Customer Profile

I have also created a customer profile for my brand, which defines my target market and who I an aiming my products towards.

The B Boutique customer is young at heart and typically aged between 18 – 30 years old. She is an avid High Street shopper, who welcomes refreshing and exclusive printed designs. She has a strong attraction to colour and embraces print design as an expression of her personality, by making confident purchases from the B Boutique collection.

Mission Statement

I have written a mission statement for my B Boutique brand, as a way of defining and clearly placing my brand in the fashion market.

B Boutique is a brand that brings individual and fashion-forward prints to the high street customer, within wearable and accessible designs. B Boutique offers a fresh and fun collection of printed fashion pieces for the customer who embraces bold colour and statement prints.

Pattern, print and colour are key features to B Boutique and each print is uniquely designed and exclusive to B Boutique. The quality of fabrics and use of the latest digital printing technology places B Boutique at slightly higher price points than other High Street brands, creating a more aspirational boutique brand.

Final top designs

As you may notice, my final top designs have changed direction from my development as they don't have any panels! The reasoning behind this decision and the selection of my final top designs includes several factors.

Since developing the panelled top designs, I have received my print samples back from Fabpad. I was really impressed with the quality and overall look of the prints and realised it would be quite a challenge to choose just several of them to be used in my finished garments. Initially I was worried that my prints may be too overpowering for a whole garment, however having seen them translated onto fabric and also with guidance from my tutors I have decided to take more of a creative risk by making my prints an all over design, which actually shows them off to a better effect. I also discovered that making tops with curved panels may be quite a challenge for an amateur maker like myself; therefore the panel idea has been abandoned.

To get around the fact of only being able to use a small selection of prints in a four top range, I was given the idea of having several prints combined on one garment. Initially I had my reservations about this, as I thought it might be overkill and would take the prints out of my safe comfort zone and make them less appealing to my target audience. However, I have decided that I need to challenge this idea and so have created a chequered and striped print using a mish mash of several prints, which achieves a more innovative and creative print statement. I have also used a large scale print and placement print for the other two tops as they add variation and give a balance to the range of printed top designs. 

Final logo design

After getting feedback from a number of people that are within my brand's target audience, I have decided to go with this design as my final B Boutique logo. From listening to people's opinions, I chose this design as it creates a strong statement with the bold use of text which is easy to read and recognise, either from a distance or close up. I also prefer the clean lines of this logo and the block colours create a simplistic and sharp, fashionable aesthetic.

Brand logo experiments

Now that I have my brand name, B Boutique, I need to create a logo to represent my brand's name and identity. Here are variety of experiments I have tried using different fonts and typography layouts. I have decided to stick with the same colour palette as my print range to create cohesion and I have also incorporated some of my prints into the actual text of the logo. Overall, I like how the emphasis of these logos is on the B, however I am aware not to loose the Boutique within the logo.

Branding: Brand name

Now that my prints are taking shape, I need to focus on the identity of my fashion prints and products by creating a brand that they can be recognised and established through. I have already established through my learning agreement that I want to aim my print range at the younger, contemporary end of the high street market, therefore I need to create a brand which reflects this and also expresses my identity as a print designer.
First things first, I need to create a name for my brand. Alot of print designers just use their name as their brand identity, however I feel this is quite boring and unimaginative. However, I have decided to keep an element of my name within my brand name, as a way of representing myself. I am often nicknamed 'B' by my friends and thought this could be a good starting point for a brand name as it also has the double meaning, 'Be' which could be the first part of a statement for something. This is a list of names I came up with:

• B spirit
• B unique
• B appeal
• B seen
• B wear
• B fresh
• B something

I like the statement these name make, however I don't feel they really relate or connect to my fashion brand. After going back to the drawing board, I have decided to go with the name, 'B Boutique'. I feel this name encompasses me and my fashion brand, as it stands for both, 'Beth's Boutique' but also, 'Be Boutique' a statement promoting the identity of my small unique and specialised range of fashion prints and products.

Panelled tops development

Since confirming my final colour palette and print range, I have started concentrating on developing my products, in particular the use of panels within the designs. I have decided to focus on a collection of printed panelled tops as my final outcome. I have come to this decision based on the fact that I am going to have to make my garments using my very limited knowledge and skill of garment construction. I feel a range of tops is the easiest place to start and is also a popular and fitting garment to display my prints, as a simple garment design wont distract from the overall print. These experiments show a variety of panel and print combinations, and will aid my decision in choosing which prints/panels work best together and should be taken forward to the final product range.