WHO ARE THE FUTURE IMAGE MAKERS?

Generation-Z are that born between 1995 and 2010 and are now at pinnacle points of their lives. They are interested in many topics, especially within identity, community, commerce, resilience and activism (Parry, 2020). They showed resilience through the pandemic as they were forced to adapt in relation to their education. This has set them aside for when they start to venture into the world of work as they are adaptable and have new ideas that generations beforehand may not have considered. As a growing consumer base, they understand what their generation needs, as well as others which makes them great assets to brands as they can help target correctly, the right ideas to the right people.

According to US Youth Trends report, 83% of Gen-Z would describe their generation as ‘creative’ (Voxburner, 2020) and 9 in 10 Gen-Z’s in the UK see themselves as a creative. However, the term ‘creative’ has coined a different shape. It is no longer about being a painter or a photographer. Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes now and the communication methods of creativity is shapeshifting too. The rise of TikTok has allowed people to grow platforms of millions of people for creating short clips online each day. The moving memes perhaps and today’s platform of Vine. Even fashion brands have hopped on the TikTok bandwagon which means imagery can be accessed through new ways. Not so much advertising, but live streaming too. Anyone is able to tap into what their favourite brands are doing. Gen-Z primarily consists of the majority of TikTok users and they can use it as a platform to share their creations.

FIGURE 15: Photoshop Collage by Heleena Houston

FIGURE 16: Adidas Digital Collage by Poppy Campbell from Instagram FIGURE 17: Weekday Digital Collage by Poppy Campbell from Instagram

Using Photoshop is a very common practice in the fashion industry which comes with a lot of juxtaposing connotations. To airbrush images could create unattainable body images for young girls. Fantasy based and dreamy fashion images are easier to understand as these are often out of the ordinary and tell more of a story to immerse yourself in, compared to that of a beauty shoot with a model who is photoshopped to have a smaller body with prominent features and airbrushed for fl awless skin.

Take Poppy Campbell, a digital collage artist from Perth. Signed each piece is ‘by Poppy’ and her work is recognisable within her followers. Using Photoshop Poppy is able to layer and produce collages of celebrities that she cuts out, whilst also crediting the original photographer. Her work has a Y2K feel and has a following of 20.2k followers. She has worked with and for brands to create content. Fashion imagery as a means of communication is changing and is being featured in different ways. Poppy Campbell is a creative member of Gen-Z who uses Instagram to share her work, a platform that could become more of an education and inspiration hub than a selfi e app.