Cath Kidston - Prints

 We finally printed out our pattern designs to see how they worked in a printed format. The colours were great and the illustrations were crisp and full of detail. Overall we were really happy with tthe outcome. The colour ways work well together and the design definitely fits in with the Cath Kidston brand. We have created a design which appeals to the target audience and fits in with the description of what they were looking for.

 Red & Blue Back Ground

Purple & Green Background

Blue & Blue Background

 

Cath Kidston Product Mock Ups

One of the other requirements of the brief was to show the pattern in context. This needed to be shown across 3 of the product categories: Women’s Fashion, Women’s Accessories and Home. With this in mind we search the Kidston website to find some relevant products which they have for sale. We then applied the different pattern designs to various products. This confirmed that the patterns worked well with real life products. We were really happy with how the products looked and could definitely see these items in a Cath Kidston store along side the rest of their goods. Our pattern design is in tun with Kidstons Ethos and also design style. You can tell it fits in with the existing designs but also has a slightly more refined modern twist. The different colour schemes work well with the products and there is definitely consistency.

Mock Ups

Accessories

Iphone Case Blue

Iphone Case Blue

Laptop Case

Home

 

Pillow

 

Apron

Poster

Wall Paper

Chopping Board

Fashion

 

Skirt

 

T-Shirt

 

Cath Kidston - Creating the Pattern / Colour Ways

Once we had both assessed our illustrations together we whittled out the weaker ones leaving these above elements. At this point we were happy with how the illustrations sat together as a set. The illustrations are consistent and fit in with the Cath Kidston brand. The imagery is appealing to the target audience and references vintage baking which is also a direct relations to the Kidston brand which bases allot of their products around this theme.

To create the pattern we drew out a diagonal cross sectional grid to work with. This helped to link all the illustrations together without it looking too structured like a column and row grid. We arranged the various elements in the boxes until we had an arrangement which flowed as one and looked visually engaging. The Illustrations still needed linking more so as the negative space made the elements stand off the paper. From looking at pattern design books, we came across a few which had interesting back grounds as seen in the research. We decided to illustrate a flour like pattern which linked the images together and filled up the negative space creating a uniformed design. This also helps to reference the busy baking table look we had envisaged. We have created a sea of baked goods & vintage utensils inspired by British Baking.

Stepped Out Version

One of the requirements on the brief was to show the stepped out pattern which is basically the section which is repeated to create the rest of the pattern.

Colour Ways

 Another one of the requirements of the brief was to present the design in 3 different colour ways we tested several different alternatives but finally settled on these three. These colour ways lent themselves to the elements in the design. The 3 different colour schemes suit the cakes well, referencing different fruits, for instance the jam could be strawberry, raspberry or blue berry. The colour ways are quite different but all work really well with the products.

Blue

 Purple

 Red

Cath Kidston - Digitizing the Designs

After we had both drawn out all the elements we chose which ones worked the best and started to digitize them using illustrator. To do this we scanned in the illustrations making sure the resolution was turned up and then live traced the designs, from here we used the paint bucket tool to fill in the sections colouring in the tonal differences, we started off using a quite realistic colour scheme making sure all the colours were global so that we could easily experiment with the colour scheme.

Here are the designs I digitized.

 

Upside down cake didn't seem to work very well and looked unrecognizable. The colours didn't work very well here as there wasn't enough tonal differences.

Cherry Bakewell

 

 Chelsea Buns

Carrot Cake

 

Victorian Sponge

 

Scones

 

Vintage Butter and Knife

 

 Rolling Pin

 

 Jam

 

Pot of Utensils

 

Flour Pot Development

 

 Vanilla Slice

Digitized Versions

Pattern Composition Idea

 

Here is an idea of how the pattern might be laid out, arranging the elements in this diagonal cross like grid makes the arrangement much more interesting and helps to let the elements flow as one. A square grid format would make the pattern look too structured. This way the pattern is more irregular. I think we should link the gaps with with a flour pattern which inter links all the different 'scenes' creating the effect of a busy table covered in making equipment linked in by the flour. I definitely think a blue background worked well to compliment the other colours.

Cath Kidston Illustrations

Once we had all of our reference material we then went away and each drew up the cakes. This took ages as the illustrations were quite detailed. From testing different methods we decided the best method was to print out the various cakes & utensils and trace over the top just picking up the tonal changes to the create the above images. We found this design style was in tune with the existing brand guidelines creating that almost painted like aesthetic. Our designs were a bit more refined than the original Kidston prints which also fits in with the fresh new take they are looking for. Here are some of the illustrations I did:

Illustrations

 Flour Pots

 Carrot Cake

 Vanilla Slice

 Upside Down Cake

 Utensils

 Rolling Pin

 Original Scone

Rework Scone - Needed more detail to fit with other designs

Jam

 Victorian Sponge Cake

 Chelsea Buns

Vintage Scales