OUGD505 Crystal Rationale

Sophie Abell

OUGD505 Design Practice 2

Studio Brief –Product Range and Distribution

Rationale:

Within this brief I am going to explore Crystals. The reason behind choosing crystals as a topic because at the time of this brief Swarovski had launched a campaign and I kept seeing advertisements for it. This intrigued me because it made me question why was Swarovski one of the leading crystal companies. The film ‘Blood Diamond’ was recently being aired on the TV and although I didn’t want to look into diamonds it gave me an insight into the troubles and lengths that some people go to collect and sell these natural stones.

I will research into not only the fashion side of crystals but also the scientific approach, how they are formed, what gives them their colours etc. My research will also go into the other benefits and uses that people/ collectors use crystals for, as I already know that crystals are used to symbolize certain things I will research further into this to gain a better knowledge.

Part 2- As crystals is such a broad subject with varied range of sub categories I will narrow my research down into Branding and Identity as well as Product and Packaging as I feel this not only interests me as a designer but I feel will allow me to design something and be fully informed to the best of my ability.

As I said above crystals have so many sub categories but something that interested me was the use for crystals matching certain Star signs and horoscopes so I will most probably use that as the content for my publication.

Part 3- As I continued to research content for Part 2 I found that certain people believed that crystals had certain healing benefits to them, so as part 3 I will aim to produce a range of packaging that will house these crystals and sell them as a form of medication. This meaning I will research into clinical and medical packaging. I will also create a brand and Identity to go with it. As a lot of people don’t believe or don’t know that crystals have healing properties I will keep in mind that when majority of people think about crystals there instant thought is jewelry so this is something that I will incorporate into the packaging.