Rachel Horrocks - The Story So Far...

October 2009 - latest entry:

What catches your eye? - Thursday, October 28th

Packaging is an incredibly important tool in selling any product. Well-designed packaging aimed at the right buyer can make the difference between a successful and a not so successful product.

Here is an example of a company that take everyday medical products and give them a new lease of life through intelligently designed packaging. This expands the sales potential through targeting the gift market:

The role of packaging is to project a lifestyle that your target buyer desires as well as to communicate almost immediately what the product is, what it does and how you use it - giving people an instant vision of why they should buy it and how it fits into their lifestyle.

In my case I need buyers to see it as something beautiful that will enhance their surroundings, to know how to use it and to want to take it home and start creating their own designs.

To do this effectively I've decided to hire a branding and packaging company. Over the past few months I have been researching and speaking to various companies in and around Bristol.

As I have no experience of contracting design work but wanted to ensure that I got the best service I could within my budget, I decided to seek advice before making a final decision.

Through the South West Design Programme I met Lynne Elvins, one of the design mentors, she helps businesses use design and designers in ways that develop the overall business. This programme is also connected to the national Designing Demand initiative developed by the Design Council.

Lynne's experience and knowledge of working with designers, gave me the confidence to know what questions to ask and realistically what to expect for my budget. As a result, I now have a packaging designer that is right for the project and fits with my company.

Clare Devonport is a freelance senior designer with 7 years commercial design experience. She worked in a larger company for 6 years and is currently establishing her own design company, 'Raconteur Design'. Clare has worked with a varied range of companies such as Farley's, Waitrose, Airwick and Clearasil.

Describing her approach Clare said: "I strive to create meaningful design that tells a story. I believe that a powerful story sits at the heart of every business and it is the role of design to tell that story in an engaging and honest way".

Some of the projects Clare has been involved in for corporate identity and branding

This is so close to the way I feel about design that we agreed to work on a collaborative arrangement - it's already working well because we are both creatively driven.

Clare asked me to send her images that inspire me and here are some mood boards that I produced to help her share a sense of the style I want to achieve. If you are thinking about packaging why not try this for yourself, it's a great way of visualising your style...

One of my mood boards

Trade shows - how important are they? - Monday, October 5th

As mentioned in my previous blog, I have been getting ready for a few small trade shows. I followed Norris Myers, a UKTI advisor's tips about being prepared and it really paid off. The local Arts Trail was a good dry run for the Cardiff Design Festival and it helped me with my market research into where certain items sell best and to what type of buyer.

I discovered that the brooches sold well in this type of setting as they are clearly identifiable as accessories and in the right price bracket for an impulse buy. So, I decided to make more in time for selling at the festival the following week.

As I am building up to exhibiting at a large trade show I decided to take some advice from my friend Colin Murtagh, the founder of GardenViz. He recently exhibited at Glee 2009 a major trade show for the gardening and horticulture market.

My stand at Wonderculture

Colin's stand at Glee

Colin has been trading for 18 months and has already benefited from a having a presence at various trade shows. Garden Viz is a company that designs, produces and markets innovative recycling garden products. Colin's advice was very encouraging:

"Personally, I think trade shows can be a great experience and provide an excellent opportunity for testing new ideas, checking out competitors, networking and just getting yourself out there. If we sit in the office on the computer, then we are limited with regard to the amount of buyers that we can contact.

By exhibiting or going to a trade show you are able to meet key people to talk to about you business or ideas, who are often more open, in contrast to the closed door attitude that we all come across when trying to contact a buyer for the first time either by phone or email. Try it for yourselves and you will see!"

I learnt a lot about how I promote and sell my products and the next key steps I need to take to get my packaging and presentation right for attending major trade shows in the future.

My priorities for the next few weeks are to concentrate on my promotional material for the wall decor products to include photographs that demonstrate the range of applications in domestic settings and ideas for people to use in their own home.

In my next blog I will update you on how I get on with developing brochures and packaging for my range of products. My next exhibition will be Art Presence held at the Centrespace Gallery from 26th November until the end of December.