The Range Plan pt. 2

Visual Range Plan:

For my visual range plan, I began by creating a mind map of different product categories within “clothing” listed on Gucci’s website, in order to begin to narrow down which merchandise category I wanted to use. I knew from the beginning I wanted to do garments and not accessories, (although Gucci is commercially very well known for their accessories), as I wanted a broader breadth of knowledge from Toolbox, where we primarily looked at bags. From this, I came to dresses, skirts, jackets, tops and shirts and coats and also listed the subcategories within these product areas. I then looked back at my customer profile and decided that outerwear would be a good choice of range for them, as they are located in London and felt my artist x brand collaboration would come out better on outerwear.

I chose jackets as my category as I felt I could understand the price points of the different sub-categories well and also felt I could work better with the CAD designs for these.

I created my initial range model on Illustrator, using techniques I had learnt in our Adobe classes to construct a diamond model which I felt best reflected the percentages of certain stock within my brand, informed by the merchandise activity we did during our business week, (with leading-edge and core items being fewer than fashion-forward). I also used some of the shape techniques we learnt in our Adobe sessions to create a red and green stripe wave in the background of my visual range plan, as it added some aesthetic and gave a nice nod to my brand’s house colours.

My price points were informed by the prices of the jackets on the Gucci website, with the types of jackets also being informed similarly. I then looked at the correlation between the subcategories of jackets and price points to determine where I wanted the different pieces to sit on the model. I placed jacket categories into ranges beforehand and found vests were less expensive, and leather jackets the most expensive, so I divided my range that way with blazers and down jackets falling in between.

I then moved to Photoshop to edit colour onto my CAD’s that I sourced from the WGSN templates. I felt more comfortable using Photoshop to add colour rather than Illustrator as I’m still quite new to using Illustrator. Initially, I was quite stuck with how the CAD designs should look and what colours/ designs to use. I tested some artist work on it, and after reviewing the examples we were given during class, I created some pieces in solid block colours, stemming from the artworks I was using for the designs. These solid colour CAD’s would end up in my core range to reflect the entry-level price point.

For the designs that begin in the fashion range, I used Ruscha’s artworks within them. Specifically, I used Start Over Please, Girls, Pay Nothing Until April and HONK.

HONK (1962)
Pay Nothing Until April (2003)
Start Over Please (2015)
Girls (1982)

After completing my CAD drawings, I made the decision to change my visual range plan from portrait to landscape, in order to accommodate for the CADs. I also created a Gucci x Ed Ruscha signature using Photoshop, to add to my plan and eventually also my mood board. Visually, I wanted to make sure my plan was balanced, however, I’m still quite unsure about the colour match of the range model and the clothing items, as I feel that they clash too much and don’t particularly link very well. This is definitely subject to change before the formative hand-in.

Overall, I really enjoyed the process of putting this visual range plan together, as I’ve never done something like this before and never properly looked into this side of fashion business. It’s definitely been quite enlightening to learn about the way a range plan can affect the stock of a retailer and how these models are used within brands. In all, I think my plan effectively displays elements of colour and shape that link my brand and artist and I’m quite happy with it so far.

Mood Board:

For the last major part of these mini business presentation pages, we were tasked to create a mood board that reflected our brand. Before jumping straight in, I actually decided to do some fabric research using materials from WGSN to add more depth and meaning to my board, as well as to generally deepen my knowledge of material trends that are currently in fashion. Through doing this, I discovered many of the newest trends focus on sustainability and eco-friendly alternatives to classic materials and also focus on reusing textile waste. From this, I ended up using images of recycled woven textiles and nylon in my mood board.

In conjunction with this, I also used images to create an aesthetic for my range which included a mix of art, makeup and aesthetics. I also embodied lots of colour, which can also be seen in my colour palette. Although my palette lacks a tonal range, I find its focus on bold primary colours is evident within my range plan.

While I don’t mind the outcome of this mood board, I am definitely open to developing it further. I feel I could have included more brand and artist images and also have room to meddle with the colours and aesthetic a bit more to give my board more direction and allow it to align further with my range plan.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed completing these business SDS tasks and feel I’ve benefitted a lot from learning how to create a range plan, to the extra research I had to do in order to finish these tasks. Going forward, I would like to continue to develop my pages through feedback and more research, as well as build upon my business knowledge, as well as work on my presentation skills. I feel through doing the business SDS, I can definitely see a huge improvement in my presentation and layout skills, which I feel can be largely attributed to our Adobe sessions this term, that I’m quite pleased with.

Before the formative submission, I’d like to take some time to look over my business pages and make some slight alterations to them based on feedback given to me from Sarah, as well as put together my 6 research pages that will go alongside this, although I do have in mind what these pages will be.

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