Month: March 2019

Researching and Choosing a Sub Brand

Before choosing my sub brand for this project, I decided to explore existing, successful sub brands for popular brands, how they were established, how they reflect the main brand and their success. A few examples that came to mind were the brands: Red Valentino for Valentino which is marketing towards a much younger audience to appeal to a different crowd, Collusion for Asos, which is more dynamic and energetic, appeals to any gender as it is relatively genderless and Mennace for Missguided which is their male clothing sub brand, although this is slightly different as it seems to be a completely different brand which has links to missguided rather than a sub brand, even though it technically is.

I researched these all in my sketchbook which was very effective in my development of choosing and researching into creating my own sub brand as i and looked into the relation between the main brand and the sub brand and how they compare and contrast with each other as well as how I can take inspiration from certain aspects to keep in consideration for my own brand, such as keeping in mind the graphic design and the setting and environment of photoshoots.

As I researched the brands on the list I was keeping out for something that the brand was missing or could benefit from having in their collection to increase their customer base by appealing to another type of person. My options were between an accessories sub brand for Outlier based on utility wear accessories to keep the same customer base and attract loyal customers, a genderless athleisure brand for Puma to expand the audience and delve into a trend that needs to be applied to a lot for clothing stores or a sports wear athleisure brand for I am Chen tying in their current aesthetics to create a whole new brand.

I decided to chose to create a sportswear brand for I am Chen instead of the others as I felt more interested in the brand as a whole compared to the other two, I found the potential to explore the heritage more exciting as well as the fact that I have helped backstage with one of their shows therefore I feel more connect with the brand and excited to research the further. The style of athleisure and sportswear I am coming up with will allow me to become more absorbed into my work due to my interests.

This ties in with the WGSN that was given which explored not only upcoming trends, but the reasons why certain styles of clothing have become more popular. WGSN predict that more loungey, multifunctional and comfortable clothing will increase in popularity due to the growth of adults working from home due to the increase of jobs offered which allow people to make a living from the comfort of their room.

My next steps are:

SWOT for I am Chen

SWOT for Competitors

Research more trends and concepts for sub brand

Introduction to Visual Promotion

Introduction to visual promotion blog:

 

Starting this new project on visual promotion is exciting as it combines several skills and techniques from previous projects to compile together into one project to showcase everything we have learnt into one. Learning about visual narratives within a brand and different methods of visual promotion is exciting as I haven’t explored this thoroughly at university level yet.

Our brief is to create a sub brand utilising our research of our brand brand to determine what the brand is missing or could benefit from to create a new customer base and new section of the brand. Celebrity endorsements and collaborations cause sub brands creating a whole new customer base through fans of these celebrities.

Looking into the idea of heritage as an important factor within a brand, or within a personal aesthetic is interesting to me because sometimes I forget that heritage is what makes the brand in the first place, where it started and what makes it different from another brand or person established in a different place. Therefore when I create my sub brand, I will keep in mind the heritage and how i can use the heritage and identity of overarching key brand, pulling some through it with trend research to innovate my sub brand.

 

EXAMPLES:

Reference: Previous student Vanessa Menrad’s work:

• YSL brand, sub brand- Yvert- sustainability aspect of brand, backed up by research into ysl who are open to creating more sustainable content.
• created lookbook, took their aesthetic and transformed it into her sub brand, effective because it created a whole new customer base, touched upon an element that was missing from the overarching main brand, every element was thought through to create an approrate lookback, exaple, lookbook colours and setting reflected very earthy natural tones, relating back to sustainablity.

Kojey Radical

• Spiritual style spoken word relating back to politics and emotions relating back to Kojey Radical
• References to race and pigmentation and the deep emotions effects this can have on an individual, a nation and history.
• Choreography, spoken word, lyrics, setting, clothing all links back together.

Alice temperley

• Ideas of home and heritage projected onto her work through her style
• Sense of history with her family
• And how that tells stories with her brand
• References and inspirations all on her Instagram

Anna Trevelyan

• Embodies personal identity into her styling and the work she produces, strong alignment with personal sense of identity and the work she creates

Nadia Lee Cohen

• Works with anna trevelyan
• Societal expectations challenged
• Archetypes
• Subverted conversations
• Academic perspective creating interesting photography
• Puts herself in her work, satirical about own identity
• Her instagram gives an accurate sense of her own personality and identity which is used as her main tool of inspiration to form the basis of her ideals within her work

All of these have reminded me that I need to think about the details in everything I do when creating this sub brand to make sure it is all relevant and appropriate to relate back to the narrative I am presenting. Also noteworthy that some brands aren’t interested in trends but it’s the themes they’re speaking out on that becomes forthcoming and a new development which other brands speak on, such as brands like Gypsy Sport of Charles  Jeffrey which are more to do with identity, genderfluitify and expression rather than following trends, however these concepts can turn into trends such as feminine style clothing on mne from genderfluidity and mixed fabrics from expressive brands.

 

Final Zine Evaulation

The final collages I’ve been creating for my zine have been inspired by artists like Arn Gyssels, John Karbon, Sammy Slab-Binck, Rikako Nagashia, Johnny Smith and Jesse Treece which I’ve show in my sketchbook. Visually I wanted to represent the ever changing, distorted and confusing thoughts that relate t the representation of body image in the media as well as people’s personal understanding and reactions to that which has inspired the abstract and confusing imagery which is all distorted and more conceptual than creating realistic illustrations. Collage was a perfect medium for my final imagery for this very reason, you can take something that looks realistic, such as imagery from a magazine, then layer lots of realistic imagery to create a new image which is symbolic and unconventional. I’ve taken faces from magazines, newspapers and books while using some of my own old film photography of scenery and landscapes in the background to reflect the natural imagery that these collages artists used to juxtapose with and create a strange setting. I’ve played around with typography and found interesting words or phrases from newspapers to collage with making them seem more conceptual  and abstract.

 

The same concepts have inspired by the progression with my illustration to a more abstract and distorted version focusing on the methods of creating the imagery and the expressive and inventive produce that i’m creating rather than a very realistic body. My illustrations merge different techniques that i’ve played around with to create imagery such as, oil pastels with watercolour, as I enjoyed the reaction of the water on top of the oil pastel as they couldn’t combine, I’ve also created line drawings then smudged them with watercolors as well as printing the on the opposite side of the paper to create a new image in itself.

 

I’ve experimented heavily with both and used Adobe Photoshop to combine the two things together to create my own collages using imagery from my illustrations to create a hybrid of the two. I’ve shrunk some of my illustrations and layered the on top by repeating them over and over, or I’ve layered them on top using the Photoshop tools such as ‘Divide’, ‘Subtract’, and merge the images so they blend together nicely or I’ve invented the illustrations to transform the image.

 

The colour scheme seemed to happen naturally with me editing some of my other collages into a more grey/light pink/light blue colour scheme if they were too different before, filling in the colour with a shade from another college so they all link together well. I’ve also added some of the colleges with boxes of colour in the as that didn’t fit the style of the other collages so I’ve changed the backgrounds so they’re more of a texture than a solid filled colour.

 

I’ve been inspired by the tactile methods of creating layouts (my collages) from zines like Polyester, especially because they have a lot of representation of body positive themes and personal experiences, interviews and posters relating to important issues regarding the topic that haven’t been spoken about properly. I enjoyed Law magazines approach to magazines stating that they’re not  a fashion magazine, they’re a catalogue of things you didn’t know you needed, which i’ve brought to my zine as sits not fashion based, it touches on elements to do with fashion but it’s full of quotes and poems that people should hear relating to these corporate companies. I took the sentimental element of The Mushpit zines and took inspiration from their content which is, once again tactile and more conceptual than the others which i’ve tried to include within my own work too.

Another zine that fit my aesthetic really well was Carpark magazine, although not related to body image like Mushpit or Polyester, the layout was so simple yet so effective. I wanted my zine layout to be consistent all the way through because of the complexity of the designs of my collages, which is why Carpark suited my zine as the imagery they have is similar in the abstract sort of way i’m creating my work but the way they’ve laid it out doesn’t make it seem overwhelming or distracting, each image is able to be viewed correctly.

I’ve found some poems online from the likes of Lily Myers, Katie Makkai, Sierra DeMulder, Megan Falley and Melissa May to provide me with some inspiration to create my own poems based on body image, drawing from everyone’s collective experiences to provide for the written content of my zine.

 

Creating Work For My Final Zine

After creating paintings, illustrations and collages at A4 and A3 size as well as creating them in my pocket sketchbook at A6 size, I have concluded that I prefer making content in the smaller sketchbook instead of at a larger size. I don’t feel as if the paintings I was creating at A3 size looked effective at all, I didn’t really feel confident i them at all. Although this is due to a few factors; the paintings I were creating were with acrylic paints which I don’t have much experience in using at all, I was trying too hard to make the look realistic and i felt like I needed to go back to the previous workshops and reflect back on the success of my illustration which were effective as I wasn’t trying to make them look realistic or anything, and I was using materials that I was more confident in using like oil pastels and brush paints and fine liners.

 

I the created the same style of paintings using my fingers, as I couldn’t find any paintbrushes, but at a much smaller scale around A5. These looked far better as I remembered the other workshop methods and listened to some music while focusing on the form and the shapes creating images that I wanted to, not as they looked very realistic. As I was happy with these I would consider using them towards my final zine by incorporating them into collages. I also found it was easier to create a more accurate proportions and scale of the body than painting A3 which I felt like distorted the shape of the person I was drawing in a bad way.

 

Due to the success of my smaller illustrations and paintings I have decided to utilise my pocket sketchbook further as I felt like I was making beautiful little illustrations that I could experiment further with and create more dynamic pieces unique to my style by creating lots of more illustrations that that scale, which seemed to work best for me and to stop using the bigger sketchbook as I didnt like the images I was creating out of that.

 

 

Allison Laper

Artist Alison Laper came into class today to give us a lecture based on her struggles and experiences, as well as coming to terms with being a disabled person with limb definition, as her legs are abnormally small and she doesn’t have hands or long limbs, and how she has come to terms with living the way she does, her self confidence and body image as well as her journey as an artist throughout all of this.

I felt that he lecture was very inspirational as she went into detail about the experiences she had been through with her family, teachers and friends going through school reacting to her body when she was hardly old enough to understand it herself. She spoke about the methods of trying to ‘make her look like a normal, able bodied person, which was damaging to her development as she needed t learn how to use her limbs as they are instead of adding machinery to her body which won’t help her development with her body mentally or physically.

 

The her speaking about her journey as an artist, taking self portraits of face and body to use for her artwork, but having to get someone else to press the button of the camera even though she stated she directed and staged the shoot but simply needed someone to press the button for her.

 

She also explained in depth throughout, the opinions of her own body how it felt looking physically different to everyone around her and being an outcast in her own family from her own mother who didn’t understand how to take care of her with no limbs, even though it would be the same way as taking care of a child with limbs. It’s inspiring how confident she is in herself ad the way she looks as she’s completely become used to the fact that she has limb deficiency which in honesty doesn’t make a different to anything in anyone’s lives apart from how she sicily moves and carries out actions.

 

We then went through with an activity of painting but doing everything without using our hands, we could use our feet or our mouths like Alison Laper but not our hands to understand not only how she carries out day to day activities, but also to think of different methods of creating marks with unconventional methods and how they differ to using our hands.

The verdict of the workshop was that it obviously felt very unnatural for me t be using my mouth to hold a paintbrush, and could be quite painful, but even holding it in my mouth I wasn’t limited at all to the kinds of brush strokes I could create or the times of lines and splashes could make by moving my head in different ways to create something exciting.

 

 

Bookbinding Workshops

Learning about different methods of creating a sketchbook and bookidning has really opened by eyes to less conventional methods of creating zines which relate back to the tactile aesthetic of creating the literal content, the methods of binding can reflect the same aesthetic while looking more interesting than hand stapled zines. Going through normal methods of creating leaflets physically by creating the folds ourselves the writing the page numbers down, even with the most simplified methods of creating a booklet was helpful in viduallig how to print our znes as we had a template out in front of us which i can then translate back onto an InDesign document.

 

The learning and practising other methods binding using a book binding kit and methods such as Japansing binding methods were very helpful in me thinking outside the box when it comes to the smaller details of creating a zine that I didn’t think about before and how this could possibly relate back to the theme of my work.

 

 

Hand Drawn Typography

This session differed from the revosu one learning about standard typography. typefaces and fonts whereas we’re bending the rules and creating our own typography using our own painting materials which is really interesting for me because the words and letters can be used to create its own image in itself or the shapes and characteristics of the lines can be altered to represent a mode, a feeling or the theme of the zine itself.

 

I used templates of other fonts to create my own style using different outlines and shapes to create a more abstract version of each letter from the template, because this more my style as i prefer working more abstract than normal so it was exciting for me to develop my own style and relate it to how I can create typography in a different and inventive way. I used my outline drawing and transformed it into a template by using the scalpel to cut out some of the shapes then used paint to paint over, creating more versions of the one letter ‘K’.

 

Typography

Learning more about the basics of typography is helpful for the development of my zine because typography plays a huge part in not only the quality and aesthetic of  a magazine or zine, but also the characteristics and personality of a brand. A zine with a handwritten font, consistently throughout the magazine pages, which has been refined through Photoshop or Illustrator compared to a magazine with a sleek, clean cut sans-serif font throughout the magazine then compared to a zie with an inconstant mixture of both or sans-serif and serif font will all have a different personality reflected by the type. A messier handwritten font will give a more personal, unique and tactile quality as it’s it’s more related to the person who has written it themselves, because handwriting s very unique and personal. The more clean cut can suggest a mre high quality , high definition magazine which is trying to sell a service or sell advertisements throughout rather than a handwritten zine which is more for the expression of artistic purposes.

 

Learning about the differences between typefaces and fonts allows me to understand typography slightly better even though I still find it complicated and confused, but it makes more sense the more it’s broken down. Typefaces are about the quality of the lines and the forms that they create and fonts are the typeface as a whole and how it’s translated into sentences and strung together consistently.

 

Serif fonts are used on magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and Marie CLaire, to give off a more classy, and old fashioned vibe to their magazines whereas slightly more current and contemporary magazines such as Dazed, i-D and Teeth use sans-serif fonts which give off a more modernised and current aesthetic as they’re more bold and eye catching wherase serif fonts are usually thinner and fancy/ This is because serif fonts are used in old newspaper articles and books whereas sans-serif fonts are used in advertising nowadays, such as helvetica being one of the most popular fonts used throughout hundreds of different brands.

 

InDesign Workshops: Flatplanning/Magazine Layouts

Learning about the basics of a magazine layout and stripping down the content to a simplified flat plan of the bare minimum is very effective in me developing my learning for InDesign as it makes everything more easier to translate and draw out physically. As i learn better when drawing things out by hand and planning my work by hand rather than straight online, it was helpful to learn about magazines this way because I always felt that layout was very complicated and time consuming as there are many elements to creating and understanding how and where all the images, text and typography and titles are placed.

 

We had to find a magazine spread, article etc. and pick it apart by drawing it out by hand, showing where the pictures are by drawing a square with an ‘X’ in the middle etc., showing where the text is by drawing lines across etc. This allowed me to then recreate this on InDesign using filler text, text boxes and default images to get myself more confident with using the program.

 

InDesign Workshops: Typography/Filler Text/Bleed

Our InDesign workshops are very useful for me as I know that using programs such as InDesign are definitely a weakness of mine and I don’t really enjoy using it, however, I am aware of just how important it is for the development of my progress in not only this zine project, but also my degree as it’s such a widely used and useful program in the world of fashion communication to create magazine spreads, layouts, lookbooks, zines, posters and leaflets therefore learning the basics will come in handy for the future.

 

We earnt different methods such as setting up the bleed which will help me with the magazine so I don’t accidentally print something that gets cut off, which is useful to know when printing lookbooks or anything with imagery that can’t afford to be cut off at the beginning. I’ve also learnt how to insert images of a certain size and shape which is useful for em to add in other things to the page as well as images or to have some white space to really highlight the image instead of it all being one page. Inserting filler text was something I really hadn’t thought about before as it never crossed my mind how important and useful it could be. I can now lay out a magazine spread with text and articles using filter text to fill the space while i can imagine what the page will look like effectively. We also learned some typographic methods of deislayi gout text such as writing on a ath, so we can create text written in the shape of  circle which is more interesting ad gripping than if it were just always written on a straight line.

 

Although these workshops are very useful for me, I was planning on having my zine made in a more tactile way, creating collages and illustrations by hand in my sketch book or lose sheets of paper then moving them into photoshop and scanning them in as that’s personally how I feel best working, ad how my bes work has come out. Although I know I will still need to use InDesign for layout purposes and for moving things around.