For the summer I would like to continue to build up my portfolio by doing smaller projects with photographers, stylists, make-up artists and models. I am already planning a photo-shoot with make-up artist Lydia Pankhurst with the idea of building up our portfolios. I will also be working in a Boutique in Brighton selling vintage clothing to gain experience and earn money. As I will be working with Naomi in the new term we shall begin to gather research for our next project. We are also looking at going on a study trip together, perhaps Paris or Milan as a starting point of inspiration. I am hoping that by the beginning of the next term we shall have a starting point to which to base our next project.
I feel very pleased with my final outcomes of this project. I have deepened my knowledge and understanding of the fashion business in more than one way. I have learnt how to apply my work from magazines to film to web based programmes in what I believe as a professional standard.
I began this project with an idea of looking in to the Grand Tour and bringing back the life of the aristocrats that shaped Britain today. After the brief with Zoe Sinclair from The Girls it was discussed that I try to incorporate the Paper Eaters live project within my brief. I therefore took my original 18th century approach and combined it with The Girls 80’s inspiration.
During the project I felt that I really pushed myself to the best of my abilities. I have learnt that most things do not work out how you plan, for example I had a lot of people cancel, become ill and other problems but I think in this industry you have to learn early on that you cannot rely on people. Because I was so organised it meant that when things changed I could show clearly what I wanted and needed from new collaborators. I also found that sometimes when things don’t seem to be going to plan a positive usually arrives that may change the project but it can usually be for the better. I learnt this when I contacted Stanmer House as I had not heard back from Kingston Lacy, later when Kingston Lacy got back to me it meant that I had two locations to work with. This opened up new possibilities and I think added a new dimension and connection to my project that I had not previously considered. I could play around with the whole inside and outside concept which has become the basis of my final outcomes. You must always be prepared to change and it is from these changes that I felt really pushed my work forward.
Throughout this project, my main task was to collaborate and make as many new contacts that I could work with in the future. I think due to the constant change of people it meant that I could also find out who I would defiantly want to work with in the future and who I now know are not the most reliable, that has also led to people wanting me to work for them in their future projects.
I found that my PDP documentation was the best way to communicate with people and very early on I transferred all my information from my sketchbook to my blog as I could easily show my team my changes, thoughts and reflections that I wanted to produce from this project. I therefore stopped using my sketchbook as it stopped the easy access of information the blog supplied.
Having done a tester shoot for this project I have found that it enabled me to clearly plan what, when and where I wanted my shots to be at the location. Visiting the location in advance with the photographer and film director helped us to discuss the best possible shots and make the day at Kingston Lacy run smoothly. Because I had planned all of this, it meant that when my photographer became ill another was able to step in with a clear idea of what was needed.
Having the film and photographers edit the final footage really helped me out as I was able to transfer my skills to producing a well thought out website and magazine layout.
By using a magazine to base my layout of my photographs on has really enabled me to understand the thoughts and processes that go behind putting an editorial magazine together. I found that everything from font, size, shape and layout has to be addressed to make the magazine work well. From doing this it has made me consider what I would apply if I were to create my own magazine. It has also shown that there is a lot more thought processes than just putting a photograph on a page with some text.
I think the biggest change for me from my original synopsis is the fact that I have decided not to work with The Girls on The Paper Eaters Project, the main reason being due to the time constraints. As my schedule kept being pushed back due to changes I felt that it would be better to propose my final outcome once I had done the shoot. However, due to signing the National Trusts Photographers Contract for Amateur/Private Use documentation this meant that I now have to get granted permission from the National Trust if I want to let The Girls use my work. I felt that I have stepped too far into my own work that The Girls Paper Eaters Project now has little connection to my final outcome. I have therefore decided that I will probably enter the film into the French Fashion Film Festival this summer to gain more publicity and try to start getting my work out in the public eye.
Another thing that has increased in this project has been my budget, whilst I intended to only spend £100 I have found that I have had to spend more on travelling costs and food for my team, this however comes with working with a bigger team and I will need to address this again when working with as many people.
From this project I want to take forward my professional approach to organising and planning a photo-shoot. By doing this I think it will enable me to produce work to the best of my ability.
Next year I will start collaborating with Naomi Farmer who is also studying Fashion Studies communication. The reason for this is because we feel that we work very well together, she has assisted me with my work and I have done vice versa. By doing this we hope to transfer both our skills and knowledge that will hopefully mean that our work can move forward together. We are hoping to create a styling team/business that can work alongside magazines, film, wardrobe and television work. Working together will also help us to share out the work load and push our boundaries even further, this will mean that we will be able to bring together bigger and better projects.
My website is now up and running with the images and video from this project. I'm really pleased with it as I think it looks more professional then a blog. Now I have the overall layout I can add to it and change it as my portfolio gets bigger.
Today I picked up the final edited video from Alex. He felt that the song Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap matched the mood and feel of the video the best and I think links brilliantly with the pace of the film. I think the film defiantly shows the story I had behind it of being trapped and confined in the house with the strict rules and showing the models wanting to escape and when they can escape that can really liberate and have fun.
We have also tried to link it with the magazine spread by using the same title Enticing Abandon and the first shot of the magazine spread. We have also linked it by using the last run from the house shot and including the credits in the same font as the contributor page. Overall I am very pleased with the video, I think the credits could have been a bit slower and perhaps there could have been more shots of the clothing but as a fashion film I think it works really well and keeps the viewers attention.
Something I have seen in a lot of fashion videos is that they often drag out and I lose interest, therefore by using fun and amusing imagery with music that is energetic and the length being short makes sure that it keeps the viewer more inclined to watch the whole of the film.
After my tutorial it was discussed that I should improve the logo of my website. I therefore spoke to my friend Lewes a 3rd year Illustration student. I explained that the rose has been used as my logo for quite a while on my blog and I would still be interested in incorporating this somehow. I'm using my nickname Torie (from Victoria) because this will be a more memorable name as mine is very common. Lewes liked the way Torie and my surname Smith had the same number of letters and felt that this could be styled well.
The above two images were my original logo's. I did like the rose but the font was lacking any inspiration. Lewes took the design of my rose and developed it. He experimented with colours a bit but we agreed that the pink still was best suited for it, the red defiantly looked too much like the labour party symbol and I mentioned that considering my name it wouldn't be a good idea to have this as my logo.
I explained to Lewes that the font also needed to be played with so he added the rose image to the text colour, I think this worked really well as it gave the logo and text more link. We kept the font Verdana as this is a font I have used for all my web based work and would link my website to my blog.
After Lewes had designed my logo I took his samples and applied it to my website template.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
I originally liked the circled rose in Example 2 but once it had been put in the website template I felt that Example 3 was the best and linked most to what I originally had planned. I am very pleased with the logo as it has given my website a professional look.
I've decided to start my magazine by showing the confines of the house with the very traditional 18th Century clothing and then by slowly adding the 80's elements like the tights. This will show the story of my idea linking the 18th century with the 80's in an escapism type way, it will also link with my film which is being edited to give the same approach.
For my magazine layout I had more landscape photographs then portrait photographs. I have therefore cropped some of the images so that they keep the size but are just small on the page (shown below). Although Lula tends to stick to the same format throughout I think for my photo-spread this was the most original way for me to present my images in keeping with the magazine but also bringing in my own ideas. Through each photograph I have tried to link it with the previous and the next by the type of colour, composition and lighting. The good thing about using Indesign is once you have your format it is very easy to swap pages until they link in the best possible way. I really liked the shadowy photographs and felt they worked best together, I have therefore linked them so they continue on from each other. The page below is an example of how I changed the text from underneath the photograph to the top hand side, the reason being that their are so many different item descriptions that it simply would not have fitted. I did put the text underneath the cropped image but felt this distracted from the image too much. Although this photograph is from the Stanmer shoot I thought it was better to mix up the photo's so that it wasn't so divided from house to garden. The pink of the tights and T-shirt also links to the introduction of the pink in the last two spreads. I was originally going to end with this image but felt that it was a good page to break from before I ended it. I ended the page with the continuation of the bright pink. In Lula they sometimes add photographs that do not have any styling but are just a beautiful image. I took their contributors page which Lula has at the front of the magazine and I narrowed it down to put the people who worked with me during this photo-shoot. I really wanted to show the credit to the people that helped me out in my project and felt this was the best and most original way. This will also be linked with the film at the end of credits in the same font and style.
Emily has just finished editing my photographs. She used the edited photographs by Ben to base hers on so that when I come to put both shoots together they shouldn't look too unlike. I'm really pleased with the final edits as it really brings to light the beautiful make-up and wig styling that Lydia, Laura and Charlotte did. Now I just need to decide which photos work best together and where to apply them to my magazine layout. I'm thinking that I want to go with my initial idea of starting very traditional Georgian style and then slowing bringing in the 80's influence until the last image when it is a complete merge of the two.
Like I did for the Lula front cover, I also looked at examples of the spreads in the magazine. I've noticed that the titles for the font seem to tell a story of what the actual spread is about. I therefore put together words that I felt related well to my project, from these words I then made titles and sub titles that my project linked with.
For the font I've noticed in the newer editions of Lula that they tend to mix between three different fonts. The main font is a custom made font which is used for the majority of their text designed by Becky Smith & Pedro Cid Proenca, this is a similar font to Kursivschrift just the text has been joined up and the capital letter is more fancy. To do my font I have copied the Kursivschrift then scanned in samples of the Lula font capital letters to do my E and A of my title. I have created this in Photoshop and then transferred the text over to my Indesign layout as an EPS file in the same way I did the Lula title for the front cover of my magazine. I've noticed that a lot of the titles have alteration linking the words together, I've therefore looked into doing this when choosing the words from my selection. In my sentence I have also played with the text size and font like the titles in the recent issues of Lula. I think the other main text they use is Century which is then mixed with a similar font to Rosewood Std Regular to make the main words stand on. I decided to use the image of Katie on the stairs at Stanmer House as it is a double page spread with less going on in the right hand side of the page. I had to choose a light colour for the title to show up and originally decided on white but felt it was too harsh so went for a pink colour similar to the lighter tones in Katie's dress. I've noticed in a lot of the titles used by Lula that they have texture to them rather than a block of colour, I have therefore added filters to give the text a grainy affect in photoshop. The smaller text describing the clothing is usually in the bottom border underneath the photograph (shown below), however sometimes the text is placed in the top right or left hand side of the image if there is a lot of text. For the majority of my spread I will place my garment font underneath the image but in some of the larger, double spread images I will have to put it to the sides as there will be too much font to fit the bottom of the margin. The font used to describe the garments is usually in Lula's custom made font. I started to use the font by copying the Kursivschrift text but this was taking a huge amount of time, I have therefore decided to use Century to do my text because of this. Although it wasn't what I wanted I think it works well and it means I can change the size and placing easier. I will also use Century to put the page numbers which are on the bottom right hand corner of the right page only.
I am a stylist from Brighton having just graduated from The Art University College of Bournemouth with a BA Fashion Studies degree.
I have a passion for fashion and love to blog about it!
Contact me at smith.v.a@hotmail.com
