THE FRESH FASHION COMPETITION JOSEPHINE ANDREW
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Contents
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introduction What is The Fresh Fashion Competition?
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competition &workshops How it works and organising inspirational workshops
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selecting finalists How the selection process works
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location map
How to find the Design Museum
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location The Design Museum , London
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exhibiton requiremnts The main things which are needed to build an exhibiton
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additionals
Extras specific to The Fresh Fashion Competition exhibiton
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branding How to make Fresh Fashion appealing
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promotion and advertising How the company gets the word out
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funding Funding options to make the competition happen
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health and safety What needs to be considered to stop accidents
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cost sheet total costings for a year
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time scale How long it takes to organise
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references
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Introduction The Fresh Fashion Competition is an England based interschools creativity competition open to all secondary school children aged 15-16, studying G.C.S.E Textiles, Photography and Art. The competition will be run on a yearly basis and will result in an experiential exhibition displaying the finalist’s work. A winner and runner up will be selected from each subject category, and then an overall winner from all of the entries. Each year the competition will have a different theme related to fashion. For example the theme could be ‘influential designers’ or ‘colour’. Textiles student can enter a garment or accessory, art students can create installations, paintings or sculptures, and photography students could enter some form of photography whether black and white or digital based. The fashion themes will be used as inspiration for the pupils, but it is up to them to decide how related to the topic their entry is. The idea of the competition is to allow students to show off their creative flare with no restrictions, the competition will not have a limit on how big or eccentric the ideas and creations are, unlike school where pupils can be encouraged keep ideas realistic (1). Evidence of working progress and development of ideas needs to be handed in with each submission. This could be in the form of mood boards, sketch books or digital presentations. Because the competition is not compulsory or part of the curriculum, the pupils who wish to take part will have to work on their entries in their own time, some schools will have teachers who are willing to set up after school classes to help the pupils with any new skills they need to learn, and to supervise them using sewing machines or dark room equipment. Apart from this, students are expected to work on this at home, after school or on weekends.
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Competition The idea for the competition will be raised in September when the schools start back after summer, and the exhibition will be held throughout June, when school is still on so trips can be taken to visit the exhibition and see the finalists work. It will also be a good opportunity to take year 10 students to see what they are aiming for in next year’s competition. The first step to organising the competition and creating awareness will be sending out an email to all 3127 secondary schools in England (2) at the start of the school year (September). The email will highlight the main points of the competition and entry requirements, and a link to the Fresh Fashion website which will contain all the information about the competition and how it works. The school can then decide if they would like their pupils to take part and if so, gather information on what subjects and how many pupils would like to enter. An information pack will be then sent out to the participating schools, it will include posters, flyers and guides to the competition as well as a small booklet of information for each pupil to keep and refer to. This will be sent out within 2 weeks of the school expressing an interest in the competition, so the pupils can begin to work on their ideas as soon as possible. Approximate postage cost: £442.26 (royalmail.com) Printing costs: £778 (printne.co.uk)
Workshops Focus group research showed pupils would like to have workshops which could help them with their creativity for the competition (3). This will be organised by The Fresh Fashion competition, which will approach local artists, photographers and textiles professionals to go into surrounding schools taking part in the competition to teach workshops giving them new skills and ideas. The people selected to run the workshops will do this on a voluntary basis, but all equipment and materials needed to give the lesson will be supplied by Fresh Fashion. Materials: approximately £8000
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Selecting Finalists The pupils will have until January to complete their designs. The selection process will then begin within the participating school. Up to 3 students from each subject category will go through to the next stage, which will be a county competition. The judges of this section will be lecturers from the nearest Universities who teach or are involved in the relevant subjects (fashion/photography/art). They will select someone from each category to go into the regional competition. There are 39 counties in total, meaning at this stage in the competition there will be 117 entries if schools from all counties take part. Out of the nine regions in England, 2 finalists from each subject area will be selected. This leaves 54 entries. Judges for this section will be a panel of lecturers from neighbouring universities. These entries will then go into the final exhibition at The Design Museum in London. The selection process will be complete by the start of March, giving time for the exhibition designers to make sure everything has a place. A team of judges will be invited to select the final winners. This will ideally be a celebrity fashion icon such as Alexa Chung, industry professionals from each subject area (top designers, fashion photographers and fashion illustrators) and top fashion lecturers.
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Lousie Wilson (Central st Matrins)
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Location Map
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Exhibition Location The final exhibition of the pupil’s entries will be held at the Design Museum London. This is the perfect location for the exhibition as it has large, modern and spacious exhibiting rooms, and already has a strong link with schools and educational programmes. The first floor gallery space is ideal for the exhibition, it has plenty of room to display all the entries, and when empty is a blank canvas. The only slight obstructions to the exhibition design are the eight large pillars dotted about the room. However they are plain white and square so can easily be incorporated into the layout design. The room features a large sliding door which reveals access to a lift to bring up props and display entries, and also numerous fire exits for health and safely purposes. The space has a total display area of 534 square metres. To hire the space it would cost approximately £81400 for 4 weeks. The Design Museum is located in central London, alongside the River Thames. It is easily accessible by a range of transport opportunities including rail, underground, bus, car (car park located around the corner), by foot or cycling. The nearest tube stations are Tower Hill (a ten minute walk over Tower Bridge) or London Bridge (a 15 minute walk south along the river Thames). The museum has plans to relocate in the next 3 years, so the competition will need to be designed for the new venue when the move happens, or find a new location. A possibility could be the Fashion and Textiles Museum London, which has a good sized gallery space and modern exterior, also not far from local transport stops.
The Design Museum Exterior
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Exhibition Requirements The exhibition will be split up into 3 sections for each subject area. There will be a set route to take around the display, and the visitor will enter experiential rooms before going into the main area where the entries are displayed. For example before entering the photography section of the exhibition, visitors will walk through a room set out like a dark room, to help them understand how some of the pictures have been created and the time and skill which goes into producing photographs. The whole exhibition will aim to highlight how skilled creative pupils are, and that they are a lot more talented than perhaps first anticipated. The experiential rooms will have interesting things to see and do, demonstrations and sounds related to the topic they are about to see.
Lighting The ceiling on the first floor gallery space at the Design Museum has rails running through it, where you can attach and slide lights along to get the lighting you require. They could be used as spotlights to highlight certain elements of the exhibition on display, or to light up the whole room. This will be included in the hire price of the exhibition space, but additional lighting may need to be provided. Additional lighting: approximately ÂŁ300.
Exhibition partitions The exhibition will be set up into three sections, as it is a large open gallery space, partitions will be required to break up the areas into more convenient spaces. These will be in the form of exhibition boards; sturdy boarding will be required so items can be suspended on them. The design museum may stock these for other exhibitions, but renting extras may be required. They will be spray painted white unless decoration is required otherwise. The experiential rooms will need a roof on top to stop light entering, as mood lighting will be installed to make a realistic atmosphere. Panels are ÂŁ37 each for hire up to 7 days. (http://www.temporarywallingsystems.co.uk/heavy_duty_ temporary_walling.htm)
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overhead lighting rails on first floor
experiential rooms gallery space
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Additional -Exhibition props are required for experiential rooms. This will include sewing machines, dark room equipment, painting equipment and work surfaces. £3000 per room -Specially made mannequins for garment entries. Approximately£4500 (http://www.hansboodtmannequins. com/contact.html) -Custom made Frames/glass displays for photography £4000 Display units for art work £500 -Staff will be required to work at the exhibition; this will be included in the rent of the gallery space and will be provided by the Design Museum, However extra staff may need to be hired to provide demonstrations in the experiential rooms for example dressmakers and photography development experts. -Delivery and moving of exhibition contents; a number of delivery vans and moving companies will be required to get the competition entries to the exhibition space.
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Branding The Fresh Fashion Competition is an approachable and friendly company, whose brand image appeals to its target market of 15-16 year olds. It is a bright, fun and unique brand and relates strongly to the competition participants, using colourful and modern graphics to promote its image. The company fills the gap in the market for a creativity competition on this scale and aims to be highly successful and popular. It aims to be greatly recognised throughout the UK and by Universities in particular, as one of the main aims of the company is to help improve students’ UCAS applications. The brand name comes from the idea that all the entrants are fresh young creative people, who have new and exciting fashion ideas and designs. Combining the words ‘fresh’ and ‘fashion’ creates a fun and catchy name that can be easily remembered; vital for a new company just setting up. It sounds informal and fun, so will be appealing to a younger audience. The company will have a small team of employees who work together to organise the completion and exhibition. This will include roles such as a Creative director and a Managing director. The team will have freelance employees on a regular basis as some factors that need to be covered don’t require a full time job opportunity, such as exhibition designers and PR. The team is expected to grow in future years as the competition becomes increasingly well known.
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Promotion and Advertising The competition itself will need to be advertised and promoted within the school by the teachers and staff. This happens at the start of the school year when the idea for the competition is first proposed. The information packs sent out to the schools will help the teachers to promote the competition as it will contain posters to display around classrooms and flyers to hand out to pupils. The exhibition will need a totally different approach to promotion as it needs to appeal to a much larger audience both industry professionals and the general public. There are a variety of methods which can be used to promote Fresh Fashion, simple techniques such as posters, flyers and postcards will be available to pick up in shops and other exhibitions is the first step to getting the word out.
Internet advertising The Fresh Fashion competition will have its own website available to everyone to look at, and the URL will be printed on all the posters and flyers. The website will have a blog updated regularly with the latest entries, ideas, inspirations and images. It will have a separate section for teachers, parents and pupils who wish to be involved in the competition. It will also contain pictures of each year’s final exhibition and details of the winners. The website will have a bright fun design, so when people view it they are drawn to the page and stay on it for longer. Lots of imagery and colour will be used to make it visually pleasing. The website design will change each year keep up to date and contemporary. Website set up and Design: £495 +£10 per month A facebook and twitter page will also be created to provide updates on the stages of the competition and exhibition design. The facebook page can be used by pupils entering the competition to share ideas and creative tips if they wish, and to make friends with other people entering, who will share the same interests and motivations as them. The twitter page can be used to update participants on the competition and exhibition, and also for advertising. It will be aimed more at older people interested in the company as 15-16 year olds are less likely to use twitter as it is aimed at an older generation.
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Promotional Film A promotional video will be created to advertise the competition, and provide a visual experience to explain the concept. A link to the video will be in the first email sent to the schools, so they can show the idea to their pupils in a way which will engage them and interact with the competition idea.
Launch Event A Launch event will be held to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. Everyone whose work is on display will be invited, alongside people from the industry such as magazine editors, university lecturers and journalists. Approximately 150 people will be invited, including family and friends of the finalists. The purpose of the launch event is to celebrate the entries pupils have created, and to announce winners and runners up and to present them with the awards. The launch event will be held at the exhibition, so the most important people involved get the first viewing.
PR Strategy The PR strategy will aim to get a high level of coverage and awareness of the Fresh Fashion Competition. The exhibition needs to get as many visitors as possible, and with successful PR tactics a high number of visitors can be achieved. It will promote the company is a positive manor, and create hype about what they are achieving for young people, and for the opening of the exhibition. A press release will be written to give out to the media to promote the company, and make sure everyone has the correct facts about the brand, competition and exhibition. The PR Company will be responsible for the launch event, and will organise the invites, food and drink, music and guest list.
PR Objectives - T o build brand awareness for Fresh Fashion. - Provide good information for those who want it. - Stimulate interest. - To gain a good relationship with its customers. - To create a positive and enticing marketing campaign.
PR Company: ÂŁ3000 per month.
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Funding The Fresh fashion Competition will mainly rely on sponsors to fund the project. Large companies are often keen to sponsor educational projects, as it improves their company image. Linking the competition to a popular company or brand helps to make it more recognisable, and if it is associated with a ‘cool’ brand it will encourage pupils to enter, therefore benefitting both parties involved. The largest expense of the project will be the venue hirer. Visitors paying to get into the exhibition will cover part of this, but not all. This is why it is very important to have good sponsors willing to help support the Fresh Fashion Company. Grants are another option for funding this project, and will be additional to the sponsors. Because the company is education based, there are a large number of grants available. Some are open to any educational programme and others just for art and creative based ideas. The company fits into both these categories meaning there is a plenty the company can apply for. Some are up to £30000 which would help considerably with funding the project. Ideal sponsors: -Topshop -Urban outfitters -Marks and Spencers -Tesco -Popular design Universities -Asda Admission to the Design Museum covers all exhibitions, so the money will go towards to hiring of the gallery rather than directly to the Fresh Fashion Competition company. Prices: £11 adults £10 Concessions £7 Students These prices include a £1 voluntary charitable donation. The donation helps the museum to raise funds to care for its exhibition collections. Visitors do not have to pay the additional price, so tickets can be purchased £1 cheaper than the prices above. The Design Museum in free to under 12’s and there are discounts for large groups of people, this will benefit the schools bring pupils on trips to see the work.
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Health and Safety The exhibition space has a total of 3 fire exists (excluding the entrance) two at the front of the gallery and one at the back. These need to be accessible at all times, so the exhibition needs to be designed with this in mind. A risk assessment needs to be carried out prior to the exhibition opening, and staff will be trained to deal with any of the problems that may occur during the exhibition being open to the public. The installation of the exhibition can also become a hazard, and a separate risk assessment will be written for this. Safety procedures need to be carried out when the exhibition is being installed to avoid any injuries to staff. The Fresh Fashion Competition will be covered by public liability insurance. This provides protection for the company against law suits and claims. Its main duties are to defend the company, indemnify and settle a reasonably clear claim.
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Costings Table and Time Scale
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Reference in text: (1) see project research document/appendix 1 (2) http://www.cilt.org.uk/home/research_and_statistics/statistics/secondary_education/secondary_schools_in_uk.aspx (3) see project research document/appendix 1
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