joecorlitofcp

[joecorlitofcp]

Round up of May 2020 and year 1 Hand In

As we entered the beginning of May, I wanted to use the first few days/first week to finish my industry file. I had already produced the skeletons for the layout, it was now just a matter of putting in images and adding the text I had written up for each selected practitioner. I spent a few days doing this as it was a slow progression. There were a lot of details to consider but i did really enjoy seeing the process unfold infront of me. The textures and effects I added to the document help to make it feel more authentic as there will be no final physical version of this document. I think this is definitely a shame, but I hope to print it and bind it at some point in the future to see hwo my idea would have looked in a physical form. 

I completed all of my work just before the official/original hand-in date. I spent the rest of the time before the extended hand-in date slowly adding to my sketchbooks and finalising all the documents I needed for submission. I was really pleased with the documents I have produced over this unit, as well as the first unit we did. The range of work we have been involved with and produced has helped my learning and understanding of the fashion industry as i am a tactile learner. I think the theory sessions have also been very insightful as they have helped me to learn more in depth about specific things within the industry which I am sure will prove to beneficial in due course.

As we come to the hand-in date, I am able to reflect on the time I have spent working this academic year. I started the course with mixed feelings, but have come to the end of the first year feeling confident in myself, knowing that the work I have produced is up to a high standard. I look forward to the coming years as they should hopefully open up a lot more opportunities for me. I hope next year to be able to be part of an internship with a brand or agency. I also hope to be able to work alongside industry professionals within job roles i have grown to be interested in. I think there are a lot of positives to look back on. The most important skill I have grown to understand is perseverance, I have worked continuously through the entirety of the first year, this has had an extremely positive reflection on me both academically and mentally. I hope to carry this trait through the rest of my time at NUA, not only that but through my entire life. 

I have high hopes for the next two years, with all I have gained this year, it can only be worked on and developed in times to come. I also look forward to reflecting on these reflective journal entries when it comes round to graduation.

[joecorlitofcp]

Round up of April 2020

Due to lockdown and the restrictions on seeing people, the ability to produce some of the visual work has been slowed. I figured because of this, I would speak about the work I have been producing throughout April as a whole as there I was trying to pace myself so I wasn’t left with nothing to do for 3 weeks through May. 

I found that I was able to carry on working through my industry file every day or so, slowly allowing it to pick up some pace to the point where I had a healthy amount of research into around 13 individual practitioners. I found it very enjoyable to have the time to focus purely on the industry file as I felt I had been putting it off due to the marketing project. I made sure to finish the marketing project as soon as I could with the intention of using the additional time to focus on the other two projects, this worked well for me. 

April brought on a lot of challenges in terms of motivation, I feel one thing that caused me to struggle somewhat was the shift in marking criteria. I voiced this in a tutorial over Microsoft Teams which helped to ease my mind on the whole situation. I had been working pretty flat out up until I learned the marking scheme would be changed to a pass or fail basis, it unfortunately began to build a mental barrier for me as far as motivation but I made sure to power through and complete the work for my own success. I am grateful for the work the tutors have put in to help us stay up to date with everything that is happening at this time, I feel it is being handled well and hopefully they can understand that dip in motivation.

The industry write up was something I wanted to make sure I finished by the first couple of weeks of April and I achieved this. It felt good! I was excited to bring my information to life through my final design layout, of which I feel is very unique and imaginative. My next focus was on the magazine group project. By this time, we had decided to go away from the group aspect, which was something we were told was available as an option. I feel the work would have been a lot more stressful if we had maintained the communication as half of the group would not respond to messages in the Whatsapp chat. 

Deciding to go alone to develop on the magazine areas I was working on was a good idea. I think the imagery I was able to produce with Sam and Reuben was really strong overall and the layouts were imaginative and exciting. I was more pleased with Reuben’s spreads as i felt they reflected him more as a professional which was perhaps more accurate to who he was. Maybe it was easier to produce Reuben’s spreads because it required a cleaner layout? Maybe. 

The magazine project development came to an end at the same time April did. I was happy with the sketchbook work, I think my digital designs were interesting, I was also pleased with the sketchbook itself. More than anything, I think the project was extremely useful and eye opening for me, I found out a lot of things about publications that I was unaware of. I was grateful for the sessions we had with Sophie as well as any other lecture or session revolving around the magazine brief, I think it has shown me just how much there is to consider when designing and creating a single publication.

I finished up the magazine project sketchbook and had a break for a few days, then went back to my industry file. I was determined to lay out the layout skeletons for the final design by the end of April/beginning of May. 

Overall, April was a good month for me. It was nice that I was able to have the time to focus on coursework with no distractions. I think the work I produced this month was strong and also extremely beneficial to my overall year of FCP. The most important pieces of work this month lay in my industry file research as I feel I learned the most from this body of work. I look forward to finishing off my coursework for hand in in a months time, until then I am having a break from University work for a few days and focussing on making the most of being stuck at home with my family.

[joecorlitofcp]

30th March

I have been working on my industry file all week, my main focus is to get the written and research aspect of this completed so I can relax off from it and bring my magazine project up to equal speed. I have looked at a couple of creatives of whom I really enjoyed, Helen MacIntyre and Andy Hillman, I found their background and current work to be inspiring and exciting to me.

The most exciting aspect of working on the industry file, for me, is the fact that it helps so much with understanding the job roles I am interested in. For instance, the role I have found I can relate to more than others is Set Design. This stemmed off the back of the guest lecture we had with Helen MacIntyre where everything about the background of the job role appealed to me. I made sure to look more into depth about set design and research a broad range of people in this field to help me get a wider body of information about the journey each of them took to get into that industry.

I am still at a point in my life where I do not know what I want to aim for, it may not end up being within the fashion world, but I am certain that the work and research I have put into this industry file is helping me understand areas I am interested in in a much more detailed and in-depth way. 

[joecorlitofcp]

23rd march

This week marked the first week of isolation, which had a profound impact on the progression of the group magazine project. The communication and enthusiasm from some of those in the group has dropped dramatically which is totally understandable. We were given options this week as to whether we wanted to continue with the magazine project to see it through to completion, or just develop and expand on what we had produced so far. It was interesting to see an almost perfect split of people who wanted to continue and those who felt it was more stressful to do so. I wanted to try and progress on a little further with my magazine spreads before calling it a day as I felt there was still a fair amount of work I would be getting on with for it. I think one of the main things I wanted to show was the designs for each of my practitioners and also the development of ideas for the front cover. 

I spent a majority of this week filling in gaps that I had noted down as being areas of focus to meet hand-in requirements. These areas ran over the three projects of this unit . The marketing project only required me to add some finishing touches, as I had finished this one for the most part on time. The other two projects needed a fair amount of work, so, I made sure to work in a somewhat chronological order and complete my industry file write up before progressing any further with my magazine project, I let the rest of the group know so they were aware of this. 

I set targets, as I wanted to get back up to date. Working from home and in isolation was something that could have stopped me from maintaining enthusiasm and drive but the use of targets and the thought of hitting and achieving these targets helped me to continue on with my work.

[joecorlitofcp]

Week 21 Reflective Journal

This week was quite intense, we started initially by brainstorming interview questions as a group in the Monday session. As individuals, we would each write brief descriptions of our creatives, we gave ourselves 20 minutes to complete this. After this time, we would then go round the table and pitch our creative to the rest of the group, this would allow the others to get a good idea of what an individual creative is like and in-turn allow questions to be formulates based on the information provided. The question brainstorming worked quite effectively, we did one creative each and worked from group ideas to create a series of questions to ask. Below is my research into Reuben, my entrepreneurial creative:

Reuben Fletcher

About the company:

Fen and Fletcher Cambridge

fenandfletcher.co.uk

Premium art dealership founded and run by Reuben

Exploring artworks, jewellery and home deco.

Stocking a broad range of styles from many historic eras

Stock includes originals from famous artists such as Banksy, Dave White and Romero Britto

Deals not only in the UK but overseas with buyers in the US too

Operates heavily through the facebook page ‘Fen&Fletcher’

About the creative:

Didn’t attend university, studied art subjects at A-level

Established a website in early 2019, dealing in antiques since —-

Worked in a small corner space in an antiques hall for many years beforehand, buying and selling smaller pieces to fund the shop floor space and to make him money through his teenage years

Spare time sees him restoring valuable guitars which are then sold on at auction etc.

Aspires never to be employed by somebody else, heavily set on becoming a fully fledged entrepreneur

Through completing this research, I found a few questions to ask on my own, though it was definitely useful to get ideas from others in the group too. I ended up with a list of questions and developed on from there. I think the most important part of this brainstorming exercise was to get everybody in the group engaging with each other so we were all on the same page. 

The session also saw a big advancement in the project, through the utilisation of the Whatsapp group chat to make plans and set work-based targets to achieve by the start of this week we were able to have all of our creatives selected. This brought on 14 individuals who would be interviewed and photographed, creating a huge bulk of content for our magazine, certainly very exciting to look toward.

On the Monday session, we planned to have a lot of things done for the Friday of that week:

An interview with at least one person

Introductory paragraph of the person (A photo, their name, what they do and a summary of who they are)

Moodboard for editorial visuals/photoshoot visuals

Shoot plans

Potentially start some shoots the week afterward

This was something we saw to be relatively achievable, though it depended quite heavily on the creatives getting back to us on the interview questions. 

The Tuesday session led up to another brainstorming session for a working title, this brought on a few new options we had not really considered before...

Names such as:

Undivided

Profile

Entity

Herd

Flock

Voice 

Uncover

Though some of these names were strong, there wasn’t anything that jumped out at us.

We did another mindmap of name ideas, some of the better ones (in my opinion) were:

@

Breakthrough

Handle

Platform

Rise

Glow

The idea with these titles would be to push forward the feeling of upcoming designers and creatives breaking out of the norm and rising above to be noticed as prosperous. I think the uplifting names are good, one problem we did encounter was the fact that many of the names were already used by other magazines in the past (most of which are still functioning) and so unfortunately we are unable to use them by default.

We still need to establish and research into what sort of magazines this publication will sit with, as well creating consumer profiles. I want to produce the visual consumer profiles this week, I don’t think it will take too long as I have produced them multiple times in the past so have a grasp of what they should visually look like and read like.

On Wednesday, we had an interesting guest lecture with Lauren Gregory from Crumb Model Agency - she spoke to us about her agency and how they approach the idea of the modelling world very differently to a large majority of the current modelling universe. I found it interesting to learn that they stand for inclusivity and diversity, all body types and ages are appealing to Crumb, this was refreshing to me as for too long the unrealistic standard of a model has been upheld. It is only in the past few years that the ‘plus-size’ model has been accepted into the industry. Crumb are based in both Norwich and London but primarily operate in Norwich. It is interesting they focus on not only visual aspects of people but also their personal interests, looking at what they are activists for or what interests they have - something that relates directly to the magazine project.

On Friday we came into the session having produced a list of interview questions, I had my answers and everything required from the proposed list from Monday, though some others did not. This did not affect the flow of the session too heavily although it has slowed down the process of the magazine production slightly. We focussed on magazine detailings in this session, we updated the layout board with proposals on how we wanted the content to look, as well as deciding on typefaces and details like column numbers and guttering widths. Meg and I worked on the design side of the magazine as we had produced the work required for the session, we questioned the rest of the group for their opinions on the design layouts we were creating and we left todays session with a positive mindset. 

For the Monday session, we want to have a few things done:

Style guide (fonts, aesthetic of mag)

Individual identity (moodboard) of each of the creatives

All interview responses back

All shoot plans complete

As this may be unrealistic for some, I want to progress with my own work. I want to try to write up some article work for my creatives, also create research files for my creatives. I also want to have visual layouts for my content created for Monday.

The project is picking up pace now which is exciting, I hope the rest of the group continue to work at the pace we are working at right now. I worry for the fashion magazine slightly as the members with content for this one have yet to really produce much on the flat lay, this is fine for now but could be a problem as far as planning goes.

[joecorlitofcp]

Week 20 Reflective Journal

On the Monday session of this week we were in magazine groups. 

The workload right now is very high, there is a lot to think about and I am feeling a little overwhelmed but still somewhat on top of it. In the morning session we brainstormed about ways of communication, how we as a group would make sure everybody stays up to date with everything happening. We landed on these ways of communication: Whatsapp, GoogleDrive and Google docs. I think these are the most universal socials to use as everybody has access to them, if they don’t then it’s a very simple process to sign up and be a part of them. The whatsapp was something we had already established, though it was important for the sake of informing the lecturers, so we still wrote it down. 

Alongside this, we also set some ground rules about ways of working:

Let the group know if you won’t be in

Tell everyone if you haven’t done work

Credit everyone’s work

Group list for each brainstorming session

Keep everyone in the loop

These rules are integral to keep to as otherwise, the communication and direction of the project as a whole will fall apart. It is definitely more important now we are working as a group for an extended period of time to remember to communicate everything.

As well as this, we also brainstormed a working title for our magazine, see below the mind maps for this:

We, as a group were really invested in the title ‘626′, which works as an old brick phone would when typing the word ‘Man’ (actually 6266 but it didn’t sound as good). This was good development on from where we were last week, so morale was relatively high in the group at this point.

The afternoon session was a briefing on a group photoshoot based around a white t-shirt. We brainstormed for this, thinking of ideas that would be exciting and interesting to produce.

We worked on or ideas and ended up with a concept which had a running theme but also could work as something which could be featured within our publication. I did enjoy brainstorming with the group as it was another opportunity for us to bounce ideas off of one another. The concept we ended on would be using 4 locations, with 4 separate photographers and 4 different styles. All of them would feature the white t-shirt but they would be all individualistic. We wanted to use a park, cafe, laundrette and park, all 4 locations were very achievable without having to travel very far at all which was useful as we only had one week to complete it. 

This was the beginning of the short week long project, we planned to shoot on Wednesday which gave us a couple of days for the photographers to finalise what they envisioned for their shoots and for the rest of us to secure equipment and models.

On Tuesday, we had a session about writing fashion features. This was very useful and insightful again, I feel a lot of the content in this unit is extremely useful and will definitely come in as crucial knowledge in the coming years.

In the session we spoke about what makes a good feature, generating feature ideas and types of features. As well as this, the structure of writing a fashion feature and finally editing a feature. The session was so interesting, though there was a lot of information being pushed on us I feel I managed to gather up a fair amount of it into my notebook which I will definitely be reflecting back on in future.

We had a group tutorial with Stephen in the afternoon where myself and a couple of others from the group had a very long discussion with him about our project and our worries. We felt it was a struggling concept that did not hold a lot of weight in terms of content. We, as a group, all agreed to attend the session but only three of us turned up. Regardless of this, we spent 2.35 hours with Stephen trying to formulate a new concept that would have a much more efficient drive, something that the entire group could get on board with rather than just progressing through the weeks without really having a strong direction to follow. 

Having established a new idea, the three of us decided to brainstorm more into it and then pitch it to the remainder of the group. Unfortunately this did come across to some as somewhat of an ‘executive’ decision but it was up for debate that they had the chance to attend the meeting and be a part of the new concept creation. Thankfully everybody was on board with the new concept, the only thing was that this meant we had to start from the very bare bones and build the concept up again.

In this session I also raised a design idea to Stephen for my industry file which I am very excited to get going on. I think it is achievable, though it will be certainly time consuming, perhaps something I will consider developing on in the Easter break when I have a little more time.

We had a guest lecture with Helen McIntyre (?) who is a prop and set designer, freelancing in the UK. The talk was more a presentation than a discussion, it was interesting as set design is something I am definitely interested in but did not have known too much about it previously. I enjoyed the talk, the seminar afterwards was also good as it helped me to hear a lot of other people’s opinion on the industry and about the talk itself. I think set design, from what I gathered, is somewhat of a niche area in fashion, perhaps this is something of a horizon I could build on and look into.

The shoot on Wednesday went very smoothly, we started a little later than we planned to but ended up wrapping the shoot up in a matter of just over 2 hours which was impressive considering the quantity of things we had to organise and achieve. The images came out to a really high standard thanks to our four photographers. The creative direction was different throughout but the images are all cohesive due to the theme and also the model being the same throughout.

On Friday, we spoke about publication basics. The factors that make a good design, type, image, production, scale and presentation. Kat was really good when explaining each feature as a lot of the group were not a clued up as others so this allowed them to catch up to a higher level of knowledge. We spoke about deciding on a consumer, this gave us a means to create consumer profiles for our own magazines. One of the most important features we learned about was content, so in our group we spoke about what content we wanted for our publication. 

Roughly 15 issues of zine style short magazines

Interviews only included for the most interesting ones

Promotional platform

Sell small magazines as individuals or as a pack (collectability)

Similar/related artists briefly credited at the end

Posters that fold out (pull out mag)

A lot of ideas, though these are definitely subject to change in the coming weeks as our idea is refined over time.

A very busy week with a lot going on, I think this is to be a theme of what’s to come in this project. I want to aim to get up to speed on my industry file so I can solely focus on the Magazine project up until Easter. The final weeks of this year are going to be very heavily based on keeping to a tight schedule, this is good but has potential to go really horribly wrong!

[joecorlitofcp]

Week 19 Reflective Journal

This week we began to really heavily dive into the magazine project.

We had a session with Sophie Chittock on Tuesday which was a very in-depth introduction to fashion magazines - in this session I noted down a huge amount of useful, new, insightful information which opened my eyes to the depth of history behind the world of print. I really enjoyed this session, I felt there was a huge quantity of information being put across and I found almost everything being spoken about to be important. Looking at what magazines have done for fashion, it was really interesting to learn about all the different types of fashion magazines (Glossies, Fashion art culture, freemium etc.), something that will come in useful when exploring what sort of magazine we want to produce for our group projects. Alongside this, we also learned about trends in magazine publishing, seeing how events, diversity and the idea of ‘digital first’ are all on the rise in terms of popularity and print sales and advertising budgets are going down. It was important to learn that digital does not make as much money as print, meaning for our projects we should definitely prioritise the print aspect of our publications.

We did a short exercise afterwards where we would be analysing magazine business. Our group were given Edition: John Lewis Christmas 2018.

We looked at what category it identified as, as well as a range of other questions. I found it quite useful to complete this exercise as it helped me to understand how to analyse a magazine publication.

On the same day we had group tutorials, this was a shorter session just to voice our thoughts on the new project and to get any ideas we had critiqued by Stephen. From the session, I noted,:

Look for things that are missing from existing publications.

Explore things that are of common interest.

Make the magazine what you want, don’t worry about criticism from students and tutors for the idea generation.

I think these points are definitely important to remember, we should continue to consider them for the coming weeks during the early stages of the magazine.

I wrote this up and posted it in the group Whatsapp chat directly after the session, whilst it was live in my mind. The reception from this was good, the group members did as they were asked which was nice and it helped for us to move forward.

The rest of the week was used as independent workshop time working in our groups to push our magazine concepts forward to form some sort of base to build onto. I am really enjoying the project so far, it is very nice to have the marketing report finished and out of the way so I am able to focus a lot more on the Industry and Magazine projects.

The Friday session was especially important, looking at the mind-maps that everybody had produced leading on from the Whatsapp message/request earlier in the week. 

My mind-map was colour coded, I think this was a useful way to help the rest of the group recognise and understand where my interests lie.

My moodboard showcases my interests in a visual way, looking at technical fashion, art, music and automotive design. 

We formulated the idea to construct and run a survey for the concept we had initially gone with, a menswear magazine looking at opening up the idea of wearing unisex/womenswear without making it uncomfortable or unusual. In a bid to normalise the stereotype that men can only wear menswear. 

Our survey was brainstormed and we then produced it on surveymonkey, the results would be taken in during the following week.

We wanted the questions to be based around conceptions, only men would be answering it too. For instance, questions are based around makeup, skincare and items surrounding womenswear. We had the idea to print the survey off and ask guys in typically male locations, such as pubs and sports bars to get an authentic reception.

Here are my notes from the session, I found being the scribe to be a good way of remembering every piece of useful information. We brainstormed magazine ideas in the following screenshots. I will speak about this more in my sketchbook but I thought it would be good to have it here as well. 

Generally, it was talking about assets and less about content but we wanted to establish this in a later session. These sheets were more about getting ideas written down rather than sat in somebody’s head.

[joecorlitofcp]

Week 18 Reflective Journal

The week back after the independent study time was refreshing. I am not a fan of spending too much time out of routine (going to uni on a timetable etc.) and so was relieved to get back into it. 

On the Monday morning I had my mid-unit review with Susie which was a very useful session. Having the chance to speak relatively in-depth about all aspects of my work in this unit so far was definitely useful and also reassuring as I was put down as being ‘on track’ which was what I was aiming to achieve.

The session wielded me with a sense of enthusiasm to get the final stages of my marketing report completed. Working with Susie, the main areas of focus for my projects are:

Sketchbook - Tidy up layout

Marketing report - Labelling of images

Industry report - Consider typing one or two more entries

Reflective journal  - Consider using just tumblr for the hand-in, alternatively go ahead with an InDesign file

I found the session very useful and I’m pleased to be back.

Later in the week, we had a lecture without any speaker in which we watched an insightful video about sustainable fashion. This was interesting to see as, when presented with the facts, the impact of the message became a lot more prominent. It would have been good to have a guest lecturer but these are somewhat of a premium which I try to make the most of, sessions with just a video playing are harder to get information out of.

On the Friday we were set our new brief, a group magazine project which will run till the end of the academic year. I was really happy with the group selections as I felt my group had a lot of complimentary strengths. The session in the morning briefed us on the project and then we went off to get to know one another a bit better. We spoke and brainstormed some ideas, this gave me an idea of the skill levels within the group, which were high! Unfortunately there were a couple of members absent on the day of briefing and so we could not push any ideas too far forward and risk avoiding a full conversation from the entire team.

I am very excited for the project as it will be a good opportunity to work in a group, delegating roles and splitting up the work load evenly. It will also be a chance to explore other styles, creating work that compliments everybody in the group as individuals and bringing the work together into a single publication.

In the afternoon we had a session with Sophie Chittock looking at Print vs Digital in magazines and publications. We went through positives and negatives of each, looking at where each were stronger and weaker in comparison. The session was insightful and I felt we had a very thorough conversation as a group. We would have benefitted from having this session a week after starting as this was placed just after briefing, due to this timing we did not having much of a developed idea and so struggled to really explore a lot of thoughts etc.

I did manage to gather a lot of useful considerations though, through noting down what Sophie was explaining about the finer details, I am going to make sure they are known and considered to be crucial factors when in the creation stages of our magazine.

[joecorlitofcp]

Week 17 Reflective Journal

Independent study week:

Over the independent study week I aimed to achieve a short list of crucial tasks to get my marketing project and industry file up to speed. The most important thing on my list being the finalisation of the marketing report’s text. Due to the word limit, I took select type from the sketchbook I have been working into and translated that into sub-sections which would form and cover all areas necessary for the report to pass. I found the word limit to be somewhat challenging initially but soon discovered I was able to roughly get an even spread of type across all sections of my report.

Breaking the text up into sections allowed me to gauge the quantity in each area of research. I found the swot and pest analysis to be the most difficult to pick from as I felt the points I had established were all strong and they did not really outweigh one another in terms of importance.

I also aim to have my marketing report layout established before the end of the independent study week. This is something that is very important and I feel it needs to be worked on once I have my final text. The layout is interesting because without the text and images it is essentially something that cannot be planned. I want to use the colour palettes I have created to inspire my layout. The marketing report should emulate the brand image and so I am planning to utilise the military tones. I want to create a regimented, clear layout that efficiently transcribes information to the reader - I feel this sense of order throughout the report will translate well as being seen as ‘military-inspired’.

Over the independent study week I also pushed forward a couple more practitioners for my industry file. I wanted to look into names I knew but did not know too much about, I added Nigo, the founder of one of my favourite brands A Bathing Ape. I have researched lightly into his history and already found a lot of very insightful information out about him. Alongside Nigo, I also added Carlo Rivetti and Simon Beckerman, the areas they operate in are interesting to me and I am looking forward to researching into them further.

I aim to have put the marketing report to rest by the end of the week but fear due to having other responsibilities to attend to I may struggle to achieve this. 

I want to have a lot of the list ticked off by the end of the week so that I can show up to my mid-unit review with the quantity of work I am happy with. I think that it is definitely achievable. 

[joecorlitofcp]

Week 16 Reflective Journal

Returning from my time off, I started the new week on Monday working on a short project exploring a ‘Dream Team’ concept. The challenge was, in groups, to create a team of practitioners who compliment one another in style, these creatives would form the foundations of a shoot. My group chose, from a list, to focus on a brand called MHL by Margaret Howell with the topic on the shoot being Sustainability. 

We formulated a shoot plan, creating a brief for the shoot as well as time of day, colour etc etc. which we felt was in depth enough for a professional shoot level.

We collectively created a moodboard of the visuals each of our practitioners produce and work with which really helped to effectively establish an aesthetic for the overall mood of the shoot.

I did enjoy this session as I felt it was an effective way to learn about group work and sharing roles. With the magazine project coming up I think it was definitely useful to get into the correct mindset as that will come in extremely useful when working as a group for an extended amount of time.

For the Tuesday and Wednesday sessions I was out of class working as an extra in a third year film students final short film, luckily in the time I was working as an extra I was able to continue working on my marketing report since the extras work was acting as an office worker. I made a fair amount of progression on my marketing report through those two days which gave me confidence that I was getting closer to the final stages of getting it totally done. At this point at the end of the week I am still progressing, though looking at the finer details and drawing out the most useful and important type to use. I worked initially into my digital sketchbook as I had a word count for the final marketing brief. It is easier for me to get all of the information in one place and then pick from it to form the highest quality 2000 word combination.

On the Friday I established a work plan for my independent study week which was upcoming. I felt as though I had a fair amount of work to catch up on over the week to get myself into a position where I could feel comfortable with where I was at again. Over the independent study week I wanted to:

Finalise marketing report text

Push for 2-3 more practitioners for the industry file

Reference physical material within both projects

Create a basic layout for marketing report using brand colour palette

Shoot an editorial project with packaging in dirty conditions

Design swing tags and potentially any promotional products for the marketing report

I was very ready to get going on this list as these were the areas I needed to work on most readily. 

[joecorlitofcp]

Week 13 Reflective Journal

We spent this week looking at a few rather major areas in the Marketing report project, on Monday we were essentially reminded to ask questions and make sure we fully understood the projects before working too far into them as some people were struggling to get their heads around a few things. These questions were answered and it helped a lot of people. We then had a debate-like session in which we would pit a practitioner or influencer against one another in an attempt to prove our influencer was the most important at this point in time. My group had Ellen MacArthur, an extremely well known and influential character that focusses on developmental sustainability for the planet. We built a strong argument but in the end did not come out on top. I enjoyed this session as it made us research into a given person very efficiently to some depth. Through doing this session, it gave us an indication into how straight forward and easy it is to research into industry-based people, this will be beneficial when working further into my Industry File.

In the Fashion Marketing session on Tuesday, we looked into the fashion market and how it is broken down into subsections. This was interesting to look at and understand as it was something I had not previously looked into too much. Alongside this, we also looked at SWOT and PEST analysis, this have come in extremely useful within the marketing report, the layout allows a huge scope for a lot of written work to be produced quite easily. I am a fan of these analysis systems and will make sure to come back to them at some point for future marketing projects.

On Wednesday, we had a guest lecture with Sally Emslie which I found to be really interesting. Sally is the owner of a second-hand resell business, as somebody who is interested in the idea of becoming entrepreneurial, I made sure to take on as many notes as I could. I was really interested by what she had to say and how she gave an insight into the reality behind the independent business world. It has made me want to pursue this avenue even more. The importance of having a niche was the overwhelming message from this guest lecture. 

[joecorlitofcp]

Week 14 and 15 Reflective Journal

For the two weeks just passed, I have been absent from university due to illness and so have been unable to produce any work. Over this time I was able to think about which direction I wanted to take my project in, essentially understanding the points I needed to cover in the coming weeks and making sure these were achieved. I established a plan to have my Marketing Report finished by the end of the independent study week commencing the 10th February. The type I need to complete for my final outcome report is almost all there, this is reassuring. The plan is to take the best parts of my sketchbook text and transfer it into my final outcome, this means the bulk of my work will remain visible in my sketchbook however the most important areas of work will be present inn a more professional context. I am also considering the design choices I have when creating the Marketing Report, I think I will mock up some colour palettes which would work for the report layout. The colour palettes will be drawn directly from Maharishi clothing and editorial shots, this will be a good way to take accurate colours that relate directly to the brand and showcase them in the final piece. I am looking forward to getting back into the University work flow, thankfully I was a little further ahead than I needed to be before falling ill so when I am able to return to working I will be in a safe position. 

[joecorlitofcp]

Week 12 Reflective Journal

This was the first week back after the Christmas break, having done a fair amount of research over our time off I was excited to get back into the swing of things and start producing some visual work. The first session back was a refreshing one, easing us back into the work flow. 

Monday’s session on Brand and Image was interesting - I was excited to get going on producing the test shoot. Having studied photography previously at A-Level I was eager to get back into it. I chose to look at LAW magazine for my inspiration as this was a publication that showcased people wearing brands that related closely to Maharishi. The work LAW did with CP Company and rapper Rejjie Snow shows him sporting Nike ACG as well as CP Company. I found this to be a direct link to my brand and so utilised the LAW logo in some of my own images.

On Tuesday we looked into Consumer behaviour and profiling, how to effectively target consumers. This session definitely helped with understanding how to dictate my audience. It was interesting to learn how many different areas have to be considered before pushing a brand or idea forward. Profiling is not something I necessarily agree with due to the moral values I uphold, it is also something that is generally frowned upon in everyday life. However in the world of business it is almost impossible not to utilise this tactic as it is extremely effective. 

We created consumer profiles for our brands over this week, I produced 4 models and 3 posters which I found to be very useful and a fun visual to produce. These profiles will end up in my final outcome - I think they definitely help to show the correct demographic of the brand, the consumers could also apply to a range of competitor brands which is useful. i found the production of the consumer profiles to be quite straight forward, the difficult part was the visuals to accompany to text. 

The tutorial session with Stephen was very useful as it helped me to understand the Industry File brief much more. Prior to this I was very confused but this session helped to clear things up for me and I now feel like I’m on the right track with both projects.

On Friday, we reviewed our Consumer Profiles and I found it very important to get positive feedback on the profile designs I had produced as it allowed me to understand I was doing the right thing. It was interesting to compare Maharishi’s consumer to that of Zara’s. This is something that I will consider pushing into my final outcome, though it will definitely feature in my sketchbook developmental work

[joecorlitofcp]

Christmas break journal entry

Over the Christmas break I took time to reflect on the projects we had been set and tried to get my head around how they would best be approached. I focused on the marketing report as this was the brief that would be needed the more immediate attention. I spent a few days researching into the brand I had chosen, Maharishi. This brand is close to my heart as it is one I have followed for a fair amount of time now, accumulating a small person collection of pieces.

Through research, I have found the brand to be one that upholds a lot of good ethics and operates in a super sustainable way. The brand ethics are something I can really agree with and this has made researching into the company a very enjoyable experience. 

I also tried to understand the other brief, Industry Awareness. This took a little more time to understand, going back after Christmas, I am going to check in with a tutor to get a more direct explanation of what exactly I am being required to do. For the meantime, I am focussing on the marketing report.

I am pleased with the work I had completed prior to Christmas as it has helped me to form a foundation of research to build on. The InDesign document I have been working on is coming together well, though I haven’t considered the design and layout of it thus far. I think this will come into play once I have a more solid body of work as I know in my own experience that I change my mind about layout designs more than once.

[joecorlitofcp]

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL Week 7

This was the penultimate week to hand in, it required me to do a lot of self-directed studying to push my work forward to a finished state. This week I wanted to try and finish my Trend and Culture brief, seeing as this was the one that felt the closest to being complete. We had a few group briefs within sessions which were useful. I am feeling confident for hand in but understand the bulk of the work is still there to do, however it is in a somewhat more finished state.

TREND AND CULTURE

This week we had a short group brief looking at Disruptors and Catalysts within fashion. From a list, I chose to look into Oscar Wilde as I was the most curious about him within the fashion world. I discovered a lot of interesting facts about him and how he disrupted 19th century fashion standards. We created a group powerpoint file which we then presented and discussed with another group, this was useful as it allowed us to learn pieces of information we might not have picked up ourselves in our own research. The purpose, showing how important and useful peer feedback is, was really cemented within this session. 

FASHION HISTORY

Our fashion history sessions this week were self-directed, we were able to approach the session however we liked, which was very useful as it allowed me to push forward a few more ideas and ask a bit more about a few queries I had regarding the brief.

I feel now that I am able to push through to a developed and final state in my fashion history file, this document is the one I have been lacking on in terms of work load and do need to give it a lot more attention. The fashion history file has reminded me to keep up to date with all briefs simultaneously and maybe not to focus on one brief to its final state.

GUEST LECTURER - DAVID DRAKE

The guest lecturer this week was really interesting, an American freelance photographer who has developed and manufactured a name for himself in a wide variety of fields outside of purely photography. David Drake spoke to us about his career and how he got to where he is today, it was a great session which I thoroughly enjoyed, I also felt as though I learned some useful advice from what he was saying.

Pick projects wisely

Be current

Stay updated on changes within the industry

IMAGE AND MESSAGE

The task for image and message this week was another short one within the session which was actually very good fun. Although the time limit required us to be spontaneous and perhaps feel a little rushed, I thought the images we created were of very high quality and I was really pleased with the outcomes of the session.

I worked with Cosmo and Hedley on the brief and as a team we were able to produce strong outcomes. I worked as the stylist/lighting director of the group and found it interesting to see how each component of a team would be crucial to doing a job well and to a high standard. I think the work would have been easier with a fourth person in the group but we got the job done effectively and efficiently.

OVERVIEW

Overall, I was really happy with the amount of work produced this week in and out of my sessions, I am pleased I have managed to finalise my Trend Report. That is a huge weight off in terms of pressure heading towards deadline. I plan to have everything done by Wednesday this coming week, including the reflective journal. This weekend I will be focussing on my fashion history file, getting that to a point I am happy with, and then finally sorting the smaller details like Image and Message powerpoints and also printing and binding my work. I am in a very good position right now which I am glad about, I feel after the reading week I have managed to bounce back quite effectively and positively look forward to handing in.

[joecorlitofcp]

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL Week 6

This first week back after the study week (5) break was quite intense, I enjoyed getting back into the loop of working in and outside of University. The layout of the timetable had not changed which was nice as I had established a nice routine as far as balancing research, in-session work and developing my files. 

FASHION HISTORY

The week firstly introduced us back into fashion history, looking at ‘Decoding’ or rather the technical term, ‘Semiotics’. The term semiotics means, ‘the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.’. I found this to be something I was revisiting, but it was still very useful as a refresher and the session was explained thoroughly and clearly. 

We were tasked with decoding an image, a selection of magazine covers were passed out and we would be able to swap between students to get one that related more closely to our work, if any did. Essentially, the session would require us to find things to relate to an image or item, this could be historical references or the symbolism/meaning of something in an image.

For mine, I was given Orville Peck, Canadian country musician. See below my annotated poster in which I drew cultural references as well as questioned a few things about how he has taken on/adopted a range of styles within his own. It was interesting to wonder whether he was unique or ultimately copying a wide range of influential people and things.

I enjoyed doing this, though I will also focus on updating the visual aspect of it. Retyping the annotations.

TREND AND CULTURE

This session was on colour and the underlying features of colour. It was interesting to learn and understand how colour can have such an ability to transform the mood and emotive state of a design. We made a range of colour swatches relating to our trend and culture files, for my project looking at the babushka scarf, I decided to focus on tones drawn from the scarf worn by A$AP Rocky, the main point of reference on my project and the reason I established the trend idea in the first place.

I created this document, focussing on colour. I created a swatch for the key tones i wanted to try and draw from the image and create myself. These tones will translate into my trend and culture report, within the moodboard. I enjoyed doing this small task as it allowed me to add a new medium to my work, making it mixed media rather than purely digital.

SEE BELOW: 

A collection of colour swatches! Some of these will be used in my work and the others will translate into my sketchbook. I was pleased with the tones I created, there are others but there are my favourite.

[joecorlitofcp]

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL Week 5

This was a reading week and so it was entirely independent study time - I spent the entire time up until the late weekend back at home. Unfortunately due to family reasons I was not able to complete a huge amount of work however the work I did produce, I was happy with. 

I found the second half of the ‘MY BAG’ brief to be fun, this brief was to shoot a still life image of the chosen bag in an environment I thought was coherent to the style of the item. I was lucky to go home in some respect as it allowed me to utilise the industrial work tools and equipment left over by the builders currently doing work on my house. I was happy with the end result and added it on to my powerpoint which included the video produced the previous week.

I did a bit of work on both the larger briefs, I am definitely going to nail down and grind through some work this coming week as my circumstances did not really allow me much free time to work on briefs during the week. 

I am excited to get back into the routine!