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Taking its cue from trendy East London, a new collection of eyewear called Originals is looking to live up to its name.
Originals is the brain child of design duo Paul Mellor and David Scott, who took inspiration for the collection from urban culture in East London. The pair founded design agency Mellor & Scott in January 2009 and decided to launch their own brand after gaining eyewear-related work.
'Because I already had a strong background in eyewear, we won several clients in the sector and we reached a point where we decided we would like to set up an eyewear brand of our own for business and creative reasons. This had been something I had thought about for a number of years but never really done anything about until then.'
Mellor studied industrial design at Loughborough University, where he met Scott, and after graduating worked for two design agencies in Leeds before moving to London to work for Blue Gem Eyewear as a creative designer. 'During my time at Blue Gem I got to know the industry and met a lot of useful people,' he notes. 'But I had always wanted to set up my own business and even at university it was something that David and myself had talked about - we had always wanted to have our own design agency.'
Having decided to design and launch a collection, the partners wanted it to reflect their natural creative inspirations.
'Both myself and David have been inspired by East London for a number of years,' says Mellor. 'The whole Shoreditch music and art scene is a hotbed of talent. We decided that we would like to invent a brand that was connected with this as we have a real interest and passion for new music, urban culture and the arts. As designers we have a melting pot of experiences and ideas from socialising, going to art galleries and going to gigs in East London. These were the experiences that provided the inspiration for Originals.'
As you would expect of a long-standing creative partnership, Mellor and Scott worked collaboratively on the design of the collection.
'We worked very fluidly beginning with ideas sketched out with pen and paper. It is a very organic process and we don't stick to a set plan. Eventually we came up with some on-trend design features that we felt effectively communicated the messages and brand values that we were trying to create. We then put the designs into a computer and created technical drawings of them. I had the contacts at the factory in China that we wanted to work with so I sent the designs over and they made some prototypes that we then tweaked until we had something that we felt very proud of.'
The process was a lengthy one, taking over nine months from start to finish, because of the attention to detail required. 'It was important to get it absolutely right because we were not just designing a collection but also building and creating a new brand. The collection had to mimic the wider identity of the brand as closely as possible.'
Following the music
Mellor says the target audience for Originals is 15-35 year-olds, who are fashion focused and attracted to the image of East London. 'We like to think we offer an element of East London lifestyle, which is an aspirational lifestyle for many people who don't live in East London. The target buyer will follow the music or the arts scene and want to be different, want to be unique and be fashion-oriented.'
Already sponsoring a number of UK bands and singers, Originals plans to build its identity by continuing to support new music in the future, including promoting the brand at music festivals.
The Originals range, which is unisex throughout, consists of nine optical and sunglass frames and was officially launched in Milan at Mido 2010. Designed to sell in store for between £60 and £120, consumers can also currently buy the product directly from the Originals website although this may change as the brand becomes more widely available through practices.
'I think it is a product that is well suited to independent practices because it is a upcoming brand that offers differentiation,' says Mellor. 'Another positive aspect is that a fashion-led brand like Originals attracts the sort of consumer who would consider buying several designs for fashion reasons.'
Work has already begun on the second Originals collection, which Mellor says will reinforce the brand image in its designs while following the very latest trends.
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