D.I.G

Global Sourcing- showing a journey of my developing niche brand

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|SHOP LAYOUT|

Myself and Alix decided to research and discuss options of our shop layout, we have pinned a number of examples through our pinterest. The main feature we felt was appropriate for our store was to have featured construction elements throughout along with exposed brick/raw finishing. We discussed the idea of hanging garments from scaffolding, or poling. We also wanted large mirrors leaning against the wall. It was discussed to possibly have a center piece feature, such as a machine from the work industry. Maybe some tools?

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|SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION AND ADVERTISEMENT|

Myself and Alice have created a Facebook page which will promote our brand through social media, enabling us to gain a wider audience online. 

I also set up an Instagram page, as I came up with the idea of featuring a ‘women of the week’ post, along with brand concepts/inspiration. The posts will feature past and present images of women working within the labour industry. Alix has also posted on instagram.

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|DESIGN AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT|

During the lecture we discussed how designers work in the industry. We went over the prediction of the sales of a company, and how they might work. Our brand can compare ourselves with other failing companies by asking what sells well and what doesn’t? Its also really important to interview consumers and ask what they like and don’t. This provides an understanding of what to do differently.

We have sent out images of our first collection to people in the workwear industry, this enabled us to gain feedback meaning we know exactly what they are looking for and what to improve in the future. 

It is vital to see what other competitors charge for their products, therefore we get an idea on how much people are willing to spend. For example Snickers workwear garments range from £50 through to £200. As our pieces are designed to be durable and worn for a long time the price range will probably be quite similar to this as they aren’t part of “fast fashion”.

We also discussed that it is important to make sure our products can be produced at a relatively low price so that we can produce a lot of them realistically and not sell them at too high a price point. The price range estimation for our garments are as follows; £30 for the tops, £60 for the jackets and trousers and £80 for the jumpsuits. This places us as a strong competitor on the designer workwear sector as we come in under snickers prices. 

We were also told to create a collection consisting of our brands pieces which will consist of our capsule collection that would feature online and in store. 

LIST ~ TOP, COAT , TROUSERS, OVERALLS, JUMPSUIT, THERMAL T- SHIRT, SHORTS-LONGER POCKETS, ATTACHMENTS, JACKET, HIGH VIS, TURTLE NECKS.

This session enabled us to discovered how to stagger a collection with high price to low/budget priced items so that it appeals to a wider audience. An example such as our turtle neck tops appealing to a wider audience resulting in them being sold more often as they are cheaper and less specifically to a workwear job. However our jumpsuits and overalls are a higher price and very job specific. It is important to create this balance throughout our brand so that we make as much profit as possible. We have discussed within our business plan about later on having a higher end selection off garments which are more fashion related. However this is once our brand evolves and becomes well know.

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|CONSUMER PROFILE|

During today’s session we went through what makes a consumer and how our brand will to get to know them. However we first discussed the difference between a consumer and a customer.

consumer- a consumer is the end user of the product

customer- person who buys the product (can be the same as consumer)

This is a crucial area to know as the product could be aimed at the consumer but only the customer can buy it eg - childrens wear.

 It is important to know our consumer in order to create a well branded product that appeal to a target audience. There are many different tribes of consumer who can be segmented into like minded groups. Our brand is aimed towards like-minded women in the same type of profession and it is important that we recognise their needs.  

During the session we answered a number of questions, to gain a clearer idea of our consumer/customer, the questions are as followed -

-what do they buy? -workwear clothes and tools

-why do they buy? - for their jobs and hobbies

-where do they shop? - Carhartt, Wickes, B&Q, Levis, Diesel,

-how do they buy? - instore and online

-when do they buy? - not that often s the clothes last long

01/02/16 Consumer Profile Continued

1. Demographic Variables- Age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, social status etc…

2. Physiographic Lifestyle- Buying motives, attitudes, opinions, interests etc..

3.Geographic Variables- Region, location, house type, city size, climate etc…

4. Usage & Benefit Variables- Benefits, usage rates, brand loyalty, price etc…

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Zine layout inspiration ~  I like the idea of producing a mature and sophisticated layout. As  feel our brand does currently appeal to mature customers. I think its necessary to keep images and wording clean as this creates a stylish yet easy to read zine.

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| SKETCH UP SHOP LAYOUT|

As Sophie was shown how to use the software she has created a mock layout of our shop. 

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|PRODUCT PACKAGING|

Examples of our clothing tag, bag packaging and tissue paper.

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| BUSINESS CARDS |

There are two choices of business cards. I personally prefer the top example, however in general i think both are to girly. Although we are branded to cater for women I feel that the colours should have been toned down.

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| RESEARCH |

As we wanted first hand information from women who worked with in the manual labouring industry, we all individually asked others opinions and those who we knew who worked within this area. One of Sophie’s friends, also named Sophie works as a civil engineer and offered to voice her opinion.

“I chose to study civil engineering at university as it could be both hands on while also using my strongest subjects - maths and physics - and my creativity. I was employed by a large contractual engineering company while I studied and I set out roads and buildings and tested materials - which I am carrying out in the photos. I am now working for a smaller structural engineering company specialising in historic buildings. I will sometimes be in the office completing calculations for a design, but I will also often be on site working with a team on renovation projects or on my own carrying out structural surveys or taking measurements and information for my design work”

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|WEBSITE|

Alice and Imani worked together to create a mock design of our online website, using squarespace. The website features information such as ~ meet the team, mock of store layout, inspiration women of the week, ‘how to wear’ and moodboard inspiration. The site will also feature the photoshoot and designs later on.

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|DEVELOPMENT|

In this session my group developed our brand further by working on marketing and visuals. I firstly looked into the pricing of printing businesses cards, however to save cost our group decided we made the business cards our self. Alix and Ericka produced the business cards while me and Alice focused on organising the zine and thinking about layout. Sophie and Imani worked in the dye room, where they decorated overalls to be featured in our up coming photoshoot.

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A selection of examples showing how the line up could be featured within our zine and presentation. 

Sophie has created a subtle faded pastel toning as the background colour way.

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As Sophie had first done the designs in colour, herself and the group felt the needed to change. Sophie re-sketched the design ideas so they consisted off no colour, she then scanned them in, where she then used image trace on Illustrator, to create a more professional approach and also for the designs to not have no sketchy marks and blurred lines.

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@sewaub~ Here Sophie & Ericka have worked together using Photoshop to create our brands colour palette. However the group felt that this method didn't portray the image colour we were going for, we felt it made the designs look too cartoonish.

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@sewaub - Design ideas/illustrations which focus on paint detail showing the brands colour scheme. We like the idea of paint splatters being featured on some of the brands garments as it expresses the messy qualities of the labour career industry.