Danni Wood
N0560865 Fashion Communication and Promotion FASH10105 Visual Awareness
Contents
Street Style Photo Essay
Fashion Debate
Hero and Zero
 Photo Brief
Colour and Brand Mood boards
Additional work
Street Style Photo Essay
A Balance Of Gender And The Power Of a Pair‌ I have based my photo essay on both gender and family relationships. As a result, I decided to capture various images of grandparents, brothers and sisters and husbands and wives in different outfits. To accentuate their style, I have selected the most interesting images and used my Photo shop skills to morph the legs of the female individual with the male individual. I have combined both the legs and the relationships in to one image. This creates a contrast between a male and a female and projects the differences of style in a brother and sister, husband and wife and a grandmother and a grandfather's relationship. This further concentrates on how style varies from the age of 18 to 77. To make my photo essay more interesting, I decided to only capture the bottom half of the individual figures. This makes the imagery slightly more interesting as well as abstract by introducing the unknown‌ Is this the body of a male or a female? I further wanted to captivate a less obvious part of the body and present different styles, which people would usually miss as they would concentrate on the top half of the body, including the facial features, hair and the clothing that sits on the top half of the individuals, rather than their trousers/skirts etc and their shoes.
Hero and Zero
Colour and brand Mood boards
Colour Mood Board
My colour story is based on a NEUTRAL colour palette. I have extracted neutrally toned imagery from fashion photographs, magazines, catwalks, products, textured materials and film references. I have used a ‘maximum’ format to really accentuate various tones within the colour palette. The layering and overlapping of imagery adds depth to the mood board and allows the different tones to absorb and work together to create balance. The mood board conveys an element of pictorial space as the large-scale images become dominant and are pulled into the foreground, whilst the smaller images are pushed into the background. I have further manipulated imagery by making the colours more natural to fit my colour palette. This was mainly completed with the larger photos and the dripping of the paint/ nail varnish. As well as this, I have also experimented with the ‘opaque’ tool by making some areas more transparent to express softer photos, which works well with my neutral colour palette. Leaving small areas of negative space means the mood board is not too clustered and the images become more visibly clear.
Brand Mood Board
For my final brand mood board, I have selected the high-end designer brand ‘Chloe’ as a focus. As their brand presents a subtle, more elegant identity, I felt that this fitted well with my colour palette, especially as most of their products present more sophisticated, neutral tones. Therefore, as a representation of the ‘Chloe’ brand, I have selected both a ‘Minimum’ and ‘Grid’ format for this mood board. As ‘Chloe’ is very elegant and natural, I decided this format would fit best to represent their simplistic brand identity and product, whilst using the grid format to project a neat, structured and clean layout. Whilst selecting the limited imagery that I was going to use for my mood board, I kept my colour palette in mind and subtly manipulated the clothing of the models and the spray of the perfume bottle to match with my 5 main neutral tones.(This also allows the brand’s product to become dominant in a creative way) I have experimented with the ‘opaque’ tool to create a sense of movement of the figures on the catwalk. Using this tool also formed much softer and elegant imagery, which fits well with both the colour palette and the brand. Adding simplistic shapes and line allows the mood board to flow and work as a whole. I have also used a white ‘stroke’ effect around each image to define the subject matter and to reduce the harshness of the outline, adding to the delicacy of the mood board. I have used imagery of Chloe’s products, advertising, catwalks, social media, instore experience and website.
Fashion Debate
‘Fashion does more damage than good’- DEBATE... My argument: AGAINST FROM AN INDUSTRY POINT OF VIEW
Employment
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International stores
1 in 6 people in the UK are employed by the fashion industry • 4500 factories employ workers • There is a higher percentage of people wanting to work more hours to feed for their families and survive
Money
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There are sweatshops within the fashion industry to manufacture and create garments. HOWEVER, this is a wider issue, which goes beyond the fashion industry. Many other industries deal with worse problems. ‘Toms’ one for one campaign shows how the fashion industry actually helps those in need. (Buy a pair of toms and a pair is sent to children in workshops). Children in need provided 35 million shoes for children workers Materials are being recycled and money is being saved as a result of sustainable fashion New trends raise sales for stores People are more aware of sweatshops these days and have a choice whether they want to buy the clothing or not.
SelfExpression
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People in fashion are not realists, they are expressionists. Fashion allows people to express their personalities and identities through clothing and imagery. Wardrobes represent culture and heritage Plus sized models show that not everyone is affected by body image and the skinny ‘norm’ People have a choice whether they want to be influenced, people are aware of photoshopped imagery. Retail therapy allows people to express themselves The fashion industry gives creative entrepreneurs the chance to make a difference
Globalisation • • • • •
Luxury global brands •
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Fashion helps employ skilled artisans (craft workers) around the world E-commerce enables local fashion boutiques to reach global markets. Globalisation allows brands to be more recognisable It also allows companies to get access to wider markets Fashion businesses get wider opportunities to invest as a result of globalisation Resources from different countries are used for producing goods and services more efficiently Asia has become a luxury market for brands, such as Prada
Photo Brief
Object Of Desire
As this task involved portraying an ‘Object of desire’, I decided to focus on the desire for food and beauty/elegance. Therefore, I selected both objects of cutlery and jewellery. This photo displays a balanced composition highlighting the elements of colour and prop. I have heightened the colour of the jewellery and have experimented with the liquify tool to allow the colour to soak through the cutlery in the background. This contrasts against the white background and white cutlery, which I painted to allow the element of shape to be accentuated through the image. Using the ‘liquify’ tool also added an illusion of movement to the photo, whilst further added depth as there was a sense of layering. The jewellery was being pulled into the foreground, whilst the cutlery was being pushed into the background, forming pictorial space. I further manipulated my photo by enchaning the tone in the background to allow the colour to become the focal point. This also added subtle shadow to the props, reducing the flatness of the image.
Reflective Blog: https://danniwood123.wordpress.com
Additional Work
Image Manipulation experimentation
Liquify Using the ‘Liquify’ tool allowed me to accentuate colour, whilst also allowing the diverse tones to soak into each other. Multiplying the image added a sense of depth and an element of repetition.
Multiply + Drop Shadow Experimenting with the use of ‘mirroring’ has allowed me to craft a more abstract image, whilst using a subtle ‘stroke’ effect to define the subject matter as well as injecting a pop of colour.
Radial Blur
To highlight the radial blur tool, I created various layers of the hair piece and experimented by blurring each one to form an illusion of movement and action. I further heightened the element of colour by extracting a warm pink and re-drawing on the facial features.
Motion Blur Experimenting with layering and the motion Blur technique forms an illusion of movement and depth. It further creates pictorial space as there is a dominant element in the foreground.
Stroke + Drop Shadow Using both the ‘stroke’ and ‘drop shadow’ tools has allowed me to define the image, whilst also highlighting the rich red tones. The ‘drop shadow’ tool has added depth and detail to the photo.
Stroke Layering the image and using the ‘stroke’ as well as the ‘drop shadow’ tool has allowed me to craft an image that conveys movement and depth. The ‘stroke’ tool forms an outline to define the shape of the women’s figure. It’s almost like walking into your own footsteps…
In NYC I was able to capture the retail environment of both high end and high street stores. This mood board accentuates a glimpse of the various shop windows, visual merchandising and instore experience within New York’s major shopping areas (5th avenue, Soho and Manhattan). These are just a small selection of retail images that I feel are the most creative.