On the day of the crit involving students from other disciplines such as Animation and Illustration and head tutors, funnily enough it was a day the flowers in Leeds round Hyde Park had really started to bloom and some sun was out for once. I noticed people taking photos of them on their social media, members of the public sat in the grass taking photos next to the flowers and happy comments about the day. This proves the symbolism of bright colours and blooming flowers really do make a difference to peoples mind sets, and it represents feel good positivity and good vibes all round and takes minds off stress and worry at least for a moment whilst they are taking photographs etc.
On the day, I didn't know if my partner was going to come in as she felt very nauseous and unwell- but in the afternoon she came in so we had mutual support, which I was so grateful for! So far I believe we are working harmoniously as a team and parts just fit in place quite easily. With weeks off we are either meeting or sharing work and setting tasks over Facebook chat.
Therefore, bringing my finished patterns together and a variety of screenshotted inspirations from Instagram pattern artists along with Nanami's drawings and our possible quotations made me feel confident in what we were coming to create. As our subject and initial art is so bold and the quotes are there, explaining our idea was quite self explanatory. Explaining our target audience was important to lay down first as our work can seem quite unrefined and non serious at this stage, but this is part of how we both agreed to develop our work firsthand before digitalising.
Having my more finished patterns on the table definetley set the idea up before we spoke because they are so bright, which communicated our intentions very quickly which is an indication of a strong concept. The last two pieces were praised the most, my task in to digitalising is making sure our elements all fit together being legible and not too busy which could mean increasing the size of the patterns making them less dizzying.
First of all, describing that our greetings collection didnt have a specific occassion to be bought for, just bought out of the want to cheer up a loved one, it was pointed out there needs to be a reason for these to be bought as thats how it is in the greetings card industry with sales being so high on special days and essentially what keeps the industry afloat. Being for a mental health charity, animal charity, and being a royal mail campaign to send more post were all amazing suggestions which would be perfect for our intention to spread smiles and positivity to loved ones when they need it with going the extra mile of writing them a letter or sending them something in the certain wrapping paper/sending a notebook for their fresh start. Being for a charity or a campaign would accelerate the sales and matches these as it is a genuine intention sending one of our collection, rather than just sending a message on Facebook. We both agreed, as we both hoard cards with design we really enjoy, and myself even buying wrapping paper and putting up as posters as the design is so interesting, that these are cards/papers that the buyers wouldn't want to throw away and see as an art piece almost which is why we are working in the style we are.
It was also thought of just before the crit, when Nanami had come in and showed me her new additions of patches to her denim jacket that this is also a current trend which can make our collection different, with the animal on the front coming as a badge or a pin which is detachable leaving the positive quote on the bright patterns which works still on its own, and having the animal to wear. Animal patches are part of the trend, and very quirky feminine styled drawings like Nanami's fit perfectly in to this category. This was praised in feedback, but the challenge is how to create these which we will look in to. This would solve my worry of the design being too busy, if the animal is detachable they work together and seperately just as strongly and this is another reason to buy and send this as a gift with the positive message. This would only be on cards and notebooks, but our idea to transfer the animals as a repeat pattern on wrapping paper and bags works in theory too. These patches and pins are also often associated with feminism, which is positive awareness and teenage girls seeing this means this idea of equality being spread even more around younger people can only be a good thing.
This could be what sets us apart in the competition, and with our awareness of this sector of trending especially on Etsy shops and websites where Nanami buys hers from, we could really preach this to UK greetings with our evidence and this could be a new thing in the greetings card market, with our style of cards being to cheer a loved one up aswell, which can be needed at any time of the year, and this could make these collectibles even which is ideal for sales and can be a continuation which was agreed in feedback.
Feedback we got was as well as tie to a campaign or charity, more animals such as bees (everything will bee okay) and to look in to UK animals which we will do. Feedback was motivating and proves how it is so crucial.
How pins and patches are applied in womens wear- very popular underground art trend currently. Style promotes feminism which works hand in hand with our target audience and feel good intention meaning this can propell our collection
These cards will be a breath of fresh air in to the mainstream greetings market from UK Greetings, as being inspired by independent artists shops which have prints sold at fairs and etsy shops proves their success and we want to propell these amazing artistic styles in to the mainstream, as agreed in our group discussion, cards made on Moonpig or in general stores like Card factory, the ranges are quite predictable. My market research images were taken in more niche stores like Joy and Paperchase where there are more artistic styles in their sets, which are places we would aim for these to fit in to but be bold and stand out due to their strong patterns and feel good phrases which are humorous and cute. This is a current trend, a lot with cats and dogs, in which we decided to go for the animals we did. One of my questions in feedback was more suggestions on animals and phrases to fit our idea, and it was suggested as the company is 'UK' Greetings, use British animals or extinct/endangered animals and link to a charity to create an empathy for the audience which would encourage them to buy as it is for charities of the 'cute' animals represented which could boost our proposal and set us apart from other competitors.
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