Sunday, November 20, 2011

A Tale Of Two Wall Sconces

Vertigo Wall Sconce

Frazier Wall Sconces


This is a brief story about a new technique which I discovered in India some time ago.  We refer to it as “burned copper”.  Typically when I find a new finish, be it on metal, ceramic, wood, or glass, it can often be the seed of an idea that grows into a complete category of goods.  One must be careful when putting a collection together however; as a collection can have too much of a good thing!
In this case, the discussion is part design and part price point; following up on my previous blog posting.  Using this technique , along with some other items, I created a couple of wall sconces, both decidedly modern in feel but with different price points.  One was sold as a set of two and the other was sold individually. 
The set of two; while very well crafted (and designed of course!) were set to retail at the high range of where we had retailed wall sconces to date, while the single item retailed at 14.99.  Probably, not surprisingly, The single wall sconce has been very successful at retail, while the more expensive set of two was much less successful (dismal is a word that comes to mind!)  
In analyzing the differences and possible reasons why one would be so successful and one not so, it became clear to me that one possibility besides the price point difference could have been that the scale of the design of the set of two which was quite small and made it hard to appreciate the incredibly rich finish, while the other had a variety of metals as well as the fact that the actual shapes used were much larger, thus having a greater impact visually, both on the packaging and on the wall.
I dare say, the experience with these two wall sconces has taught me volumes, both about design and price point.  To this day, when I’m drawing (which I try to do daily), the experiences of these two designs is with me always.