Mulberry to die for

Now this is the brief I have been looking forward to the most...

Designing my own brand-zine is going to be so much fun! I love designing and creating things so this is right up my street. 

We got to choose any brand from a list the lecturers gave us so I chose...MULBERRY!

I've always wanted a Mulberry bag (Chanel comes first though) so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to learn more about one of my favourite brands. 

When we were in London I was going to go to Mulberry's store on New Bond Street but we ran out of time. Luckily for me we by chance walked past this store in Knightsbridge! I initially went into the store to try and take photos of their visual merchandising however it was difficult to do so with staff watching me from every angle! Instead I took photos of the window displays and attempted to sneak a photo of the inside of the store.

Even though the staff obviously weren't too keen on me taking photographs within the store they were extremely pleasant and helpful! I know people think this should happen in every store anyway but sadly it doesn't. Most of the times stores such as Mulberry would be very cold and almost rude to students walking into the store as its quite apparent we weren't going to buy anything. This is exactly what happened in Roberto Cavalli! As soon as we walked in we were almost followed around the store in an attempt to get us out of there! We got no 'hello' or we weren't even asked if we needed any help with anything. I have to say, out of all the stores we went into, the staff in Tom Ford were by far the nicest. The bodyguard on the door, the staff behind the counter and even the guard inside the store (even though he did follow us round quite a bit!) were extremely pleasant and were constantly asking us how we were, how our day had been and whether we needed any assistance! By far the friendliest staff we had met during our day in London. 

I admit I was slightly disappointed by their display especially after walking past Harrods about one minute before! I do love the 'simple yet effective' look but I just wasn't feeling it with Mulberry! Although as the brand was founded in England I did like the use of Buckingham Palace Guards and nutcrackers within their display. I thought having their advertisements on a large scale in the window was really eye catching and the bags were definitely still the main focus even though the images were busy with trees and owls.  

The trip to London has got me even more excited for this project and I can't wait to start looking at Mulberry's visual DNA, Mulberry's handwriting and any cultural references they use within their work which I am hoping will inspire my brand-zine!