Project Evaluation

The questions I have asked:

• What was the theme for the project?
• How have you developed your ideas? 
• How did your work change through the project?
• How much reference material did you find? 
• Do you think you should have done more or less?
• What artists, art movements or cultures have you looked at to help and inspire you?
• What materials, tools and techniques did these artists use?
• How have your skills developed during the project?

Within this second semester the project brief we where given enabled me to take a lot on on my own and create something that reflected my own style and the chosen brands style. The theme for my overall project and mood was royalty, rich colours and texture. I think that I have stayed loyal to my original idea and plan for this project, with a few tweaks here and there.

When looking back over my blog and sketch books and notes, you can see that my idea has had the same basis but changed in little ways, for example, with my advertisement I really wanted to use the ink drop and put the brands product within the ink drop on photoshoot, but when editing with my image the look just didn't correlate very well and looked out of place, so I went back to the drawing board, had a mini meltdown, but persevered, and planned what would go better, and after some time playing around I found the best look and it came out better than anticipated. My work really hasn't changed an awful lot I have stayed true to my plans and sketches like I have said before but the inspiration and found objects have steered me into different directions which is great. For example, the location of the manor house was a lot darker that expected but worked very well with the make-up, hair and costume so the outcome was not what I planned but was fitting to the style I wanted.

When looking over my references I think they have been what has helped me the most, every image, artist, film or book found it has shaped and folded my concept and outlook at the project as a whole and helped me in small ways in making my work even better. It has also made me think more and ask more questions, why have they dressed them in a certain way? Why that colour? What story are they trying to tell us? This is what I have struggled with in the past, asking key questions to help move my project along and to understand more about others work as well as my own.

When looking at my blog I can quite happily say I could have done more, there is always that element in me that could have pushed it further, could have gone that one step but with everything going on in normal life it has prevented me. However, the work I have done clearly explains my project, you can see the development, the struggles, the success, the inspiration and for me that is enough. I am over joyed with the outcome of my shoots, they where amazing to do, to design and to collaborate with models, photographers and building owners.

My main inspiration for this project was oil paintings, the 1700's ear, Marie Antoinette and spring summer 2016 clothing and designs. each blog post, each thought has been to revolve around these things to make sure that my original idea comes to life and reflects each of the key aspects I started with. I have experimented with many mediums within this project which has made me get a greater understanding for what to use and what not to use. It has helped me also with time management as I know know how long things will take me to do and how to make it go quicker but not look rushed. I am really happy with myself for this as from the beginning of university I had trouble doing things quickly but efficiently and now I can do this it makes my life a lot easier and ready for the industry standards.


Overall, the only things that I would change is the amount of blog posts I have done. If I hadn't had to go back to work I think I could have exceeded myself like in last semester. However, I know that the quality out does the amount so I am still happy with the outcome. The final pieces I do really love, I put so much effort and work and pressure on myself that it was all worth the tears and almost quitting stage. I know this is what I want to do in life so the pressure is all worth it in the end. So this project as a whole has been great, learnt a lot and enjoyed the outcomes.

Brand Evaluation

The brand that dares to be different and offers quality, professional make up for anyone who wants to release their alter ego. Illamasuqa is a British brand through and through and has built up a following since its launch in 2008. Julian Kynaston the ‘brainchild’ and marketing specialist, built this brand from the ground up with no previous experience in the world of make-up; he used this platform to reflect his passion for all thing subcultural. From day one Illamasqua has been the edgy side to the make-up world and by introducing Joseph Corre to the company made the brand stand out even more, with Corre’s punk heritage. They never shy away from the unconventional and avant-garde looks and highly pigmented colours. They live to boast about being the ‘alternative’ brand and making the products available to everyone, and every style.

Through its advertisement online and in magazines they show the public that make-up is for everyone, from the make-up artist to the everyday man or woman. They reach out through short film advertisement to show the variety of looks one can achieve; high fashion or everyday looks. This is what they pride themselves on, it is for everyone and anything can be achieved with imagination.

Although a theatrical make-up brand with its advertisement, the presentation is completely different, they have chosen to have a clean cut design which is pleasing to the eye and not so dramatic it scares the customers away, it entices all customers in its neutral in appearance. Illamasqua promised themselves that they would always do things better than all the others and if not, then they wouldn’t do it at all; by using high quality gloss finished packaging they show off their brand in a 1920’s style, which shows stylishness and elegance.

Price is what it always comes down to as it can isolate who can and cannot buy it, but with Illamasqua they have made it available to all people who want to have the chance to use high end products at a reasonable price. They pride themselves on this, to make sure know one is left out. This is what drew me to choosing Illamasqua, as they are one of the most welcoming of brands they don’t pin point their customers like other brands, for example Channel, I was informed by a cabin crew member of Easyjet that Channel are not aloud to sell them their products as they don’t want to have them affiliated with their brand as it may deter their select upper-class audience.

Overall, I found that I would choose this brand over the rest because it is made available to all customers, the products are highly pigmented, of high quality and never fail to amaze its audience in presentation and promotion. They are always true to their word and inspire all to be creative even if you didn’t come from a make-up background. I have used all this information to influence my own work and show the pride in the company through my images. I hope that my images would make not only Illamasqua ,but the customers inspired to find the royalty within themselves and for them to create their own collection with their vast variety of products.

Final images - Edited and ready to submit!

The Final Results

Advertisement Day & Night

Editorial Looks Day & Night

Catwalk Looks

Making a Magazine Cover

Making a magazine cover I needed to have a look at other companies and how they lay them out before I started to approach mine.

• Clean layout
• The Vogue logo is sometimes behind the model or in front
• Main text in one colour and sub text in white or black
• Clear text/ sometimes hidden in image behind

• Clean layout
• The Glamour logo is sometimes behind the model or in front
• Main text in one colour and sub text in white or black
• Clear text/ sometimes hidden in image behind
• Overall flow is lovely

So what I have done is go onto DaFont and fount some text that looks best and changed the colours to match my image in the back. I also got the latest magazine and old ones and put some of their text on my own so it all flows together. 

Creating the font for Advertisement and Editorial

So creating the font I want to have the feel of a fairy tale, with lovely rounded letters. On Dafont I found a really beautiful design that hand the feel of calligraphy and still readable. Its called Bromello Regular. 

I want to create it so its not one flat colour and on each image different colours. So for the day advertisement I will get gold leaf background (as seen below) open this on Photoshop and then overlay my text in white writing:

Step one: Open gold leaf image on photoshoot

Step two: Create text at required size in white

Step three: Get the magic section tool and highlight the first letter (F)

Step four: Get magic eraser tool and delete the white

Step five: Click on the gold leaf image layer and go to (Select - Inverse)

Step six: Then get rubber and delete around the (F)

Do this to the rest of the writing:

Step seven: Open the levels and fiddle around until you get the right colouring 

Contact sheet Editorial Day and Night

Day & Night Editorial Shoot

I have combined both shoots together as they where done in the same location, Rowfant house in West Sussex (Blog post on that location).


The images with my model Grace, in the golden dress and  in the red room came out beautifully. They had the contrast I wanted to create with the gold and red and her skin was luminous as I wanted. So when you can see her in the full length shots she is glowing.

The things that didn't go to plan in some shots where her feet, her shoes where brown boots and didn't go so well so we had to manipulate the shadows to hide her feet and make the main point of focus the body/ face and hair.

The overall shoot went fine me and my photographer new exactly what I wanted to achieve so we did it in a good timeframe and had it all planned out so no faffing about which I hate on a shoot.

Night Shoot Final Images

With these night images you can see these are the strongest. The first one especially, it has the full length look for the fashion side of it and has a very dramatic pose from the model. In the others you can see the face is very glossed, which is what I was going for. I think from the whole shoot I will choose this first one as it doesn't need editing much at all.

Day shoot final images

These images below are my strongest images from the shoot, they mix the texture in the skin, meaning the freckles aspect and the chiffon texture underneath my model. I applied the butterflies to the face to mix up the look as I had been inspired by other photographers and it just perfected the look completely. 

The one that I think I will use as my final image is number 2. as it is a close up of the full make-up and you can see a lot of detail in the skin which is great as its for a make-up brand. 

Contact sheet Advertisement Night

On this shoot the main change was the wig design and the backdrop to really make the difference between day and night. The shots came out just as planned. I made sure I experimented with positions and where to place the butterflies. 

Overall, I wanted to have the image landscape so I chose an image that was similar to the day shoot and able to have the product on the opposite side so it flowed really nicely. 

The main images that stood out to me. They have good composition and I love the facial expressions that my model has on each one. They go with the colouring of the butterflies. I also don't want it too serious so I think the one I will choose in the top right, she has a little smirk and I think that will represent the product really well. 

Contact sheet Advertisement Day

• On the contact sheets I had a couple of test shots to begin with that was testing the lighting. 
• The red circled images are the ones that I really want to use and edit. 
• Below they are there in bigger  and you can see them in better detail.

These images are the strongest from the shoot and the ones that I think will be one of my day images for advertisement. 

The colouring of the backdrop is just how I wanted them and the flow of the image itself look pleasing to the eye. When editing I think just making it lighter in the face and some of the background would help the image more. 

Catwalk final images and Evaluation

With the Catwalk looks I wanted to keep them simple as when your on a Catwalk shoot you have to make sure the design is easy to apply, and can be achieved in sufficient time. With he wig it has different designs in it each time to mix up the models final looks.

My overall designs came out just as practiced and just as I had done in my timed assessment , like I said before, I made sure the designs where simple but effective. If I where to do them again I think I would have done the sweets design in the second image as I think that would have bee a really fun one to do, but to be honest I ran out of time to do it so I just made sure it was a simple one for me for my last shoot.

I loved doing all the shoots and my favourite image is the top one as you can see me at work on the model just like you would see on a catwalk shoot on a professional fashion week kinda look!

Advertisement short films

Advertisement short films

• Magazines
• Videos
• Channel
• Behind the scenes of advertising

Analyse and reflect

Fashion/ beauty adverts

Here are a few short film/ adverts that really go me thinking, are short films the new way of advertising? And why are some more intense in the way they push their products?

In this channel No. 5 advert they literally are so aggressive in the way they shove the products down your throat! every scene has some sort of product placement, and I think I counted around 80 in this advert. It is lovely, but may god, at the end of it I was like I don't want the product thanks! However, I do appreciate the storyline, an everyday woman who can have a lovely life, a career, family, surfing, passion and love at the end wins it all! So romantic! 

This MAC advert is just a clip, but its very outrageous with the colours, hair and voiceovers which makes you laugh and think well if they can get away with that so can I. It evokes a childish nature, of gossip among women and salon life!

Adverts normally come when you least want them, in the middle of films, in YouTube videos, which not they have done it so it comes half way through watching as well as at the beginning (those ones are bloody annoying) Us viewers have had adverts pushed upon us whether its a peak at a new show, at the Beginning of a new film or even YouTube. 

However, interruptive advertising isn’t nearly as effective anymore, since people are watching less  broadcast TV.  and instead, the trend is moving towards watching video online.

“The percent of online adults who watch or download videos has also grown over the past four years, from 69% of adult Internet users in 2009 to 78% today,” writes Kristen Purcell of the Pew Research Internet Project. 

As a result of this, brands are increasingly pressed to create content that people will actually want to consume, they do this by knowing what you search for and linking the adverts to the specific things you want. For example, going on YouTube and watching a beauty blogger, they will have an advert beforehand talking about one of the products she uses or anything to do with hair or skin care. 

I like adverts when they show creativity and present a story; this happens in most fashion and beauty adverts, and these interest me more than a watch or car advert would interest my partner. However, I find it so annoying when they have now changed it to have not only an advert at the beginning but they do it during a YouTube video and most of the times the advert isn't relevant! 

I get that advertisement is a massive thing but sometimes it just annoys me so much!

The adverts that I have picked out not only appeal to me by the way they are filmed, edited and have a beautiful and creative story line but they also have helped me with my project, thinning about ways in presenting my editorial and advertisement looks, how quirky I want it and what colours to use. It has made me think in a more creative manner and to collaborate their ideas with my own. So my next step is to outline each thing I want in my editorial and advertisement shoot that not only incises the viewer to by the product, but helps them get lost in another world and enable their creativity. 

https://contently.com/strategist/2014/07/02/are-short-films-the-future-of-commercials/

Advertisement Final Images and Evaluation

The Final Images

Day:

Night:

The Evaluation

My overall design is very complimenting to the why the model looks and how the image as a whole is laid out. The colouring was the really important park for me, for example the background and the chosen product and the style in the wig. It all needed to flow together to create a strong image and for the viewer to enjoy the image as well. If I had to make any changed I would have maybe removed the blue chiffon dray from the day look as it annoys me that it is in the corner, however, this is my own fault as I should have removed it in the shoot, but didn't notice it until editing stages and it was in every shot. So no time worrying about something that cannot be changed because overall on the advert, I think it looks wonderful.

With the accessories, wig, clothing and make-up the look fitted really well however on camera you can't quite see the brush strokes that well, so if I where able to shoot again I would have made them more pronounced so you could really see she looks like a paining. The wig was the best and main theme throughout, it was the link that joined each look together from advert to editorial to catwalk. I changed the scene within the wig each time to make sure the viewer can tell that the are witnessing a complete different look and to keep in the theme of oil paintings of the 1700's as they told stories with objects being held and I really wanted to convey that, but with a wig instead. 

The colour scheme was exactly what I wanted as you can see from the other blog post on my test shoot with the studio I kept to the same colour and lighting arrangement to make sure that the look came out just as I wanted and not have to worry that the lighting was all wrong, throwing off the background and the shadows on the model. The overall lighting and colour scheme came out just as planned which I am really happy about as I had so many other things to worry about, I new that was safe. 

Overall I am so happy with the outcome it was just as I imagined it and drew it. Everything fell into place, it didn't take long as I was super organised on the shoot. If I were to do this again I would just make the make-up more pronounced and remove the chiffon from the corner on the day shoot. I enjoyed every moment of this shoot and hope you do too.


My key questions for my evaluation:

What do you think of the overall design ?  What changes would you make ? Are you happy with the materials you chose ?  Would you make adjustments next time ? Is the colour scheme exactly what you expected ?  What alterations would you make ? Did the project take too long to make ?  Would this alter the cost of manufacture ? Would it be easy to set up a production line for the manufacture of your solution ? Is your solution safe ?  Could it be made safer ? Are the techniques you used to make your solution adequate or would you use a different range of manufacturing techniques ? Is the solution the right size/shape ? What are the views of other people regarding your design ? Does it work ?  What changes are required ?