OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus: Tea Cups/Mug Primary Research

After having spent over three hours discussing ideas today. We decided on an idea which involves designing cups to represent the type of 'mug' people are. We thought about creative cardboard cups of different shapes and sizes for every member of the family. I walked home through Leeds city centre and took several photographs.

 

Harrison mentioned having a target audience of trendy people who follow the latest fashion and the latest 'trends'. There was dispute surrounding this however and we met half way and decided with the whole group that designing something aimed at all ages would be more appropriate, and by designing separate mugs for each individual we are overcoming this obstacle. This may still change and develop but at the moment this is the idea we have in mind.

 

Below is a photograph I took whilst in the M&S cafe. It is obviously a standard cup design but I quite like the stamp design on the front of it and feel it works well for M&S as it represents their style.

 

 

 

 I took these photographs in M&S too and thought that this was quite an interesting concept. The product is aimed at gardeners and the designer has placed the products inside the watering can to personalise it and draw a certain audience to it. This made me think about one of the discussions we had today, when Sarah suggested creating teapots with unique spouts, and perhaps designing a mug similar to a watering can to represent the older generation.

This is within the same collection but they have interestingly enough and coicidentally designed a mug to go with the body lotions. Within the mug they have including cosmetics but I think it works really well. We could perhaps take inspiration from this idea and personalise each mug or teacup with things relevant to each age range and gender.

 

I then went to Urban Outfitters to see what mug designs they had and to also see how they were packaged. This one is quite inappropriate but at the same time has an element of humour. It isn't clear from this photograph but there is an image of the queen putting her feet up on it. This links closely to the idea that we had of using an image of the queen to put on the bottom of some of the mugs to represent a certain stereotype.

 

 

This is a very simplistic yet trendy design which would be bought by many different age groups. The design is simple enough to be applied to a wide audience without singling people out. Something as bold and statemental as this would be ideal for our project but it would need to have a strong message on the front of it or perhaps on a bellyband.

 

I love this mug and think it is a really clever concept. This links closely to the idea of having mugs with an extra section attached to fit cake into for example to represent the typical English image of tea and cake.