drawing fashion

A couple of weekends ago I went to the Design Museum, London (writes Peter) to see The Brit Insurance Design Awards, billed as "the Oscars of the design world". I wish. Unfortunately, I soon found myself overwhelmed by the mess of projects, exhibits and unclassifiable stuff I couldn't understand or relate to. Nothing like as exciting as the 2009 show.

Luckily on the floor below was an exhibition of fashion drawings which made the trip worth the effort.

The exhibits and exhibition are small but the scope is as vast as it is fascinating, featuring a whistle stop tour through haute couture fashion from the 1920's onwards. And all seen through the eyes of some amazingly talented fashion illustrators.

Some captured a 'look' in a few gestural brush strokes...

Mats Gustafson, “Red Dress”, Yohji Yamamoto 1999

Others with painstaking filigree detail in watercolors...

George Lepape, Vogue cover 1919

While others adapted contemporary pop art techniques to show off 60's pop art fashion...

Antonio, New York Times Magazine 1967

Glamorous, inspirational and absorbing. Plus not one pixel of computer-generated images on display.

hot off the {apple} press

Here's a sneak peek at some of our latest work in Scandinavia. Quite literally hot off the press and into Stockholm's coolest bars, Gravendal cider's new design rolls out in Sweden over the next few months. Check our main site for the full Gravendal story soon.

range architecture - the blueprint for brand success

Just as great buildings need good foundations and a clear structure, brand and product architectures are no different in how they should be approached (writes Lawrence, MD).

Brands have a life span. For many it's short, but others flourish and generate meaningful income. Consumers’ relationships with brands also have a life span, driven by generational changes or more quickly by changes in habits, taste and lifestyle.

For brand owners, reacting to these changes can be a challenge, and this often results in brand and product portfolios becoming bloated and poorly focused with little differentiation. Ironically, it's often easier to add another product to a brand's range than it is to change or delist an existing product. This is partly due to brand owners hedging their bets, and partly due to a production-led management strategy. Consequently, these bloated portfolios are more likely to confuse consumers and cause them to lose engagement with the brand they once cherished. And they become expensive to support.

The answer to this set of problems lies in range architecture
A range architecture review should begin at the point that will effect the best commercial outcome, which means exploring the brand's connection to the company's business and product strategy.

Range architecture should always refer back to commercial priorities, meaning fewer distractions from the softer science of tactical qualitative research, good guesses or an over reaction to market changes.

Of course, many businesses have extended their brands’ product portfolios over recent years. Good brands are powerful assets and consequently are seen by their owners as having the capability to accommodate more products, beyond those they might be recognised for. But this needs to be carefully managed.

Examples of good and not so good
In health and beauty, for example, Johnson’s has managed to retain brand integrity across its entire portfolio as it moved from its core offer of baby care through to women's face and body care. Branding maintains its authority across the portfolio whilst the use of colour, graphics and message hierarchy effortlessly enables the brand to reach across the categories.

However, I find Nivea much more difficult to deal with. Anti-wrinkle, firming creams, firm and natural body lotions, Nivea Visage, Nivea Soft, Nivea Pure, Nivea Sun through to Nivea Men... between them creating a plethora of range names and sub brands that makes it difficult to decipher what I am being offered and how I should find what I actually need.

And there are many more examples. Biscuits, for instance, are becoming ever more diverse, and Fox’s does a good job of presenting its variety of biscuits by using design to reflect the different styles of each one.

And whilst Old El Paso in the Mexican wraps category does a terrific job on consistency and stand out on shelf, I’m left wondering what’s inside the boxes and the wrappers!

Getting the range architecture right ensures that the platform is there for branding, design and message to be used to convey product or brand differentiation to optimum effect. Get it right and you’re away. Get it wrong and even a small range can create confusion.

like a moth to a flame

I’ve just realised that I have a burgeoning obsession that has crept up on me over the last few years and is reaching a bit of a peak (writes Bess).

Like a moth to a flame, I’ve become very attracted to light. From an innocuous and widespread start - a string of fairy lights that didn’t come down after Christmas one year - this has grown to a pretty serious 20m rope light strand currently framing the whole of the biggest wall in my flat, star lights strung across a fireplace grate, plain lights in a glass vase by the window (nice reflection when its dark outside). I often actively miss the oversized paper shades we had in my last flat; they were Ikea’s cheapest offer (since discontinued I think) but were absolutely huge and glowed like a full moon.

But my flat only has so many plug sockets, so I’ve taken to admiring light sources from afar. Most recently this has included the string of lights covering the entire windows of a local pub (so enticing!), the bulbs jauntily crisscrossing the street at Exmouth Market, the magical set of Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella, lights in other people’s living rooms, spied from the street, and Chinese lanterns spotted floating into the starlit sky on New Year’s Eve.

And now I’ve started finding out about light installation artists (see above, Nathan Coley, Stefan Brüggemann & Bruce Munro), and sourcing sign makers. My dream is to have a word or phrase (as yet undecided) spelt out in bright white lights on my wall, and there’s plenty of inspiration around. I just need to save up a lot of money and find another plug socket… and try not to think about the resulting electricity bill.