Examples of Clients projects
Customer Example 1
Outdoor Collection for Tog 24:
In 2006 we realized there was a place for “designer style level” private label Outdoor bags. Our research at this time showed that most retailers who had ‘private label’ bag collections were simply buying re-badged old styles by established mid market regional brands – such products only asset was their low price.
We had the insight to see was that if a retailer could offer a full size range of Outdoor backpacks with all the features, conviction and benefits of branded backpacks at a competitive price – then this could be a winning formula, giving the retailer higher margins and the customer good style and function for money.
Tog 24 were the first retailer to have the confidence and conviction to see this idea through to the shop shelves, and the Warp collection ( renamed ‘Quest’ and customized for Tog 24 with special swing tags etc ) was ordered. At the time of writing this these bags have now been selling for three years. Click for a picture of the full collection.
Customer Example 2
Women Specific Sports bags for sweatyBetty:
In 1999 the founder of Design IQ ( Guy Mathiot) observed that whenever he was asked by sports brands such as Puma to design sports kit bags and backpacks they would never accept his suggestion that they should let him design women specific sports bags.
Guy had a “designers insight” that there was a market for women’s sports bags. He felt that making a bag in pink was not the solution (!) – but that women had different demands and expectations of their sports equipment than men.
So he gave a project to one of his female team members to research the specific needs of women . The designs that Guy then did were taken by him to both retailers like Debenhams and brands such as USA Pro. They all liked the designs – but no deal was reached – so out of frustration he went ahead and sampled the designs ( over 6 samples for each style were made to just get one bag right!).
He then took them to show them to the founder of sweatyBetty who had one of the few women’s specific sports shop chains in the UK. They loved the designs and bought them and continued to repeat the orders in various sweatyBetty specific guises.
Customer Example 3:
Hamster Pannier Bags.
“Design, Develoment and supply of an innovative new product to help Mothers when shopping or traveling.”
In 2008 we were approached by an entrepreneur – Larissa Milanova, who had a clever idea for a bag to be used to carry shopping on a baby buggy.
We were asked to convert her concept and outline patent into a perfected design and secondly a functioning commercial product, then finally a delivered shipment of finished goods within a target price range.
So we researched the market for both competitor products and all possible methods of resolving the problem of “carrying shopping on a baby buggy without the buggy falling over when the child got out of the buggy”. The solution had to be packable, foldable, lightweight, durable and easy to use, and fit on a wide variety of baby buggy’s.
After a series of designs and then samples we perfected a product that we are proud to see has had rave reviews by Mothers, retailers and Mother and Baby where it won the Gold Award for “Best New Innovation” 2010/11.
Well done Larissa, we are proud to have been part of your brand Launch journey!
see: http://www.hamsterbags.co.uk/index.html
Summary:
These are just the examples of projects done for clients. They demonstrate how we identify market and consumer trends, and pro-actively work with clients to Design and Deliver attractive products for completelly different market areas, and that many of our designs are very commercial and sell well.