Reflective journal by Summer In Venus

ITS ALL Me.

A journal of reflections by Chante Johnson /16

A pledge I am going to do better than last year. I have been telling myself this for the last three months and that is because i truely believe it. Whether it shows up in my grades or not, I want to feel good about my creations and I want to be proud of the work that I do. I want to try really hard to bring my work out of this bubble that I have created, which is were I dont think I see it as real. If you understand what im saying. I think I have put fashon into this little bubble where everything i do or create is not real or tangable and it isnt going to affect anything and it lacks a real element which I am learning is completely not true. I can bring my work out into the world and into the tangable and I am going to strive for that this year.

IMAGE: CENTRALILLUSTRATIONAGENCY.COM

Asthetic, what even is that? so im sitting doing reflecting for my reflective journal and i want to make it look jazy and cool beause as I said previously i want to immurse myself in my work. I want someone to look at my work and know that this is me. Maybe I am obsessing to much because isnt it supposed to come naturally, is that not how people have a style because they dont try to be something, its just an organic process. Well apparently I dont have that organic thing, whatever it is. So looks like im going to have to do some research and see what I can do but right now im looking at a plain white background using a font that I like. IMAGE: RANDOMGHOST.TUMBLR.COM

What does the de-brief mean to me.. I am beyond excited, the brief is looking and feeling good and im feeling positive about the fact that we can take it wherever we like. although the daughnting feeliing that i might not be able to match up to my own expectations is bringing me down slightly but its fine because I have put myself forward for student rep because as the theme goes. immerse myself in university. Although so do sophie and ellie but you know im confident im going to win because of you know, white guilt, im joking obviously.

IMAGE: FOURTHLAKE.TUMBLR.COM

Browsology | Digital sketchbook

MATTHIEUBROUREL/ IANINCLARIDGE.NET

Before this activity i used to really struggle with making my research clear, i would do it all, come up with my idea and go back and try to create the journey after the fact. However with this activity the point was to capture the different points and document the threads as you follow them which ended up really helping me the impliment that into my sketchbook. I am finding a thousand times easier to also get all my thoughts out through a digital sketchbook. My use of graphics i think make the work alot neater and clearer. I was not good at making sketchbooks it is just something that i can not get a hang of and isnt something that i particularly enjoy doing. Although i feel like i am still yet to find my own personalised style at this point im not even sure im ever going to have one.

SERIOUS ISSUES Reading various different articles about the up rise of natural hair or “the natural hair movement’ I found it rounding around to the same concept of the core reason for the movement is that if models of colour are shown in the media it is very rare that they have their natural hair. With this in mind I decided to look further into the representation of models of colour, the statistics that I found only appalled me and I knew there was an issue with representation in the fashion industry but the numbers that I found inclined it to be a lot worse.

GETTING BACK ON TRACK

With most things that I work on I find myself drawn to things concerning serious issues, mostly discrimination. I find it makes me a lot more passionate about the work and I can make a much more compelling argument and/or justification of picking a project that I think is important. I also think it has a lot to with I feel like I’m the only one who is going to ta about it because as much as people say they care its very rare people take the risk to actually do something about it.

Running home to cultivate my ideas read back through breifs highlighting key pieces of information, desperately trying to wrap my head around what im doing. In my sketchbook i found myself getting abit lost in where my ideas are going, The element of brazil I find to be confusing my so i trying to relocate my idea and ive realised that the same trends that are in brazil with the natural hair are the same in england. This is where i plan to follow my idea.

IMAGE: PINTEREST.COM

IMAGE: SHDNSM.COM

A Critique and My #blackGirlMagic As I become clearer on my idea I enjoy this project, I feel a lot stronger in my abilities to present my research and findings and from the feedback I am getting I am expecting (and hoping) at least a percentage higher than last year. We had a critique and so I concluded idea so far with a mood board and brought my laptop to present my work so far in my critique. Although I went in not feeling 100% in my idea I left feeling that I had something to work on and to further develop. I think I take feedback quite well, although I do think that I can be a bit critical of others and can take charge a lot of the time but again I think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have enough faith in others to step forward because in the critique and in class in general everyone seems so hesitant to answer questions or get involved in discussion which I find almost unbearable.

IMAGE: SPOKEWITHNOWORDS.TUMBLR.COM

KASSIA CHATTING

JAMES HAYES

I previously worked with kassia on noriwch fashion week, i asisted her with various tasks on the day of the event. She had come to give us a lecture about PR work and her work on norwich fashion week. What i found super useful about her talk was when she explained about getting multiple uses out of one image, such as creating online content using one image but cropping and zooming in to make it seem like a completely

We have met james hayes on many occasions he has givene us alot of feedback at various points of our project. The first time he came was to give us feedback on our browsology and what he thought of our current ideas. What i am learning about myself is that Although i may not be entirely confident in my work i am not afraid to put myself forward to get feedback on my work and am open to critisism. I feel that i can only benefit, i even seem to find more of a benefit from recieving it from industry proffessionals.

seperate image.

IMAGE: NEUBA.COM

IMAGE: NORWICHFASHIONWEEK INSTAGRAM

BRITTIANY BATHGATE When I heard about Brittany comming in i thought it would be interesting. I have quite the opinion of people with her “instagram image”. In todays modern world it seems that she is just one of may with a profile like hers, and i did have questions as to how she felt about that. When she spoke about how she started out on instagram and he progression from innocent social media user to a business. I became a little less judgemental ad found incite in what she was saying, she spoke on how she rode the wave of the standard “instagram look”, saying that she want trying to replicate anyones instagram that she was apart o the world before it took off into the mainstream. Which was the question i asked her and to my surprise she eve admittd to overly trying on instagram, to get that “perfect account” and admitted that it doesnt work. All in all I dont think it did much for my work personally but it did give me an outlook that not everyone who has a huge following such as Brittany is uploading this fake life and people buy into that aspect.

IMAGE:BRITTIANY BATHGATE INSTAGRAM

bjork BJORK EXHIBITION

IMAGE: SOMERSETHOUSE,BJORK EXIBITION

Visiting london sommerset house to see an exhibition by bjork was absolutley amazing. It was an virtual reality exhibition where every room that we went into had a head set and each had a different music video that she had created the concept for and sang the songs. Although the headphones where uncomfortable her visual artistry knows no bounds . In terms of helping me with my project i guess it made me want to think more outside the box and expanded my industry knowledge.

CAMPAIGN PRESENTATIONS I love presentations and although as much as I love them i do get nervous although, it isnt until im standing infront of everyone. I got reasonably good feedback on my presentation, told I backed up my points well and that i carried everyone through my idea reasonably well. Although the writing on my file was too small and no one could read it. This is something i also stuggle with in printing the writing looks so small on the screen and when you print it, it basically takes up the whole page and is way to big. For my next presentation i am going to try and get it done enough in advanced to put it up on the screen and sit far enough away to check and see that everyone can read the wiritng. I also like seeing other peoples work it allows me to put my work into perspective. To see what im missing but trying to not compare myself.

IMAGE: PINTEREST 14

CHRIS CUNNIFFE Chris was such a delight he was so real and gave such a good perspective on how he developed in his career. He gave us such a good break down in the way he presented his lecture, first when talking about himself and then when getting into the way he tackles his work and the main things he thinks about. Athough what I find about myself is in the momment when i am learning all these things in the lecture it takes a while for me to be able to actually us the things that I have learned and by the time that I could put it into practice its somewhere in the depths of my sketchbook. This is something i feel like i could improve on.

JON REVELL

I dont think that there is much that I can report on for this lecture. I can say that i got some great practical knowledge for short cuts whilst doing photoshoots such as using acetate and ways to get the best out of an image is to shoot wide and crop inwards.

IMAGE PHOTOGRAPHED BY ANNA LOMAX

WRITING MY REPORT... I feel that I have progressed considerable from last year when it comes to writing my report. I have done it with quite a good amount of time until had in which allowed for me to get good feedback and take my time in writing it. I didnt feel rushed or in a hurry and im proud of what i have written. As writing isnt my strongest point getting good feedback from tamasine gave me alot more confidence.

IMAGE: JULIAMANCHIK.COM

BENEFITS OF THE STUDY SKILLS SESSION LECTURE

STUDY SKILLS LECTURE As the year as pogressed compared to where i was last year i think i have learnt what is a good pace for me. Where as last year i would do big chunks of work and have a huge gap in time and then do another huge amount. This year i have learnt to make better use of my time and that doing even a little bit of work a day and setting myself realistic goals has gotten me alot further. I think I am also more comfortable with being abit more creative and doing my work the way that I want it done. I also am seeing alot more value in crits and one to ones and getting that feedback and instead of viewing it as something to be afraid of and to avoid, i am more open to it and im definatly acting on it alot more than i would have last year.

benefits of this session was I found it opened up a part of the project that i kind of couldnt grasp which was being critical and proffesional however still speaking on my personal experiences and getting that balance between the two. My three next steps are too now get my cover lettr written as i feel alot more comfortable doing so. Writing more reflections with the added knowlegde of how I can achieve more depth and progress on my campign confidently and enjoying the proecess.

IMAGE: PINTEREST.COM

My Photoshoot... For the Most part organising my shoot was not that difficult. Its mostly rounding everyone up and getting the outfits and the make up done that I found to be the difficult part. At first i though finding a photographer to be hard but i think knowing one photography student was enough to put me in contact with someone whos work reflected what I was looking for. The day of the shoot went smoothly, everyone showed up on time the lighting seemed to work perfectly the models where quick in adopting the concept and i found it easy to direct them into various poses to achieve the look that I wanted. I am more sure than ever that i think i can give direction well, the models seemed relaxed and to be having a good time. Almost all of my Photos seemed to come out the way i intended them to, if anything, my photoshoot came out alot better than i thought it would. attaining the photos after took abit of nagging however she got them all too me within the time frame that i needed to have them. It was smart of me to do the shoot as early as i did because the photos only progressed and i could focus alot more on getting my hashtag and justifying my concept under way.

IMAGE: Chante Johnson

“PIPE DREAM” This year being so focused on careers it brings me to look at myself and where i want to be heading, which does come with a sense of having to think realistically, reality being a scary thing when it comes to being a fashion student because of the many “pipe dream” statements that come with it. However when i looking at where im going how many times ive been told about the pipe dream i have desided to make it realistic, making and thinking about logical steps i need to take to reach to where i want to go.( what are those steps)

IMAGE: PINTEREST.COM

KAT EASTHORPE

BEYOND INSPIRED....

Lectures by industry people I always find inspiring, Kat has done extremely well as far as im concerned and hearing her story and all the different things she has done for magazines I just find so motivating. I find that whenever I listen to someone talking about the things that they have accomplished and the great work that they do it ;it makes me want to work a lot harder. Which im not sure if its a good or a bad thing because i can find my own motivation, IWW just get that extra push when im listening to all the career posibilities and all the great things people get to do.

Me, a Writer? I dont know why I have never considered myself a writer. I have never been marked down because of it, I actually did very well in my GCSEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in engish?. So why am I so reluctant to put my writing out their. I think its because other people seem so confident in there abilities to write something amazing in a short in a small time. In terms of my Creative pratice I am going to set a goal for myself and that is to explore my writing capabilities more deeply and possibly apply more time to it.

IMAGE: PINTEREST.COM

IMAGE: Christian Dior

Bombed it.. my presentation that is.. I was so confident, so ready and prepared, well at least that is what I though until, it came down to that shining momment when i had to actually present it. ABSOLUTE DISASTER, blank a complete blank. I could barely string a sentence together. I have no idea what happened to me. The order of my presentation was completely wrong, however I would have atleast though I would have been able to talk about each of my slides clearly. Unfortunatly no, that just was not the case I mean I ended the presentation with an apology. That is just how bad it was, I also contribute it to the fact that I really wanted to impress kat.

IMAGE: Chante Johnson

My campaign As I am comming to the end of the project and am finishing up on my report, thinking of the work that i have done i find that it is important to think of how far ive come in terms of being able to be more effecient with my work in keeping up to date and being able to produce something half decent. I think there will always be room for improvement but I am now at a point where i can show my work to someone without being completely embarrased. I also have definatly become more open to sharing my work inorder to improve it.

Summary From the beginning of this project, I really had this urgant need todo better than last year. I wanted better, to be better than the average low grades I was getting. After comming this far and now finishing the project, I am still not sure if I have achevied that, however, i am a ton more confident in my work. I have definatly visually improved my work and progessed in the fact that digital work is more my strength than a hand rendered sketchbook. Still alot more to learn in not comparing myself to others so much and I definatly want to continue to improve and keep this new found drive that I have to do my work. I have also found a comfort in exploring my creative practice and thinking about what work drives me and what topics i find more interesting. I have really enjoyed this project and im not entirely sure if its because my attitude has changed or due to some other unknown reason. I am looking forward to our next research project. The end.

Chante Johnson