BRABANTIA - research

Designs for the Brabantia competition need to be uploaded by 22nd October. This is therefore going to be the first brief I undertake, and I am evidently going to make a short term brief. Before starting the design process, some research has been done looking at patterns, styles and decades. However, I have also looked at the history of Brabantia as a brand and what they claim their mission is.

History

It all began in 1919. 15 people and a small factory in the Dutch town of Aalst. A traditional, family owned business, run by engineers and craftsmen.
And right from the start, good, professional workmanship has been the driving force behind our success.

Solid present

Today, the skills and expertise that built the company are supplemented by specialists. Specialists in the latest materials and in computer aided design and manufacturing. Specialists who secure our position as one of Europe's leading suppliers of innovative household products.

Solid future

Tomorrow? Well, who knows about tomorrow?

To us, the domestic items of tomorrow are what we are producing today.
Our products are developed to retain their beauty and performance for up to 20 years.
It is the promise of our products, it is the guarantee of our name: Brabantia, solid company.

Mission

Everything today is increasingly 'disposable'.
Buy something, it breaks.
Replace it, use it, throw it away.
Short lived, dispensable, consumed in an instant, quickly replaced.
There's no end to the cycle of having it now and new, over and over again.
We challenge this.

We put all our expertise into developing solid, reliable products that are made to last. A longer life, and a continuity of use. We design products for the present, but with an eye to the future - products that will contribute to your home, and the way you live your life - for many years to come. 

Our ambition is simple: to develop solid household products that retain their beauty and performance for up to 20 years.
We've done our bit. Now put us to the test.

Patrice Van Uden

With vintage and retro styles featuring prominently in fashion, interiors and design, never before has there been such an ideal time to launch our Pimp Our Print competition – inspired by our best-selling Patrice range.

Created by Patrice van Uden in 1970, our classic Patrice design combined the iconic brown and orange palettes that practically defined 1970s style.

Patrice is distinctive for its brown and cyclam flowers overlaid upon an orange background. The ‘flower’ element was first cut out of paper and then drafted, before being screen printed in two colours, lending it a ‘crafted’ air.

Still popular today as a ‘Retro’ pattern, Patrice has proven to be our most successful design ever, appearing on a huge array of products since its introduction over 40 years ago.

Retro print/patterns

Retro is a term used to describe aspects of modern culture which are consciously derivative or imitative of those trends, modes, fashions, or attitudes of the recent past which have or had come to be seen as unfashionable. It generally implies a vintage of at least fifteen or twenty years. For example, clothing from the 1980s or 1990s could be retro.

Info taken from Branbatia website/wiki