20 YEARS OF TAYLOR | 5 Mins With Graphic Designer Bek

How did you meet Vicki Taylor?

Vicki and I met at the Foundation Studies Course in Art and Design at Auckland Technical Institute in 1989. We quickly became friends and I remember many good laughs around the lunch table in the cafeteria. The following year we were both accepted to RMIT University in Melbourne to do a degree in Fashion Design.

Do you think having studied with Vicki gave you a deeper understanding of her vision for the brand?

Yes definitely. I think knowing Vicki personally, her likes and dislikes, seeing her development from the bold graphic artworks she submitted in her art school application to the extremely well-tailored garments she made at university, has allowed me to really understand the brand and help define its parameters.

Can you tell us a bit about your role with taylor?

As a graphic designer for Nectarine (the company I run with my partner Minty) I work with taylor to develop the campaign and lookbook style and all of the collateral associated with those for each season.

What led you to follow this career path?

Originally my plan was to do costume design for theatre. That started me in fashion design. But when I finished my degree and I realised how few jobs there were in that field and what I would have to do to get one of those jobs, I realised I wasn’t as interested in costume design as I thought I was! In 1993, after my degree, I started working in a Computer Aided (fashion) Design bureau. This opened the way for me working with computers and my boyfriend (Minty) encouraged me to apply for the Animation and Interactive Media Post Grad Diploma at Swinburne University in Melbourne. After that I was employed as a freelance animator on CD-ROM projects in the 90’s and I found that I was quite good at doing the graphics for these projects at the same time. From there I learnt on the job.

Where do you find your design inspiration?

Other than research, which is always a good way to get inspired, I am lucky to have very diverse projects to work on. Everything from board games and murals to logos or merchandise. I also work as an artist in my ‘spare’ time. I paint using oil and wax. This diversity ends up being the biggest inspiration. Some texture I have just seen while I’ve been painting will inspire me to use it in a design for another project. Or I will see a font that is perfect while I’m looking for something for a completely different job.

The first taylor website that you created was revolutionary and won several awards, can you tell us about it?

Websites were becoming more and more popular in the early 00's. The first taylor site was created in Flash so we could use full screen animation and take full advantage of Flash’s graphic capabilities. The style came from a young designer who was working with us and parts of my University Masters project at the time which was a ‘dress me up’ type app within the website. We created all of taylor’s garments each season in cartoon form so they would fit the doll models which came in different sizes. You could dress up the dolls in taylor clothes, change their hair etc and send them off as an e-card. It was great fun!

Aside from ecommerce, what other positive effects have you seen technology have on the industry?

This is a tough question from my perspective because I see it from a very ‘graphic’ point of view. For me it is about possibility. When I started working in graphics, Photoshop didn’t even have layers (for those of you who know what I mean here) and a 700MB hard drive cost $700. Now I have single files that are 700MB. Things are comparatively infinite. The software is so flexible that we can make anything really. It’s just a matter of fitting it in with timelines and budgets. What I love about working for taylor is the breadth of challenges I get to attack, from the massive SpaceCube in Britomart to detailed fabric repeats that need a hand drawn look.

How have you seen the taylor brand change over the past 20 years?

The taylor brand has changed in terms of scale but I think the essence of the brand, beautifully tailored New Zealand-made garments, amazing European fabrics, classic items but with unique creativity and versatility, hasn’t changed at all.

What has your favourite taylor campaign been and why?

There have been many but I think my all-time favourite (so far!) is the AW17 campaign. It was a great moody shoot, fabulous rich colours interesting styling and a unique looking model. Shoots like this make my job really inspiring.

What do you think sets taylor apart from other New Zealand brands?

To me the taylor brand is such good balance between luxury, creativity and practicality. I find a lot of the other brands either a bit fru-fru or a bit austere.

In your opinion, what are the main contributing factors to taylor’s success?

I think that taylor are uncompromising about the quality of their product. You can make high quality graphics and create great marketing campaigns but if the quality of the campaign doesn’t reflect the quality of the actual product - you might sell a few to start with but won’t continue to sell.

Looking forward, what do you think is in store for taylor over the next 20 years?

I think that taylor will continue to grow here in NZ and internationally. Vicki is a brave and creative business woman who sees opportunities in the market and figures out how to respond to fill the gap. She is not done yet!