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.