Whilst designing a brand design concept for Caramel Designs, as usual my imagination ran away with me during the design process.

Caramel Designs are a unique accessories retailer- most of their products are hand made originals created from vintage fabrics.

As the first stage of any brand design project, I designed the logo first which aims to convey the concept that products so unique and original, can only really be special gift to oneself or to the person you are buying for. Logo shown below.

Establishing Brand Position In The Market
The product pricing is on the higher side compared to your standard high street fashion accessories retailer and therefore the brand image needs to strongly indicate that these products are not the same as your standard high street retailer - they are special, they are a ‘treat’ - and because of this the pricing is fully acceptable, and if anything an indication of their unique status.

Whilst my mind went off a wandering about the concept of the products being a ’special purchase’ I also mocked up the following potential ideas for flyers/adverts etc……

I hope you can see what I was thinking in terms of driving home to the consumer that the products are a special treat.

One set of imagery is playful and funky (Oooo what a treat), and the other is more serious and is based on Christmas (or even Mothers Day) marketing, and yet still hammers home the point that these items are something special.

Concept Behind The Logo
As far as the logo is concerned, the dotted outline of the gift box also intends to remind the viewer of a diamond - the symbol of something;

- precious
- rare
- exclusive

In addition the ’stitching’ of the box outline helps to remind consumers of the ‘hand made/original’ nature of the products.

I feel without this firm marketing distinction for their image, the brand would struggle to convince customers that it’s worth paying a little bit extra for a similar purse you might purchase in New Look for instance!

It should be mission of Caramel Designs, with the help of their newly established brand image, to ensure their customers realise that what they are offering is unique hand made vintage items that you just can’t acquire from the standard high street cookie cutter retailer.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 at 8:39 pm and is filed under Design Projects, Thoughts on Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.