Process Analysis Document by Natalie-Eve Smith

brief final brief for publication

Design and produce a publication around the concept of mundanity for release in the United Kingdom in May 2016. Consider fashion that will project directional ideas for trends for Autumn/Winter 2016/17. Using a D.I.Y approach to the garments, be inspired by forward thinking design and silhouettes to allow you to form your own hand-made collection of clothing and accessories. Through the exploration of your everyday life and daily routines use this to inspire original ideas for unique fashion styling and features curated from personal experiences. The publication should highlight the importance of the parts of life that often go unnoticed and the relevance of material objects in a contemporary, fast paced society. The target market for the publication is someone in the aged 20 to 50 market who is mindful in their approach to life and who has an interest in art, fashion and the concept of slow living. They live in the moment and treasure the art of conversation and physical interaction with others around them. They are able to recognise longitivtiy in design and are not easily persuaded by newness. The publication must bring focus to unique fashion styling that is informed by narratives pertinent to you in order to stand out amongst competitors.

semester one

week one and two 14.09.15 - 27.09.15

Entering into week one, I began by considering the overall theme to my work. Through the use of mindmapping I was effectively able to branch out my thoughts into areas that interest me and that I found to be somewhat of my expertise. I am starting with the word “family” which falls under a larger umbrella heading of “social”. During the summer I created a Pecha Kucha presentation which displayed who and what I find inspirational as well as what I consider myself to be an expert it. Coming from a tight knit family and being apart of a family with my partner and two children who live with me full time, I felt that this was a starting point of which I felt fascinated me. People and the relationships we form with others has always been an area that I seemed to be interested in. I have always been interested instudying Psychology as I feel I have a desire to learn more about human interaction. As the first two weeks unfolded I started to look at how this theme has been explored through the medium of a magazine and where I could position my own ideas in the marketplace.

On Thursday 24th September I travelled to London on the train to gain inspiration to underpin my work. I spent my time photographing everything that I saw that I found to be of interes and what I felt the target market of my publication would visit. This included cafes, restaurants, shops, markets, artwork and exhibitions much of which was in Shoreditch and the surrounding area. I also took the time to visit Dover Street Market where I saw Commes Des Garcons present some of their garments inside a vending machine and I thought this was a very interesting and visually engaging method of presentation. Inside Dover Street Market I browsed Labor and Wait and found that their

products and gifts somewhat related to the everyday ordinariness of my publication. From there, I then went to Wardour News where I came across five inspiring reads including the publications Pylot, Sentimental, Noon, Kinfolk and Put A Egg On It. I chose Pylot and Kinfolk as their issues were around the theme of family and I was keen to see how they explored the theme both in a visual and written sense. I felt that this added to my market research and allowed me to create work which adds another dimension to what has already been done before. I feel that at this stage these articles have become the foundations that I can now build on.

Looking closer at my own associations with the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;familyâ&#x20AC;? I began to recognise my interest into documenting the overly familiar tasks we perform on a daily basis which often get overshadowed by what we consider to be more worthy events in our routines. I started to examine repetitiveness and direct links with my own family to give myself the starting points to narratives for photo shoots and feataures. I found myself to be interested in ordinary habits such as switching on lights, washing dishes and tieing childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shoe laces. I want to reitterate how the pace of 21st century living has changed the way we intract with people and objects and the emotional connections we form with these.

Whilst in London during LFW, I took the opportunity to visit as many interesting events and exhibitions as I could to inspire ideas pertinent to my theme and aesthetic. One exhibition which influenced my thought process was Ready Made Go hosted at the Ace Hotel, Shoreditch involving a collaboration as part of the London Design Festival which saw the redesign of useful objects within the hotel including door handles and stools. Allen keys formed the structure of the door handles which could be viewed in and around the hotel. I loved the simplicity of the desig yet the cleverness of the approach. Going forward I would like to take this method of designing into my own fashion styling where something so essential takes on a new life when it is designed in such a way like the door handle.

I took a trip to the Museum of London to see a small exhibition titled â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We Are Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. The exhibition showcased a selection of images documenting groups of people together in and around London. I really liked the documentary approach to the photographs and the way in which they showed a sense of community in a city where this has arguably been lost. I organised this trip online before I travelled down to London and although it was one of the smaller exhibitions in terms of size, the documentation of the communities within London through the medium of photography is what fascinated me. I was in awe of how they were able to display a feeling of togetherness and unity through their documentation and it is something i ama interested in working with.

week three 28.09.15 - 04.10.15

On return from London I felt culturally inspired and motivated to work on taking my initial ideas forward supported by my wide analysis of current practitioners around the subject matter. As a group it was beneficial discussing our progress so far to allow myself to explain and contextualise what it is that I am creating. My feedback from tutors and peers to date has been positive I just feel that moving forward I have bring focus to the message I am trying to convey to readers so that it is clear what I am personally contributing to the subject. Over the course of this week I undertook lots of wide reading around the idea of family, the psychology of people and the ordinary. I began by exploring practitioners within the field of art and fashion and how they have approached these themes in their own work. I used this as an opportunity to expand my knowledge further across this area and to be able to inform my own ideas. I used academic journals that I was beginning to read for my essay to give me an insight into the wider context of these themes which allowed me to become more acquainted with the message I was giving out to readers. I want to recognise how we present ourselves as people and how we ought to take more notice of moments in our day that are often rushed or forgotten. I want to emphasize the importance of slow fashion and how by re-using what we already own we are making more conscious decisions for future generations. The beginning of this week was when I started to jot down potential ideas for photoshoots using the process of time limits to allow my brain to move from one idea to the next quicker than normal. I felt this was a great exercise which meant I did not dwell on one idea but instead continued to improve upon this one idea until I had a list of around 60 ideas out of which I could select 10 to 20 strong ones.

I began to work on creating a cover that I wanted to aspire to along with a working title. I chose “1.7” as a working title. As I was undertaking research into my theme of family I looked closely at the meanings around the word “family” and this led me to the Office of National Statistics webpage where I discovered UK statistics on households. 1.7 is the average number of children that are in a UK family and so I decided to move forward with this. I also chose an image by Jamie Hawkesworth of a t-shirt hung on a washing line with a large image of Elvis on the front. Hawkesworth is one of my favourite photographers currently and I aspire to the work which he is creating. I love the use of colour and shape in his fashion photography and the sense of reality and rawness that he successfully creates.

week four

05.10.15 - 11.10.15

I travelled back to my hometown, Troon in Scotland where I visited my grandparentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; house to carry out research into my family tree. There were lots of documents that had been collected by an uncle and my nana over the years, many of which had been passed on by ancestors. These had been gathered alongside a large number of photographs which date back to the 19th century. I also gathered together more recent photographs from the 1970s, 80s and 90s which I found interesting to look at and draw comparisons to the older images. In particular, I enjoyed seeing the detail in the photographs of my great grandfather on my nanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side of the family. Amongst these images was a very clear black and white photograph of him inside the car garage that he owned. He worked primarily in the paint shop and would tape up the cars and spray them, which can be seen in the background of the photographs.

I also took an interest to how these photographs were presented, many of which formed cards and postcards with hand-written messages to family members. I began to photograph the albums that some were in and I loved the faded, almost sepia toned colour of the pages with the tactile corners holding each image in place. I want to experiment with the graphic design of my publication by combining similar methods to these in order to give the physicality of the design the same attention to theme as the content.

From seeing these images I was able to start building narratives for fashion stories within my work. I began by taking an old pair of denim jeans and sticking tape to them then spray painting them following the method my great grandfather would use on the cars. I tried making words with tape as I had seen a similar emerging trend on WGSN which focused on stencilling with spray paint onto fabric. I have done some test shoots and feel that this idea for styling would be a strong idea in exaggerating and repeating the process onto different types of vintage or old clothing in order to give it a new life.

At this stage I started to expand upon my research by using the Trend Union books and WGSN website to inform my work. I also ordered a copy of Lidewij Edelkoortâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s anti-fashion manifesto from within Trend Union as I felt it brought context to my personal studies. It was at this point that I began to move in the direction of the mundane and the everyday. Reading around these themes being discussed in a fashion context gave me confidence that my research and ideas were interesting and had the ability to be elevated into unique fashion styling. As I read through the Artisan trend on WGSN everything that I had been interested in and researching up to this point began to make sense to me and I started to visualise how these ideas would make sense in a fashion scenario rather than using a solely documentary approach.

I spent time on my contextual essay this week by exploring the abstracts to different journals around my theme. I am looking closer at genealogy, normalness and everyday mundane objects to influence my essay topic. I feel that I will look at academic material across each of these areas then I plan to create a rough draft of an abstract next week alongside some separate paragraphs of writing on areas I would like to discuss further. I am continuing to explore the idea of mundanity by looking at hair combs, cleaning products, spray lids off of bottles and other objects. Next week I plan to test shoot objects that I consider to be of a mundane nature in and around my daily routine and develop my thinking in my sketchbook. I am starting to look closer at different types of creatives who work in this way in order to inspire me further.

week five 12.10.15 - 18.10.15

This week I began taking some photographs around my home, I made a conscious effort to recognise tasks within my daily routine which I found to be mundane and documented these by taking quick snaps. I share my home with my boyfriend and his two children aged seven and nine and I felt the images reflected our lifestyle and the repetitiveness of many of the tasks such as laundry, washing dishes, tying laces and many more. I have been looking widely at practitioners who explore the theme of mundanity and the idea of â&#x20AC;&#x153;the everydayâ&#x20AC;?. I began to see how people had taken a clever and witty approach to their art. This gave me a strong idea of what is currently being achieved in this field so that I could strive to bring something new with my personal work. As my work has developed I have been exploring the theme of anti-consumerism by looking at artists who rebel against the mass produced and the materialistic ways of living that are greatly promoted in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s society. I feel that from working closely between my essay and my sketchbooks, I have been able to informer my work with an even greater cultural knowledge. Within my essay I am discussing consumer demands and how objects become mundane often due to the amount of choices we are offered. In

particular, brand choices. Everyday many of us are exposed to different brands who all offer a different version of a product. As a society we are influenced by celebrity endorsement; product placement across films, television and music videos; and physical attributes to a product such as colour and design. Take washing up liquid for example, whilst walking through supermarket giant Tesco we are absorbed by the bright colours and the organic shapes, the buy one get one free and the glossy advertisement we have seen on the television. What we forget is the leading household brand is just a brand like any other. Billions of pounds are invested in said product in order to grasp society with intriguing colours and designs, award titles and the smiling mum who instantly removes stains in a blink of an eye on our screens at home. We are a gullible society who is fascinated by newness and design which has all been built into us since we were children in toy shops.

I have also been reading articles across Dazed Digital and The Guardian about the current house prices and rental rates in London. I feel that it is shocking to think how many young creatives are struggling due to the excessively overpriced living costs. I have read in i-D magazine how many of these young creatives many of whom are students, are fleeing to places like Berlin in order to be able to live and work comfortably. I believe that this has influenced some of the underlying themes in my work of increasing a sense of community and analysing current household situations. By taking these current social issues forward in my work, I want to make the statement to the British Government that this an ongoing struggle for young people and graduates entering a city with hope and ambition and leaving with only debt and discouragement.

George Shaw, a painter nominated for the Turner Prize in 2011 paints settings in his home town of Coventry. I was drawn to his work because of the mundane elements that I felt it portrayed. Shaw beautifully depicts scenes of the kitchen sink, the empty shop on the high street and the row of houses commonly recognised as a British housing estate. His colour palette shows predominantly tones of green and blue successfully reflecting the normalness often seen by many as the boring aspects of everyday life. His style is very realistic visually which I really like about his work.

I also looked at artists who work in a way that depicts the normality of everyday living. I feel Judith Black achieves this well when photographing her family in the context of their working class upbringing. I also look to Jamie Hawkesworth as my favourite photographer and the distinct colouring that he brings to his imagery. I love the way in which he captures a moment or a personality and I aspire to being able to achieve what he creates both in his personal work and in his contributions to fashion.

I chose to watch the television programme Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners which explored the reality of hoarding and went inside the personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home to be able to discover the psychology behind their hoarding and work with them in finding a balance. In contrast to this, the programme then met with a person who was considered to have OCD when it comes to cleaning. The aim of the programme is for the two people to meet half way and realise they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to be obsessed with cleanliness or having extreme issues with hoarding. The hoarders fascinated me as I liked to see what objects they were not willing to get rid of and how they live within the often dangerous conditions of collected junk. I have a strong interest in the psychology behind the way humans think and act. I feel that this strong interest of mine has underpinned the work that I am researching and creating, in terms of families and the mundane tasks we carry out often subconsciously.

This week I paid particular interest to designers and stylists who inspire me for group discussion in the next tutorial. Designer, Raf Simons and stylist, Robbie Spencer are creatives who inspire me immensely. I began research and mind map my findings of Raf Simons and his fascination with generation gaps grabbed my attention immediately. Some of his recent work saw fabrics commonly associated with grandadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s including beige plaid and checkered prints combined with shapes normally seen in youth fashion such as the idea of the hoodie. I loved his combinations that were mixed with

knitted pullovers and vests worn by todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s generation. I also have been looking at Simonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; book Isolated Heroes which made clear to me how streetwear became prominent in fashion. I feel that mind maps allow me to visualise my thoughts by getting them down on paper. I find that they lead me from one point to the next very quickly. These mind maps are more often than not what starts my train of thought and allows me to think widely across the field of interest and then reign in on the most interesting ideas in new mind maps.

week six

19.10.15 - 25.10.15

On the 19th I handed in my printed sketchbooks for my mid-term review where I am able to receive feedback on my work to date. My focus is now directed at my photoshoot narratives across both my publication and portfolio of imagery. I am using mind maps, mood boards and photoshop mash-ups to display some of my ideas. Alongside this I have been researching styling, locations and model choices by frequently looking at publications which inspire me. My research has also been supported by reading broadsheet newspaper articles and think pieces and features within publications both online and in print. I have allocated my time to testing my styling ideas over the next two weeks in order to visualise how ideas work both technically and as a fashion image. Moving forward, I consolidated a draft structure for my contextual essay and connected the points I wanted to discuss with academic sources around these themes. I am currently choosing a selection of visual sources to observe and analyse around the different topics I am covering. These include the presentation of self, the use of Instagram, consumer demand for choice, advertising and the internet. I feel that by reading academic sources on these topics it is influencing and informing my work for my publication. I have learnt about the psychological aspects that influence active users of social media and how this can have both positive and negative effects.

I visited Thomas Demand’s exhibition at The Common Guild in Glasgow. The exhibition was titled ‘Daily Show’ which is part of his series, ‘The Dailies’. I love Demand’s work because of the sheer mundanity to his subjects. I felt that it really helped me in my personal work to give context to what I was creating and to recognise what others are doing. Demand’s work conveys how photography has become something that everyone is able to do with camera’s being at the touch of a button on smartphones, iPads and other similar devices. Demand is interested in how people almost create visual diaries through images of their lives. I like how Demand has used social media to inspire a project of this nature because of how many images are now being shared on these online platforms. In ‘The

Dailies’ series, Demand has based his work on an image he has photographed on his mobile phone of a daily task he has achieved during his daily routine. He then creates it using only paper and cardboard, photographs it and then bins it. When he prints them he uses a very complexed method of dye-transferring which gives the images their strong, distinct colour palette that I really admire. I love the approach he takes to his work and the detail that he puts into his art which when seen in real life would go unnoticed. I really like how Demand notices the details of his everyday life and how he documents these through his work. I find the whole concept of ‘The Dailies’ very clever and feel inspired to create my own style of work.

I ordered a swatch kit form Blurb to give me a stronger idea of paper weights and types to work with. At this stage I am not wanting to use Blurb as a printer and binder but I was interested in being able to physically see and touch the different paper types they offer. I want to be able to use a printer who is easy to travel to so I am able to see the process and easily access them if there are any problems. I am currently looking at Borders Print a printer close by in the Scottish Borders and

also Print Sponge and Hobs in Edinburgh. I am also considering following my emerging DIY aesthetic and printing each page myself and binding it using a DIY method. Although I do want my publication to be sustainable and durable when transporting it which is why having it perfect bound and printed professionally would lend itself to being more sturdy and professional in its design.

I started to experiment with my working title and a test image to try out ideas for layout and sizing of my cover image. I like the size of A4 and feel it works well as I like to be able to images at a large size but the flexibility that you are easily able to flick through it and transport it with you. I like how the title printed slightly off the top of the page. I feel that by using the brown paper on the cover and alongside two other thinner paper types in my publication it would give it a more tactile aesthetic which could be interesting amongst publications with a glossy finish.

Whilst I was taking photographs of the evryday around me I started to edit these and felt that there was an interesting quality to these images which have been printed onto thick transparent paper and then scanned back into the computer. I really like the grainy aesthetic of these and feel that these portray the concept of mundanity well.

Throughout the week I kept making notes of ideas for taking my work further. I began by mindmapping all the different mundane objects that came into my head. I set myself a time limit of 15 minutes to gather as many as I could to inform photoshoot and feature narratives. I feel that this method helps me to think deeper and get my ideas down onto paper quickly.

This week I also kept a small diary of my average morning routine that takes place Monday through to Friday. I want my features within my publication to have a personable touch yet they may be something that many people reading could relate to as they are very ordinary and draw attention to the mundane. Using this feature as a starting point I began to decide on a typeface that would feature throughout my work. I knew I wanted this to be very basic in design yet it had to be familiar to the eye. A lot of my research into bus timetables and the Yellow Pages features a similar typeface which I wanted to channel.

Using the research I undertook into my family history, I have began to look closer into my family’s role in the Royal Navy. From looking at photographs and documents, I have been able to gain a very visual insight into what the Navy entailed. I have a collection of photographs of the ships my great grandad, Ronald Davis worked on which lead me to question my grandad further. I was able to have a look at my grandad’s Navy handbook

and started to gain an understanding into the meanings behind different pieces of uniform. Both my nana and grandad were in the Royal Navy and have shared to me the very positive yet demanding experiences that they endured. I began to learn about Naval slang, often known as “Jackspeak”. I started writing these down as words and meanings which could inspire styling or shoot titles within my publication.

week seven

19.10.15 - 25.10.15

I visited The Lighthouse in Glasgow to see the International Poster Competition exhibition which was part of Glasgow’s Graphic Design Festival. I found it very interesting to see the different ways people had taken theme, colour and typefaces to create very unique posters which were all very different to one another. In particular I liked one that had a strong black outline of an iPad positioned between a knife and fork that had a hand drawn nature. Above the graphic was “DINNER TIME” which I felt was quite definitive of modern family life and gave an honest approach to how technology has taken over our homes and daily life. I felt that this poster stood out for me personally because of my interests in family interaction and in ordinary daily life. The exhibition has inspired me in moving forward wit my own ideas for the design of my publication and has shown me the importance composition and colour have on the viewer.

On Tuesday I visited the Turner Prize exhibition at Tramway in Glasgow. I felt very inspired by the work of Nicole Wermers in particular her piece, ‘Untitled Chair’. Several sculptures were positioned in a space featuring chairs with faux fur coats draped over the back with the lining stitched over the backing of the seat itself. Wermers’ work explores the idea of space and in particular looks at how a public space such as a café or restaurant becomes a personal space when you hang a coat over a chair making it the subject’s space. I am really interested in this idea

of how objects can be definitive of a space or of a person and I want to explore the idea of objects in a fashion context. I want to specifically look at how when an object is taken out of context and worn on a person, how this can be seen in a new way by the viewer. I am fascinated by the idea of peoples belongings, not in a nostalgic sense but in a more mundane way. I want to look at the objects that are overused and under appreciated in our daily lives and how living amongst them they almost form our world and our lives within it.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;But space is marked, and shaped, in other ways as well. It is marked physically, with objects forming borders, walls and fences. Staking a claim, organizing, ordering. The marker (wall, road, line, border, post, sign) is static, dull, and cold. But when lived (encountered, manipulated, touched, voiced, glanced at, practised) it radiates a milieu, a field of force, a shape of space.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; - J. Macgregor Wise (2000) HOME: TERRITORY AND IDENTITY, Cultural Studies, 14:2, 295-310.

This week I also received the copy I ordered of Karen magazine and I love how it is very personal in its content and also in its delivery. Upon receiving my copy I got an e-mail from Karen herself asking how I had come across her magazine which I felt continued the personal approach that she brings to her work. I have been looking at the Yellow Pages which I had to request a copy online and also at bus time tables in my local area to influence the layout and typography of my publication. I feel that these will inspire me in developing typefaces and designs

I have began to pay attention to the everyday tasks that I do within my home such as making packed lunches for the kids, sorting through the mail, dusting, washing, dish-washing, brushing my hair and teeth and cleaning. I want to then style these in ways which contradict their usual state to allow people to take time when they look at them and see them in a different light. In such a fast-paced world I want to make people stop and appreciate what is often either unnoticed or taken for granted. I started to focus on the idea of making packed lunches and how I would normally wrap clingfilm around the sandwiches. I chose accessories which are quite luxurious in order for these to be juxtaposed against the everyday product that is clingfilm. I wanted to draw attention to how we may take these items for granted. I felt that by wrapping these in something that is very basic like clingfilm it would make the luxury items seem more basic rather than seeing them in glossy advertisements. The test shoot was going against fashion and brands by having each item wrapped in clingfilm in an attempt to make each product appear brand free.

I began testing a documentary approach to the mundane routine within my personal household. I wanted to bring focus to the garments but with a focus on the functions and practicalities of these. I wanted to show a sense of movement and draw attention to the idea of repetitive actions that are recognisable to others. I felt the simplicity of the movements in the images gave across the idea of mundanity and I felt that these actions in order for them to be successful in being mundane had to be recognisable as an action many of us do on a daily basis.

week eight and nine 02.11.15 - 15.11.15

This week I put together a mock-up of my publication bringing together all the work I had to date. This allowed me to see a strong aesthetic emerging which was minimal and simplistic in its design. Taking inspiration from bus timetables and the yellow pages my typefaces were kept very ordinary and often laid out in columns. These decisions enabled my publication to be both mundane in its content and in the physical design. I bound this together by forming holes at the spine and binging the pages with some blue twine that I had used before when styling. I liked the physicality and D.I.Y nature but in a practical sense I found it difficult to bind when adding more pages and I feel that by using perfect binding or limp binding will give me a more durable finish. I have decided to look at recycled paper types rather than anything pure white as when testing this I found it looked to polished and glossy. I have began testing my sketchbooks on a grey-toned recycled paper and the image shave come up great. I would like to take this forward into when I print my final publication as I feel it will enhance my aesthetic further whilst keeping the binding method simple but effective.

In order to move my fashion imagery forward I knew I needed to approach models with a more anti-fashion look about them. They were to be believable yet intriguing. Before this publication my I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t had experience in communicating with modelling agencies but having looked at their new faces board online I felt there were a number of models who would work for the editorial content that I am creating. I started sending enquiry e-mails to Colours, Model Team and Superior Model Management all Glasgow based agencies and soon formed a relationship with Superior Model Management who were interested in allowing models to gain experience with me

on a Time For Prints basis where I would supply all models with the photographs for their personal portfolios as well as my own. With this communication established I was able to continue to form photo shoot narratives with the reliability that I am able to work with models who I am able to choose. Whilst in contact with the agency I was also making myself aware of those around me within my University and home town of people who would have this similar look. I like having the assurance of working with an agency in signing a booking form and having an agent communicate in between the model and I. I feel that it will allow me to readily approach the person I would like to work with and give me confirmation in advance that they are available. I feel I am continuing to build confidence in street casting and will maintain this whilst also communicating with agency represented models.

I started to form a diary for the week of my food and beauty routines noting down each food or drink or type of product that I used. I also visited different types of places in town where I paid attention to conversations around me. I wanted to play with the idea of overhearing parts of conversations taking inspiration from the song â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Born Slippyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. I wanted to go to places where these conversations would be as mundane and simple as possible so I stayed within the small town that I live and went to supermarkets, bus stops and listened to things said around my home and on my daily commutes.

“Let the lady past.”

“It’s quite gid like.” ... “What?” ... “These stovies man.”

“You should’ve brought it with you.”

“There’s not very much likeable about her, that’s the thing.”

“Well I just need some cash out.”

“We’ll go get some sweeties then hame!”

“You can’t eat in Tescos, can you?”

“What’s for tea?”

“What did you do today?” ... “Nothing much.”

“What’s for lunch?” ... “You eat what you’ve been given.”

“Time’s the footie on?” ... “4 o’clock kick-off bud.” ... “Pints?”

I also began collecting all the local newspapers from a local newsagents which I know stocks the less well-known. I wanted to explore local news and headlines that seem so far away from the ones that are across every broadsheet paper. I came across the unusual and the absurd but this is what I wanted to find and draw emphasis to the comical and mundane stories that are being released everyday. I noticed that whilst reading these papers there did seem a lack of community where I live, although the stories were often

recording local happenings the lack of interaction between members of society struck me. I feel disheartened by the way in which we live today many of whom wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know who their neighbours are if you asked them. My publication aims to draw attention to the smaller details in life and I want to encourage people to appreciate the daily tasks that they do such as showering, dishes, cooking, food shopping, laundry and the rest that often become overshadowed in societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fast paced way of living.

During previous weeks I had taken a batch of photographs whilst on my daily commutes of different objects and places that I considered to be of a mundane nature, I started to collate these together. I started looking online at products on Amazon and seen the number of reviews many of these had which I thought seemed quite amusing considering how simplistic and non-essential some of these objects were. I started to look up objects and products from my photographs and positioned these alongside these reviews. I wanted to emphasise the irony within these but also give a different view of living in the moment and appreciating the smaller details.

Once I had gathered all of my work to date I began to edit them down to form the mock-up of my publication. I started to piece together different photographs wth still life imagery and started pairing overheard conversations with news headlines and played about with different variations of all of these. I wanted to draw attention to routine and give a sense of the everyday and I feel that I can see my theme emerging throughout. On completion of this mock-up I feel at this point I need to draw my focus to my fashion imagery. I feel I have lots of interesting visuals and artistic features that I can definitely develop and take forward into next semester.

draft brief november

Design and produce a publication around the theme of mundane life for release in Summer 2016 with consideration for fashion that will project directional ideas for trends for Autumn/Winter 2016/17. Through the use of a personal documentary style, explore underlying themes of everyday life and your personal daily routines to inspire ideas for styling and creative content. Create interesting fashion imagery and features that are a reflection of the mundane aspect of yourself and your family’s life. The publication should highlight the importance of the parts of life that often go unnoticed amidst a society who is being fueled by immediacy of design and the newness of products. A constant underlying topic of mindfulness should run throughout aiming to bring the reader’s attention to the joy had by living in the moment. Using a documentary photography style the publication should inform the reader of your everyday life and bring to their attention mundane elements of life that often get overshadowed. The question the publication is asking the reader is “What did you do today?”. Many often answer “Nothing much.” But in fact we complete a great amount of tasks in one day than we tend to voice to others around us. Not because we have forgotton about them, but because we don’t value them highly when we reflect on our day. The publication should convey to readers the greatness of appreciating the mundane in our lives. The target market for the publication is anyone aged 18 to 50 who are very mindful characters and have an interest in art, fashion and the concept of slow living. They too live in the moment and treasure the art of conversation and physical interaction with others around them. They are very ambitious and do not shy out of hard work and getting ahead in life, but they recognise

week ten

16.11.15 - 22.11.15

Having revised my brief for my publication I have been looking closer at what I consider to be my publicationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s USP. I feel that the theme of the ordinary and the everyday has been explored with a documentary approach through the likes of Martin Parr, Karen Magazine and in some respects Jamie Hawkesworth. I want to take the research I have done in examining my daily routine and transform the mundane aspects into narratives that will inform styling and trends. It is my aim to be able to create a fashion publication that has derived from the basics and essentials of everyday modern living. Using my research and inspiration from stylists including Robbie Spencer I want to transform the idea of styling allowing it to be reflective of these often underrepresented tasks that we do everyday. My publication will make use of the simplistic and the ordinary and almost give these a platform through contemporary styling methods involving my own personal aesthetic of DIY.

This week I began looking closer into the idea of mindfulness in which I read these books to gain further understanding of this. I felt that these gave me more insight into the psychological factors of being mindful and alert to moments within the day. I started to gain a broader knowledge of the positive benefits of being able to live in the moment. This then lead me onto reading somewhat into Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which is used to aid numerous mental disorders. Therapists use CBT to focus on present problems in a personsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; life rather than bringing up past issues, this in turn encourages them to be more positive and have a focus on the present moment. CBT helps people focus on the problem at hand when many people often require this type of psychotherapy to be able to help them balance out their daily lives and problems.

I found reading this beneficial to me on a personal level and throughout the course of the publication I have developed a greater ability to present myself with one problem at a time before becoming easily overwhelmed with numerous events in my life. I also have been watching television programmes about animals and their benefit on human anxiety and stress levels. The programme examined both cats and dogs and their ability to differ a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stress levels in a tense environment. The dogs were found to have the greatest effect on the levels bringing the humans stress levels down greatly when they interacted with them in an interview

I have been continuing to test different types of graphic design for my publication and I found that my market research at the beginning of the semester gave me a strong knowledge of what is currently being produced by niche fashion publications. I have been continuing to purchase new copies of ones which I have found to be of interest and also ones that I see to be my competition. I have now taken an art feature I created based around the idea of my daily morning routine and looked at the idea of noticeboards as a way of presenting my typography. Notices seen taped to a lamppost in the street and notices that have been put up on the fride with a magnet. I feel that by being actively concious of the mundane, I have noticed even writing to have frequent occurences and I have begun to associate different typography and graphics to the impression that they wish to give off.

This week I looked at Glane Magazine which explores Freegans. These who are people who raid the masses of supermarket waste that has been thrown out yet still in an edible condition to avoid food wastage. The creator of Glane, Julia Bruyneel, has used waste paper and black and white ink to form her publication on a zero budget, realising and binding it herself. The publication was to replicate the idea of the work freegans do in avoiding wastage and I admire Bruyneelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visual aesthetic. I want this to inspire the design of my own publication in that I want the layout and graphics to symbolise the very idea of mundanity and the basic essentials. I want the outside cover to be very simplistic to the point that it intrigues people into wondering whether it is a fashion publication and I want the content to imitate the theme of the everyday. I feel that Bruyneel was able to replicate the freegansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; beliefs very well and I feel the combination of the content and how this is physically represented works in partnership.

I came across interesting articles around the theme of “the everyday” and the mundane in Eye magazine and Aesthetica magazine. I felt that context was given to my publication when I read these as I felt that there were others out there noticing and drawing attention to similar parts of life that I had been exploring for a long time now. It was very beneficial to read their thoughts around the theme and it gave me a greater insight into other peoples’ opinions. I also gained inspiration from this photoshoot in Tank magazine photographed by Paolo Barbi, the title coming from Andre Breton’s The Surrealist Manifesto. These images guided me towards really finding and running with a fashion/art balance to my work and I increasingly saw objects in a new light. I love the style of the photography and how this is presented with such presion yet there is a simplicity to the whole feel of the shoot because of the everyday objects that are being worn.

weeks eleven and twelve 23.11.15 - 06.12.15

This week I consolidated my bibliography from this semester taking into account all the visits, television programmes and other places I had seemed knowledge and inspiration from. I drew focus to the completion of my essay by having it proof read by different people I know and writing a concise abstract. I feel that the essay has informed a lot of my background knowledge into the psychology behind how people present themselves in a digital context. I felt that there were many links between both when researching and I felt that I was more knowledgable around my theme by reading and reflecting upon academic pieces of text from a variety of journals. I used the last aproximately two weeks to revise my briefs for both my imagery and features and organising the printing of all my sketchbook work to date for the December hand-in. I wanted to print my sketchbooks using grey-toned recycle paper to further reflect this idea of the basic and the ordinary. I feel that this paper type takes the shine and polished aesthetic away from the prints giving them a more minimal, mundane feel which I was trying to channel in my work.

During this week I made final edits of my test film which was to be be a guide for me to show ideas for what I intend to explore in my final film. I looked at ways in which the themes running through my publication research had been explored by other practitioners and found the connection between a female being bored within her home to be done in many ways before. I liked the humorous side to a film I watched through Vimeo, Mundane Things and I liked the emphasis it had on ordinary objects. I also really liked the overall styling in a film by Ben Toms for Dazed Digital where I can easily recognise Robbie Spencerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s styling within it.

The film features actress and model Mia Goth and shows quite a whimsical adaptation of a young female living at home herself and how she interacts with the furniture within it. I also looked at an award winning short film titled Fortunes which is an experimental comedy all about the monotony of going through a daily routine and it studies the idea of doing something repetitively until it drives you crazy. The film features domestic objects in unusual, comical ways which I want to convey in my own film but bringing my own visual aesthetic.

semester two

week one

11.01.16 - 17.01.16

Moving forward into semester two I received feedback from research work submitted. Taking this into consideration I am moving forward with my ideas around DIY and the idea stemming from my research into the artisan trend through WGSN. With this in mind I intend to focus on mundane objects used in my daily routine that I have looked at in semester one to create unique fashion styling something that I feel will set my publication apart from others in this field. Taking the advice of starting with the silhouette of a collar I have began to collect and look at objects from shops such as B&Q, Tesco and B&M Bargains and how these would shape as garments. Whilst sticking very closely to the idea of the ordinary and the everyday I want to include features that draw attention to the often overlooked parts of life. Taking everything that I achieved in semester one I am continually being inspired by the stylist Robbie Spencer with an aim to achieve a perfect combination of DIY objects and a strong fashion image. Whilst still retracting back to my original research into my family history I am using a combination of both working class family background, mundanity and the idea of appreicating the smaller details in life to inform creative fashion imagery and artistic features.

Draft Brief 15th January 2016

Design and produce a publication around the theme of mundane life for release in Summer 2016. Consider fashion that will project directional ideas for trends for Autumn/Winter 2016/17. Using a D.I.Y approach to the garments, be inspired by directional garments and silhouettes to allow you to form your own clothing and accessories. Explore the theme of everyday life and your personal daily routine to inspire ideas for styling and creative content. Create interesting fashion imagery that reflects the mundane aspect of yourself and your family’s life. The publication should highlight the importance of the parts of life that often go unnoticed amidst a society who is being fueled by immediacy of design and the newness of products. A constant underlying topic of mindfulness should run throughout aiming to bring the reader’s attention to the joy had by living in the moment. The question the publication is asking the reader is “What did you do today?”. Many often answer “Nothing much.” But in fact we complete a great amount of tasks in one day than we tend to voice to others around us. Not because we have forgotten about them, but because we don’t value them highly when we reflect on our day. The publication should convey to readers the greatness of appreciating the mundane in our lives. The target market for the publication is the age 20 to 50 market who are very mindful characters and have an interest in art, fashion and the concept of slow living. They too live in the moment and treasure the art of conversation and physical interaction with others around them. They are very ambitious and do not shy out of hard work and getting ahead in life. They are able to

I used the Christmas period to read through my digital sketchbooks to really pin point the ideas going forward that will create stronger fashion images. I used this time to gather more research and news articles pertinent to my theme. I looked at designers at Fashion East and Vetements for forward-thinking design and innovation. I focused my attention to the way in which emerging designers from Parsons and CSM are styling their garments as I feel there are people such as Scottish designer and LOVERBOY founder, Charles Jeffrey who are creating garments and using styling as a tool in the way I see it to be used. I used a lot of my time in weeks one and two to organise and plan the weeks ahead to ensure that I was able to set deadlines and manage the time I have to its greatest potential. I felt that by using a weekly desk planner I could take this with me back and fourth incase I needed to make any last minute rearrangements if one task extended over the time I had given to it. I felt that this would benefit me when arranging to work with others so I am now able to arrange in advance.

week two

18.01.16 - 24.01.16

As I progressed into week two I kept looking closely at magazines for ways in which designers and stylists have used raw materials and objects. Seeing the image opposite of Maisie Williams wearing Raf Simons in Dazed and Confused magazine inspired me in using raw materials alongside objects. It also showed me how silhouettes can be formed through these. I felt that throughout semester one particularly in some of my tests for portfolio imagery I was seeing objects as more of art/fashion. I still love this aesthetic but felt that in order to be clever with my styling I needed to find a harmonious balance between the two where the reader has to take a second glance before noticing the use of ordinary objects. I strongly believe that stylists are very important for designers in portraying the style and aesthetic of the clothes. I feel that it is the partnership between the garments and the overall aesthetic that will allow my imagery to be memorable. It was at this stage that I knew I had to rethink some of my one line briefs and keep the idea of mundanity running through them like I have done in the features I created last semester. I felt that the more I began to think deeper into my individual photoshoot narratives the more I was taking the simplicity and mundane feeling away from them. I began to take the research I had done into my own daily routine and moved these on from being documentary and in a still life format to forming the foundations of my stylng. I want to draw all the focus into family familiars and the idea of a rythmic routine. This idea that the recognisable takes on a new life as a garment and what once was familiar to the human eye has now been transformed into a different context.

Coming from a design background having studied on the Fashion BA course for years one and two of my degree, I felt very excited about making a publication where the majority of the garments and accessories have been made by myself out of everyday objects. I knew that I needed to put in a great deal of time in the process of designing and altering each garment which meant I had to stay tight to my deadlines in order to complete the shoot.

I began by looking closely at my research into both Fashion East and Vetements as well as some designs by Raf Simons and Rick Owens which project trends and ideas for AW 16/17. I feel that my magazine doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t conform to trends entirely, I felt by looking at the Artisan trend through WGSN and at designers collections it was able to helpe me silhouette choices and ideas for garments and detailing.

After researching into collars, head pieces and detailing, I started the process of desiging garments for my shoot all around cleanliness and awakening the body. The shoot aims to draws attention to appreciating the cleansing of the body and the routine that one may take in doing so. I looked at the monotony of teeth brushing and the method of showering and how we actively do so without much care and thought. After exploring the idea of being mindful I wanted to bring this to my imagery. I feel that an accumulation of my research has gone into the overarching theme of mundanity that runs throughout my shoot and I feel that with by using my primary imagery that I had taken throughout my home and town I have developed this into fashion styling.

At this stage I started to consider how the hair and make-up would appear within my photoshoot. I also started to narrow my search for models to a look that is athletic and tall whilst very fresh and young in the face to portray the idea of cleanliness and alert to their actions. I found that by using my own moodboards aswell as Pinterest boards I was able to get my ideas and inspiration down in one place quickly and effectively. Using white as a symbol for youth and purity I knew I wanted to use this colour on the face. I wanted her to appear alert to her surroundings and be a believable character with the uniqueness of the styling. I really liked this image of the hair above being wet and slicked back with the contrast of spirally frizz to coinside with the contrast in hard and soft styling materials.

week three

25.01.16 - 31.01.16

Over the course of this week I continued working with moodboards and sketches for my other two photoshoots. Whilst I was designing the next two shoots I was starting to form the garments for the previous two shoots. Using friends and a mannequin I was able to use a drape method of creating many of the garments. I began by creating trousers however I was working to a piece of material similar to that of a painterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dust sheet and due to time restraints I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t making these from a pattern so there was some issues with fit of these. My plan is to complete the other garments of the first two shoots and confirm the models and if there is time left over I will remake these although if the issues of fit and movement in the fabric arise I intend to make a floor-length dress draped from the neck. Towards the end of the week I visited my printer to discuss the overall idea of both my publication and process analysis document. My first question was that they could confirm I would be able to get the recycled paper type like the one I used for my sketchbooks and when this was confirmed I was able to go into more detail. I had my mockup publication to give an idea to the minimalist nature of my content that I had in mind. I explained the mundane nature to my content ad how I wanted to reflect this in my graphic design and printing.Upon leaving I arranged to go back in two weeks time to look at some other sample papers and covers that they were going to order me in. On completion of sketching my designs for each shoot I was in the process of making these. I spent this week sourcing the materials that I needed to purchase from friends, within my home and from shops.

After experimenting with still lives following theme of laundry I wanted to bring more of a fashion focus to this. Laundry has become tme most mundane task that I do during an average week spent at home. Living with a partner and two children I have definitely learnt to see it as being very repetitive and I almost switch into auto pilot when doing it. I started to think more about the idea of perfoming a task methodically looking closely at the idea of routine. I took inspiration from when I was keeping diaries last semester whick included eating habits, my beauty regime and my morning routine. Again as with each of my shoots I am concentrating on drawing attention to tasks often considered repetitive which often leads to one being bored by it. The art of being mindful is being able to appreciate these tasks and be thankful that you have the capability and life that can endure them. Using sketches I began designing the initial ideas that came into my head. Throughout the process of designing I had to make allowances for body shapes and when one idea didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t quite function I would alter it or change it completely.

For this specific shoot I wanted to stay away from more commercially styled images in laundrettes which I feel have been very overdone. Instead I looked at the publictation Hot and Cold which features very interesting styling and their shoots often are quite long which I like. I feel there is more of a story and slow-living approach when the images are spread across lots of pages. In particular I felt inspired by a shoot within the magazine photograohed by Colin Dodgson and styled by Alice Goddard. I feel that the location really adds to the sense of character that the models are conveying. I feel that because the styling is so intruiging and unique the background almost brings it back to a more everyday setting making it appear much more believable and ordinary than it is. I really like this combination and want to use it for this shoot as I feel the layering and objects used in my designs are used in interesting ways and I feel that the ordinaryness of a similar backdrop will almost make the garments and accessories seem more believable.

hot and cold magazine

I want the character in the final imagery to be someone who has submerged herself in her daily routine so much that the laundry overpowers her and she is becoming defined by the objects she uses day-to-day. The make-up and hair is to be realistic of the character herself, a believable woman who has taken on a new persona because she is now wearing the objects that on a daily basis form her life. I want to use layering and have movement in the hair to suggest the strength she now has but yet there is still a hint of vulnerability through the youtfulness win her face.

As the week went on I started creating accessories around the idea of schooling. This derived from looking at my familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history in the Royal Navy. Both my grandparents were in the Navy as well as my great grandad. I notice little details about the way in which they live their life that I draw comparisons with being a part of the Navy. Routine for a job role like this is crucal and fundamental to being succesful in your job and trusting of your peers. Sticking closely to this idea of routine and the everyday, I started to explore education as an initiater of routine in children. I began to analyse my two step childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding of routine and how they deal with it. Both reacted well to the

notion of having routine be it at home and at school. I started to think about the feeling of security that is associated with being in a routine and how one can become comfortable with a daily schedule. Using this basis of research I started to design the accessories using traditional school materials such as pencils and lined note paper.

After exchanging emails with different modelling agencies I was able to build a relationship with Superior Model Management, Glasgow. I felt that they were very understanding of my limited budget as a student and I was able to start confiming my models for the shoots I have planned on a TFP basis. I also complted my shopping list for different items I still needed to source for the shoot although at this stage a lot of the garments were coming together.

weeks four and five 01.02.16 - 14.02.16

Across week four and five it was fundamental that I would near completion of all my garments and accessories. I now had two of my dates confirmed with models and the rest of my team for a couple of weeks in advance. Throughout these two weeks I took some test shots of locations I intended to use. I loved the DIY nature of our universities print room and these wooden painted boxes fitted perfectly to the overall aesthetic I was aiming to achieve. Following on from this, I worked on the aesthetic of my film and building upon my ideas to date. Using the storyboard I had made alongside the draft film synopsis I had put together prior to my meeting with Tim on the 16th I started to film in two sections. My film explores a working class male who lives at home in his own mess and as the film goes on the objects surrounding him in his home start to become him and take on new lives as fashion pieces. My underlying theme looks at anti-consumerist behavior and the formation adn purpose of factories. It is the idea of mass production that I wanted to highlight by informing viewers that this is one of the causes of a fast paced society in an environment that can’t quite and shouldn’t have to keep up with our demands and consumption. I want to show “Billy” as a man-made being formed by the objects he lives amongst to draw attention to the originality and benefits of slow fashion. This week I assisted on a fellow student, Yvonne’s photoshoot. We both feel we gain even more experience by assisting each other on as many shoots as we can. We see this as away in which we can grow our contacts and gain more confidence in our practice.

For my film i began by photographing and filming on location of the roller door where I plan for most of the filming to take place. I went at different times of the day to see what light worked best for the aesthetic I wanted. I feel that mid morning/early afternoon gave enough natural light without it being too over exposed. The sight at a local industrial estate had different coloured roller doors so I experimented with these as well but I do prefer the industrial grey-toned roller door. I filmed some shots in a local housing estate trying to capture a standard two up, two down house that my character lived in. I also felt that the two men below were of a similar style of actor I wasnt ot work with. As these are main board models it was resulting in a large cost to work with them however I have a friend who has some past experience with a hard exterior and a strong face to work with so I am confirming with him this week.

I started to test ideas for shooting objects within the home of the male character, looking at everyday settings which I could blend in and out between shots of the actor and the factory roller door. The idea behind these scenes is to film objects which will then form garments on the actor. I want to use an iron and its cable as well as old receipts, cusion covers and hoses off hoovers. I began filming these this week and have shown here some of the stills from these scenes.

As the making my garments unfolded I took photographs to document my process. I used different methods of securing the garments in place by stitching, using a glue gun, stapling and clipping. I found that by using the mannequin I was able to work effieciently and be aware of sizing. With each of my garments my intention was to make the viewer question what exactly the material was. I continually referred back to the work of Vetements, Fashion East and styling across different publications to be inspried by emerging trends so my fashion was still contemporary.

With the bag for life tunic/dress I chose to use the rest of the material of the hessian bags for life to create sleeves simply secured by a practical elastic band. I was very suprised by the amazing shape that these formed. I then moved towards creating the shower curtain skirt. There was different ways in which I tested the curtain draped from the body ans I liked the waterfall effect I got from hanging it from the waist. I then tried it from the neck so I tested how it would drape and I really liked the contrast of the shower hose against the softness of the curtain. I felt this gave the dress a better form and a more interesting contrast in materials so I moved forward using this idea.

I used cotton buds to construct a collar pieceby lieing the cotton buds flat on a long, thick strip of clear tape. They held in place very well with the strength of the see through tape. I felt that this garment was very effective in portraying the mundanity of my objects but where viewers have to look twice to distinguish what the collar is made out of. Using a towel and clothes line I constructed another dress for this photoshoot. I wanted to have emphasis on the texture and linear quality of the towel panels and the contrast between the shine of the clothes line material against the softness of the towel fabric.

weeks six and seven 15.02.16 - 28.02.16

As week six has come to an end I had a very busy week in which I completed the few accessories I had left to construct to add to my DIY garments. I confirmed bookings with two more agency models at Superior - Katie and Maggie for my other shoots. I also confirmed my friend for acting in my fashion film so there was lots of e-mails being exchanged over the course of this week to plan and prepare my teams for all shoots. I feel that my confidence in my communication skills has grown over the course of this semester as I have had to liaise with lots of different people in order for my shoots to be able to go ahead successfully. I feel that is something I underestimated in semeseter one about the length of time it takes to communicate back and fourth to secure the right models, team and location. However, now that I have been doing it on a daily basis I feel much more confident than I did at the beginning of my fourth year and I have gained invaluable contacts for the future. I assisted this week Yvonne on her shoot with model Jack which was a very enjoyable shoot which I always find great experience for myself. On Thursday of this week I won tickets to see Gareth Pugh’s show at London Fashion Week. I entered a competition through Graduate Fashion Week in partnership with Fashion Scout by submitting my name as someone from a university participating in GFW. The experience was overwhelming, so overwhelming that I did cry upon receiving the phone call that I had won in tutorial time. The show itself was very inspiring and I particularly loved the music Corporate Cannibal by Grace Jones and Jimi Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower. I went with Yvonne and we saw many of the top names within fashion and it is an experience I won’t forget and hope I can have again.

Whilst in London I purchased some new publications from Wardour News as I was only down there for one night I felt this was an essential trip I had to make whilst I was there. I came across the first issue of Beauty Papers which I felt was very pertinent to my theme. I loved the photoshoot about what would you do if you have no makeup and there solution being to recycle.

I had further communication with my printer through e-mail after being in to the shop to visit. At this stage I was explaining my requirements and enquiring about the different paper types we had discussed in the shop.

At this stage it was we received our mid-term review of our progress to date as we had just recieved our grades from the previous semesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. My feedback was very positive at this stage with being on track with the work. With all photoshoots meticulously planned I felt that I was sticking to my personal time frame as I knew that by making the garments for my shoots I would spend a lot of time preparing those prior to the shoot itself. I always like to be present in the studio as a place to work at least four days out of the week which was

positively recognised at the time of my mid-term review. I gained good advice for getting more models as I have found it quite challenging to build a strong relationship with an agency when I feel my images are very editorial witn experimental styling. I am looking outwith agencies for models but I do feel there are a selection at the agency who do work for my aesthetic. I have been using Issuu alongside my InDesign document as a tool to be able to preview my publication whilst it is in porocess of being created.

week eight

29.02.16 - 06.03.16

Upon receiving feedback on my film last week I started to work on editing it further. I made the decision to change the song from People Are Strange by The Doors to Home by Icarus (feat. AURORA). I felt that the beat was more up tempo and for my film being aa minute to a minute and a half long I felt this would increase engagement. I also found Home to be a better song to be able to cut to the beat with. As advised by Tim, People Are Strange could be seen as too comical if scences changed on the off the beat high notes. I found Home a much better solution and I am glad I made this decision to change. I went to visit my printer this week to look at the other paper samples they had ordered in. It was clear to me at this point that I definitely wanted to stick with the grey-toned recycled paper. I took in some samples I had printed onto the recycled paper to discuss with them. They explained the types of binding available to me again and I confirmed that I would use the technique of limp binding which they do in house. It is very similar to perfect binding except it is stitched in sections. I chose this as I liked how it looked on a sample book and the costing of this worked to my advantage as it could be done at the same place as my printing. This week I also undertook my shoot with model, Lindi using the garments that derived from food shopping.

Prior to my shoot with Lindi I tested my garments with Holly who was of a similar body shape to ensure that the garments functioned correctly. It also gave me achance to test different angles and poses that showed the garments in the best way possible. I felt that I was more relaxed here as I knew it was a test shoot so I was able to try different things and gain confidence that the shoot with Lindi would go smoothly.

Here are two of the final edits from my shoot with Lindi which went extremely well, I was very happy with Lindi as a model and felt the garments came across in the way that I intended them to. In terms of the make-up, in my research for both my essay and publication I had looked at Dutch artists of the 17th century who originated this idea of documenting the mundane and the everyday. They would paint scenes of people in the home partaking in ordinary tasks. After looking at their paintings I felt that this began to inform ideas for using the face as almost a canvas. I looked at ways in which this has been achieved by make-up artists and felt it would coincide with my themes.

I started to experiment with laying out my imagery as it would be in my publication. I started by seeing which images worked well together using a combination of full length, knee upwards, and close up shots. I wanted to ensure that there was a balance of images across the pages. After looking at them as a group I felt very happy with the individual images but felt as the make-up was very dominating it may help if they are broken up in some way.

I looked to other publications for different ways in which you can break up a photoshoot whilst it is still clear that it is part of the same story. I noticed in the publication Naked But Safe that they had combined images shot in a detailed location with images shot in the studio and I felt that this was a successful method of creating balance. I started to test this layout by combining images from my test shoot with images from my location shoot and I loved how they worked together. I feel this gave the shoot breathing space and brought the attention back to the garments and not just the make-up.

Upon completion of my photoshoot with Heather, I began editing and experimenting with the white balance setting in camera raw. I tested these under different lights ranging from with Fluorescent light because of the artificial lighting on the day and with the daylight setting. I liked how the blue tones came through in the imagery and felt it added to the clinical sense. I found the yellow light to be too warm for the narrative of the shoot and because of how yellow they

are it gave me too much warmth to the image that I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need. After experimenting with different white balance settings I felt that I wanted to embrace the clinical feel and emphasize the white in the garments as a true white.

I use Photoshop when editing my images and tend to make use of the dodge and burn tools as I feel they work well in enhancing light and shade. I also decreased the contrast in these particular images as I felt it added a softness to thw whole images and the skin tone. After taking time in editing the images I began to select what images worked well together as a final line-up. I use the Adobe software Bridge to preview my images and I also found it useful and easy to display my

images in a line-up format to see what ones work well together. After testing different ones together I decided on the layout below as I felt it had a balance of poses and I feel the slight shift in colour tones made it more eciting from a visual aspect. I also found the one I shot in the studio to be a storng image which worked alongside the others that were shot on location.

week nine

07.03.16 - 13.03.16

This week I focused on completing all the footage that I needed for my film. This involved filming the actor on location at the factory roller door within the industrial estate. I wanted the film to capture pace and movement with a focus on the styling details. I planned the order of shooting prior to the shoot, detailing which garment and objects were to go on at which point. I feel that this informed the actor and made the film go very efficiently. The actual filming didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take as long as I had estimated as the actor seemed to take my direction really well. I useda tripod to film the majority of the footage however I did work without this for some sections where I wanted fast camera movement at different angles. Using InDesign I began to add to my publication document by placing in the shoots that I had completed. I was then able to move around my features that were positioned in the document to suit the other content. At this stage I now had more content to work with that my magazine was starting to shape. As I made changes to the document I tested how it looked through the use of Issuu which really helped me visualise and make alterations to my design and layout.

Whilst editing my film through iMovie I was learning as I went along having little experience in creating films. As I am a musician playing violin, viola and some acoustic guitar I felt that this really helped when cutting the film to the beat of the track. I felt I was able to experiment with the beat an dplay about with different cuts to make the film more interesting to watch. I chose to put a slight filter over the visuals which took the shine off of the colours similar to the way I have chosen to print my magazine. I feel the grey-toned colouring helped in putting across my own aesthetic.

This week I undertook my photoshoot with model Katie from Superior Model Management. I chose to do this in a derelict garden as I wanted a location that channelled the idea of the everyday. I wanted to portray this strong character who has emerged from her routine and the laundry has started to become her and has taken on a new meaning. I turned softner lids into earrings and used pegs and hangers to form details. I wanted the model to take on a strong character who is very aware of how they look yet they feel that they are overpowering what is around them. I wanted to imagine that she did exist as a crazy lady overcome by her belongings.

During the editing process I wanted to keep the model as natural as possible embracing her characteristics as I specifically wanted Katie for this shoot for her quirky facial features and strong exterior. I then started to experiment with combing images together and decided on the images in the above layout. After then placing these into my InDesign document I decided to combine my still life of the laundry pikles amongst these to break up the story. I also positioned a more artistic shot of Katie pressing through a wet sheet as I loved the shape that the body made and felt it was a contrast to the other images.

At the weeekend I did my schooling and routine inspired shoot with Maggie from Superior Model Management in the studio. The focus of this shoot was on the accessories that I had made out of ordinary objects. I was very happy with how the shoot went overall and I feel I managed to capture the accessories exactly how I wanted to do. I wanted them to appear as though they could be head pieces or jewellry. I also looked at the power women are gaining in job roles. Having read discussions in the news about the fight for equal pay, I wanted to embrace the strength women have and draw attention to the capabilities they have in industries that are often seen as male dominated. As well as in job roles I am proud that as part of the United Kingdom there are powerful, determined women who may differ in their beliefs but who are looked at as role models by women around the country who wish to be in politics.

During the editing process of these images I did do another image which featured childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s loom band braceletes that formed a sleeve however I chose to withdraw this image from the line-up as I found although it was another accessory it did not photograph as well as the others and therefore brought down the overall aesthetic of the shoot as a whole. I experimented with the colour tone of the imagery by trying it as it was shot with a soft box light, with the white balance changed to give a blue tone and also in black and white. I feel the black and white worked best and was more aesthetically pleaseing as a set of images than in the other formats.

week ten

14.03.16 - 20.03.16

At this point in the semester my focus was on making sure the design and layout is at the same standard and same aesthetic as the content. I paid particular attention the layout and spacing of both the imagery and typography ensuring finer details such as spelling and grammer were correct. It was at this stage that both my process analysis document and publication had the majority of their content and I could focus on the few pages I had to complete. I used this time to continue to edit my film before we met with Tim for our final meeting which was for advice on any minor tweaks so I ensured that I had my film edited and finessed by the end of this week. On Tuesday I attended a tutorial with photography specialist and tutor Pat. During this session I received valuable advice on photographing within the studio as well as positive feedback on the images I had taken to date. I wanted Patâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinion on imagery where I had experimented with altering the white balance to create a different colour tone across the image and Pat agreed that with Heatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shoot the final images that show the true white colour were strong to go forward with. I valued his opinion on my imagery and felt I learned a lot from his tutorial of the studio.

Natalie Smith â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I think the ordinary is a very under-exploited aspect of our lives because it is so familiar.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Martin Parr Mobile: 07795296731 E-mail: natalie.troon@hotmail.co.uk Website: www.natalieevesmith.com

As part of our universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final year degree show we were to submit one image and a quote alongisde our personal contact details for the brochure given to guests. I chose a quote by Martin Parr which I felt contextualised my publication as a whole an image which was embodied the essense of my style of work. As Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve completed each photoshoot and feature I have printed it at home to see how it looks and then being able to physically arrange it into a line-up. Now that I have almost all of my content I was able to lay out all of my pages and see them in their physical order like they are on InDesign. I feel this really helped me visualise my work and allowed me to make slight changes in terms of image sizing and running order.

After laying all my prints out in order I was then able to go back in and resize certain images and make slight adjustments to the running order on the digital InDesign file. Up until this point I was using some Naval slang terms to form my titles of each of my photoshoots. For example, I used “Heads” meaning toilets for the bathroom styled shoot. I wasn’t too sure if I wanted these as there didn’t seem to be on that fitted my food shopping shoot with Lindi accurately enough so I started to reconsider these. I started to look back through my work and I wanted to emphasize signs of routine and repitition through my publication so it was at this point that I chose to title the shoots with different digital times in relation to when I would complete that task in my daily routine.

As our brochure is being given to all guests of our degree show I decided to update my website in itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design and content. I gave it a more professional aesthetic and made sure my recent work was visible and up to date. I am really happy with the overall outcome that I created through wix.com but using my own domain name.

I received estimated quotes based on my design requirements for my publication and PAD to be printed from my printer. I have chosen to go with the limp binding method and having originally wanted two or three different types of paper having seen the test prints I have done on one of the recycled papers I feel this would be stronger running throughout rather than having a combination of the grey-toned recycled paper with a more white toned recycled paper. I like to consistancy of having just the grey-toned type for both my publication and PAD.

week eleven

21.03.16 - 27.03.16

This week consisted of presenting my printed layout acrosss the wall space in the studio so I could gain some final feedback from my peers and tutors prior to it going to print. Moving forward from this I made subtle changes to the sizing of an image of holly which gave more balance to the layout of that shoot. I also agree with feeback in relation to my idea of using a brown paper cover for my publication. I feel the inside pages have a very contemporary feel across the grey-toned recycled paper and have decided to form the cover in the same colour paper as the rest of the publication. I feel this will add to the mundane feel of the design and be more reflective of the content inside. I am also yet to decide on a final name for my publication. I have been using PROJECT as a working title due to the ironic qualitites it had. When looking for a word which had become overused and mundane in itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nature it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what this word should be. I spent this week jotting down possible titles whilst going about my day. This week was made up of completing the final few pages including the front and back covers and I wanted to have a form of editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not which I completed this week.

This week two of my peers within our course formed a website to showcase graduates work from our university. I took this opportunity to have my work in progress posted to the social media page. I feel this is a great opportunity to showcase our work as graduates and I was more than happy to be a part of Border 1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social media activity.

After moving away from the title PROJECT I decided on my publication title to be Meat-and-Potatoes which means â&#x20AC;&#x153;the basic and the essentialsâ&#x20AC;?. I really like this a title. I feel it is very fitting to my aesthetic that I work in and chose to go back to looking at the local news I found in newspapers and found these words as headlines and felt it added to the DIY nature of my styling.

I then started to experiment with lots of different ideas for the front cover. I narrowed it down to four options that I felt were the strongest. I have chosen to go with the above deisgn as I felt the image was definitive of the content within. The eggbox bag and bag for life tunic/dress were my favourite garments that I created for my publication and I feel they give an indication to what is inside.

For the front cover of my PAD I chose to use one of my work in progress photographs where the garment features in the same shoot as the front cover of my publication image. I love the composition and colour of the image and felt it was a strong image to close with as it reminded me of an image that I would be drawn to in one of the Trend Union books. I feel that this image with it being a work in progress shot, it is very fitting to be on the front cover of my process analysis document.

weeks twelve and thirteen 28.03.16 - 10.04.16

The final step in completing my publication was to write a form of editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s notw which I really want to do to discuss with the the reader an insight into my concept. I have shown an example of how this will look within my publication overleaf. I used week twelve to continue to preview my work through Issuu whilst making small adjustments to images to ensure the ones that were full bleed bled to the correct line. I had my work proof read by three people and alos by myself to check for any errors. As it is now the end of week twelve I have completed my process analysis document and I am now about to make the necessary arrangements for both documents to be transferred to Print Sponge for going to print in week 13.

page 1 Objects can often be defined when used within a space or by a person. When I look at an object taken out of context and worn on a person, the object becomes something new. With a fascination for peoples belongings, it only made sense to look at how these become characters in their own right without their designated owner. Through the medium of photography, Meat-and-Potatoes has looked at the objects that are overused and under appreciated in our daily lives. It is when living amongst them that it is more apparent that they almost form our world and our lives within it. Imagine wakening up with nothing to reach for. Whether this be the comfort of the lumps of your duvet that at ten years old you still feel at home with its worn ways or whether it be the rectangular box that sends out a repetitive drone which only gets louder and more of an annoyance as the minutes pass quicker than usual on a Monday morning. Or perhaps its the familiar feeling of opening the front door just as you have forgotten the back door keys. Now take a minute to remove each object from yourself as you go through your day. And now you are beginning to connect with objects and see them as your toolbox where without the hammer youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve only got nails.

issue 0 - the basics and the essentials -