Monday 18th January 2016
As a
group there was a discussion about the Belbin team roles, my first result was a
Completer-Finisher.
"Characteristics
Painstaking, orderly, conscientious, anxious.
Completers, or Completer-Finishers, have a great capacity
for follow-through and attention to detail, and seldom start what they cannot
finish. They are motivated by internal anxiety, although outwardly they
may appear unruffled. Typically, they are introverts who don't need
much external stimulus or incentive. Completer-Finishers dislike carelessness and are
intolerant of those with a casual disposition. Reluctant to delegate,
they prefer to tackle all tasks themselves.
Function
Completer-Finishers are invaluable where tasks demand close
concentration and a high degree of accuracy. They foster a sense of
urgency within a team and are good at meeting schedules. In management, they
excel by the high standards to which they aspire, and by their concern for
precision, attention to detail and follow-through.
Strengths
A capacity for fulfilling their promises and working to the
highest standards.
Allowable Weaknesses
A tendency to worry about small things and a reluctance to let
go."
My secondary result was
a Resource Investigator.
Characteristics
Extroverted, enthusiastic, curious, communicative.
Resource Investigators are good
communicators both inside and outside the organisation. They are natural negotiators, adept at exploring new opportunities and
developing contacts. Although
not necessarily a great source of original ideas, they are
quick to pick up other people's ideas and build
on them. They are skilled at finding out
what is available and what can be done, and usually get a warm welcome because
of their outgoing nature. Resource Investigators have relaxed personalities with a strong inquisitive sense and a readiness to
see the possibilities of anything new. However, unless they remain stimulated by others, their
enthusiasm rapidly fades.
Function
Resource Investigators are quick to open up and exploit
opportunities. They have an ability to think on their feet and
to probe others for information. They are the best people to set up
external contacts, to search for resources outside the group, and to carry out
any negotiations that may be involved.
Strengths
A capacity for finding useful people and promising ideas or opportunities, and a general
source of vitality.
Allowable Weaknesses
Liable
to lose interest once the initial fascination has passed."
This task allowed both me as an
individual and us as a group to understand more about our strengths and
weaknesses and what we can each bring to a team. This will assist in future
when we need to delegate appropriate tasks to individuals.
After going through the
brief together for a second time and looking over the unit handbook and the marking
matrix in much more detail, we created a critical path to ensure that our
project is strategically planned.
A universal task was set
to go away and research an appropriate fashion brand/ designer to use for this
assignment.
Monday 25th January 2016
During this week i researched possible
designers that could be used within this assignment; I narrowed my ideas down
to Bobby Abley and Alex Mullins as I felt that it would be good to do a
menswear brand because this is something we as a group had not yet done. I found these designers latest collections on the London Menswear Collections that had recently been on in London. I
collated appropriate mood boards to present to my peers in the meeting.
I set up a Pinterest board as a place to collect imagery for this assignment which can be found via this link...
https://uk.pinterest.com/laurenchristie0/sfc-group/
I set up a Pinterest board as a place to collect imagery for this assignment which can be found via this link...
https://uk.pinterest.com/laurenchristie0/sfc-group/
As a group we felt most inspired by the Alex Mullins collection
out of all brands that where considered. The task set for this week was to go
away and research around the concept of Alex Mullins A/W 16 collection to
enable some ideas to begin to formulate.
Flora Borsi
Borsi is a surrealist photographer who manipulates images, this often involves distortion of the face.
Borsi is a surrealist photographer who manipulates images, this often involves distortion of the face.
I like how the face is always covered and i feel that this could tie in really well to the Alex Mullins A/W 16 collection.
Friday 29th January
Following Monday’s meeting, each of the group members had
researched Alex Mullins and documented any key concepts or ideas that have
culminated as a result.
My initial research focused on the idea of portraiture and how
portraiture had changed through time.
Portraiture began back in the times of Ancient Greece, Egyptians
and Romans in the form of wall paintings and sculptures of God’s and Goddesses.
It then moved onto portraiture in the classic sense of paint and
canvas and has seen developments in each of the art movements from baroque to
impressionism and to pop art.
Evolving alongside art was the camera, which has developed from
1000AD to the present day. This piece of technology formulates what is now seen
today as the modern day portraiture.
The selfie revolution encapsulates the modern day version of portraiture
(that was once only accessible to the wealthy) has become accessible to the
mass population. People are able to take their own portraits from the digital cameras
embedded in their mobile phone devices.
It is interesting to consider how this has developed over time and
consider the future of the portrait. Many progresses in the areas of moving
image such as film and GIF’s have emerged in the form of the profile picture on
social media, something that should also be considered alongside the selfie.
In this meeting we discussed everyone’s ideas that had emerged
from their secondary research. The main key themes that we came up with were
Portraiture, Art, Identity and Genderless Fashion.
The task set for the next meeting was to research the themes in
relation to Alex Mullins and to research Alex Mullins’ consumer demographic.
I recognise the Alex Mullins Consumer demographic to be under the CACI classification of 'socialising young renters' (Acorn, 2016)
Monday 1st February 2016
“The Intelligence Group's online survey with respondents age 14-34
found that more than two-thirds agree gender does not define a person the way
it once did, and 60% think gender lines have been blurred”
WGSN (2016) proposed key concepts for the future consumer of 2018.
The key concept that was most appropriate to the concept that we are looking at,
was the ‘flexible identities section’. It documented that Generation- Z are
becoming less concerned by stereotypes and social norms of gender, sexuality,
race and employment. Many fashion houses and brands have created some sort of
genderless fashion showing that the industry has already begun to respond to
this concept. Dazed and Confused, Fila, Elder Error and more recently Zara are
an example of how the industry has begun to use this in their activities.
In discussion within the meeting, the consumer was discussed. The
idea of genderless fashion had already organically occurred within the team’s
primary research and the concept deriving from the idea of portraiture was
frames. Considering these ideas in correlation to each other, it was suggested
that the frames of a portrait confine it, taking this with the idea of the
consumer who does not want to be confined to gender stereotypes came an
interesting topic of development that was proposed that we would take forward
for the rest of the assignment.
The task between meetings was to carry out some primary research
and to create some ideas for typography for the project deriving from the
lecture.
Monday 8th February 2016
Last Mondays lecture highlighted the importance of typography
within branding and a campaign. Alex Mullins currently has a logo which is
strong and applicable to our concept as it looks like brush strokes which
relates to the art and portraiture theme underpinning our ideas.
Types of Font Examples:
As a Group we decided to use 'Rough typewriter' throughout our assignment as it most reflected the artistic look that we were trying to achieve, but also baring in mind the fonts that have previously been used by Alex Mullins.
Types of Font Examples:
As a Group we decided to use 'Rough typewriter' throughout our assignment as it most reflected the artistic look that we were trying to achieve, but also baring in mind the fonts that have previously been used by Alex Mullins.
During this week I visited an exhibition in Liverpool named ‘One
Man’s Cross Dressing Wardrobe’ at the Walker Art Gallery. It was about a man
named Peter Farrer who has lived in Liverpool for many years and has been cross
dressing since the age of 14. The exhibition show cased an impressive selection
of a cross dressers wardrobe. This, for me encapsulated the idea of gender
blurring in contemporary society which is reflective of the ideas of our
digital campaign. At the age of 14 Peter would not have been brave enough to demonstrate
his cross dressing in public and reveal that he was transgender due to it not
being socially acceptable at the time. This exhibition shows how far society
has developed and enabled freedom of expression. It was commissioned as part of
‘homotopia’ which was set up to celebrate cultural diversity in Liverpool.
The task for this week was to collate some images that can be used
for the formative assessment submission board.
Monday 15th February 2016
Reflecting on research to date, images were selected to formulate the
formative submission board.
Formative Assessment Submission Friday 19th February.
This is considers an amalgamation of two
concepts that were taken from the Alex Mullins collection: Gender &
Portraiture. Working on the idea that a frame constrains a piece of art or an
image, similarly people now feel constrained by defining themselves as typical
gender types which is why fashion has recently become quite androgynous.
This is a concept that will underpin the rest of the assignment.
The task for this week is to research
possible outputs for the assignment.
Monday 22nd February 2016
Following a meeting with Jennifer, Zoe and
Elizabeth, we considered the feedback from them for our Formative Submission
Mood board.
After sharing all of our ideas it was
suggested that we look into old fashioned contact sheets and portraiture, this
is something that will be explored by each of the group members.
Wednesday 24th February 2016
This meeting involved a discussion of the outcome of the meeting
and possible outputs for the assignment.
We played around as a group with the photo booth app on the apple
phones and iPads to create our own versions of contact sheets.
It was decided that the first thing to do would be to do a
photoshoot.
I contacted a studio in Ancoats, Manchester and was able to book
it out for Tuesday 1st March.
Thinking about Models, we wanted people who didn’t typically
conform to social stereotypes.
Due to an unfortunately unsuccessful street casting experience
from Allana, Emily and Rebecca, we had to then find people who would be willing
to soot with us.
I had in mind Dylan who is tall with long dark hair which goes
against the standard hair cut that society typically would suggest a male would
have and also has a tattoo.
Rebecca’s friend Matt was also suggested as he had piercings and
tattoos which also transgress what is socially expectable, although this is
becoming more accepted we felt that he reflected the aesthetics of the typical
consumer.
Alex Mullins uses females to model his collection alongside males.
We therefore wanted to also cast some females.
I found Sophie on a facebook group that advertised models who
would be willing to work for free to build up their portfolios. Sophie has
previous experience for clients such as GHD. We therefore thought that she
would be perfect and she was of Chinese race so therefore provided racial
diversity amongst our models.
Jade and Fran who were also Rebecca’s friends were also asked to
attend as it was felt that they had quite versatile looks which could be used
to our advantage.
We were each allocated roles for the photoshoot to ensure a
professional and successful shoot. I also devised a plan to ensure that we had
a rough time schedule and everyone was able to have a go at everything they
wanted to have a go at.
The task for this week was to plan any imagery that may be useful
for the shoot, depending on each of our designated roles.
"Rough Plan for Photoshoot
6pm- Arrive at
the venue
6-6:30- Rebecca-
makeup and hair on all female models
Allana- Make sure all styling is perfect on the male models
ready for shooting
Emily- Set up the playlist & set up lighting
Katie- Set up the props/ set and make sure they are ready to
use when needed
Lauren- gets all cameras ready and film the getting set up
parts
6:30- Rebecca
(time for over run on makeup)
Katie & Allana- begin getting video footage
Lauren & Emily- Begin Shooting Dylan
**While people are
waiting ask them to get some individual or group images using the photo booth
app to create some contact sheets **
7:00- Lauren &
Emily - shoot one female
Rebecca- Shoot Matt
Katie and Allana- Continue to film all aspects and make sure
all styling, setting and makeup is looking good
7:30- Rebecca-
shoots one female
Allana & Katie- shoot the final female
Lauren and Emily- Continue to film all aspects and make sure
all styling, setting and makeup is looking good
8+ - Some models
may wish to go home if they have to get the train (give them the option)
A change for overrun, retaking images
A chance for group shots
9/9:30 pack up and
tidy up studio from shoot"
In preparation for the photoshoot some of us made t-shirts for use within the images. This is because Alex Mullins sells hand made tshirts via his facebook page and we tried to emulate this within our images. This was my tshirt:
On reflection, i also added some colour to reflect the AW16 collection.
In preparation for the photoshoot some of us made t-shirts for use within the images. This is because Alex Mullins sells hand made tshirts via his facebook page and we tried to emulate this within our images. This was my tshirt:
Tuesday 1st March 2016
Photoshoot!
During the photo shoot many images, video footage, images from the photo booth app and boomerangs were taken.
Here are a selection of images i took during the shoot:
Photo booth Images:
Camera Images:
Favourite Image:
Thursday 3rd March 2016
Following the Tuesday we got together to view all of the images
and video footage that had resulted from the photoshoot.
Contact sheets were printed off of all photos that were taken and each
group member circled their favourite images from the shoot. This enabled us to
narrow down a large set of images and to select a group of images that would be
developed for the digital campaign.
Despite the fact that Sophie was an amazing model and provided so
much in terms of imagery, unfortunately we decided that the best imagery that
reflected the brand and the digital campaign concept we were trying to create
were from Dylan and Matt, so we make the group decision not to use any females
for imagery in this project. We felt that this would be more relatable to the
target consumer also.
Here are some of her images that we decided not to use:
Here are some of her images that we decided not to use:
We then discussed how we can move this project forward in terms of
outputs. Using the video footage taken, we decided to create a behind the
scenes video with voice overs speaking about identity and gender, which relates
to our concept.
We decided that the stills and photo booth images would be best presented
in the form of a conceptual magazine to display our images alongside our
concept and including quotes about gender and identity to provide consistency
over the two digital platforms that where to be created.
It was decided that the photo booth images would be best displayed
in the form of a GIF. As previously mentioned within the research, GIF’s are
emerging as the new form of the selfie that has previously derived from traditional
portraiture and could be suggested that this is the future of the portrait.
After deciding on our three main outputs, as a group we
strategically devised a plan to make the most of the remaining weeks.
The task for the next meeting was to begin creating the behind the
scenes video and conceptual magazine.
Monday 7th March 2016
Adobe Photoshop, Images from the photo shoot were edited for use
within the conceptual magazine. Emily, Allana, Katie and I began to create the
conceptual magazine using Adobe InDesign. The theme throughout would be
represented by hand drawn art effects created on photo shop and layered over
images and text. The layout would represent contact sheets that had developed
throughout our project.
Alongside this, we began to edit the film clips that would be used
within the behind the scenes video using final cut pro.
The tasks for next meeting would be to research music that could
potentially be used within the video and to record voice overs of people
speaking about gender and identity.
Songs that i found for the behind the scenes video were...
Songs that i found for the behind the scenes video were...
Thursday 10th March 2016
Rebecca, Katie and Emily continued to work on the conceptual
magazine whilst Allana and I created a selection of GIF’s from the photo booth
images. We decided that they would be best used on Instagram as it would best
target the consumer and instagram is a kind of contact sheet in itself.
The music was selected for the Video: ‘London Baby’ by Michael
Woods (radio edit). It was decided as Alex Mullins is a London based brand and
has house music tendencies that is currently most popular with the consumer.
We discussed ideas of a campaign tagline also: the ideas can be demonstrated by the word cloud. The final tagline was 'leave the frame behind'
We discussed ideas of a campaign tagline also: the ideas can be demonstrated by the word cloud. The final tagline was 'leave the frame behind'
Friday 11th March 2016
Emily and I began by continuing to cut down video footage into
clips and ordered in the story frame.
Allana and Katie continued with the conceptual magazine.
We then swapped so that each of us had an input into each of the
outputs.
The video was finished.
We then realised that we were ahead of our schedule in terms of
creating outputs and therefore decided that we would create another output for
this digital campaign. This output was to be an app that would include a
drawing game within and other features such as news, and a Tinder-like shopping
platform for Alex Mullins Garments. This was based on what is currently
emerging in the industry such as a similar technology from Missguided.
Augmented reality in the form of geo-filters on snapchat could be
created when people are in and around the London Area.
This idea was inspired by a current filter on snapchat that we felt would work really well within our digital campaign: for example...
This idea was inspired by a current filter on snapchat that we felt would work really well within our digital campaign: for example...
Monday 14th March 2016
Having reviewed the behind the scenes video over the weekend there
were several improvements that I felt needed to be made to it and the other
girls agreed. Unfortunately we were unable to open our video, so we then had to
create a new one.
The improvements we wanted to make were:
·
To
add in more flashes of colour
·
To add
in the campaign headline
·
To change
some of the voice overs as they were not as effective as anticipated
·
To add
in some effects
·
To ensure
that each of the clips went with the beats in the music
With these improvements in mind Emily, Allana and I recreated the
video whilst Rebecca and Katie created some possible snapchat filters.
Tuesday 15th March 2016
During this meeting a mock-up of the app was
created to show how it would look visually in practise. Each team member
contributed to this output.
We now have a total of five outputs for our digital
campaign ‘leave the frame behind’ for Alex Mullins A/W 16 collection.
Wednesday 16th March 2016
As a group we updated the logbook to upload some
imagery and make the layout accessible and aesthetically pleasing.
Friday 18th March 2016
DEADLINE!!
We met up as a group to upload our submissions to moodle.
