Cath Kidston - Collaboration & YCN entry. Conversational Prints. Brief synopsis: Create a conversational print that was cheerful and fun, comforting and homely, approachable and inclusive, contemporary but classic and also coloured using a bold and distinctive palette. Ultimately you had to take into account the brand values and heritage of Cath Kidston.
The print should be designed to be used across three of our product categories; Womens fashion, Womens accessories and Home.
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Design Progression We left our design approach to resinate and decided it was a really suitable approach, it fell into all of the requirements and also complemented the nature of Cath Kidston, who sells items such as aprons and baking stands etc. The images above demonstrate our design approach to create each different elements we had categorized.
As the print was conversational, each element had to work in a ‘scene’. We both split the workload equally and began designing each element in the same fashion as the other. Drawing out the element, picking up on shading marks, tracing the design, and then scanning the drawing in to consequently fill with a specific colour palette.
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Finished Elements You can clearly see the concept for our design has been inspired by British baking specifically, we’ve designed a number of English cakes that would appeal to the modern women. The concept takes into account that baking has become more prevalent in todays contemporary culture, through mediums such as television, e.g. ‘The Great British Bake Off ’
The images on the right demonstrate the on-screen production of our designs from scan to design.
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Research - Primary & Secondary I began the research within the store of Cath Kidston, taking note of all her designs across different product categories. Following this, myself and Josh exhausted the internet, and using this newly learnt knowledge we discovered that Cath Kidston was inspired by vintage and 1950’s pattern designs. With this information, we took a trip to the library and found a selection of books that were perfect to understand the heritage of Cath Kidston prints.
Working collaboratively was successful for this brief because we were able to co-operate and bounce different ideas of eachother and mix different approaches. We eventually came to the conclusion that our design approach should focus around ‘Home Baking’, stylising our elements in a vintage way to suit the products of Cath Kidston.
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Application to Product Categories.
Womens Accessories; Iphone Case & Laptop Case Women’s fashion; T-shirt & Skirt Home; Apron & Pillow
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Final Deliverables I’m really hopeful of these designs and enjoyed the collaboration process, in the end me and Josh can proudly say we’ve achieved a pattern design that emulates the process of baking, giving the impression that baking is underway, emphasized by elements such as the scattered flour.
We felt our overall designs were in tune with the product range already presented at Cath Kidston stores, but were also original and would stand out with its bold distinctive palette.
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