Final Trend Booklet

Now this was a brief that I really enjoyed. With only a few weeks to complete I knew I had to completely submerse myself into the complicated world of Graphic design, so I spent hours flicking through magazines and scrolling through Pinterest boards. I worked for hours and hours at a time, being a perfectionist about grids and font (geek alert!!!).

My finished booklet is good. It's not perfect but it was my second ever project using InDesign and the last time I only used it for a basic layout. This time I tried to challenge myself by being inspired by other's designs and just giving it a go! I'm pleased that I spent hours moving things to only move them back another day. In yesterday's seminar we were told that we couldn't bleed the pages which basically screwed up my entire booklet. I didn't think much about it afterwards so when I printed the front and back pages do look silly being off centre, but it's something that I can consider for the next time. I'm also really pleased with the trends that I've chosen; three of them are really current trends that I have seen emerging, and the other (the changing face of beauty) is one that I predict to enter the fragrance advertising industry within the next year- it's been a popular trend throughout fashion campaigns and editorials so I would love to see the diversity carried through into the beauty industry.

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Today's seminar we shared our booklets amongst the class. We started by presenting to 5 others and I found this really interesting to see the thought and process behind each of the designs and content. We then had to pass on the 6 booklets to another table and this is where I didn't see the logic behind the activity- I think it would've been more beneficial for the table we were presenting to to choose the best 3. But in the process we got pro's and con's about our work.

My peer feedback;

Pros:

• "Consistent layout, page numbers and background colours"


• "Love the front cover imagery"


•  "Tag lines under title"

Cons:

• "Font is too big"


• "Trend not relevant to fragrance"


• "Spelling mistake"

My booklet wasn't chosen as one of the top 3 of my groups. I find the comments fair as yes, when I read over the booklet there was a minor typo however I think it's unfair to use "not relevant" about one of my trends. I'm guessing it was about the trend 'the changing face of beauty' but if they were to read the information then they would understand that it's a trend prediction. I didn't want to have 4 trends that everyone has found from searching current ads and made a conscious decision to do some trend forecasting. The prediction comes from the macro trend surrounding gender; androgyny and transgender models are big right now in the fashion industry too. A lot of thought went into my trend research- starting with macro trends- and I don't agree that that should've been a con about my booklet. Design is subjective and this is why I found the whole 'competition' aspect of this seminar a little tiring.

From the feedback and seminar I am going to adjust the type slightly to make it a touch smaller. I would've liked more feedback about the design of my booklet as I don't know how to improve it further.

How to get into Advertising

A few weeks ago I attended the guest lecture by past student and Ogilvy Advertising agency account planner Matt Box. Although it was a general advertising lecture, Chris thought it be suitable for FCP to go along.

Matt started out by asking 'What is advertising?'. Advertising is creative solutions for business problems. I particularly liked this definition. Whilst Advertising is one of the most creative jobs you can get, it can work with the most serious of companies from law firms to banks.

We were then told that there are around 4 roles you can have whilst working in Advertising:

• Account Manager - keeps smooth runnings, keeps good communication with client and has great time management.


• Account Planner/Strategist - the thinkers, they observe the problem and help to resolve it by coming up with a great idea. They then write the creative brief.


• Creative- Uses the brief to execute the idea & create final product


• Creative technologists- Help to come up with new technology for the advertising campaigns

Then we were told about the different kind of advertising:

• 'Above the line' is advertising where you pay for the space - TV, radio, newspapers, sidebars online etc


• 'Below the line' is when you already know who the audience is so you target them directly

The routes into the industry are:

• Entry level


• Internships (design agencies)


• Portfolio review


• Graduate scheme

Matt gave some great first-hand tips to get onto a grad scheme. The last is my favourite!! It encourages you to be different and to do what you want, not sticking by the rules. You'll stand out more:

• Use experiences to sell yourself


• Don't copy and paste your CV, create bespoke one for each job


• Remember that Advertising isn't just TV


• It's better to be interesting than right

Porfolio tips:

• Think Big - think interesting and outside the box


• Sum up your work in one line


• Work in truths - use insights and facts


• Embrace scamps (sketches)


• Don't be afraid to ask questions


• Make a great website & make sure it works on all platforms

I found it really interesting to hear the experiences of a past student taking the steps into the working world. To know that it is within reach to get the career you want if you try really hard is really motivating. I really enjoy the graphic design/digital elements of the course and therefore it was interesting to learn about how an advertising agency works- I could possibly be working in one, one day!

Celebrity Endorsement

There's many reasons for why celebrities endorse products/brands and why brands choose those celebrities. Sometimes this can be a successful relationship however a lot of the time it's a bad pairing. This article on ID-VICE explains all about celebrity collaborations and why they work -it's definitely worth the read and helps back up Tim's lecture last week. Does celebrity endorsement kill a brand? Can collaborations be so temporary it's not worth it? The answer to both, yes. And boy is it sad.

I've created two pin boards on Pinterest. One celebrating great examples of celebrity endorsement and the other showing the worst. My favourite celebrity endorsement in Perfume of the moment is this:



The reason? It's genuine. A real Parisian in a classically French brand image. Clémence Poésy is a perfect brand match for Chloe.

My least favourite of the past few years?



Eva Mendes? Angel? She's known for her down-to-earth nature yet Thierry Mugler's scent Angel is known for it's sic-fi looking campaigns and simply-crazy styling. I don't see the connection and feel this would benefit from having a more unusual looking model.

Topshop Unique Autumn Winter 2015.

I write this minutes after the Topshop Unique AW15 show has finished. I watch this show every year, not just because I love the wearability of the collections, but because it's streamed live on their website. This makes it accessible for everyone and allows their customers to feel involved and welcome to a show that they might not ever get to experience.

I started watching at 2.30pm where presenter Laura Jackson took the screen to get all the backstage information about the show. It's great to get to know the story behind the collection and even better for a fashion student like me who is hopefully going to experience the backstage madness in the future.

This year's show was in the Tate Britain, a beautiful backdrop with dramatic high ceilings and marble floors. I love the idea of the fashion and art worlds coming together quite literally as they influence each other more than you would think when picking up an item in the high street shops.

Laura spoke to Kate Phelan, Topshop's creative director and previous Vogue editor about the collection. I love Kate, she's an inspiration and really has done wonderful things at Topshop. She spoke about how the muse of the collection were all the models being British and how British models are traditionally unconventional- if that makes sense?! Talking about the casting of these models, they were described as refined, well-bred, expensive looking as if they'd just stepped out of boarding school, all British with a sense of heritage. When watching I could see the match, with porcelain skinned girls, stood tall and beautiful. The surprising thing that I found about the models was there was no Cara Delevigne, Jourdan Dunn or Kendall Jenner, instead they were sat front row along with Alexa Chung, Pixie Geldof, Ellie Goulding, Paloma Faith and Pixie Lott. This doesn't dis-please me as I think it's exciting to see new models take the Topshop runway this season.

The look of this season's models was enhanced with the beautiful make-up. It was described as fresh, beautiful and effortless. The makeup artists used cheek jelly to create glowing rosy cheeks and lips and used Topshop's freckle pencil to mimic natural freckles. The hair was also helping to create that Highlands to City look by mocking the windswept look.

Presenter Laura Jackson spoke to some of the Front-rower's (did I make that up?!) such as Emilia Fox, actress from Silent Witness who swears by wearing head-to-toe Topshop on and off screen. I agree with her that Topshop makes fashion affordable and accessible to women of all ages.

Sheena Sauvaine who's the co-ordinator of the show described how their aim this season was the democratise the runway by making it accessible to Topshop customers through social media. This is where the real-time advertising that I blogged about here comes into play. It's the way people want to shop in 2015; shop and buy now.

The actual collection I actually really loved. The beginning of the show opened with spotlights and the sound of violins. The re-occuring 70's trend was represented through polo necks with a glitter running through them, below the knee boots, beiges, velvet dungarees and plaid. My favourite outfit that I would personally wear from this part of the show was a pastel blue skirt suit in velvet. I liked the spin they put on the classic floral 70's print, they spaced out the flowers and made it more ditsy but used bold reds and blues and paired with classic 70's shapes.

The second part of the show was the more formal wear. The music changed into an upbeat song with lyrics. It had a more rock n roll feel about it, but still inspired by the 70's. New textures were brought in, bold PVC, Lace midi dresses, oversized fur cuffs and of course heavily embellished dresses- wouldn't be A/W without!!

Trend Booklet Development

It's been almost two weeks since we were briefed about creating a trend booklet for perfume advertising. I have to admit that at first it was very daunting0 researching and creating a 12 page booklet in a matter of weeks is something that I've never done before. I felt slightly more at ease knowing that I am capable of using Adobe InDesign after using it in college to create my final piece for FMP however this meant I knew how much time and effort had to go into using this software to get a professional result.

I started my research with magazines. Flicking through every magazine I have in the piles of them in my bedroom from the Telegraph magazine to LOVE. This was a tricky way to categorise as some magazines I don't want to tear out but I have kept note of lots of the trends in my workbook. I also took a trip to Debenhams and John Lewis to take some photos of bottles to see what innovative ideas brands had come up with, but this was difficult as not many high street brands are trying to be different, they're just trying to sell. So I headed to Pinterest and searched '2015 perfume ads'. This quickly showed lots of new perfume adverts which I could start to categorise by saving photos in folders. After searching back to 2014 ads too, I had 7 folders full of photos that I am confident in being strong trends in the perfume industry right now or in the near future; Chemical Bottles, Illustrated back drops, Mediterranean lifestyle, Unisex scent, Music loves fashion, personalised bottle and new beauty.

From creating a mock booklet through inspiration of magazines and online zines, I was then able to start laying out the photos. We started this in this week's IT session and I found it really helpful having the hour with help from Matt and Tim who were reassuring of the work. This allowed me to confidently go away and spend hours, and I mean hours and hours moving, cropping and adding to the booklet.

I've almost finished now. I would share but I would rather share when it's 100% finished. There's a few bits that need tweaking but I'm told we will be helped with that this week in preparation for hand-in on Thursday! So far I'm pleased with my development of the trend booklet. I really used the FCP process to research, plan and create something that I'm proud of. The more I work on Adobe software, the more I am learning and I'm starting to think that I would like a career in the area of the industry, but we will see how the rest of the degree goes!

Here's a clip of a Pinterest board I have taken a lot of design inspiration from:

View my Pinterest here

Prabal Gurung Fall 2015

My favourite show of NYFW. A designer I've never heard of before, it's always the unexpected that create the greatest.

New York fashion week has been a little disappointing in my opinion. The male designers were once again on top, and Parang Gurung was by far the most exciting collection of the week way back at the beginning on Monday. The inspiration? New York. Seems cliche but coming from Nepal (or anywhere), NYC is a big beautiful city and some of the world's best designers are born and bred there.

Alike Christopher Kane, Prabel's designs are very sophisticated but he adds a touch of playfulness with an asymmetric hem or faux fur trim. The use of a heavy coat over a delicate dress is a perfect formula, as is a heavily sequinned material for a formal dress. They've been done before but Gurung's collection really does pull together quite beautifully.  I would wear all of the looks from the show, and these are some of my favourite:

Topshop Oxford Circus Store - New In!!

Whilst scrolling through my Instagram, amidst the hundreds of photos of various catwalks/models/bloggers (it's impossible to escape the harsh reality that i'm not in London for Fashion week), I came across this photo that Topshop had posted.

Now let me start by saying I like Topshop however I don't consider them to be particularly innovative. They're predictable in most of their styling and merchandising but this photo that they posted really caught my attention- I think it's bloody brilliant!!! As shoppers shop, they're presented with a digital window display of trends as they come directly off the catwalk with options that Topshop sell to fit this trend. The macro trends; FAST fashion and also technology are both applied here and work extremely in their favour. I love this idea- it makes the customer feel involved in fashion week as well as trusting Topshop in delivering an on-trend outfit.