Week 2 | Product Design & Name

How does the product look and work?

Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics:

Jorinde and Joringel

1990

Nippon Animation

In Grimm’s Fairy Tale, there is the story of Jorinde and Joringel. The tale goes as follows:

There was a girl named Jorinde and a boy called Joringel, who were madly in love. But when a witch captures Jorinde by turning her into a bird, Joringel finds a flower with a large dew drop laying in its centre that could break all of the witch’s curse. He uses this flower to rescue Jorinde from her curse and defeat the witch.

This was the tale that formed the basis of the inspiration for my product design. As my idea also included a flower that secreted a magical dew-like substance to protect fairies, I thought it would create a really nice visual if there was a giant pearl-like ball of dew in the centre of the flower.

I also sketched how the product would function, trying to figure the question I had in my previous post. I had three different methods in mind:

1. The flower petals could curl up and squeeze out the dew

2. The dew could seep out through the stem

3. The flower could hold in the dew by being closed and let it spill out when it blooms open

These all seemed like plausible ideas. I was especially keen on the first method where it would squeeze the dew out, almost like a water gun. I could even make the flower float up when activated, moving like a jellyfish, to the required area for the dew.

One of the critiques I received was that my designs looked a little too "blobby" and was suggested to reference art nouveau jewellery. This would help my design look more refined.

I sketched out more flowers that had more edges and curves to them and added leafy embellishments around them. These designs seem to work better as a brooch or pendant as they actually looked like jewellery.

I was thinking that the flower could detach from the leaf embellishments when activated and float up to secrete the dew, similar to the fairy dust sachets used in Winx Club.

I think the biggest worry I had with this design was that the design might be a little too intricate for me to animate for the TVC.

When talking to another lecturer, I got a suggestion to have the product wrap around my character's shoulder or neck, and the flowers could bloom along the back. This way the product can reach the wings without having to float around.

To figure out the way that this would work, I painted two versions out and added simple transitions on after effects to see it in action.

Version 1

For this version, I envisioned the product to actually be a cluster of flowers instead of just one. They could start blooming from her neck - like a necklace - along her back until it reaches the wings. That's when the dew would be secreted and flow down, making it glow.

Version 2

I was inspired by the flowers named Bleeding Hearts. I wanted the flowers to grow upwards and arc over the wings, instead of on her skin. This way the dew could drip out from the flowers as they bloom and fall onto the wings.

Verdict

Personally, I really liked version 2 and felt the silhouette of the flowers as well as the dripping on the dew was much clearer. However, I had planned for the product to go into action while the fairy was stuck in a spider web. This meant that she would be lying on the web, her wings pressed against her. This would make Version 1 work better as it did not grow outwards and would work even with the wings flattened. This is still a draft so I might change my mind in the future and feedback is appreciated.

Soo.. What is the product called?

We had to come up with two names - the product name and the brand name. I actually had a really difficult time coming up with the name for my product seeing as I wasn't as witty as I would've liked and coming up with fairy related puns was just far past my skillset. I even researched possible flower names in different languages such as Irish Gaelic to give it a fantastical feel but none of it sounded right.

I realised that my way of going about it was too complicated and decided to just stay simple. When it came to the brand, we were guided in class to first think of what other products our fictional brand could've created and the function of those product. Since my current product helped fairies escape dangerous situations, my brand could have other products that also gave fairies protection from other situations. With Fairy Protection as the aim of my brand and my product being a flower that secreted protective dew for the wings, I finally came up with a name I liked.

Seeping Dew by Fae's Briar

"Seeping Dew" is the product name and is pretty straight forward but still has a nice ring to it.

"Fae's Briar" is the brand name. Since I wanted my brand name to be for Fairy Protection, I chose the word "Brair". Briar refers to the thorny shrubs that grows around roses, protecting the rose from getting picked. I wanted Fairies to be protected by the products, just like Briar, hence the name.

Again these names are still not finalised but I like it for now. What do you think?

24 January 2022