THAIKILA CATALOG DESIGN
The brand
Thaikila was born in Paris in 1989 by Marie Laure Becquelin and settle on Bali in 2002. Made with loving care, Thaikila pieces are versatile by design. Thoughtful and vibrant collections evoke easy-to-wear pieces and accessories created for every size. Luxe fabrics are complimented with delicate details for an authentic handmade feel. These are some of their company values:
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Innovation: Innovation is at the core of Thaikila ethos. At our factory, we have access to the latest technology and equipment with techniques such as laser cutting and ultrasonic welding.
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Sustainability: Discarded plastic bottles are recycled and transformed into fabric for our swimwear. A fabric so soft and with the right amount of stretch that it envelopes your body like a caress. Designed like second skin with quick drying elements so it does not retain sand or water, Thaikila swimwear is made to last.
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Every shape, every size: At Thaikila, they seek to empower women through celebrating diversity and overcoming the pressures of body image.
The project
Briefing
They asked me to do a design proposal for their new catalogs on line and off line for little shop owners which would buy the bikinis for selling them later in their shops, so it had to be a beautiful, simple but complete and organized catalog.
Goal
The goal was to get the shops owners to order the higher amount of items possible by tenting them to complete looks with pieces from different collections that matched perfectly.
The challenge
Thaikila has not only bikinis but one pieces, pareos, bags, sandals, necklaces... and they have different styles such as: tralala, minimal or broderie. This means that there were a lot of items and dezens of ways to organize the catalog: by collections, by type of item, by colors, by complete looks... Taking a decision to organize it was the hardest task.
Working process
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Market research: see how competitors were doing things and then create something according to the market and to the brand it self, something that could work for sales but at the same time fit perfectly with the Thaikila vibes and values.
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Information architecture: due to the big amount of collections and items within each one, it was necessary to organize it in a way that the catalog would feel clean and logic to read without loosing attention in the products but at the same time being able to see the detail information of each one (name of the item, available sizes, price, ref number or composition) or to make a visual relation with the related content (in this case pieces that could match to create a whole look). Finally I decided to organize it by collections and colors and create kind of a template for each one in which would appear a main big beautiful image with the model, product pictures, patterns' details and related pieces images.
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Graphic edition: once I decided how to organize the catalog, I had to edit some of the images in order to make them look great and the way I needed and which were divided in: fit, flat, flat lay, snap and patterns.
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Design and layout: I had to try at least 30 different ways to put the images in each page so I could set a pattern to follow.
Final result
Here you can see a sneak peek of the catalog that I send to them:
