Marc Ahr...

I really liked the Cath Kidston print below, I liked how crowded it was and I liked the watercolour incorporation of colour and the line/hand-drawn scenes on top- the use of a 4 shade colour scheme really cements it as a Cath Kidston print. I  plan on drawing visual style from this print. 

Because I liked the Style I did some research into artists that used a similar style in order to draw some inspiration. Although I am very conscious that I cannot deviate from the Kidston Style I also want to incorporate my own style within that in order to make it seem more original.

Marc Ahrs work really reminds me of the Postcard print- although the colours used mimic that of reality (green grass, blue skies, skin coloured people etc...) his work manipulates a fluid sense of colour and  neat outlines.  

I like the emphasis placed on shape through the use of careful outline and I really like how the crowd has been portrayed a sea of colour. The textural element of the brush strokes helps to frame the shapes but I think that texture should be kept to a minimum in my work because Kidstons work is very smooth.

The scene below is very smooth and neat. Bright colours dominate the bottom of the frame drawing the eye to the bottom of the piece before gradually softening as the eye is drawn upwards. I think that the faded line style is reminiscent of the postcard print and I definitely plan on manipulating the same hand drawn faded line styling within my own design.

Target Audience...

29 year old- British Women TA

Brief Requirements
"Fun, witty, interested, creative, optimistic and independent"


"She likes...
Making stuff... be it food for friends or cushions for her new sofa Going out... but she usually remembers how she got home these days
Festivals, car boots and vintage shopping
Going to an exhibition... followed by a bit of reality TV
The idea of country life... but not just yet
She is a modern British woman."



I extrapolated the following themes from the TA presented in the Kidston Brief:
Romantics- Downton Abbey, Mr Darcy, Love Stories, Reality TV.
Tea, Chocolate, Wellies, Festivals, Vintage Furniture, Birdcages, Birds, Lock/Key.

I looked into the Target Audience before starting any additional research- although I am convinced that my theme is suitable for the TA I wanted to fully justify it. I think that my chosen theme fits perfectly with the woman described in the brief.

Theme 2... Pride and Prejudice....

 One of the themes that I came up with was Pride and Prejudice, at the moment theres a huge audience for period dramas thanks to recent increasingly popular Tv series: Downton, Death Comes to Pemberly and Ripper Street. I think that the romanticised Pride and Prejudice theme would greatly apply to the 29 year old female target audience specified by Kidston in the brief. I also think that it would enable me to design in a manor that would allow me to really encapsulate her visual style. Class elegance (a requirement alluded to in the brief) thats not too mad and funky (my usual visual design style). Pride & Prejudice is also an iconic British classic so I think it would really allow me to cement the British theme.

 The Pride and Prejudice theme would allow me to incorporate a tea theme thats iconically British another important element of the Cath Kidston Brief although of course I would have to look into the teapots of the early 1800s period in order to preserve visual continuity.

Mr Darcy's house in Pemberly could provide a nice starting point- essentially it would help to generate a sense of location and is large enough design wise to become a main element. I could draw the house in the line style that Kidston employs in the London and London Guards prints which would really  help to clarify the Kidston style. The house itself would also create a nice self contained design that I could repeat at random. 

 I wanted to incorporate some kind of bird into the theme because bird designs are very vintage which relates to the current styles. I initially thought of a swan because swans relate to the queen and the royal family which is obviously British. However I felt that peacocks would be more visually attractive- theres a lot of peacock motifs in fashion at the moment- and the peacock itself has connotations of pride which refers back to Pride & Prejudice.

 Since Britain is known for bad weather I initially wanted to include some kind of umbrella before I realised that it wouldnt fit visually with the early 1800 time era- this then led me to parasols - a lacy umbrella used by respectable ladies in order to preserve the pale complexion associated with the rich. Although I wouldnt use the parasol as a main design I think I could integrate it as a smaller element that offsets the larger design aspects.

 Stamps and silhouettes are also aspects that I could introduce as smaller elements to really indicate a sense of story- Pride & Prejudice revolves around letters to it would be a nice reference to the story. As well as this stamps in my head also make me think of the Royal family which is iconically British.

Overall I am really excited about this theme I think it gives me a whole world to play with and would ensure that I didnt deviate from the Kidston style.

Themes Further Research ....

I  decided to further my conceptual research by looking into one of the themes that I have come up with so far. Since London landmarks have already been done - I opted to look into landmarks more affiliated with British landmarks.

 Stonehenge was one of the main landmarks that instantly came to mind, its iconic and the shapes are simplistic so they would be easy to draw and recreate in Illustrator. Since much of Kidston's work is shade based I could make the stones look really dramatic by using bold darker shades.  It would also work well as a self contained design due to the circular nature of the landmark itself.

 The white cliffs of Dover was another main landmark that came up when I researched the term British Landmarks. The cliffs would allow me to incorporate a seascape element but I'm not convinced on the originality of the design- Kidston has a lot of sea based prints and Im not sure if it would work well as a self contained pattern that repeats throughout.

Since I live in the South East The Long Man of Wilmington is a well known landmark, its self contained once again so it would work as a repeat and it would work well with Stonehenge the only issue that I can foresee is that its a line drawing and wouldn't require any of the Kidston shading.

 The white horse much like the Long Man of Wilmington is a chalk outline in the hills, I actually prefer the shape of the horse to the Long man its a lot thicker so its bolder and more fluid.

 Landend is another landmark investigated- I love the sign and think that it could work well as an element within a repeating tile, having said that the text element could be considered to busy on a print- it would also allow me to integrate a coastal element that wouldn't replicate the seascape prints already in the Kidston line.

Overall I think the landmark option is a viable idea/concept path but having said this I dont think it instantly screams 29 year woman which is the target audience so I plan to research a few of my other concepts before fully deciding. I also think that landmarks (although they are London landmarks) have been done so I'd worry about the originality of producing a landmark based print.

Initial Ideas/Thoughts...

Ideas for a concept- I don't want to do anything thats been done so a lot of the iconic british themed ideas are going to have to be disregarded.

So to include- 29year old female TA, British history/cultural roots, 40s influences in colour and style

Concepts I've come up with so far:

British Coast- light houses/boats- already been done, although there would be room to play in this area if I included a deck chair bad weather theme of some description. Mermaids and various sea creatures could be included within this somehow- as a part of British folklore.

Fairytales- would allow me a theme and give me something to work from- not necessarily British- would need to research.

Castles- already been done

Birds- coastal birds- Although birds have already been explored birds could be integrated into my design ideas and could help to keep the designs grounded in Kidston's theme.

Tea Pots-  Tea is inherently British- it would be good to include a teapot/teacup/teaparty of some description especially since I think it would really work in the Kidston style.

Morris Dancers- British country side- dark morris dancers - possibility although it needs to be looked into and would it appeal to the TA?

Stonehenge- An iconic british landmark that has yet to be explored- but there is little to draw around them and the shape of stone henge itself isn't exactly intricate and engaging (may not fit stylistically)

Pride & Prejudice/ Downton- At the moment period dramas are hugely popular particularly with middle aged women- there would be a theme that I could draw inspiration from and the time frame would also look iconically vintage- definitely my strongest theme to date

Conversational Print Cath Kidston Mood Board

After looking into the Cath Kidston conversational prints referenced in the brief I decided to make a mood board of all of the prints that I considered conversational within her range. 

Before doing so I looked up the term conversational print in order to ensure that I fully understood its definition:

 "Any print with a recognisable picture in it, like cats or dogs or fairies or toothbrushes–something you might strike up a conversation about, as in “hey, are those frogs with fishing rods on that fabric?"

To my mind this implied that there had to be a clear theme, a collection of images that conveyed a sense of story, that allowed the target audience to look at it and engage.  

Cath Kidston Conversational Prints...

The Cath Kidston brief specifies that any print created must be conversational. The examples of conversational prints given were: Garden Birds, Cowboys and the Guards of London so it made sense to look into these examples.

I prefer these prints to the generic Cath Kidston designs already looked into because theres more to look at, a sense of story that makes the prints more visually interesting and engaging. I'm not a massive fan of the garden birds option because unlike the cowboy design below there is only one form really in the pattern. Having said this the birds themselves design wise adhere to a more realistic style. The mix of colours used on the birds help to instigate a physicality and a softness that actually helps to create a sense of texture. 

The cowboys print is one of my favourites- although I'm not entirely sure how this references Britain (Britishness as a key inspirator to Kidstons prints). I like the face that theres more to look at, the horse running have a great sense of movement which is once again provided through shapes of colour. Even the faces remain incredibly colour shape based something to consider if I incorporate any people. I mostly really like the background details, the cactus's help to fill up the negative space and really exemplify the cowboy wild west theme of the print.

The Guards of London is probably my favourite out of all the Cath Kidston prints researched, I love the hints of red within the black and white detailed world (an aspect I plan on considering within my own design), I actually prefer the detail introduced through the buildings, complicated line drawings that are contradicted by the simplistic and bold shapes that create the guards.  Its important to note that each building is its own self contained design so it doesn't matter how they are put together since we have to put our designs into a repeating tile it would be wise to generate small self contained designs as well. 

I am actually surprised by the cartoony nature of the guards in the print above, a black outline has been introduced which changes the whole style. Although I like the repeating  guard character because of the bold block colours the simple faces.I think that this print is an outlier to the Cath Kidston style so I don't plan on using this as a basis for my own design.