing and information as well as samples for tasting. Once their account details are set-up they can email, phone or fax through orders. Our wholesale orders can vary week to week with each customer depending on the day of the week and time of year. For our bespoke customers we meet with them for an appointment to discuss their requirements and then provide them with a quote after consultation. As we offer custom designs, some of our customers come to us with ideas formulated of what they would like. Others come to us for input and suggestions. We have a client details sheet which prompts what questions to ask to ensure we have all of the information required to fulfil the request.
Parisian macarons in raspberry, pistachio and chocolate © Babycakes 2010
How do you make use of design briefs in your work? We have a design process we follow through with every bespoke order. Most of our custom designs include an aspect of pastry making, decorating or design we have never done before so it is imperative for us to follow the procedure to ensure we get the best end result. Our design process includes: • initial consultation • quote • design concepts • mock up / samples • refinement • finished product • review Our cake, stationery and styling folios© Babycakes 2010
Once a quote has been submitted and accepted by the client we then provide a design concept in illustration form. Once the design has been approved we will create an actual mock up of the product for the client to taste. This helps us with the production side - if there are any issues with the creation of the design we can modify and alter the design to suit before the finished product is created. After the job is finished we review the process and take note of any issues/problems that arose during the design process.
What methods of research do you use? We use the internet a lot for reference material and sourcing suppliers who can supply us with equipment and materials we need to fulfil an order. A lot of our speciality products are sourced from America, Spain and France and shipped overseas. We have a collection of cookbooks and magazines on hand for recipes and styling ideas. This includes food, travel, fashion and photography as trends and styles can transcend over different fields. We also have folders of postcards, swatches and photos of inspirational things we have seen on our international and day to day travels - these are really helpful to peruse when struggling for a concept! Wedding cake design concept, © Babycakes 2010
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TOP DESIGNS 2010 Inside Professional Practice How do you develop your design ideas? I am a visual thinker but generate my ideas through words rather than images. I like to write down a list of words that are associated to the brief before looking at reference material. I use the dictionary and Thesaurus a lot. I find this helps me formulate images, colours, and textures in my mind that will be reinforced by image reference. We often brainstorm together in a group and consolidate these concepts into ideas that are sketched on paper before transferring the best concepts to the computer for designing. Let’s Launch PR company umbrella cookies - “we are taking a rain check...”, © Babycakes 2010
How do you decide on the best design option? There are a few factors that can determine which is the best option to proceed with. The main factors to determine this are: design process: • time frame: how much lead time can play a huge part in what we can create • budget: price can vary greatly depending on the labour and materials required • environment: the weather and time of year can affect what products and materials we use. • technical ability: we can also be limited by our own ability as to what we can produce Three-tier wedding cake with handmade sugar floral corsage, © Babycakes 2010
Once a quote has been submitted and accepted by the client we then provide a design concept in illustration form. Once the design has been approved we will create an actual mock up of the product for the client to taste. This helps us with the production side - if there are any issues with the creation of the design we can modify and alter the design to suit before the finished product is created. After the job is finished we review the process and take note of any issues/problems that arose during the design process.
How involved are you in the production of the final design? We work as a team throughout the entire process. I brief our pastry chefs on the job and they confer with me throughout the process. The designs are scaled up to size and often used as templates for the girls to follow and map the design onto the cake or biscuit for example. I may assist at the last stage - for packaging assembly or final embellishments. 17th birthday - Louis Vuitton cake and petit fours © Babycakes 2010
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TOP DESIGNS 2010 Inside Professional Practice Which other professional practitioners do you collaborate with? We are only a very small artisan business so we rely heavily on building good relationships with our suppliers and contractors. We collaborate with chefs, event managers, marketing managers, printers, florists, visual merchandise / stylists, photographers and other small business operators e.g. other artisan producers - chocolatiers, fruit and vegetable growers. : Kids’ party photoshoot for “Shop till you Drop magazine” © Babycakes 2010
How do you evaluate your work? We conduct an internal review after each custom job to assess the quality, design and production of the order. We sample and taste everything that we sell and create to ensure that the product is of a very high standard. We use some tasters to sample our food for review, particularly if we are creating a custom order / flavour that we have not made before. Our customers also offer feedback - both positive and negative. This helps us improve any areas that need attention.
Wedding cake bonbonniere - petit four cakes with sugar embellishment to match their wedding invitations, © Babycakes 2010
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