Cath Kidston - Bulldog Research

British bulldog.
When reading the Cath Kidston brief I started to think about my target audience, the kind of person she is and what kind of things she would buy. I came to looking into Britain, and why Britain is distinctive, which lead me to looking at the British Bulldog.

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I started by looking into the British Bulldog and seeing how it is presented, so I can get idea about how I would create and present a surface pattern about British Bulldogs.

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I found a lot of bulldogs with the union jack background, this is something I will try to do. I could maybe create an illustration of a bulldog and place some sort of union jack in the background. I think it sends a stronger message of being British using the colours of the union jack.

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A lot of the illustrations that I have found of Bulldogs give the impression that Bulldogs are aggressive and scary, where as they are actually really cute and harmless. I want to portray the Bulldogs in a different light when it comes to doing my illustrations.

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I really like this illustration, I like the aesthetic of it and the colours that have been used. I think this has maybe been created with a tablet, and this is something I want to learn how to use and do, although for this brief I don't think it will be appropriate.

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This is the sort of aesthetic I am wanting to have when I produce my illustrations, I am wanting them to be vector illustrations, but slightly more detail than this one.

This would make a good screen print which is why I like this illustration. It is also using minimal colours, and as I have a limit of 12 colours I need to be careful of using too many colours in my design. This bulldog is very life like and real, it isn't too much like a cartoon, but also not too detailed that in makes it look scary as other illustration have.

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This is also another illustration which I think would work well, although I think that there needs to be more of an outline or detail, as here isn't a lot of definition and the neck and legs blend into the rest of the body. Although I think it works really in this design as its very innocent and childlike.

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This illustration look very professional and is very aesthetically pleasing. Although it works really well using the negative space and the facials features defining where the head is, I don;t think it would be appropriate for the Cath Kidston Breif.

From this research I have looked at many different types of illustrations of bulldogs to narrow down what I want to do, and how it will look. I have decided that I want the illustration to be a vector drawing, using minimal colours. I also want it to be quite detailed so that the audience can see where one thing stops, and something else begins.

Cath Kidston Research

Cath Kidston Prints.
I like Cath Kidston and do buy their products occasionally, although I thought that I would look through the current Cath Kidston surface patterns so that I can see the current aesthetic of the designs. The brief stated that they want to keep the print the similar to the current style of their prints, therefore I need to follow a similar aesthetic. The brief is asking for a very specific audience 'but not too specific', what I got out from the brief was that they are looking for something to do with being British, and moving away from the same designs that have already been produced.

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This is one of my favourite prints made by Cath Kidston, I think the detail in the print makes it most effective. This is why I think that I should include a lot more detail in the illustration than I usually would. The colours that have been used compliment each other really well, they are quite muted colours yet the illustrations stand out really well.

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The classic floral print is a very traditional print that Cath Kidston will always be really successful with, and something that stands the test of time with Cath Kidston. It is something that I am going to move away from in my design because it has been done over and over again, and I think it would be better to move away from repeating what they have already done.

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This print has been created in a different way to the other flower print. It is made up of more block colours and more vibrant colours. This is different because of the birds in the design, although I think that I would like to move even further away from the floral theme by not including it at all.

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This is a very good example of a British print, it is showing everything that is stereotypically British. This is something that I am aiming to do, I want people to look at my design and think about Britain. The illustrations have been done really well, it is clear what each thing is.

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What I like about this design is how it is brighter than the rest of the designs that Cath Kidston do. A lot of the other prints use quite muted and neutral colours, which I think works well but I also think that it is good to have a range of different styles. The repeated pattern uses four different main illustrations and smaller illustrations running through it, this makes the print flow better.

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This print also includes different illustrations and steps them out. This is something I need to consider when making my print, how they are all going to link together to create a repeated pattern, as the current prints works really well.

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Cath Kidston is animal friendly, as I have seen that there are a few prints that have animals in them. The target audience that the brief gives communicated to me that she is an animal friendly person, therefore this would work well for their audience. Although some of the colours used in this print aren't accurate for the animals, I think that they work well together.