Designs on Success

Karen Atkinson, Penny Plain’s Marketing Manager told me that

"We are a design led company. For us, successful design equals profit and consequently huge emphasis is placed on design meetings and briefings for the collection, development and catalogue production. Everyone in the company involved in the design process understands that each element contributes to the success of Penny Plain, whether for garments, photographs, catalogue pages, shop interiors or web sites."

Eighteen months prior to a season’s launch their clothing team starts on the designs for the next collection. Their fashion designer, Alex Hanford, produces story boards and designs via pencil and paper following visits to Europe’s leading fashion fairs to source sample fabrics. Her designs are made up as sample clothes at various suppliers. Once the samples are approved stock orders are placed at factories six months ahead of the launch date.

Not only do the clothes have to be designed well in advance, so do the supporting elements. The catalogue design starts five months before the launch date. Their graphic designer, Nicola Mason, produces computerised layouts which are used as a template in the next stage, photography. Karen Atkinson attends nearly all the shoots which are usually overseas. Can you blame her with our weather? Once the chosen shots are scanned Nicola produces the final page layouts and artwork. With so many important opinions sought she creates many variations and often revisions ar emade before the final pages are put to bed.

As a backdrop to these on-going processes, a year ago Penny Plain made an important design decision; to bring graphic design in-house. Prior to this they used a combination of specialist direct mail partnerships and creative agencies to produce the wide range of graphics required. This big change around not only reduced production costs thus contributing to profits, but the whole creative process became smoother and quicker.

Karen explained, "We much prefer working directly with our new designer Nicola, rather than using the account handling structures associated with agencies where experience has shown that briefings can sometimes turn into elaborate forms of Chinese Whispers."

Nicola’s design skills and remit also include some otherwise disparate print and packaging elements and she has recently overseen the introduction of a new company ID and web site. This has created quick success. Orders through the Internet have already paid for the set-up costs in only a few months.

The immediate response and impact that particularly web sites create, highlights the fact that the crucial analysis of any design ultimately comes from the customer. In the topsy-turvey world of fashion every competitive edge is examined very carefully. I certainly feel that Penny Plain knows the importance of design goes beyond just the product itself, affecting all the supporting elements.

For further details on Penny Plain ring 0191 232 1124 or visit their web site: www.pennyplain.co.uk

Fully Clothed ‘Full Monty’

Two big North East names in clothing manufacturing and retail, Jackson and Burton Merged to become the Burton Group. In the 1940’s and 50’s Jackson’s developed its business producing the demob suit. Only a few sizes were produced to fit the male population who had served in the forces. The Montague Burton family owned the Burton side of the business, and the normally two-piece demob suit, when bought with a waistcoat, gave rise to the phrase "the full Monty". Jackson had several factories in the region, one of the biggest being at Felling. This factory and ware-house were donated by the Burton group (now the Arcadia Group) in the 1980s. Refurbished into office units and an exhibition centre it is now called Design Works where Design North East, now in its fourth year and a key event in the North East business diary, is held annually.

Education spotlight

Many of the region's colleges and Universities now have fashion courses and one of the most renowned is at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. They provide BA (Hons) courses in Fashion Marketing and in Fashion. This year, Scott Henshall, a recent Fashion graduate from the Design School, was awarded the Cutting Edge Talent Prize by the London Fashion Week sponsors VS Sassoon. Scott set up his business two years ago and is already selling to 52 stores world wide, from London to Paris, New York to Tokyo. He has recently signed a deal to launch a chain of shops in Japan and has also been appointed as design consultant to British label, "Mulberry". Scott still operates from the North East region.

Contacts;-

• BA (Honours) Fashion
• BA (Honours) Fashion Marketing
  University of Northumbria at Newcastle
  Tel: 0191
  Web site: http://www.unn.ac.uk
  
• National Diploma and HND in Fashion Design
• HND Textile Design
  Newcastle College
  Tel: 0191 200 4000
  Web site: http://www.ncl-coll.ac.uk/index.html

What people say about design

"The creative industries contribute some £50 billion directly to our national economy and will be the fastest growing source of new jobs between now and 2006"

- Rt Hon Peter Mandleson MP

"Much of the evidence shows that design continues to be seen as an increasingly important factor in determining the UK’s competitiveness and our quality of life.

"As awareness has grown, there is a greater appetite for innovation and the effective use of design. But there are also new challenges, especially of e-commerce, environmental pressure and changing work patterns.

"All are challenges which organisations will need to address as we move into the new millennium. All are challenges which design can help us meet."

- Andrew Summers Chief Executive, Design Council.

" A region with creativity at its core is a region with success on its doorstep"

- Phil Shakeshaft, Director of Strategy, ONE North East

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This document is reproduced with he kind permission of The Journal and Benchmark Communications.