The moodboards are an important part of the process as they should reflect the module and the work I am aiming to complete. For this module, I have done a theme board, a colour board, a customer profile and a competitors board.
The theme here shows the final four woodland creatures I decided on for focus in my collection, after a lot of research narrowing down the animals. I thought these four are reflective of what I want to achieve in this module, raising awareness through my designs and forming a start to what would be a much larger collection in the future, if I was to expand into other endangered or declining animal species. I live very rural in Mid Wales, hedgehogs are well-known in the garden and we are in the buffer zone for the Mid Wales Red Squirrel’s project, meaning greys are controlled in the area to keep them out of the safe Red Squirrel zone. I also see hares if I venture towards the mountains a little, with the restrictions at the minute I cannot go far, but I do go up that way looking for eggs instead of going to a shop. The Dormouse is the only one that I have not had a personal link to, although where I used to live, near Pontypridd, in recent years had a new bypass built through a countryside area, little bridges were built across the road, costing thousands. They are designed for Dormice to get about cross the new roads safely as they prefer to stay up in the trees anyway.
My theme board also represents the woodland area they live in, as well as some of the plants and things that inspired me. I think it’s important to include some of the habitat, the things they eat and the things they encounter on a daily basis as this could also educate what plants and things could help encourage them in your own garden.
The colour board is an idea of the colours I want to use, a lot of them will be more natural based on the colouring of the animals, which will be a range of browns, oranges and creams, as well as the greens and pinks inspired by leaves and berries. I thought the texture of the animals is interesting too, the hedgehog is totally different to the hare, and with the leaves, the texture of them as a collective is different to the texture of the veins on an individual one. These colours need to be experimented with in my drawing books, making sure the creatures can contrast with the rest of the motifs enough too.
The customer profile describes the idea of the person I am aiming this collection at, the idea is a young professional, around 30 – 35 years old and female, with a steady job, who enjoys the countryside and may be familiar with some of these creatures. The profile also describes an artistic person, working in a creative related job, who enjoys gardening and fitness in her spare time. I imagine my customer would have disposable income, so the types of products I want to produce would be something they would buy for themselves or as gifts for friends, as giftware and lifestyle is the category I would define my work as fitting into.
My competitors I have wrote in depth about in my research file, but by using a range of companies, from small home-run Etsy stores, to established companies with a store front, I found something in each that I wanted my designs to reflect too. Illustrate produces a range of styles and designs from a number of artists, most of which focus on animals, Etsy store Beverly Fisher Studios produces small products that I would like to design for too, and even has done some of the animals that I want to focus on, such as the red squirrel. Purrfectly Woofly is based on dogs, but I think the patterns work well, combining realistic colouring for the dogs and more contrasting bright colours around it, she also designs for exciting giftware products. Alice Caroline caught my eye because of bold patterns, she also produces a range of products, such as beauty and bathroom products, inspired by florals which I really like.
Tahlia Paige 