When esteemed client and owner of Boutique Babylon contacted me this week asking for an e-flyer design for her birthday party event and told me that she was looking for a Kitsch Barbie theme with barbie doll images (including Ken/Action Man) and lots of pink, I could barely contain my excitment over the thought of such a fun project.

BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS
Now the remit was unfortunately to not spend too much on the design because this was not a profit making event, and rather a birthday celebration and thus it was imperative that I stuck to photos sourced from low stock agency istockphoto.com.

I was faced with the following images from the stock agency as the only appropriate images - all others available under the category of ‘dolls’ or ‘barbie’ etc were either unsuitable or darn right scary/creepy looking dolls! There was in fact only this one barbie doll head image available for use. Actually I don’t even know for sure if it is an actual Barbie or some other sort of similar doll.

After speaking about the imagery with the client and both of us making murmouring noises about them not being the most wonderful photos we’d ever seen for their intended use, I assured them that I felt it was likely I could achieve the right kitsch effect with these limited images and set to work with them.

MID PROJECT BRAINWAVES
The outcome is a good one I feel considering my limited choice from the stock library and I was especially pleased to have a brainwave during the design process where it occured me that of course Barbie often drives a pink car and so searched for a ‘pink toy cadillac’. The other reason I needed to have this brainwave is that I needed something to sit and cover up the fact that the top of her head is clipped off in the photo.

You see what tricks and cover ups designers need to come up with when faced with limited resources and limited budgets! But as it so happens something that is initially a negative can turn into a real positive…because if I hadn’t needed to cover up her head, I would never have needed to think up a third image and the cadillac would not be there.

In my mind this would be a real loss to the design because obviously the cadillac transports Barbie to her birthday party, and in addition….. the pink cadillac image came with the date 1959 in the registration box, which I decided would be best at the birth year of the birthday girl, one quick question to my client about her year of birth and the registration plate was changed to suit.

MORE BARBIE COOL
http://angelicdreamz.com/ - you would not believe how many barbies there are on this website. You just must visit this site.

Barbie Collection At Christies Auction House in 2006 - Worlds largest collection

Samanda Twins of Big Brother 2007 fame singing euro track Barbie Girl!

Barbie Collector Showcase/Showreel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Design Inspiration, Design Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.