ELLAR O S E H I G H A M FASHION COMMUNICATION & PROMOTION CREATIVE
ELLA ROSE HIGHAM
PORTFOLIO N0487463 / FASH20031 / 2015/16
CONTENTS
SELF PROMOTION ‘WHAT AM I LIKE?’ MOODBOARD INDIVIDUAL SELF PROMOTION: DESIGN DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS CARD CV / JOB DESCRIPTION VISUAL CV ONLINE PORTFOLIO SELF PROMOTION IN CONTEXT WORK EXPERIENCE REFLECTIVE BLOG POST WORK EXPERIENCE IDENTITY COCKEYED PROMOTIONAL IMAGE COCKEYED TEAM WRITING COCKEYED DIGITAL PRESENCE OTHER MONO PRINTING CITY ZINE LORD WHITNEY
WHAT ARE YOU LIKE? (Summative) Brief: Based on a Victorian parlour game in which you describe yourself with images of your favourite things, visually present 10 of the 13 categories. Food / Pastime / Book / Animal / Aversion/ Comfort / Place / Weather / Transport/ Clothes / Shoes / Music / Possession
S E L F DESIGN DEVELOPMENT PROMOTION (Summative) Brief: Develop a body of self-promotional work by thinking of yourself as a Fashion Communicator and Promoter within the broader Fashion landscape - you as a brand. When I delved into how I want to be perceived via my business card / visual CV & online portfolio I realised that all of my inspiration followed suit i.e. had a minimal, clean and a fashion forward vibe to them all. I began to play around with the layout of my business card first of all - next taking inspiration from my preferred business cards to create my logo. I chose a simple yet informed logo (see below). Overall I like the understated layout of my name in a small clean cut square.
FONT & LOGO INSPIRATION
B BUSINESS CARD My final business cards represent my personality. I feel it shows that I am open minded and enjoy clean, minimalistic design. I acheived my overall aesthetic by using the technique of engraving my name, title and logo.
CV INTERNSHIP ADVERT VISUAL COVER LETTER Brief: Develop a body of self-promotional by thinking of yourself as a Fashion Communicator and Promoter within the broader Fashion landscape - you as a brand. I decided to keep my visual CV / Cover letter minimal similar to my business cards and logo. By doing some it allows my work to implement my branding further and create a statement.
ELLA HIGHAM
25, Chapel Hill Groby Leicestershire LE6 0FE ella.higham@hotmail.com 07833298061
PERSONAL I am a second year student BA Fashion, Communication and Promotion student at Nottingham Trent University. The course has allowed myself to develop an in-depth understanding of the relationships between design, retail and communication. The creative course concentrates on, but is not limited to, fashion media, branding, advertising, print, visual merchandising, retail environments, events and PR, trend prediction and forecasting. As an engaged, creative individual I thrive in this type of environment and hope to put my talents into my future career. I currently run my own blog as a creative outlet to present my university projects: ellahigham.blogspot.com EDUCATION Nottingham Trent University: Fashion, Communication and Promotion 2014-2017. Samworth Church Academy: A Levels: (A,C,C) Physical Education, English Literature, Philosophy and Ethics 2011-2013 Samworth Church Academy: GCSE: (12 A*-C) 2006-2011
EMPLOYMENT Remit Training: Recruitment Advisor/ Marketing Assistant May 2015-December 2015 - Recruiting for companies across the UK looking to offer an apprenticeship - Having contracts with brands such as Sytner Mercedes Benz and Nissan - Social Media - Proof Reading - Copy Writing Clothes Show Live: 2015 - Promoting upcoming hair brand ‘MAYA’ - Sales - Customer Service - Demonstrations Butchers Kitchen and Fairways Bar: February 2015-March 2015 - Hospitality - Bar/Waitressing - Cleaning - Till Work Remit Training: Marketing Assistant December 2014 Four weeks voluntary - Building the company Instagram Page - Conducting Research - Use Of Photoshop
Qualified First Aid. Qualified Sports Leader.
Remit Training: Receptionist/Administrative Assistant September 2014-January 2015 - First Point Of Contact - Customer Service - Office Support - Administrative Duties
SKILLS I currently have a good knowledge of working with Photoshop, Indesign, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Microsoft Excel. Full UK driving license and car to
Remit Training Recruitment Consultant March 2014-September 2014 - Recruiting For Twenty/Thirty Companies - Working Alongside 16-24 Year Olds - Apprenticeship Advice
REFERENCES Remit Training HR Manager Marylyn Pepper 0115 975 9550 Nottingham Trent University Lecturer Si Beales 0115 848 8436
Topshop Sales Assistant August 2012-December 2013 - POS - Managing Changing Rooms - Serving Customers - Advice - Visual Merchandising
JOB DESCRIPTION CAMPBELL AND COLE This is an Intership Advert that I applied for through University. Thankfully, I gained the chance to work with Campbell & Cole and will be working with them this month.
Campbell and Cole We are looking for help with PR and Marketing, in particular the following areas: Social Media - Updating information on Twitter and Facebook - Generating ideas for content for Instagram, Twitter and Facebook - Working on how to improve our social media followings Press Releases - Keep our Press List Contact Sheet updated - Email Press Releases out to journalists / blogs Blog We plan on updating our current blog and once this has been done we will need someone to: - Upload key backdated blogposts - Collate imagery and write blogposts, including features on all our stockists, press and products - Generate ideas for new content that can also be shared on social media I am keen to keep them focused on PR & Marketing but will also need help at times with daily tasks, such as packing up and sending out orders. Ian and Felicity are very busy at the moment but wouldn’t leave you on your own with any of the above as we will need to make sure any content has the look and feel of Campbell and Cole.
Ella Higham 25 Chapel Hill Groby Leciestershire LE6 0FE Mobile: 07833298061 Email: ella.higham@hotmail.com
20th January, 2016 Dear Felicity, I am writing in response to your advertisement for a PR and Marketing Intern. I am currently a second year Fashion, Communication and Promotion student at Nottingham Trent University. The course has allowed myself to develop an in-depth understanding of the relationships between design, retail and communication and as stated in your vacancy advertisement you are looking for an indivudual that can manage working on a range of aspects within your brand. I have valuable previous experience in marketing, social media and customer service thus far and I am keen to continue to devleop my talents whilst learning along the way. I am readily available and appreciate your time. Please see attached my CV and portfolio. Yours sincerely, Ella Higham
VISUAL
PROFILE I am a second year student BA Fashion, Communication and Promotion student at Nottingham Trent University. The course has allowed myself to develop an in-depth understanding of the relationships between design, retail and communication. The creative course concentrates on, but is not limited to, fashion media, branding, advertising, print, visual merchandising, retail environments, events and PR, trend prediction and forecasting. As an engaged, creative individual I thrive in this type of environment and hope to put my talents into my future career. EDUCATION Nottingham Trent University Fashion Communication & Promotion 2014-2017 Samworth Church Academy A Levels A, C, C 2011-2013 Samworth Church Academy GCSE 12 (A*-C) 2006-2011 EXPERIENCE Remit Training - Recruitment and Marketing May 2015-Janaury 2016 - Contract Manager of Mercedes Benz Sytner & Westway Nissan Recruitment / Advertising / Social Media Content / Proof Reading Clothes Show Live: 2015 - Promoting upcoming luxury hair brand ‘Maya’ / Customer Service / Sales / Hair Demonstrations Remit Training - Marketing Assistant
December 2014
Topshop - Sales Assistant
August 2012-December 2013
- Customer Service / Visual Merchandising / Styling / Managing changing rooms / POS / Till work SKILLS Creativity Communication Teamwork Organisation
25 Chapel Hill, Leicestershire LE6 0FE ella.higham@hotmail.com 07833298061
- Buidling the companies upoming Instagram page / Researching competitors / Creating Infographics for Social Media
ONLINE PORTFOLIO RESEARCH
WIX: A lot of options a popular choice
Cargo: Display options easy for the reader
Cargo: Easy to use layout
I decided to choose to display my portfolio on the ultimate portfolio site builder, Cargo Collective. After creating accounts with both WIX and Cargo Collective and exploring both sites - backed up by many reviews - I found that Cargo Collective allowed further customisation of sites easily. Another aspect of the site is the fact it has the ability to run fully configurable image slideshows, thus allowing myself to easily upload booklets I have created through Indesign etc.
To view my online portfolio visit cargocollective.com/ellahigham
ELLAR O S E H I G H A M Self Promotion Identity
Core Features Appealing Attractive Clean Capable Chic Fashion forward Relaxing Rustic
REFLECTIVE BLOG POST Brief: Write and publish a blog post on your feedback from Visual Awareness and Creative Concepts.
http://ellahigham.blogspot.co.uk
WORKEXPERIENCE Brief: Document your work experience so far - naming the brand and role. Document how you developed your learning and interest in Fashion Communication.
REMIT TRAINING WORKEXPERIENCE
Overall this was my favourite contract to work on as it demanded a very hands on and organised approach - it opened my eyes to the real world of business and gave me a yearning to have a hands on and important role in my future career. As well as recruiting for Mercedes Benz Sytner, I had the chance to recruit for Nissan Westway in a similar approach to the Mercedes Benz Sytner contract. I also recruited for Heineken and Starbucks as well as many more smaller businesses.
RECRUITMENT From May-December I had the opportunity to work within Recruitment and Marketing at Remit Training. Remit Training deliver structured Apprenticeship programmes in the Motor, IT, Business, Hospitality and Health and Social Care industries across the UK. During my time at Remit Training I had a number of roles and at times a lot of pressure to perform. One of my main roles at Remit Training was to recruit 18 apparentices between the ages of 18-23 for a two year apprenticeship contract that Mercedes Benz Sytner offer. As you can imagine this role could not be taken lightly as there were three stages and each potential apprentice had to be equipped with the knowledge to perform and impress the Managing Director. In order to meet my target there were a lot of late hours and a lot of phone calls with final prepping and advice.
Working within recruitment at Remit Training gave me great communication expereince, from speaking to perspective employers to giving a 16 year old apprentice a good luck call for their first day at work the role really allowed me to learn a lot in a short space of time. MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS The other role working at Remit Training allowed myself to put my true passion into it writing & soclai media. Working within the Marketing Department I worked on an array of projects. From building their upcoming Instagram page to communicating with apprentices and their parents at events - I got to learn all about many aspects within the company and it gave me great confidence for my future working experiences. Coming to the end of my time at Remit Training I was offered the opportunity to work full time as their Marketing Assistant however had to turn the role down due to only being half way through my degree.
Throughout the Clothes Show Live 2015 I worked for an upcoming luxury hair brand ‘Maya’.
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My role was to attract potential customers to the stall by promoting ‘Maya’ through wearing a T-shirt with their logo on, creating conversation and offering free hair samples/demonstrations.
Clothes Show Live 2015
IDENTITY
Brief: In your team of four, you will explore notions of identity. You are being given the theme, beauty, as a starting point for your research. Think about your subject matter in relation to a broader cultural and historical perspective. As a team you will produce and exhibit: - A zine - A3 accompanying poster that promotes the zine - A team piece of writing - Digital presence
COCKEYED PROMOTIONAL IMAGE
COCKEYED TEAM WRITING “Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.” – Markus Zusak Beauty is something that is all around us, and is the topic that we were given to focus upon for the very exciting identity zine we were tasked with creating. Every society, within every culture, within every era has their own definitions, standards or traditions to do with beauty. However, often these expectations are challenged by groups or individuals standing for a different kind of beauty or a natural reflection of it. The more we delved into this area the more intrigued we were by what we found, and the impacts of it within the magazine and publishing sectors. The 21st century definitions of perfection and beauty, and the way these are reflected in popular fashion or lifestyle magazines and social media are creating a beauty standard that is fake, photoshopped and unrealistic. These standards are something we wanted our zine to stand against as a place of reality, rawness and honesty yet with an artistic and fun twist. From this Cockeyed was born! A zine for the fabulous, fearless and fun, taking a light hearted but serious and truthful look at the issues going on in the world around us, showing off work by a whole host of artists, illustrators, photographers and creatives on the topic that each issue is focused on. A starting point for the creation of Cockeyed was through the findings of our initial primary research focus groups with children aged 4-14 years. As we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so with that we wanted to put it to the test, with images of some of the most iconic or beautiful women of today, we asked innocent children that were oblivious of these celebrities’ backgrounds to draw what they see. The feedback and results were astounding; signifying that the overpowering world of social media and the desire to conform to society’s idea of beauty is enraptured within the online world, and if we were to step back from it and put our mobiles away we would see beauty within the real world around us. In order to find out ‘the who,’ ‘the what’, ‘the where’, ‘the why’ and ‘the when’ of the Antithesis of Beauty, we created a cartogram. After finding many references from books to journals, podcasts to exhibitions we began to delve deeper into our trend categories. We began with focusing on ‘the who’, the groups and individuals who have truly stood up for what they believe in throughout history. Immediately we turned to the Suffragettes, women who challenged the stereotypical ideals and expectations of beauty, femininity and womanhood of the time. They stood up for what they believed and wanted, subverting the expectations of the day. Alongside the Suffragettes, power couple David and Angie Bowie as well as artist Jenny Saville have taken a stance in their beliefs throughout history. Whether that be subverting stereotypical gender roles for the Bowie couple or Saville capturing the raw truth of the human body through her art; they both challenge the concept of what beauty really is.
For each part of the cartogram such as, ‘Trend Drivers’ and ‘Trend Impacts’ we split the information into relevant categories; fashion, retail, interior and public figures. This allowed us to see how broad of an impact the Antithesis of Beauty trend and movement has had upon society. Ultimately our cartogram allowed us to have a clear insight into where our trend has derived from and most importantly the potential future of what could be. Our numerous interviews with our collaborators solidified what we had hoped; that there is a gap in the market for an illustrative zine offering the chance to upcoming artists to showcase their work as well as expressing their views around a certain topic for each issue. We chose to use the qualitative technique of interviewing as it allowed us to investigate into the concept of beauty thoroughly by asking a range of questions in order to find out our target consumers view on where beauty stands within magazine and publishing sectors today. It also allowed us to ask sensitive questions around the topic of how current fashion magazines make them feel in regard to fake and photoshopped imagery that we perhaps may have not got an answer to if it were to be discussed within a focus group. The current publishing market is full of glossy pages of unrealistic and simulated beauty. This is then force fed to us each and every day, everyone can become victim to this from a quick flick through a magazine to sitting down for a nice quiet read, you just don’t know when these adverts will attack. These deceptive advertisements filled with the work of photoshop masters are swamping the pages of our magazines and the industry has created a fake reality that consumers are devouring daily. It’s no surprise that we are not used to anything less than this, society has become blind to a real and raw celebration of fashion and beauty. The idea of Cockeyed allows an illustrative view on beauty – it explores the idea of reality created from our consumers views. Our big idea is to celebrate beauty through creative artistic expression. The human form is beautiful, and Cockeyed believes it should be natural, raw and admired just how it is. As a society which is constantly bombarded with images we have become accustomed to particular norms and values. We expect to see blemish free, toned skin gracing the pages of the magazines we buy or endorsing the products we use, yet we are unaware of the implications such standards impose. A backlash against such norms has surfaced with a more genuine and transparent view becoming increasingly popular; evident particularly on social platforms where recently hashtags such as #SocialMediaIsNotRealLife #antisocial and #nofilter have brought to light a rejection of the constructed image. Baudrillard said ‘It is now a principle of simulation, and not of reality, that regulates all of social life.’
Suggesting that we have become so accustomed to these pruned and primped images that we have brought into a fake reality leading to our lives being based on simulations. We found through researching this notion of the rejection of the constructed image that we wanted to explore how we are led to becoming blind from the true imperfections of beauty and developed our concept into Cockeyed. We as a team have closely curated specific artists that we feel can represent Cockeyed, and most importantly, their own work. Our illustrative zine has targeted a range of people; students, professionals, and general art lovers to be a part of our new creation that could also open doors for them. The art that we have curated will explore throughout the beauty issue the topic in a captivating and visually beautiful way. Revealing a more genuine and raw aesthetic, which the commerciality of magazines such as Vogue and even ID can sometimes prevent from prevailing, opening our readers eyes to the freedom of beauty and how it is truly all around them. We have chosen to directly turn the opposite way to the rose tinted portrayal of beauty in the media. Our decision to create an illustrative zine stemmed from our own views, those of our collaborators and the social norm of young people on social platforms of painting a confirmatory lifestyle to fit in with the pressures of the media and society. Cockeyed allows readers to escape from this, and be true to who they really are and what they really think. Our readers should feel involved when flicking through each page of fun, inspiring and exciting content in Cockeyed. The look and feel of our zine represents the content we share, pursuing realistic views and opinions of the topic that each issue covers, the first being beauty. We want our zine to have the edge that makes it stand out on a shelf, attracting those who have grown tired of the repetitiveness of visuals in the image swamped culture we live in today. To achieve this, the binding throughout will be raw and untouched; much like our content. We have opted to creatively overlay images and experiment with mixed media in order to obtain a lighthearted outcome. This presents a varied take on serious issues such as social norms, standards and the big topics of the day in a visually engaging way. Each individual copy of Cockeyed is exclusive, with pages printed on different paper and unique hand draw illustrations from the team in each, reflecting the nature of beauty and how despite the current social norms, perfection is not reality or a true reflection of what beauty is. We want Cockeyed to be something that readers treasure and go back to time and time again for inspiration and a creative, bold outlook on life. We hope and strive towards Cockeyed becoming a zine that readers relate to and love and are eager for more of as they get a glimpse of reality within its pages. A stark contrast to the constructed and simulated realities of social media, the traditional press, fashion editorials and advertisements.
The key starting point that led to the creation of Cockeyed is the Antithesis of Beauty movement and trend. The influence of this within Cockeyed will always be felt as we want to maintain an honest, raw, unbiased and refreshing view on the world at all times. Although only the first issue of Cockeyed will be themed around beauty, the strong, natural and true personality of this first and defining issue will always be continued. Due to the nature of the Antithesis of Beauty trend and those who have championed it and the fields they are involved in or challenge, each issue of Cockeyed will discuss a real theme that is going on in the world. These will range from gender to politics, celebrity to travel, love to fear and anything in between. The Cockeyed team have their own opinions on all of these topics and more, but we want to share everyone’s! We are eager to display and explore unbiased and honest views of the world with our readers by showcasing what they have to say within the pages we print. Whether a photographer has a fear of spiders, an illustrator hates David Cameron or a creative seems to spend half their time on planes or trains; if it fits in with the topic of the issue we want to share what they think and feel. No holds barred, no restrictions, no limits. We see the future of Cockeyed being extraordinarily bright, and of course filled with lots and lots of good honest fun. The response we have had, initially from our collaborators and then from those on social media or that we know in real life has been fantastic. It seems that other people are loving what Cockeyed is all about and the things it has got to say. Cockeyed has wings and we’re ready to see them fly.
ONLINE PRESENCE
@Cockeyedzine is present online within the world of Instagram. Instagram gives Cockeyed the chance to showcase inspiration / layouts / artists works & offers a way of contact for any artists that are interested in collaborating.
OTHER.. Showcasing a variety of projects completed within a group (City Zine) OR within seminars.
MONO PRINTING Here are several examples of my outcome to a mono printing seminar. A characteristic of this method is that no two prints are alike and it allowed myself to delve into my creative side creating content for my sketchbook and material to consider for my upcoming business card.
Brief: Continue to gather general research within your chosen city. We expect you to be photographing and documenting innovative and exciting new examples within fashion. As a Fashion Communicator it is my role to pay attention to a range of aspects within the fashion industry and the media. As my group were in a range of cities we decided to concentrate on luminous lighting within cities such as London, Dublin, Rome and Liverpool.
CITYZINE
Towards the end of semester 1 FCP were lucky enough to have set design professionals Lord Whitney to come and partake in two seminars with us. Our brief was to create a fashion film based around the words ‘to wear, ‘paint’ and ‘film’. As a team of 7 we produced a fashion film to promote an upcoming festival / event - offering a fun, eclectic and upbeat film.
LORD WHITNEY View the finished fashion film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QOTjgtH-EY
BEHIND THE SCENES