My moodboards I suppose have been something I have been avoiding, the dread of looking back at them knowing they influence a totally different set of patterns that I originally made. I opened them up a few days ago and they have just been sat in my Photoshop workspace while I do other work around them, but today was finally the day to get them sorted!
These are my old moodboards, the feedback on them was that the layout should be more stylised and with a more uniform border. I didn’t really understand the feedback, as I wanted to avoid the plain nine image moodboards I did in previous years, but I do think after looking back at them they are too busy and disjointed, with a lot of different shapes going on. I think by trying to make them too dynamic they have just become too busy and crowded.
I began with the theme board, after adapting my patterns I realised that colourful leaves became a bigger part of it than before so I wanted to reflect this, and still show the three different creatures that I wanted to focus the collection on.
My colour palette was one big change I made since the last feedback, which was now more of a green, pink and yellow which I think has worked much better than the old one. This reflects the idea of the texture used in the soil and what the insects can leave behind as they move through it, as well as the texture found in the actual insects and the leaves.
My competitors have stayed the same, I think these four companies I looked into do reflect exactly what I want my own patterns to portray and target the same kind of age range that I am aiming for myself, which will be covered next. I wish I had had the chance to go into the actual stores of these competitors to look around properly, it would have given me a much better idea at how they place sets and designs together too to show the co-ordination of them, something I have seen especially in Paperchase before.
The customer profile actually changed once before, from aiming the designs towards children, to more of the age range their young mothers would be. The board contains the same photos basically just in this new simpler layout which I think works better.
The occasion board again is more simple but clearly showing the idea of birthdays that I am trying to portray. While probably the most common occasion that requires presents and wrapping paper other than Christmas, I see this as an advantage in the way that it is a wide market, whereas something more specialised like Valentines, or Easter, would probably have the same amount of designs for the short period but not as many would be buying them.
Tahlia Paige 