Photoshop Skill Development

For my current 'brand-zine' project on Tom Ford (Project Three) I decided to use a gold leaf style lettering to reflect the luxury and excessive side of the Tom Ford brand. This was something I didn't know how to do, so I used a short tutorial video on YouTube to learn, seen below:

From this tutorial I managed to produce the text below, which will help to add both an element of texture and added colour to my predominantly black and white brand-zine.

Jack Wills Final Presentation - Project Two

Here is the final presentation from our group brand 'Jack Wills' project that we made for project two of our first module. 

Here is the script we had with our presentation:

• Jack Wills was founded in 1999 by Peter Williams and Robert Shaw in Salcombe, Devon.
• The brand took British heritage-inspired goods and designed them for the University crowd.
• They aim to make distinctive connections between the old and the new, bringing them together to make a statement about what it is to be young and “fabulously British” 
• They take inspiration form the best of British; sporting, history and country pursuits.
• The brand claims to use the finest of quality materials and techniques in tall areas of the process from design to consumer.
• They focus on selling the lifestyle of a young, upper class University student, living the life of a socialite and sporting ‘blues’ at the likes of Oxford and Cambridge. Jack Wills reinforced this by launching their second, third stores in these famous university towns.
• The brand now have 80+ stores, which includes locations near America’s Harvard and Yale University campuses and more recently, even in Hong Kong.
• The company summaries this by saying “Jack Wills creates fabulously British goods for the university crowd. Drawing inspiration from Britain’s rich history and culture”  All of these core ideas about the brand lead to their brand essence, “Fabulously British”.
• We are now going to go through all the different sectors of the brand’s essence. The design equation of Jack Wills includes ideas about tradition, British culture; Union Jack, university lifestyle, the brand signature, the well known pink and navy stripes and the pheasant logo.
• The brand values are stated by Jack Wills as: British, entrepreneurial, innovative, responsible and excellence.
• The brand personality, we feel from Jack Wills, is that they are a high status, upper class, preppy, young brand.
• The brand truth is that they are hitting a younger target audience then they aim for and this is may be harming their reputation as a university brand.
• The attributes and benefits of Jack Wills are that once you purchase from them you almost become part of an elite ‘group’, this is demonstrated with the use of the signature clothing for example JW on a jumper. We feel that this relates to the society idea that universities use.
• The brand promise reassures consumers with quality clothing whilst still maintaining the British heritage.
• All of these ideas lead to the brand essence of Jack WIlls which we feel is being ‘Fabulously British’.
• The brand does not necessarily have set iconic products, but is instead know for there items labelled with the brand signature and well known navy and pink stripes. Providing consumers with these types of products creates brand ambassadors that freely advertise the brand name. We feel that this has benefitted the brand as they only believe in advertisement via word of mouth.
• However, more recently, these items have begun to give the brand a less desirable image and reputation, as the tracksuit and smaller items are becoming more and more popular amongst the younger generations and, in particular, secondary school children as these are the only products from the brand which are retailed at a more accessible price.
• Therefore Jack Wills’ reliance on word of mouth could be an issue for them when their target market of university students is put off by the idea that the brand is more popular with younger people as this makes the brand appear to be less sophisticated.
•  Jack Wills has always had a strong focus on heritage. The brand sees this a important part of being “fabulously British”, and uses it to reinforce their own true and traditional British roots.
• One way in which the brand communicates this idea to the consumer is within the visual merchandising of their stores. Using everything from window displays and in-store layout to even the choice of the building itself. Many Jack Wills stores have even been intentionally placed within buildings that have some British history and heritage.       
• An example of this is the Jack Wills store in Oxford, situated in the perfect location for targeting upper class University students. The building that houses the Oxford Jack Wills store dates back to the eighteenth century and was originally home to the Banker Mr. Edward Lock and his son Sir Joseph Lock, who both also served as the Mayors of Oxford in the late 1800’s.
• The stores location here has been vital to the brands success and expansions. The store here and in Cambridge have helped with the brands extension into sporting, allowing them to create their varsity sports matches within rowing and polo that bring together these two universities for Jack Wills events.
• These events also have an impact on the store décor, as many stores have pictures and advertisements for these hanging on the wall…The image here shows an example of this from within the Nottingham store. 
• The brands own heritage also plays a key role within their stores. They do this by using small details to reference the brand’s essence, core values and heritage. As you can see within these images the hangers contain the address of their first original store at 22 Fore St in Salcombe, Devon; as well as the brand signature/logo.
• Here we have created a perceptual map to indicate where we see Jack Wills in the current market compared to its big competitors. 
• Here is a list of Jack Wills competitors. Starting with Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, we feel that they are competitors because they have similar brand values, visual merchandising and target consumer.
• We also feel that Abercrombie and Hollister are fellow competitors due to the fact that like Jack Wills they do not advertise and are also aiming to sell a lifestyle as well as clothes. All three fall under the same price range for similar garments.
• Zara, Topshop and River Island are at the lower end of the market (price wise) but are successful in reaching university students, this makes them a competitor to Jack Wills.
• Here we have created a Consumer profile from the brands perspective, an ideal individual who is “Fabulously British” and would consume the brand because of their brand values and personality, as described within the brand essence model.
• This type of consumer would encourage others in her social group to also wear Jack Wills, and would therefore be a brand ambassador.
• Here are a list of communication touch points used by Jack Wills. As the brand rely on word of mouth many of the communication touch points come from social media.
• To see where there was a need for change, expansion or re-marketing for Jack Wills, we decided to first look at our own opinions of the Brand. As we are within the target market of Jack Wills, we understand that our opinion was valid for this project.
• However we still though it was essential to carry out a survey for some market research. We used survey monkey to collect our data and used this to come up with our conceptual idea.
• We carried out a survey and asked 48 university students questions about their shopping habits and fashion choices. The results here show that the majority would not choose to shop in Jack Wills and are more inclined to shop at their current competitors‘stores and the lower priced high street stores.
• This has allowed us to see where the brand’s problem lies as they are not in the same market position as their competitors, even though this is where they believe they are.
• Our concept idea is therefore to change this by moving the brand’s position in the market to place them in line with Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger as an elite outfitters.
• This illustrates our ideas of moving Jack Wills further towards the high end market.
• We have decided that we think a way of getting Jack Wills in to the correct sector of the market that they should make a collaborative collection. We feel that this collection should be with a famous British designer for example Vivienne Westwood.
• We also feel to keep the brand up and coming that we should collaborate with a University fashion design graduate. Creating a new collection with an edge that designers such as Vivienne Westwood could create for the brand, would help to give the brand an original and a unique selling point.
• We feel that by doing this it will create a new perspective for the brand and will create publicity, which will enforce the brand’s idea of using word of mouth as a powerful marketing and advertising tool. It will also help to reinforce the brands idea of British heritage and will target University students.   
• We will launch this new collection by holding a launch party event.
• We think that perfect location for this sort of event would be a country house such as Charsworth House in the Peak District or even somewhere closer to Salcombe/Devon where the brand started out. we think that this location is a  good idea because it steers away from predictable locations in London that would be the obvious choice for a British brand.
• The event would have two halves… with different event: day/night. The day time events would include events such as: varsity polo, rowing, a hog roast, a fair, afternoon tea, clay pigeon shooting and croquet.
• The evening events would include things such as: bands playing, fireworks, a Ferris wheel and other visual effects. The main event would be the catwalk show of all the new collection from the collaborations.
• For the advertising campaign we would begin by adverising in High end magazines such as Vogue and Hapers Bazaar as this would help to raise the brands profile.
• The new campaign would begin with adverts of the new collection which would help to raise awareness of the other clothes aside from Jack Wills’ iconic products.
• We feel that the brand would benefit if the PR department sent out clothes in the respectable sixzes for celebrities such as Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, Ed Westwick and Robert Pattinson. This is because we think they are ‘Fabulously British’ well-known celebrities.
• The advertising campaign, that we believe Jack Wills needs to invest in, could really help change their image and perception from the consumers’ perspective. To do this Jack Wills needs to raise the bar and present themselves as an elite and sophisticated brand with a more accessible price than the likes of Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, who could easily become their competitors. 
• However, to then sell themselves against these high end competitors, Jack Wills really needs to focus on their brand essence of being “fabulously British” and their values of heritage and innovation. This mixture could be the perfect selling point up against the British-mimicking brands such as Ralph Lauren.
• This development of a stronger image for Jack Wills is something that can be worked on as a future project for the brand through several magazine advertisements.
• There is also the potential to run a new collaborative club each year, in line with an annual launch party to keep up a strong, current, powerful, sophisticated brand.

Project Two: Jack Wills

Work in Progress

Below is a PowerPoint containing all my work, ideas and research on the Jack Wills brand to date, including the group work and minutes.

Seminar Activity - Semiotics

Analysing an image using semiotics:

In today's seminar we began to use semiotics to analyse and look at images or other visual texts to find both the obvious and hidden/symbolised meanings. Below is my chosen image (an outfit from Martin Margiela's S/S 2005 collection) and my response to the tasks given. 

1. Initial Response (Words/Phrases)

Layered, Dark, Scruffy, Disheveled, Contrast, Rough, Covered Face, Emotionless, Collage, Simple, Business wear, Number, Writing, French, Possibility of underlying complex meaning, Roland Barthes - "The terror of uncertain signs". 

2. Description of Visual & Purpose

Photograph from photoshoot, model is wearing an outfit from Spring/Summer women's wear collection 2005. Could be classed as advertisement or documentation. 

3. Denotations

A woman/female model in collection outfit

All black clothes - some contrasting nude/flesh/white tones - white shoes

Hair is not done - slightly scruffy/disheveled looking

Black line across eyes

Straight face - quite emotionless

Strip of paper over-layed with typewriter style typography - states what women is wearing - written in french

Number in the corner - place in order of collection

4. Connotation
Combination of scruffy, disheveled clothing, mixed with ideas of business dress - goes against conventional ideas, pushes boundaries, tries to move away from traditional tailoring 
Black line over eyes and straight face - shows no emotion - makes clothes the focus of audiences attention - more about what they were than the face -  the clothes may tell more of a story than the face
Writing in French - French company - French associated with elegance and perfection/precision - this emphasises a point of going against the conventions

5. Q&A
What is it?
An outfit created by Martin Margiela at his company 'Maison Martin Margiela' for his Spring/Summer 2005 Collection
Who produced it? 
Martin Margiela under his label
When was it produced?
Made for 2005 S/S so most likely 2004
What else was going on at the time of production, both in the field of fashion and in the wider social and historical context?
Does it belong to a specific trend or movement? What immediately preceded it?
Did any specific ideas or theories inform its production?
Who was it produced for?
What technology/media/materials have been used and why?

Sketchbook

Below is an image of the notes taken in my sketchbook, which I have then translated onto here:

The Eye Has to Travel

Diana Vreeland and 'The Eye Had to Travel'

In today's lecture and seminar's we watched the film 'The Eye Had to Travel', an inspirational and fascinating film about Diana Vreeland's 50 years of international fashion. I found the film interesting, informative and inspiring. Diana Vreeland was an incredibly creative woman, who saw the world in an entirely unique and almost magical fantastical way; her whole life's work reflects this, and her innovative thinking and interested take on all things fashion. Her interest in what surrounded fashion is admirable; to be able to take in culture, surroundings, era, historical events, revolutions and politics, and see beyond the fabric, materialism of fashion and into the world that the industry creates is a fascinating and incredible feet when done so effortlessly. The result of her ever-growing passion was the power and impression that her work had on the industry, she was on top of the fashion world. She spoke in the film of clothes being the key to everything, she said "you can see and feel everything through clothes" and stated that even a revolution can be seen coming through changing fashion trends. 
Her work was always luxurious, as was her lifestyle, she spent and made money all the time, her world revolved around money, she says so within the interview in the film, stating that "money is everything" and "anyone who says otherwise is mad". Her work was also very much about story telling, something that matched her personality entirely, she lived in her own fantasy world, where things were the way she believed they should be and therefore not necessarily how they really were. She was as aware of this as those around her, but says quite simply that "we live through our dreams and imagination, for really it's the only reality we know". She was a key player in the history of fashion, changing the image of both Harper's Bizarre and Vogue; she always did something new and something different, even when going back to past era's where historical elements of fashion were made her own. She took unusual people and made them into models, she saw something in people that the others could not and the results were incredible, unique photographs. 

Trailer

Here is the trailer for the movie:

Q&A

Did I enjoy it?

Yes, I really enjoyed the film, it was fascination and engaging, the same was it is with other similar documentary style films that give you this close-up and personal take on the lives of these icons to the fashion world. Such as with Bill Cunningham in 'Bill Cunningham's New York', the correlation between these two great people in the fashion world is their love, passion and dedication for what they do. And it isn't always about the clothes and the lifestyle that can often be associated with it, but instead the beauty and almost fantasy of it all.

Was I inspired? 

Yes. I think that the work Vreeland did was spectacular and unique and all together quite wonderful. She had such a individual way of looking at the world, and fashion; she took in everything about the clothes, not just the material, the colour, the cut etc...but the setting, where it's from, why it's been made, who's wearing it, the culture behind it, the fantasy life that can be attached to it. As they say in the film, the magazines for her where always about trying to 'give people what they can't get at home'.

What characteristics made Vreeland successful? Good or bad?

I think that the film makes it clear that there are many sides to Diana Vreeland, not all of them positive, but certainly all of them contributed to her success. For example, her drive, her passion and her love for what she did, her need to work and her need for the industry and the clothes; these were the things that kept her there, she both wanted and needed it. However, as the film portrays, this may have made her less of a good wife and mother to her 2 children, as her passion and love went into her work, she travelled a lot for photoshoots and model scouting. Her daring attitude was definitely a positive contribution to her work, this made her take risks and go all out on an idea without a worry or a second thought or a doubt as to whether it may sink or swim. This head-strong certainty made her swim. 

Would you recommend the film? To who? And why?

I would definitely recommend this film, it's both interesting and inspiring. I think that anyone with a similar interest in fashion, especially those who read Harper's Bizarre or Vogue and are interested in it's history as Diana Vreeland definitely played a vital part in both. However, I also think somebody interested in art, design or media and advertising would be interested and inspired by this film; her way of seeing and interpreting, not just the clothes but the world, is unique and admirable. 

Sketchbook

Here is an image of the notes within my sketchbook in relation to the film:

Moodboards

In today's lecture we were introduced to our first module, which is entitled 'Visual Awareness'. The first section of this module is based around moodboards, and their use within industry. Therefore, within today's seminar we carried out a moodboard task following a brief that was provided prior to the seminar.

Brief:

Could you please make sure that you are prepared for the mood board activity on Thursday October 3^rd 2013.

You will be making a new mood board (mixed media) and you will need the following materials:   

·      Old magazines,

·      newspapers,

·      photos,

·      drawings, etc.

·      anything else that might be useful for the Mood Board workshop.

You will also need:  

·      1 Sheet of A3 White Card  

·      Glue (Pritt Stick type) and or Tape (Masking, Electrical, Parcel, etc.) 

·      Assorted collage materials (if you have them!)

·      Fabric swatches, etc. 

Mood board Topic: My Favourite Fashion Brand/Designer

When collecting material for your mood board, please think about the following:

·      Key colour schemes which may crop up / signature motifs?

·      Are there any overriding themes? Is there an identifiable mood or personality?

·      Are there any other key influences on the brand such as artists or designers referenced?

·      Consider any other cultural and contextual references outside of fashion such as literature, film, music or politics.

My Moodboard

The designer I chose to base my moodboard on was Alexander McQueen, my all-time favourite designer. To sourced the images for moodboard from several different places; firstly, I used magazine advertisements and articles from Interview, Pop, Hunger and Vogue magazines, collecting anything that advertised or included McQueen's clothing, as well as pictures from other brands/designers that have created something in a similar style/with a similar theme. Secondly, I collected images from Google, and thirdly, I photocopied images out of my own books, including 'Alexander McQueen: Genius of a Generation'.  

During the seminar we were encouraged to play around with the layout, images used, colour themes and image size. To do this I arranged and re-arranged my moodboard several times, to make sure that I thoroughly considered the placement of each individual element in order to create the perfect tone and mood to reflect my chosen designer. We we're not allowed to use anything with the brand or designers name on within our moodboards, so this made the layout and the consequent mood/tone of our work even more important. 

Below are images of some of my trial layouts, which I documented using my iPhone camera so that I could refer back to previous versions and adapt elements I did or didn't like.

 Final Moodboard

Below is an image of my final finished moodboard: