Mimco Christmas Catalogue 2009 - Australia (Spring/Summer) & UK (Autumn/Winter)
Extending upon the work we generated for the set design of the Myer A/W Launch at the L'Oriel Melbourne Fashion Festival, we developed our technique further for Mimco by introducing aerosol and engineered paper forms.
THE DESIGN BRIEF
Mimco is a high fashion accessory brand with boutiques located throughout Australia and the United Kingdom. Each season at Mimco is given a poetic title to engage with customers and inspire creativity. The title for Season 2 of 2009 was "Souvenir Delirium". It was to be our muse as we ideated a novel and original way of promoting accessories.
The collateral was to be rolled out during the Christmas period for both Australia and the United Kingdom, so our challenge was to be able to produce a design that communicated to both audiences that were in their respective seasons: summer and winter.
THE PROCESS
The process began by extending upon work we generated previously as studio initiated research. This image-making incorporated actual accessories into portraiture compositions.
Below left: Earlier illustration created by Dave Smith that inspired the creative aesthetic for Mimco.
Breaking out some fresh scalpel blades and aerosol cans, we started by developing a library of techniques. We had a great time spraying punchy colours onto the delicate cut-out compositions, watching them transform into brightly coloured landscapes.
Our aim was to communicate the tactility of the artwork throughout the catalogue - allowing the fragile beauty of the handmade illustrations to complement the accessories. The use of hand generated imagery adds an intimacy to the communication that cannot readily be achieved using computers alone.
We took the theme of Souvenir Delirium and ran with it to a fantasy land of sparrows, wolves, frogs and abstract forms. Resulting in richly layered, brightly coloured paper landscapes (real and imagined) of people wearing, carrying and seeing beautiful things.
Once the suite of illustrations were finalised, we collaborated with Saville Corbel to photograph the work and the merchandise over two full days.
To view the final catalogue design, please follow this link.