Thursday, 31 May 2012

Some Rough Sketches

Realised i completely forgot to add in any of my sketch book work so just sifting through it now as i last min checklist that i've done everything that i wanted to do. Heres some of the stuff that i liked the most. It was really fun to get to do drawings and be creative again!


this was my mood board/inspiration wall for the shoot. the kind of exotic world i wanted with a very specific shade of red.

 Sketch i did for the Bruton St. Flagship store window display, based on Indian colonial architecture and foliage. I also included the trademark wreath used in the advertising and video.


Messing around, thinking about the quintessential English look and how that transfers into makeup. I actually drew this with several different shades of lipsticks!!


Still life of the roses from the shoot before they died :)

The Grand Finale!

So today is the hand in of the project. If i'm honest i'm still not quite finished but i have finally managed to upload my video to youtube! yay! it only took about 3 hours to load...haha. Anyway, hope you enjoy and i will come back later to do some personal and professional development!

here is the link to the youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVrqDNpEcrs


The Shoot

So i have finally finished editing the pictures from the photoshoot last week! (sorry it took so long! and thanks to Khalil Musa for helping me overcome my lack of photoshop skills!)
As a background to the photo theme, i based the look around the theme of 'The English Rose'. That quintessential english girl - pale complexion, freckles, slightly androgynous, sexy but she's barely aware of it...
I then felt the need to echo the previous Stella McCartney advertisements in their penchant for completely taking this beautiful girl and taking her completely out of context. However I didn't want to go too crazy and shove her in a council estate (i did consider this for a while but realised that i may in fact alienate quite a few of my target audiences! haha). So instead i focused on the English abroad, out of their comfort zone but still thriving. I came across these amazing old photos of colonial India during the British Empire (see below) and zoned in on these almost obsessively!


So thats where my main inspiration came from, the British Raj, the ridiculous Britishness of it all placed amongst the Jungle. Foreign but at the same time a bubble of the small island we came from.
The setting of Kew Gardens was perfect for this, the Palm house provided the perfect preservation of this time of extravagance in the unknown wild. Almost like a time capsule. The victorian architecture preserved amongst the contrasting exotic foliage. Aged but still persevering.
The model wore a wreath of fully blooming red roses to fully ensure the main theme was kept present and not lost within the surroundings. The Makeup used reflected the proposed range, with subtle flushes of floral colours that were natural and exuded innocence and sensuality.
Soooo these are the final shots that i have chosen. These will be used for double paged spreadsin magazine adverts as well as banners on buses around London. Im actually really happy with them (you would be too if you knew how goofy my model was, i managed to make her look like a normal human being! ahahaha!)




I would like to thank Jess Allen and Catherine Lobo for their time and patience with me on this shoot, they were so helpful and did such a great job considering the conditions of working in an extremely hot greenhouse for several hours!

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Sneak Preview...


Had my photoshoot today. The shoot took place in Kew Gardens Palm House, I don't think that i have ever been so hot! It's like a sauna in there! This is my lovely model Jess being a bit camera shy... more to come when I have edited everything...

Monday, 21 May 2012

LOVE THE LCF LIBRARY!!!

SCORE!


The Painted Veil

So I have been thinking about the inspiration for my photo shoot and I seem to be going through alot of ideas. there are so many avenue to explore, I feel like I'm getting lost in my on thoughts. I know that I want to do something quintessentially english but at the same time I want it to completely clash with that idea in order to carry on the previous clashing of Stella McCartney editorials. I was thinking about maybe doing something exotic so I'm going to watch a film called 'The Painted Veil' tonight for inspiration and to see if i could make it work. Its an amazing film about a doctor who takes his wife to China during a Cholera outbreak. I like the idea of colonialism. A little England preserved amongst the wild jungle and unexplored lands. I'm going to look into Kew Gardens as a possible location. I have this photo that i took on a school visit there which I love of my friend standing on the white spiral staircase in the palm house that could be perfect if i recreated it for my own needs! i must try and find it....

Anyway you should all watch this film (if only to watch the gorgeous Edward Norton for a few hours!!)


Colour Inspiration

Loving this colour palette by Pantone. its perfect for Stella and sums up everything I want for this makeup range! amazing! myPANTONE

Tuesday, 1 May 2012

IDOLS


So this week I have been thinking about the brands that I like and aspire to and what I can learn from them. Personally my friends and I are OBSESSED with Illamasqua makeup. It's a relatively new company but it has already had a huge impact on the market. With its own flagship behind oxford street and a large amount of store space in Selfridges its not one to be missed. The allure of this brand can be found in its creativity, it takes what the marketing leaders, 'MAC' do with extreme pigments and colour palettes and take it one step further. their intergrated marketing means that each season has a clear and defined theme such as "The Art of Darkeness" seen below. The theme is carried through viral marketing as well as in-store decoration and advertising creating a strong brand aesthetic as well as interesting and stunning visuals that characterise the seasons look.


However this is obviously not a brand that Stella McCartney would aspire to be like (however much i wish they would) but I think it is important to take note of how fully integrated thier marketing is and how important thir visual technique is within each season. Hopefully this is something I can take from them and use within my own project this term. We shall have to see. I can only hope that my video is as beautiful as the one above...