IMG_0079   Unfortunately, during week 3 I was quite unwell so was unable to attend most of my lectures. However, I was able to keep on top of the tasks given for this week which was Visual Promotion. This skill in the industry is something I have been very intrigued to learn about and feel like I could develop a lot of skill in. I am fascinated by how much you can do with visual promotion and how it never becomes repetitive. The creativity of it seems so endless and exciting to me.  Promotion to me is all about keeping up to date with what’s happening throughout the rest of the world – like trends, music, seasons, events, news, etc.  This is because these simple topics are most talked about throughout day to day life, through socialising and social media, and if your able to create something memorable enough, it fits in to these social elements and is spread about. That is how you simply promote something, as your aim is to create something people will share or be intrigued in, creating more sales or interaction with what your promoting. This is important especially in social media, as that is the main source of communication.  Visual promotion in my opinion is the most efficient way and with the help of social media, can also be the easiest if done correctly.  For example TikTok is a very successful platform to promote and is also easy if you have the skill and creativity to create something that has potential to do well. Therefore for my visual promotion task, my group done a TikTok style video. We planned the video out beforehand using a story board, and our aim was to create 6 different shots. One being a shot of the shoes, then an aesthetic of fashion to draw target audience in, a shot of the model getting ready using make-up, a shot of the outfit, then the outfit with the shoes and finally a shot leaving the house.  This plan successfully worked out, and we edited the clips together using a smooth transitioning tool to look more put together and professional. We also added text to the video ” Get ready with me with Nike” to give the viewers context, and if its reached the right target audience then to draw them in and watch the video. I feel like this is a realistic and successful promotional video type, as GWRM’s are often popular on social media and commonly used by influencers to either create content or when creating an advertisement. Many people often enjoy watching these types of videos as they’re short, interesting and often inspiring on how different routines from different people make an impact, whether they’re doing a certain skincare routine your interested in, or you are just interested on the influences life.  I enjoyed producing this promotional video because I feel like I have quite a lot of knowledge on them due to the amount of videos similar that come up on my social media. However, in the future I would like to step out of my comfort zone and  create a different type of promotional video that appears as more professional and would be viewed on brands official pages etc.

This week I  have been looking into the brand Nike as they are a popular shoe brand. Nike is a very successful company overall for not only their trainers but their wide variety of clothing. Sustainability is a topic that I  am extremely familiar with and is important to me in the Fashion Industry. I have been educated on it throughout my further years of education and therefore have become very familiar with the subject.  During this module we had to research a lot about brands sustainability and what they are doing to create a positive impact, as well as how it affects their product.  We created visual collages portraying sustainability in our chosen shoe / brand and we also had a task to up-cycle an old shoe. I enjoyed creating the visual collages as its interesting to see how you can create a message for the audience without being completely direct with it, I feel like adding visuals also helps create emotion. So when talking about sustainability, including aspects of nature in contrast with the shoe helps the viewer to understand the message and why it’s being used to get a message across – it allows the viewer to use their own imagination to put pieces together creating more of an emotional affect. As for up-cycling the shoe, I enjoyed this task as it allowed me to create something similar to my sustainability collage, and portray it on an object. I have to admit that at first I was quite stuck on how I could portray this on an object, as I feel like I always have good ideas but struggled to turn that into reality.  Not so much when it comes to collages, videos, photography, writing etc, but with practical situations like constructing garments and objects. However, after I decided that I  wanted my shoe to look realistic in terms of nature, and I began to think about the resources around me, it became much easier to create something I was hoping to make. I would have loved for my shoe to be a bit more interesting, as I feel like it still has areas with not much happening. However I’m happy with the story behind my shoe, which simply was using what you have to improve something, rather than destroying it for something else when it could become just as successful – a similar point made in sustainability. Why destroy something already perfectly fine, to create something just as good? All because it has a brand and a tag on it. I loved the small detail of taking out the boring white lace in the shoe and replacing it with a light green ribbon, it was simple but effective. And I can imagine that if a popular brand was to do something similar, it would be popular just because its a brand, even though instead of contributing towards the negative impacts of sustainability, you could do that at home.  I enjoyed the tasks this week as it allowed me to explore areas and skills I have either been unfamiliar with, like the focus on production of Shoe’s, or allowing me to refresh my mind on skills I have previously learned, like in depth research, collages etc. Reflecting back on myself during this week, I have struggled with feeling like I’m not doing as much as I should be, or at the quality I can achieve.  So once everything has been handed in for this module,  instead of overthinking about it, I want to move on and make sure I’m allowing myself the time to  be comfortable with my level of work and performance, and create a clearer headspace for myself now I understand the University life and level of Education a bit more.

Today’s focus  ( 04/09) was creating a visual story of an abandoned shoe, only using 4 Pictures.  After mapping out ideas and creating a story board to allow our creativity to develop, we decided to follow a storyline about a woman after a night out, struggling to get home. We included a comedic side to this story, like using the shoe as a telephone while calling a taxi, then accidentally abandoning the shoe.  I enjoyed working as a group as it allowed us to combine ideas and create something different.  As for the photoshoot itself, I enjoyed trying out different locations, poses, emotions, lighting, etc to create an impact on the viewers. This aspect of the photoshoot was important as we had to make sure the story was clear and also clever. I liked the final product of the 4 photos. It was a clear story, and the shots looked professional, they had interesting lighting, shading, locations and the model portrayed a woman after a night out very well. It was a fun exercise to help us learn more about taking interesting and high quality photos as well as learning how to portray a storyline and other emotions to create impact on the viewer.