Brand Me Luke Owen 1910502
My Family Something that is very important to me is my family and the relationship I have with both my parents, how this differs to each parent and the sort of relationship me and my sister have and how this has affected my childhood and who I am today. My parents have had a massive impact on my work ethic and my views and perspective on life, something I’m grateful for is how open they are about diverse topics and how I’ve never felt scared to talk to them about anything that maybe could cause controversy. Even though this is all true, we’re not really a super affectionate family and we don’t really talk about ‘feelings’ or ‘emotions’ which sounds sad but I think it’s just the way we are to be honest and it’s not had a bad impact on my life, but I think I have a stronger relationship with close friends now because of this, as I confide in them more than my family now. With my sister, it’s a mutual agreement that we don’t get on really and that’s okay, so we’ll just live our lives and its calm, we’re always family but we’re not supposed to do everything together and know each-others business. For me, that’s all good.
In the Beginning... Growing up, I had a good childhood surrounded by a secure and supportive family of me, and my sister and both our parents, which looking at it now, we were lucky to have both our parents still together. With my childhood, it was quiet and the area I grew up in was known for being a nice and peaceful area for the most part. This was good for my personal development creatively and technologically because I had a lot of time to draw or create things, or find one of my favourite past times, that is playing video games, which I put a lot of my creativity now, down to. I think one of my biggest strengths has come from this also, my ability to work independently and keep on track with goals/ targets because I’m used to that time alone with myself.
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Odd one out... Fashion hasn’t always been the dream, but something creative has always been on my mind, whether that was animation during school, video games at college or finally ending up doing fashion at university. Going from different courses and environments has made me spend time with completely different types of people which has been good for my people skills but has sometimes left me feeling that I don’t have or haven’t found my place yet. It’s been tough trying to fit in within these groups, as I’ve never felt at home in and amongst these types of people, but I think sometimes, that’s how I fit in and that’s the way I am and that’s how I should move forward. Mindset is so important with something like this because it used to get me down or make me doubt my abilities and what I can do, but now I know I can be a massive strength and something that can make me stand out. The main differences between the industries is the people that you’re surrounded with, the environments in terms of perspectives, opinions, values and ways of thinking. Which is fantastic for the sake of educating myself and gaining these different views to build up my own. Also, the workload and the type of content that is required, is totally different in the industries. One of the positives of this was that I’m well-versed in many types of content creation. What I mean by this is that I’ve worked with photoshop and a lot of Adobe Suite software including after effects and video editing as well in university. At college I worked on 3DS Max and unreal engine a lot, which is great for the technological route that I’m taking with my future work and will help me when I look at the virtual/ digital fashion space.
My uniform Something that has been evident after my summer research is that I have a strict uniform, a code that I follow within fashion and when dressing, which I have been told is strange and something that seems very over the top to a lot of people. This code consists of wearing and not wearing certain brands together based off their similarities, dissimilarities and whether I consider them ‘direct competition’ with each other. For example, Nike and Adidas, they’re brands I would not have worn together as they are the two biggest streetwear/ lifestyle brands out there and they’re directly competing with each other. So wearing a pair of Air Force 1’s with a pair of Adidas socks or joggers is the biggest of sins to commit in streetwear. This code seemed okay to begin with and something I could easily keep on top of, but after awhile and more and more brands get added to the never-ending spider diagram, it can get confusing and something that really causes me more trouble than it’s worth because it’s not like anyone else cares. So why should I? Honestly, I could not give an answer as to why it’s so important, because to me, it just is and I can’t explain it. Something I’m working on is breaking out of this uniform and how I can create something individual to myself to show who I am more instead of catering towards what other people will think of me. But after investigation into fit in and not wanting to rules etc. This also ties be organised and done like my university negative effect on opinions, so this subject the fashion One thing wore this than a dad the sake of football mostly, we’re both busy family time. But when thing bigger and even across as something more I grow up and disagree or go against it’s a genuine opinion/ my opinions.
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how this came about, I think this has a lot to do with trying to be an individual and abide by what I thought was societies in with my perfectionistic ways and how everything needs to correctly, which carries over from multiple areas of my life, work or my first jobs. I think this does sometimes have a my fashion perspective as it can close off some ideas or I’m currently trying to work on broadening my view on as I think it’ll be really beneficial for my advancement in industry itself.
My place within the Fashion industry
that after discussion, became evident, was the feeling that I uniform to fit in with my dad, who I see more of a best friend which is okay but sometimes means that I mute how I feel for fitting in with him. My relationship with him revolves around going to games and spending time with him that way, because people with lives to live so sometimes that gets in the way of we go to the football, it’s always about being part of somewearing a uniform within that as well, making sure I come because I think it makes my relationship with him better. The mature, the more I see this and the more I realise it’s okay to the opinions of my dad, not for the sake of disagreeing but if perspective, then I know now it’s time to believe in myself and
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Market Sector When initially looking at where I fit in the industry, I immediately looked at streetwear as that’s what I’m most interested in and I already have a lot of knowledge in that area, but within streetwear it was hard to decide whether to go with luxury, so Off-white, Supreme etc or more conceptual with the likes of Yohji Yamamoto and Craig Green. There is an easy option of the two and it would’ve been luxury, but I think it limits my imagination and where I could possibly go with it. Initially I did read up on brands that I really appreciated, like New Balance and Aime Leon Dore. I looked at more commercial Japanese brands like Wtaps and Bape, looking at their rises and how they built their audience and their story. The problem I had whilst looking at brands like this, is that they’re about the ‘now’ of fashion and not the future, and I wanted to discover something or create something that people hadn’t seen before. So I felt I had to go to a more conceptual market with it, I also looked at the virtual reality aspect and how I needed to explore this as well as I believe this is the future of not just fashion, but life as we know it. In conclusion, I know I want to move forward in the conceptual streetwear market.
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Visual communication and my research Finding how I want to visually communicate has been difficult and something that I have struggled with in my university experience as a whole. So I reflected a lot on how I represent myself with how I dress or how I carry myself in life. My approach to both aspects is minimalism I’d said, very black and white, but not plain. Minimalism is something that I’ve always been interested in, especially in Japanese culture and their way of life. My approach to my work this year will be more minimalistic, this means I will look at being more considerate and careful with my content and what I post on my fashion Instagram and how I present my university work. Using minimal colours and researching in to fonts and what the impact of these can be. Increasing my knowledge on semiotics and marketing/ communicating strategies will be really important and definitely help build my skill base for when I finish my degree. When visualising and compiling research, I love reading, reading about stuff that interests me is one of my favourite things to do, I had librarians for parents, can you tell? But I find reading facts intrigue me so the subject. Like ism in the 1980’s Yamamoto and how designers in Paris in of their approach to I also get a lot from content, like old doctaries on YouTube or a fashion show online watching a series on to educate myself not just fashion, but or technology etc.
articles and publications about streetwear, the stories and the little much and make me want to learn more and more about looking and learning about deconstructionwith Rei Kawakubo and Yohji they shocked 81’ because fashion. watching umenfinding or even Netflix on culture
In terms of presenting research, I usually sort them what type of subject it’s supporting, so technology, fashculture etc. Then as I’m reading through, I’ll look at any text that I adds to or supports my subject and highlight it so I know where the useful is when I go back through it to find supporting articles. I want to approach completely digitally, because I think in my career, 90% of it will be digital prefer working on a digital platform anyways. Plus it opens up a lot more nity for different types of content, like animations, Gifs and film content, can show video’s I’ve watched for research and can make compiling and research much more interesting.
into ion, think content this year and I opportuwhich again presenting
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My strengths and weaknesses
My perspective
I hate talking about myself in a constructive manor, talking about what I’m good at and what I’m bad at, but we’ll look at it regardless as well because self-reflection is good apparently. Quantifying these can be quite difficult as some see strengths as weaknesses and vice versa so I think it’ll be interesting how I evaluate each trait.
I’ve always been interested in a virtual world, the idea of endless creation and possibilities within a place that doesn’t rely or follow the laws of physics, sounds ideal to me. I think something that has halted me and caused such a change in what I want to do with my life, is the restrictions on my creatively almost and how I think the advancement in technology over the past couple of years has allowed and will allow me to flourish in terms of what is possible and what I can create. I’ve always looked to create something different, something people haven’t seen before, because I’m always willing to learn and take in new perspectives that help in building up my narrative.
We’ll start off with the weaknesses and see how we get on. I can be really creative and I do believe I have a unique view of the world, but sometimes my work ethic gets the better of me and I can’t switch on the creative side and creating new things can come difficult to me. This also doesn’t help when I have what I believe to be an incredible idea but it just doesn’t come off in the way I want it to or the storytelling I’ve created isn’t as strong as the written or oral side. This can lead to people not believing in what I’m saying which can be problematic as I have had the tendency to give in to other people’s opinions and let them have the last say, when in actual fact, they’re just wrong to be honest. So, now the weaknesses are out the way, we can talk about what my strengths are, shame there’s a word limit… Something I have already said is how I do have the drive to be better, to adapt what I already know and to try and make something new and something constructive that people can take/ learn from. This comes hand in hand with having a unique vision that I believe I do have. This is something that is hard to describe (see what I mean about my weaknesses) but trying to describe It would go something like this, it’s basically seeing everything from a constructive point of view, breaking down the why’s of a film scene or a fashion shoot set straight away because I’m always fascinated with the subliminal messages within all aspects of life and the meaning of everything. The only problem with this is that my mind never turns off, it’s always on analytic mode, always analysing and thinking about why this brand did that, or why that film character wears that colour coat for a certain scene. As much as I think it helps with my understanding and appreciation for creativity and ideas, it can get on my nerves and wind people up around me, beyond belief. More transferable skills would be something like the ability to make crucial decisions quickly and objectively, working more efficiently and not based off emotions and or anything like that. Team work is a big part of life and almost every job you’ll go in but I think working within a team I am good and I offer a lot to said team, be it in a leadership role or as a team player in general. I think my strengths far outweigh my weaknesses and the most important part of having weaknesses is knowing what they are so I know which areas I can work on and development.
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After the consideration of my summer research, I definitely want to steer away from the uniformity of how I used to see fashion, and I want to go towards a new form or aesthetic that I can build up to be my brand in the future and something that inspires others to work in a new way. I see the possibilities that come with every opportunity, even if I don’t act on it, I always think about how I can change up or improve on what I’m doing now, in life or work, to be honest it blends in to one at the moment.
Answering the questions Looking at creatives and publications that match my creative direction, and I think some publications that I like to read or find inspiration from would be Dazed or eye-C. I’ve chosen these because I think they both represent my style in terms of digital looks with Dazed and physical garments and imagery, from eye-C. Dazed is obviously a very popular but I think their way of working and the way they produce their magazines, is unique to them and I think is, and intentionally so, very ‘instagrammable’ and helps keep the popularity alive. Eye-C is a magazine I’ve recently gotten in to, in terms of looking at the style of clothing I like, eye-C highlights my way of looking at clothing and especially the photography and look-book aspect of the magazine.
What will my brand look like? This brand me module has been really insightful to how I think and how I think the best way to move forward is and I get excited thinking about the future of what I can create. My own brand will reflect this thirst for new knowledge and will look mainly in to the digital world and can be created with virtual reality. Whilst doing this, I want there to be a minimalistic approach, creating work based on form, shape and structure oppose to colour and pattern as I believe as I person that’s how I approach life. With the investigation in to digital fashion, all of my work will be digital, looking at using Adobe software, 3D modelling apps and even looking into what phone apps are available and using social media to market and showcase my journey and work. I think the only physical work I may do will be drawing or sketches of outfits/ designs that I want to create going forward as I love drawing and I think you can have happy accidents when drawing analogue that can maybe show you things you wouldn’t have thought of before. I think my work will revolve the rules of today to form someand seeing what visually comes from I haven’t seen before, something like a
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around making a new uniform, using thing new off breaking them tomorrow this, make something new, something New Code…
New Codes Coming to a Reality near you soon...