Taryn's Design Diary

After the mind-numbing task of creating every single frame for the [first draft of the] above animation and the [first draft of the] larger-res one that appears on the splash screen, I realized that (1) the square logo kind of resembles the Chinese character for “country,” or guo (total accident/serendipity), and (2) say I really were to run with the whole resembling-the-Chinese-character thing, my [first draft of the] animations animated the drawing of the logo in the wrong stroke order. (See Wiki on Stroke Order.)

The correct stroke order for the character guo is as follows:

In dumb-speak, only three sides of the square are drawn first, then all that interior mumbo jumbo, and then the last bottom line of the square.

My [first draft of the] animations “drew” the entire square first, then filled it in with the T and Z interior mumbo jumbo.

Shouldn’t have been a big deal, especially since I never intended the TZ logo to look like the character guo. Who cares about “the correct stroke order,” or whatever “the correct stroke order” even means? My reluctance to re-do the entire thing convinced me that I did not care.

The effort and energy it took to convince myself that I did not care started giving me anxiety attacks. No, really. So tonight, two glasses of Riesling in, I admitted that I did care. I scrapped the old animations and started over, following the stroke order depicted above, the first three sides of the square, then the interior mumbo jumbo, and then the last bottom line. Bam. Done. No, actually it did not go so fast. It took all night, and I had to stay up past my bedtime.

James, my husband, said that redoing the animations just “to get the stroke order right” was a bit OCD. Well, when you’re doing something for yourself and you know that the result of it will be a reflection of who you are, then you can’t help but be just a bit OCD about a detail like stroke order.

P.S. The above character for guo is not the way I write it, just so that is noted. My heritage is Taiwanese, and so I learned to write Traditional Chinese. The above is the Simplified Chinese way of writing guo. The Traditional character is this:

Prettier, I think, though the stroke order is essentially the same as the Simplified — left, top, right of the square, then all the interior mumbo jumbo, and then the last bottom line.

Full Disclosure: I’m not actually literate in Chinese. Doh! However, I’m trying to change that by learning the language. It’s one of my 2010 resolutions– learn Chinese.

We now have a logo. Yay!

When I sat down to design the logo, I knew I wanted something that brought to mind the Chinese ink seals, which are carved stamps that were used in ancient times for signatures. When stamped or silk-screened, the intertwining of the T and Z won’t be noticeable, as you see above, but it will (or should) be in the embossed metal logo plates that I have made a part of every handbag from the Alpha Collection. See as follows:

It’s hypocritical of me to talk about how silly handbags look when the brand name appears disproportionately large on the bag and then proceed to smack a 2″ x 2″ metal logo plate on everything I’m producing. However, this is my debut collection and I am launching a new line. It’s important to establish brand recognition right now, so that is why every purse in the Alpha Collection displays the metal (stainless steel) logo plate. In the future, there will be purses with no obvious logos.

Above is the embroidered label that will be stitched into the interior lining of every handbag. It shows off the signature trade colors of Taryn Zhang: brown, black, and pink. I’m thinking about taking off the “International.” It adds no value to this label.

My manufacturer is now in the process of making the copper mold for the embossed plates. I OK-ed the proofs this past weekend and can’t wait to see the actual plates.

Please note that the following handbags represent first prototypes and serious blunders. This blog documents our trials and errors and tracks our progress from inexperienced start-up to launching the Taryn Zhang brand. Please bear that in mind as you look through these photos and illustrations.

I am making a “last minute” change to the Alpha Collection. In the initial lineup, I designed a bowler bag, The Postmodernist. For the woman who “defies convention, that woman who is simple when it should be complicated, complicated when it should be simple, a woman with nonlinear aspirations and motivations, the woman who needs enough space in her handbag for Derrida…”

The Postmodernist

The two columns of horizontal lines are pleats and the sides are a combination of smooth material and draping. The back “V” are folder pockets. The Postmodernist was going to be another large bag, alongside The Overachiever and The Workaholic, and while I need a bag that can fit half my office desk and three-fifths of my bathroom counter and still leave room for portable nourishment (snack bar, fruit, etc.), not everybody else is a pack rat. I started to entertain my sister C.’s suggestion, to include a clutch.

I’m not a personal fan of clutches, generally. They don’t make sense to me. Why would I want to manually clutch a purse when I could hook one over my shoulder and leave both hands free? That in mind, I set about designing a clutch for my sister C. and also one that could offer the option of a chain that someone like me could whip out and use.

My intent was to simply modify The Postmodernist design, from bowler bag to clutch, but then I confronted the unanswerable questions “What is postmodernism? What does it mean to be postmodernist?”

Not the can of worms a designer handbags and accessories business needs to open, no sirree. Man, what was I thinking before when I named a purse “The Postmodernist”?! Plus, while I believe that the above bowler bag design could get away with being called Postmodernist, nothing else I was coming up with could! I scrapped the idea of The Postmodernist handbag altogether and went with something different, or sort of different…

The Modernist

And naming this clutch The Modernist makes so much more sense, which will be explained in the description blurbs on the website once I’ve gathered and organized my thoughts.

This is no tiny wallet-sized clutch, no. This clutch is made to fit a slim issue of a literary journal, a small paperback novel, a book of poetry or pen and notebook, fulfilling a requirement that I would have of any clutch I’d buy. You may now go to that fancy evening function in style and still have on your person your favorite book or Moleskine for those spurts of inspiration.

The gray TZ thing is a metal plaque with the Taryn Zhang logo embossed into it, either silver-tone or gold-tone depending on the style selected. I know it looks crappy in the line drawing I did in MS Paint (which, by the way, is the program I use to do the technical drawings; I know, so sophisticated), but I hope the actual thing will look fabulous.

I’m going through reams of color/fabric swatches right now for the exterior and interior lining of the handbags.

The time spent so far on swatches has been longer than anticipated, but I hope it will pay off in the end.

If left to my own devices, I admit I would probably opt for a genuine leather line. However, my cute vegetarian kid sister has sent threats to skin me alive and wear me if I use leather, so I’m slowly sifting through my eco-friendly options. For an animal lover, she’s quite amenable to cruelty to humans. =)

Doodling a few of the purses from the tentative Alpha Collection:

I should probably splurge on a few sketchpads. Instead, I draw in composition notebooks. =)

These five handbags (six actually, since the Overachiever is a tote and clutch duo) have made it into production mode. More about these designs here and here.

The Duchess was the first handbag I ever designed, a few days before the NY bar. The Peripatetic went through many transformations, but I finally settled on a hobo. A purse with that namesake only made sense as a hobo bag. The Postmodernist was a very recent design, from a few days ago. I may still change this one; not entirely happy with it just yet. The Overachiever is the bag I designed around my lifestyle. I want a big bag, a weekender tote, something that will fit my laptop and case files. For that mid-day coffee run, however, I wouldn’t want to lug the giant tote with me, so I like that this comes with the matching clutch, which I’d use as a wallet. Finally, The Workaholic, which I may change around and revise as well.

My sisters critique The Workaholic to be too similar to The Overachiever. Of course as the designer, I would argue it’s totally different. The Workaholic is a more compact tote, that fits magazines upright, rather than on their sides like in The Overachiever. Also, there’s all those front zippered pockets on The Workaholic and the pleating. There’s no pleating on The Overachiever tote. Construction of the bags are different. In any regard, their critiques are worth thinking over.

If all fares well, I’ll be getting my samples done by the end of this year. I’m well on my way toward the anticipated Fall 2010 launch.