Professional Project - Branding Ideas.

Last night, thinking about my professional project, I started to think more and more about the possibilities of creating a brand based on my 'digital art in fashion' theme and I got pretty excited about the idea! I had already had a thought to create a brand but now I believe it could be a bigger part of my book than I first thought!

By creating a brand I can design the logo, collections, advertisement, accessories and look into visual merchandising for the brand. This way I will be producing a great deal of my own work, not focusing so much on reporting on what's already out there. This is in response to my feedback for my trend book project that I need to develop my ideas more. I'm even thinking perhaps the book will be 'by' the new brand I create. They could be showcasing their work and documenting why digital art in fashion is so popular and current and explain how it is developing!

Watch this space!

A Five Year Plan...

Right, a five year plan......

I believe the next biggest, most relevant and beneficial experience for me is a 3 month work placement at the end of this year. I have already started researching and thinking about the kind of business I would like to work for, for example, the size of the business, the location and the area of the industry they relate to. From my work placement at John Lewis HQ last year, I am very keen to experience more of a buying floor but in a more fashion forward company. For this reason I am considering contacting companies such as Topshop, ASOS and River Island.

A significant consideration I need to bear in mind with regards to my future is location. I am not yet sure how for or against I am for building a career in London as I am currently very settled in the South West. I hope if I do my 3 month work placement in a London based company this will prove to me whether or not I would be happy living there on a more permanent basis.

I am keen to remain open minded as to my career path within the industry however I hope this work placement will help me to confirm an area I particularly enjoy and prove good at.

Once I have graduated I hope I will have either secured a job with the company I did my work placement with or will have identified the kind of job role I will apply for. If my work placement in London confirms I would rather not live in London I will set about looking for a smaller company based outside London. Hopefully they might be impressed by my work placement in a leading London based company!

From here I simply hope to build upon my career wherever it may be!

My Trend Book!

Open publication - Free publishing - More forecasting

Wow! A lesson with Jamie has taught me to upload my trend book onto my blog - the pages turn and everything! I feel this will come in really handy. I think it will be really valuable and beneficial to be able to show my research in a digitial format and on my blog. This way I don't always have to have my sketchbook with me and it can be accessed from anywhere!

Trend Book Mark...

So today I got my mark for our last project, to produce a trend book. There's no denying I am slightly disappointed with my mark, I set my goals high and like to do everything I can to get the best mark possible. This mark of course effects my professional project as I need to identify and improve on the areas that let my trend book mark down.

After my tutorial with Sarah I understand I need to develop my own ideas and designs. I believe I need to focus more on this aspect of the project rather than so much on the research.

I plan to keep in close contact with my tutors during these coming months and ensure I get regular advise and feedback on my work.

Professional Project Initial Designs...

As well as researching my theme and documenting the research in my sketchbook I have also been working on a few initial designs. As I have most likely mentioned before, my skills in Adobe Illustrator developed and improved significantly during our previous project to produce a trend book. As a result of this I have been keen to redraw some hand drawn designs from a first year project in Illustrator to turn them into more professional, refined illustrations. These designs relate well to my digital art theme and are drawings I may include in my final book depending on other designs I produce. I am really happy with my drawings from Illustrator. They are far clearer and refined.