Evaluation

This project for me was about exploring new areas of fashion communication which I have never experienced before. Advertising was an area in which I wanted to explore and I wanted to look into all aspects of what doing a project on advertising would be like. I chose to take my project in this direction because I wanted to do something a bit more plausible, something that I could actually see being around in the real world.

Overall I am happy with this project, I feel even though it didn't go quite in the direction I thought at the start it has gone in a good and interesting direction. I am particularly happy with my tshirts, I liked doing something a bit more creative in this project and I think the spray painting went really well. Also I am really happy with the way the photos turned out. I really enjoyed taking my own photos for this project, it has opened a new area to me which I wasn't really thinking about before. I'm also glad I got a good mix of males and females for my photos because I didn't want to it look like to much of a one sex range.

After getting feedback through my questionnaire I think it would have been good to maybe try out colour, however I felt I didn't have enough time and I wanted them to look like a set of tshirts, so I thought the best way to do this was to keep the colouring exactly the same. I think also if I had been able to get a photographer I would have liked to do a more sophisticated photoshoot, as the photos are quite basic, however this was appropriate for my catalogue.

Through the project I have really liked working towards a target audience, it has been good in directing me and having a focus. I think in the future I will have a target audience more often, as I really liked working towards the student market as it changed my ideas and focus. Also this project has shown me that I think my strengths lie within more conceptual shoots as I really like the meaning and message behind the shoot, however I have learnt a lot from doing this project.

This project was meant to be more real and something that could be seen in magazines, in my questionnaire I got a lot of positive feedback about how nice my tshirts are so I think I'm going to take Tiffany's advise and put my designs on teepay.com. I also think if I saw these tshirts for sale, I would buy one to raise more for the animals.

Catalogue and Spread

Below are my final 2 out comes for this project. I have done a double page magazine spread and a catalogue. I have done my magazine spread based on the advertising spreads I looked into at the beginning of the project and used the large and small images together so the viewer can see all the tshirt's together. My idea would be that the main image on one side would change so each week/month a new tshirt would be the main image. I can imagine this spread in any type of magazine however as I am aiming for students and young people it would be best suited to magazines such as Love, i-D, Elle or cosmopolitan.

My catalogue is the way the tshirt's would be sold, I have priced the tshirt's at £10 based on my responses from my questionnaire, as I thought this would be a reasonable price. I have also tried to reinforce the fact they are uni sex tshirt's by writing mens and women's at the bottom. I would have liked to get my catalogue printed however I didn't have enough time for this, however I really like the look of my catalogue even on the computer screen, I feel by using regular students as my models I am reaching students on a more personal level. In my catalogue I have also written a short bit about each animal and why they are facing endangerment to reinforce the message as well as to get people to understand what is happening to these animals.

Final Catalogue

Final Magazine Spread

Responses

So after I had finished my tshirt's and gotten my imagery I thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback on my tshirt's from my target audience. Therefore I sent out a questionnaire to the students at AUCB to see what they thought of my tshirt's and if I'd actually come up with a good, plausible idea. The results I got back were:

• 72 people took my survey, 56 female and 16 male, mainly aged between 20-24.
• Out of these 72 people 54% had brought a fund raising tshirt before.
• I then added a couple of pictures of my tshirt's and asked if they would consider buying one of these, 52% said yes and 33% said maybe with only 13% saying they wouldn't buy my tshirt's.
• I then asked an open ended question about if they wouldn't buy my tshirt's why not? The main reason was for their "home-made" aspect and the possible price. For me the best way to create 10 different tshirt's was to spray paint them, as screen printing would have been far to time consuming and costly. I personally like the feathered edges of the images, as it gives them a more hand made and natural appeal however I am aware this is not to everyone's taste.
• I then asked what price would they consider paying for these tshirt's, the main result was £8 with 32 people saying they would buy my tshirt for this much the next highest result was £10 with 23 people suggesting this amount. I think this is a reasonable price for a tshirt which raises money for endangered animals.
• Finally I asked how did they think the tshirt's could be improved. This came out with 3 top answers being: More colour, more unique imagery and that they are good as they are. I think I would have definitely liked to have added more colour however I wanted them to look like a set of tshirt's and not just 10 random ones put together so I decided to stick with the same colour theme.
  

Over all I am happy with the responses I got. It shows I have actually done something real and plausible which is what I set out to do, and as this questionnaire shows these aren't to everyone's taste I think I have successfully targeted most of my target audience correctly.

Drastic Problem!!

Ok so the wonder of technology has struck again. My laptop crashed yesterday and today dell have come and taken away my hard drive so basically I have lost all my work for this project!! It is such a nightmare however fortunately I have my final photos and my Indesign final catalogue on my USB stick so all is not lost! If I hadn't of had that I would be in serious trouble right now. Also luckily I decided to change to a blog format so all my research is already on here which also takes a weight off! However if something goes wrong with my blog or whatever I have nothing else to hand in so hopefully blogger won't have a crisis in the next couple of days! I expect this is the sort of circumstance where I could get an extension, however I'm just going to continue and hope that I haven't forgotten about anything important that was on my computer! Technology stinks!

Final Images

Here is a video of all my final imagery. I am really happy with the way these photos came out they are exactly how I imagined them. The only think that I don't like so much is the continuity, as the photos were taken in different locations at different times of the day the bricks are different and also the lighting was too difficult to edit to look the same as the others. Thinking back now maybe I could have done a larger photo shoot rather than just a catalogue shoot, however as finding a photographer was practically impossible I think I made the most out of what I had available to me, maybe if I had a photographer a larger shoot may have progressed.

Customising

My tshirts are unisex and through doing my shoot I realised they would naturally be customised by whoever buys them. Girls would obviously customise it more than boys due to the way girls wear tshirts differently. In my shoot I have customised the tshirts different ways for boys and girls. I have mainly left the boys tshirts alone, occasionally rolling up the sleeves. With the girls, I customised a lot more, I brought down the neckline to make it more feminine, rolled or chopped off the sleeves, and left it either baggy as a sort of tshirt dress or pulled it in to create a fitted tshirt which is more the style girls wear today.

Front Cover Ideas

Here are some of my front cover ideas, initially I was going to do a real group picture however I couldn't get everyone together at the same time so I had to use photoshop to combine the images I already had together. I thought I would try out lots of different ways to combine my images and my tag to get the best result. I like a few of these however some I am not so sure about, I don't want the page to look to cluttered however I want it to be busy enough to be eye catching. Please click on the link below to see my ideas.

https://acrobat.com/#d=eCozeC4Wg3WFofQ6prKtDw

Storyboard

I have been going back over my learning agreement and noticed that I have put down storyboards as one of my assessment criteria. As this project doesn't really have a story line to it there is no need to do a story bored, at the beginning of the project I did not know how this project was going to develop. This project I have done something different and not done a photo shoot like I usually do so it doesn't require a story bored to explain each shot, also as I did the photos myself I didn't need anything to show people such as a photographer so they understood my idea.

Group image

For the cover of my catalogue I think I'm going to do a group shot of as many people I can get at the same time wearing my Tshirts. So far I have taken 3 Tshirts and on Friday and the weekend I hope to have done all 10. I am finding it extremely difficult to find people available to help me because everyone has hand ins so I'm trying to rope in as many friends as possible. The 3 I have done already have turned out really well so hopefully the rest will be just as successful. I'm really liking taking my own pictures, I feel I can get exactly what I want from the photos. The only bit I'm struggling with is the posing I can't think of enough positions, however I'm improving by keep on doing more and more research! Such as below with some group images, the hardest thing will be trying to get everyone looking good in the same picture, this will hopefully be achieved with some counting in strategies, I really like the United Colours of Benneton adverts they are so clever and cool hopefully I can achieve something like this.

Model Poses

Spray painting in the sun

So instead of being cooped up inside on these recent sunny days I have been outside sunning it up while doing my work (the best way to do work in my opinion!) I have spent two days getting absolutely covered with spray paint doing my tshirts. At first I was very apprehensive, the stencils I had cut out were quite detailed with lots of little bits on some of them so I wasn't sure if it would work. However despite a tiny mistake on the tuna they all went surprisingly well! The tiger and leopard which I was most worried about have turned out the best in my opinion and although some are a bit fuzzy where the spray paint got under the stencil I don't mind that aspect of it, i think it adds to the affect. I am also happy with the way they all look, there a few I'm not so crazy about, note the orang-utan looks a bit deranged but the rest I am very happy with. Now all I need to do is get styling and shooting. I have decided to take the photos myself, it's just easier and quicker that way, so next job is to find all my models.

Critique

Yesterday I had a crit with Tiffany. She mentioned a website called Teepay. This is a website where you can upload tshirt designs and if they get over 30 orders then they go to print. This might be something I consider when I finish this project, it might be quite good to actually do something with this idea once my project is finished. Also I've got to start thinking about how I will present my final outcome. My original idea was to create a printed catalogue however this would take a lot of time to get printed which I don't really have at the moment so I will have to think of a new way of presenting it digitally.

Mock Layouts

Here are the 3 different aspects of my campaign and how I imagine they will look when they are finished. Even in these mocked up layouts I like them. I also really like the brick wall as the background. I am not so crazy however about the double page magazine layout I think I might change this when I get my final images.

Single page layout

Double page layout

Catalogue Layout

To Do:

1. Finish cutting out stencils. 4 to go.
2. Print off tag and see if it works as a stencil
3. Draw out how shoot will look, with words etc.
4. Draw out layout, how it will look in a magazine
5. How will catalogue look?

My overall look

What I seem to have problems communicating with my lecturers is the overall look/feel of my final outcome. I think this is because I have an idea in my head and it generally stays there and I'm not the greatest at giving a clear description of what it will look like because it's all jumbled in my brain. So for this project I'm going to give actual inspiration idea of the sort of thing I'm going for.

This is a tshirt brand called Yoghurt Warrior Clothing and they print tshirts and hoodies. I actually think they are students at AUCB but I'm not 100% sure about this. They are definitely aiming at students which is what I'm trying to do. This is how I want my images to look. Young/student looking people (both male and females) wearing my tshirts. I have also been thinking due to my lack of photographer I could shoot it myself in front of a brick wall to reflect the spray paint aspect of the tshirts and I also as I won't be able to use the studio it might be nice to be outside as I;m doing an animal campaign.

Colourways

While experimenting with my tag against backgrounds I noticed that the word fashion wasn't standing out enough due to the font I chose. I really like the font so I have decided to combat the problem with some sprays of colour. Not only does the colour help read the words better but it also reflects the spray paint aspect of my work. As my tshirts will be unisex I need a colour that will also be unisex, below I have experimented with different colour ways. I personally prefer the purples of the red as they let the word stand out the most. I think using blue/pink tones would be to gender specific so I want to stay away from that. I think the red is the best option, as it works best with the words and would work well on a background.

Tag

This is the tag I have designed for my campaign. I have tried to represent the spray paint/graffiti aspect of the tshirts as well as the animal references. I have also tried to keep it young to appeal to my youth target market. I have also tried to keep it clean and sharp to fit in with my style.

Tag Ideas

Final Tshirt Images

Here are the images I am going to use for my Tshirts. Photoshop has a handy tool for changing images into black and white. I will now print these out onto A3 paper and cut them out to make my stencils for spray painting. This is probably going to take a long time however I think the end result will work and look quite effective. At the moment I'm having problems finding a photographer, as I'm assuming they are all busy with final projects, so I may have to end up taking the pictures myself.

Fashion and Cervical Cancer

The other day I was mindlessly watching TV and what came on was a fashion concert to raise awareness for cervical cancer called T4 Fight Cervical Cancer in Style. Sugababes are the face of the campaign and along with various other musical acts, a music/fashion show was put on to raise awareness for their cause, in a fashionable way to appeal to women. PPQ had also designed a limited edition purple scarf to also raise money for the campaign. I don't know if I've just never noticed it before or it has recently become a new thing but these fashion awareness campaigns, which is what I am doing, is everywhere these days. This is quite good as it shows what I am doing in this project is relevant for today's industry.

Vice and Cancer

Now I'm looking for it I'm finding awareness fashion campaigns everywhere. I found this on the Vice website and is a shoot based on Cancer. The clothes are from designer Sarah Lewis who has created this collection based on her experiences with cancer. The holes in the clothing is supposed to represent the way cancer eats away at the body.

Tshirts

I have decided to make 10 tshirts representing the 10 most endangered animals. I might also make some canvas bags as well if I have time. I think I will spray paint a design of each animal onto each tshirt, I think this is the best way for me to get the print onto the tshirt as screen printing 10 different designs will be far to time consuming.

Recently with sport relief last week they released promotional tshirts to raise money featuring David Beckham. These tshirts which you can see below have been spray painted red and black. I personally don't like these tshirts. I think they look really amateur (unless that was the point) and just generally really shoddy like they didn't really think about what designs they were going to use, they aren't very imaginative. I definitely wouldn't buy one and I think people would mainly buy them purely to help sport relief. I want my tshirts to be attractive and appealing to people and for people to want to buy them for the design just as much as to raise money.

No charity

So today I finally got an email back from the WWF. I thought I would email them to get some input on this project and I also thought I should ask permission to use their logo. However I got a pretty blunt email back saying basically that I cannot use the WWF logo or tag line in any of my work because it's heavily copyrighted. So bang goes my plan to use a brand. Instead of completely changing to a different brand; and getting the same problem, I think I'm just going to continue with what I'm doing just excluding the WWF aspect. I'll make it a fashion awareness campaign, so I don't have to include the name of a charity.

• Fashion for Biodiversity
• Fashion for Sustainability
• Fashion's fight for Endangered Animals
• Fashion for a Living planet
• Fashion for the Wild

Survey

I created a survey on survey monkey to see if my project would attract the right sort of people. I emailed the students at AUCB because it is the age range I'm aiming my project at. A total of 70 people completed my survey. The results:

74% of the respondents were female.

87% were aged 17-23

53% knew a few way in which they could help the environment

35% of respondents would most like to help the destruction of the rain forest, 34% would most like to help global warming and 22% would want to help endangered animals.

90%+ of people recycled, walked/cycled, turned unused lights off, doesn't use excess water and used reusable bags however only 12% of people have adopted an animal.

97% of people would want to do more for the environment if they knew different/new ways of doing it.

30% of people said a dress was their favourite item of clothing, 21% said a T-shirt and 12% said a scarf.

70% of people said they would buy an item of clothing if part of the money went to a cause depending on the price and design, however 7% of people wouldn't buy a charity piece of clothing at all.

62% of people had brought a piece of clothing that raised money for charity before.

77% think that students/young people should be made more aware of the ways in which they can help the environment through the media.

This survey has shown me that students want to help the environment and would like to know more ways they can help. It also shows me that students do buy fund raising clothes, especially if the design and price was good they would buy it to raise money for a cause, particularly if it was a dress or a t-shirt.

Branding

Today we had another lecture with Tiffany. I'm finding them really useful for my project as they are giving me really helpful information and ideas for this advertising project. Today's lecture was on branding. As I'm focusing my campaign towards a brand the lecture was really helpful for letting me know about what goes into the essence of a brand and about brand identity. Also as I'm sort of giving WWF a new focus, on students, I am in a way re branding them towards a different audience.

Also in the lecture today Tiffany said that brands don't usually try to market to students and young people as it's a hard area to crack, this made me think that if I can create a successful campaign aimed at students, then I have an insight into something that isn't widely explored.

Also it makes me think about me as a brand and what is my unique selling point (USP). After the last project I have a slightly better idea but I still don't feel I have anything specifically unique about me yet, I have a style and a specific way of thinking but I'm not really sure if it's unique enough. I'm hoping as this project is opening me up to so many new experiences that I will find out a bit more about myself as a designer.

Pandamonium

This was a WWF fund raising venture where artists painted and decorated unused panda donation boxes. The panda's were then sold at Selfridges to raise money for WWF.

Giant Panda

The international symbol of conservation since WWF started in 1961. However the giant panda still faces an uncertain future. There are only 1,600 left in the wild and they live in small isolated groups so breeding is difficult. The WWF have worked for 3 decades for panda conservation to help protect their natural habitat, but new problems are emerging with China's industrial and economical growth.

Mountain Gorilla

Mountain gorillas are classed as critically endangered, with only 680 left in the wild. The primary threat is forest clearance. They have also been victim to hunting, disease, wars and capture for the pet trade.