Evaluation

As this module was such a big module my research was such a big part of this as it helped explain more about the brand I was given because overall I wasn’t sure on the brand and what they did. I looked into the Mulberry tree itself and I researched this to link to my project, which helped me with the final look of the design altogether including the colour.

My main work process was to keep up to date with my research and design’s so being in the studio helped me do this. Also having Ollie there to help with the design process was very helpful as I didn’t really know how to do 2D design on Illustrator but him teaching us was very helpful and made my design’s come to life and look professional. Which makes my idea of bath products look like actual work for a company, my skills improved a lot more and I was able to help others in class.

I’ve learned a lot about in this module the main one being come in and work in the studio the days that help is around as you are able to improve design and change bits later on. I’ve also learned that research that you do is key as it improves on your designs and idea’s, this is what happened to me I researched the Mulberry tree a little more and found out a lot more about it that I didn’t know. Even though this might not end up in your final outcome just having the knowledge is good as you can actually link areas. I linked the wood to the tree, fruit to the smell and colour. I’ve also got more confident with the blog instead of the sketchbooks as this became a lot easier to handle and collect information and keep it together.

Overall I do like my work and am impressed with how much my skills have improved in the space of two weeks, as this is when I had a final idea and could then expand and design. At the beginning of this module I had my mind set on one idea however as time went on I’m glad I changed it, as I don’t think the outcome would have been as strong. I would like to have done a few more products to expand on the range of bath products and then this could have improved my skills a lot more. However I’m happy with the work that I was able to do and I’m pleased I was able to use my time well and in the right places. 

Advertising Strategies

For my advertising strategy I was thinking that I could promote the products in a high end magazine's like Vogue, Elle, Marie Clare, Cosmopolitan, Glamour as these are the typical magazine that you would see them in.

 
As these are the adverts for bags that are shown in current magazine's even though they are adverts for the magazine's this just shows how much money they put into promoting there products, which I think adds to the value of the products. Normally for a luxury brand they have a two paged spread which would be very expensive to do but again this just shows how high end this brand is.

I think this image here of the bags is a good way to advertise the new products. I could also do a billboard, web-site's. 

I like how simple these billboards are and how the logo is one of the main focuses I also think the white background works well with the images.  I think this is just a good way to promote a brand as it's simple with not a lot of information on it.
Like this image:

 I think this has a lo of information on it and people wouldn't really take notice of this where as if it was a clean cut image and logo people will get the message.

So for my design's I wanted to do something simple and to focus on a few products so people would know that Mulberry have a new product range.

Billboard 1

Billboard 2

These are my ideas for the billboards for the new products, I think these a quick simple and easy to get the message across without being to complicated. I wanted the effect of a reflection to give it a more life like feel to it, I also like the fact that the reflection gives a glossy surface effect which I like.
I wanted to keep the logo of to the side as this just gives it a touch of the brand without being over the top. I also like the idea of using this technique for a website design?

Billboard 1, I wanted to show a link to the bags with the new product and this is the idea I came up with. I think this works really well as every woman carries at least one or both these products in there bags and this is just a good way to shows how a women pampers herself.

 
This image here I thought could be a good advert in a magazine for say Cosmopolitan or any other fashion magazine that a women would read. I think this would be a good two page spread, again it's simple and shows what the product is for and also the new logo is shown to inform people that Mulberry have developed it's brand.

You could also show other products this way so the shampoo and conditioner can be shown in the shower of the candle could be shown on the side of the bath. Just to get the impression of the idea's behind the new products, to pamper yourself.

Website

This is the current website for the brand, I have the idea of using the same layout but changing it slightly but keep it so it's an extra link onto this site. 

Image 1

Image 2

Here you can see what I meant by keeping it the same but updating it to fit in with the new products. I obviously changed the logo to the new essence of mulberry logo, i'v also kept the same top bar the same but added 'Mulberry bags' to the top so this will be the link to the original website. I then added on the other lines other information to link to the new products such as travel products. 

I played around with the layout of the text but kept image 1 was the design as I thought this was readable to looked neater than image 2 just because I felt it looked more professional.

  

Here is my finished website I added the image's with the reflection as I thought this gave a more professional finish also keeping in touch with the original website. This is what the rest of the sections would look like and each product would be shown this way along with the link to the original handbag website. This would be updated as new products would be made. 

I could see these idea's being used to promote this new product as it's tasteful and not to overdone either which is a good way to start a new product off. Obviously the bag advertising is a lot bigger and over the top but this is a new product and new concept so it's going to be a bit smaller.

Overall my advertising strategy is that the website will be updated and advert's in magazine's along with billboards. I think this is a good choice for the new products as I don't want the advertising to become tacky I wanted it to stay high end overall. I also wanted to keep the advertising simple and professional as this is what it is originally, so you can see what the product is and the idea behind it i.e. the bubble bath and bath advert. As the product grows the more extravagant the advertising will get i.e. using celebrities maybe even a T.V advert that shows certain products like shampoo.   

Mulberry beauty products

Women who buy Mulberry want to pamper themselves

This is what I want to visualise when I am thinking of the new idea of bathroom products. I have decided to change my idea completely as the furniture and interior idea was a big product to do. However this is a good idea for Mulberry as it links to the women and the idea of using beauty products is a luxury to have.
Even though I could see Mulberry having an interior and furniture shop the beauty products could be the next step before this.

I looked at Marks and Spencer's beauty range as they have interesting products that are expensive ranging form £12. These coming from my own experience are nice products to have and they are a luxury product to have.
http://www.marksandspencer.com/Beauty/b/43319030?ie=UTF8&intid=gnav_Beauty&pf_rd_r=1P4E9MVG54E29X0MJZM3&pf_rd_m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=42966030&pf_rd_p=257503947&pf_rd_s=global-top-8

I also looked at The Body Shop, which is known for its luxury beauty products that are all natural.
http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/bath-body-care.aspx

Women and sometimes men use bath products to make them look and feel good, which is what Mulberry as a fashion company want people to feel with clothes and bags. Also they are seen as fashion statement so you could say having a face mask or hand cream is fashion statement and a luxury to have.

Random products

Other bath products

I like the idea of having a a variety of bath products such as candles and aroma sticks as theses all help us feeling pampered etc and make us feel good. So along with looking at soap and moisturisers this is another area that I can look into that women like. 

I like the idea of packaging little hand moisturisers that can go into your hand bag as they are useful to have, I like the idea of having different types of moisturisers such as body, hand, foot along with body scrub's, bath oils and bubble bath. As they make you feel pampered when your cleaning yourself. 

I think the mulberry scent will be a good scent to have as it fits in with the brand and also links back to the tree as well. I also think using wood to package it in someway would be nice and will simply make it look more like a luxury product than it being in a plastic bottle or container. 

I could also look into the idea of silk because you can get moisturisers that have essence of silk mixed with the cream. 

The idea of essence of Mulberry is what I want to bring to the new products as people who own a Mulberry bag or are thinking of purchasing they are already buying an essence of Mulberry. So the idea of bringing an essence to your life is a good slogan for the new products.  

Body Products

• Body butters
• Hand/foot creams
• Moisturisers
• Candles 
• Aroma sticks
• Shower/bath creams
• Soup
• Face masks
• Lip balm
• Nail cream
• Shimmer butter
• Body wash
• Hand wash
• Facial creams
• Shampoo
• Conditioner 

These are the areas that other shops have done so doing the same for Mulberry. I think this will give people an essence of Mulberry even if they don't own a bag. 

Just looking around I think these little pots are really nice to have Mulberry products and as a little touch have the Mulberry logo on the top to show the brand simply. I could see some lip balm of the pots of moisturises being in something like these as they just shout luxury and just look like what Mulberry would sell. 

This is what I was thinking for small sets of the moisturiser etc so they can go into bags or you can take going travelling. Easy to carry. I can see this been in wooden box just to keep the tree aspect into the new products. The same maybe with little pots of cream or big pots if the products came in sets. Its just a nice way to keep the products more of a luxury product than a everyday need. 

Shampoo and conditioner should look different as they are obviously a different product. Similar to this I would like something that shows the differences so simply having one bottle upside down shows the differences, I could use a wooden top as the main feature. Or I might not even need to do this I could just simply have a plastic bottle.  

This is what Mulberry wood looks like when used to make products such as bowls, I think the wood is a very good rich colour. I think this will be nice to use for the my pots as it will give them a luxury effect that I wanted for this product. Once the wood is varnished like you can see here it just finishes the wood off nicely. I even think the wood just been cut is nice and natural however the varnished wood looks better and more high quality. 

Colour's 

For some inspiration for the colours I should use for my products and the packaging, I like the idea of using neutral colours such as cream. However I really like the idea of using a rich dark purple and maybe a lighter purple that isn't as dark, to keep the idea of the tree linked with the product. As I'm using wood for some of the packaging a dark purple wood look nice with it. 

Here I tested if the colour and wood worked and I do think it works. So this could be what I use for my packaging colours, especially for the wooden pots. 
I do think this will give the product a sense of luxury, and wealth as they are rich looking colours and texture. I just need to test them out on drawing's.

Here I wanted to see how a lighter purple would work and I think this is a nice contrast as well, so if I wanted to I could use these two colours to show the difference between shampoo and conditioner. 
I still think this gives the rich luxury feel still. 
Test out on drawings!  

I was thinking that I could use a neutral colour for the base colour of the packaging. So for the moisturiser bottle I would have the lid purple and the base of the bottle a neutral colour. 
When I draw them on 2D I can play around with the colours.  

Product Idea's 

Some sketches to get some ideas across so I can start to design some 2D design onto Illustrator. 

Logo Ideas

Lucida Calligraphy and Shit Happens

Book Antiqua

Cambria

Bodoni

 Bodoni

Cardo

Here I wanted to try out the logo moving the tree around but keeping the 'Mulberry' the same but adding 'Essence of' to the logo. At first I had tried out the colour purple but having a more hand written style font however after talking to Adam I realised this was the wrong direction. 

I want something that changes the logo slightly so just having a font that contrast the 'Mulberry' not something completley different like my first design's which I used a font called Shit happens and Lucida Calligraphy however these didn't really fit in with the brand and what I wanted to bring to it. 

Now that I tried other fonts I chose the ones above and I played around with the size, position, line width etc to see what I like and how things worked with the tree and original font for 'Mulberry'. 

To see how things worked I drew some examples of pots to see what the logo looks like:

For the logo I found a vector for the logo which made it easier for me to use the tree. As the images of the tree weren't good enough and this just made the logo as accurate as possibly. 
http://xvost.org/logos/mulberry/

Illustrator Design's

With my design's I wanted to have an essence of tree in the design for the product. I know that for some of my designs that a wood top would not work overall however for some products like the pot a wooden top would work well. After drawing the product I was able to add the new logo, so I could see which logo works and fits in with the products.   

Logo 1

Logo 2

I edited my list of logo's down to just two and these are the two I think work well. The first one looks good, however on other products that I have drawn the second logo looked much better as it was easier to read as a label and as an overall logo. 

If I wanted to show the differences of a product that is the same i.e. shampoo and conditioner I could change the colour or turn the shape upside down to show the difference. 

Logo 1

Logo 2

This is my idea for the hand cream or even foot cream I wanted to again try out each logo to see how it looks. Again I think logo two works better than logo one as it's overall easier to read and it looks good quality on the product. 
I do want to change the height of the bottle top on this product as I think it looks out of proportion with the base product. I also was trying out other neutral colours for the product instead of the creamy green colour, so I tried a pink colour that works nicely and works with the striking purple colour of the top. 

Logo 1

Logo 2

Here are the changes to the top's which I think work's better than the original design as it looks more realistic. 

Logo 1

Logo 2

My idea here was to design a shampoo and conditioner bottle's with the wooden top to give it more of a luxury feel. I could try a normal top to see how it would look and test out colours for the top. I changed the colour of the type because it was hard to read the writing of the logo. This however will be a good idea for shampoo and conditioner, for further development I can add additional wording to the bottle. I was thinking of adding it simply on the bottle. So the writing doesn't look to over crowded on the bottle. 

  Here I did try and have a label on the bottle so I didn't have to change the colour of the letters but I do think that this didn't work as well as I wanted as it takes focus of the bottle. I also on the other bottle design like how it simply looks whereas this looks bold and doesn't really work i.e. the colours. So I prefer how the other design works as I could see this being on the shelves in store. 

Here I wanted to test out this shape bottle for another product. I wanted to see if the shape worked being a bit thinner in width which it does, I played with colours again to see if another colour looked better. However after deciding on a product for this design I can then think of the colour scheme. 

Here I wanted to design a new pot for a lip balm using the same idea from the moisturiser pot, I wanted to keep the same so the new products fit together as a new product identity. So I simply made the pot smaller but to make the lip balm pot so they could fit into a handbag, but to make the product different from the original I decided to see what the pot would look like with the colour changed to purple. Which I think makes the product standout and I wanted again to connect the wood to the tree and the colour of the fruit is purple, so this is why I changed the colour.

Here I changed the size once again to see which shape I liked and worked, I still like the first pot for the lip balm simply because it's a nice shape. However after playing around with the colour's I thought this would be nice to use as a handbag size face moisturiser as I think this is an essential if you have dry skin.

I was playing around with the colour, testing the pastel colours with the purple top. 

When I was designing the pot for the lip balm, I thought about the idea of having a pot that is just an entire wooden pot. 

This is my design for the new wooden pot, I liked this pot for body scrub that you can use in the shower. I just this was a nice way to have the product in as it's a luxury to have body scrub as it's suppose to help make your skin smooth and to get rid of dead skin. My idea for the logo was to have it look almost engraved into the pot so it looks like a luxury product. 

Here I wanted to see what the pot would look like with the logo simply onto the pot, I think this looks good as well however I would like to see what the engraved logo would look like. 

Here I tried to create an engraved look on the pot, I know this doesn't look entirely like an engraved logo, this is something to work on! 

Here I wanted to create the top of the pot with the tree part of the logo as a way to finish the pot off. I could try different size's of the tree and maybe make it a bit more golden and look a little engraved. 

To get an engraved look on the pot I went onto photoshop and used the emboss tool to get this look. I then was able to play around with the colour of the logo, I wanted to get a sort of golden colour so it would make the product seem more luxuries. 

Here you can see I was trying to get a golden affect with the colour and the emboss effect, however I feel that this just isn't working as well as I wanted simply because I can't get the colour of gold right. However looking back on these designs I quite like the purple colour on the pot, it stands out more and works well with wood. 

I wanted to carry on with the purple logo as I think it works really well for the logo on this product. I don't want to change the logo to much but I think this product works with it. As it's purple I still think it makes the product look like a luxury product. 

All the products so far

After collecting all the products that I have made so far, I was able to look at the products as a collection. Which was a good idea simply because I have many colours of purple and the colours of the bottle's don't match. Overall this doesn't look much like a a new product range. 

So I managed to change the lid's to the same purple or almost the same colour on the top lid, but just by these changes the products look more and more like a set. 

These are the products with the changes and I think they work well together. I now think I can add to the bottles to show what the products are. 

I wanted to have the lid's the same with an embossed tree on them to give them a feel of luxury. I wanted to keep the products similar so this is why I have done this, apart from the purple tree I have kept the other two the same so they continue with a set.  

Products so far

Product's developed

I was testing the text of what each product is and how I can place it onto the product to fit in with the logo. I decided to go for the words to match the new font in the logo in Italic's to just simply show the product and what it is. 

Here you can see how elegant the products are, how they work well as a set. For the wooden to pot I carried on the embossed theme so it doesn't look to out of place.  

Packaging idea's

My idea for packing is to have a box that slides off so you can get to the product, I like the idea of having the box in leather to fit in with the existing brand but also using card that is of high quality. I think this will give the product a luxury appearance not just in the new product but in the packaging as well. 

Here I wanted to use the colours of the brand products, I think this packaging would work for the shampoo and conditioner products or the moisturiser pot. As I think the the products will fit well with these, I did want to use paper for the packaging however I don't this is very piratical for the idea of bath products. 

Here I wanted to play around with the idea of leather packaging, which I think looks really nice. I do like the top image as the colour of the leather is really nice compared to the brown leather. I do like the black leather as well however this might look to dark for the colour scheme of my products.

I really like the last two images simply because I like how the purple works with the pastel colours. I also think the colours work well with the wooden pot and as a package or a present I think as a whole idea looks like a luxury. 

 Another colour for the packaging however this isn't the same colour as the products and I want the identity to be the same and have the same colour ranges.
To develop these design's I could add a bow? However the design's might look better just plain and simple so it doesn't over complicated the design. I do like the light leather packaging as it adds value to the product and I think it works really well with the purple logo embossed into the leather. I also think this is a good link to the existing products.

My products with the non leather packaging, which I think again works really well however I do want to try out the light leather packaging as I think this will again add value overall to the products. 

This was just an idea I had to have the tube's of hand and foot cream, however this hasn't worked as well as I wanted. My idea was to have a box like this:

I wanted a box that you could see the product as a set of size's however I have decided to look at maybe having a box with no window just a full box with just the logo simple embossed into it. To keep the packaging the same. 

The box

Hand Foot

Foot Cream

Here is a simpler box that is a bit bigger than the say the body scrub, I just think keeping the packaging the same the identity will become known. I still used the leather as the packaging to keep the idea of luxury in the product. 

These could also be sold separately but the idea behind this box was to have the three sizes together. You could also have a range of foot and hand mixed together as a nice girt set.

Extra's product's

An idea that I had is to have an extra product as an extra for say the body scrub, as I think this is such a luxury product to have that an extra product to go with it might just finish off the look all together. Plus this could be then sold as package i.e. present. 

I had the idea of having a loofa mitt or stick that can be used with the body scrub. I think this just sums up the idea of women pampering themselves this basically shows what and the equipment used to do pamper themselves.
I still like the idea of having a candle as this just screams essence. I was asked how I can link this to Mulberry but I think the new brand name sums up the idea of the candle as you want an essence of something so you buy a candle.

So maybe some little candle's or a range of different size candle's for the bathroom, I think this will also be a nice extra for the new products. I also think women will do anything to pamper or make them feel good and candle's can be but in the bathroom to make a relaxing atmosphere.

A Loofa 

Here I wanted to go for the traditional loofa instead of the mitt as this is more luxury then a mitt as you can buy one for cheap anywhere, whereas this is more uncommon. 

I played around with the shape but decided to go for this shape as it's a bit more rugged and authentic looking to match the wooden pot of body scrub. 

I then wanted to add it's own label for it's packaging, I drew a simple shape to the traditional label of mulberry but change it to fit my new product's packaging. So I used leather again and the purple embossed logo as I thought this was a nice touch to final label. 

Here I just looked on the internet for simple shape to give me an idea of what I wanted. 

Here I wanted to show what the back of the label would look like, I decided to go with purple as it made sense to keep the identity the same and use the same colours. I would have gone for the natural beige colour but I simply thought this brought colour to the product without being to harsh on it.  

This I think could me sold in a set or separately.  

Here I wanted to test the way I had the logo on the label, I did really like having the logo at the bottom of the label however I felt this was to close to the original and I wanted to also keep the identity the same so having it at the bottom would change the look of my new products.

How they looked on the loofa, I wanted to make sure my decision was right and I think it is as it looks right with the other products and packaging.

Candles

I wanted a variety of size's and thicknesses as they will be nice a set in the bathroom. 

My first design's for the candle, I went with this size as I think the candle's this thick can be lit free standing so it will create a nice atmosphere when relaxing. 

I developed my design by adding shading to the band on the candle, which I added to the candle as part of the packaging to go with the label so the label doesn't damage the candle. I do want to add the tree onto the candle somehow, so it's engraved into the candle to show that it is a Mulberry candle when the label is not on it. I don't want it to look like a sticker as this is not what an expensive shop would do. 

Here I used the emboss that is on the logo however this didn't work as it looks like the logo is coming out of the candle instead of going in like an imprint and this is what I wanted. I also was playing around with the colours. 

Here I changed the setting which has made the imprint much better and it looks how I wanted as well. Like I said before I wanted to have something that people could recognise that it is a Mulberry brand without having the logo on the candle, so I thought this was a good way to show the brand.

Here again playing around with the colour scheme. However I think the colours that are the opposite doesn't work as well as the logo being the same colour as the candle as I think it looks to busy.

Could do both?

Try playing around with the logo size on the candle maybe a touch smaller?

1

2

3

I thought the first candle I did the logo was a bit to big so I wanted to test other sizes, I like look number 1 simply because I think the this isn't to big and just looks sutler on the candle then a massive tree.
Another thing I wanna change is the shading on the purple tree as I don't think it works as well as the white candle, so maybe use a purple?

Here is the fixed logo on the candle which is much better than the other design, I think this blends in more with the candle similar to the white candle. These could work separately or as a set. 

Here are the different size's of the candle's, like I said before I wanted to have a range of size's as people make candle arrangement's to look good in area's of there houses.

As it's essences of mulberry I like the idea of the candle's smelling like fruit especially the Mulberry fruit as this would smell sweat. 

Logo Change!

After bringing all my products together I looked at the logo again simply to see if I changing the position a bit on the products could improve the way we look at them. When I looked at them altogether I thought the logo was positioned in the centre and in your face which I want but I think moving them up a bit will just improve them that bit more. 

Here you can see that I have moved the word i.e Foot cream to the edge of where the e and m start, I did this for all the products. I asked people in my class and I feel that the logo and the extra word looks to bulky together like this and works much nicer being in the centre of the word but having the logo moved up a bit works really well and flows with the product. 

Another point is to make sure that the extra word is positioned in the same place for all the products. 

Here you can see the changes I have made I have made the word more central, I have also made sure that all are the same. I also have made the change of the logo and extra word moved up a bit more as to not have it so centred on the product. 

Which has made the products seem like I haven't just simply placed the logo centred, I wanted to have the logo that is more align with your eyes, I think this is better to read. 

I might look back at the packaging again and how I have placed the logo?

For the packaging I wanted to see what it would look like with the logo moved like I did with the products. Just to see if it improves the look or make it worse. 

Here I have moved the logo up so it's not as centred however this isn't good it doesn't work as well as I thought, however I could move it slightly so it's off centred?

The logo off centred a touch and I think this is much better than my previous design with the logo to far up. I think this is just easier to read overall. Plus this is different than product packaging where other information goes, this is just a simple box for the products to go in. 

Logo on the label 

I then looked at the position of the logo on the label, I think this could be moved slightly so it's not as far up it needs to be moved down a bit to match the off centre look.

The first design

The new position

This is the shading I have added to the products to give it a finishing touch, I wanted to do this as I wanted to show this in my presentation as it brings a professional feel to it.

I moved the shading closer to the product so the reflection looks more realistic.