Final product photos

I have already done a post on the making of my product but I thought I would take some nice photos of my product in a way that I would present them if I was going to sell it on a site like Etsy. I wanted to take unique photos rather than run of the mill photos so this is what I have came up with (with the help of Zade) 

Making my product

The first thing that I had to do to create my product for this project was screen print my leaf design onto the plain cotton material that I bought, once I had done that I was ready to begin making my cushion. Here are all of the materials that I used including the material that I screen printed. 

First I cut out all of my material (the back, the front and the wadding for the centre) into leaf shapes ready to sow together. Before I started sowing the cushion up though I pinned the wadding to the back of the printed material and sowed around the veins of the leaf to add a more textured quilted effect. 

After completing the quilting I sowed everything together including the pom pom fringing around the edge. At this point it was important for me to sow it up inside out to hide all of the seams to create a neat finish. I also had to leave a small gap so I could add the stuffing. Here is the cushion all sown up and inside out. 

The final few steps were to turn the cover back the correct way stuff it and sow up the open gap. Here is the completed cushion before and after stuffing it. 

Overall I am really pleased with how the cushion turned out because it looks really neat and unique, I also like the fact that the product is functional. I think that I would like to create material and make it into things in the future because I really making enjoyed this. I am not that good at screen printing and dread the thought of it a bit, but other than that I would definitely do something like this again. 

Merchandise: Product design

For my merchandise I have decided to create a cushion. I decided this after thinking about what the target audience might like to receive or purchase, I got the idea of creating a cushion so the listener can be comfortable whilst listening to the music. I want to make the cushion represent the leaves on the front of the album cover so it is clear that the product goes with the rest of the products in the box set. 

I have got some plain white cotton material that I plan to screen print the design onto for the front of the cushion. I have got a different colour for the back, the back colour will match the colour of the veins of the leaf design. I also plan on adding some decorative pom pom fringing as I feel this adds a more Scandinavian design feel to the product. I also will have wading on the back of the design and I will sow around the veins of the leaves to make the cushion more textured and interesting.  I plan on having a zip fastening but I might change my mind and create the cushion with no opening. I have drew up my design and added some notes, I have also bought the materials so I am ready to make the product straight away. The next step will be to work out the dimensions that I want the cushion to be, and maybe make a small prototype. Then get on with screen printing my material and assembling the final product.

Product design research

When i started to think about the merchandise product that i would like to create, i decided to first think about the target market and what they might appreciate and like to buy. When i think about Agnes Obel's music and the type of person  that might listen to it, the main type of person that i think of is someone that might want to take a step back from life and relax, as her music gives a very calm soothing vibe. With this in mind i started to think of what goes along with relaxation and i think the most obvious thing is comfort. This gave me the idea to create a cushion and maybe some other home wears to go along with it. 

I looked on Etsy to do some product research for ideas and inspiration, i came across a shop called Maybelandbird Its a company that sells cute shaped cushions. The cushions have a very simplistic look and feel to them. They look as if they are screen printed and i think that works very well for the designs because they are made from simple descriptive shapes. The thing that i think works best throughout these cushion designs is the unique shapes that they are rather than the usual square shape that you would expect to find in a cushion. With the cushion that i want to design i would like to apply the idea of having a uniquely shaped cushion as i think it ads a more interesting element to the design. 

For my design i would use the shape of a leaf and use the same colour scheme as i will on the album cover to make the product look like it is part of the same brand. I think this idea will work well with the concept that i have for the album design.