Over the Christmas holiday, we were assigned our first major individual project. This project is the first time we are properly left to our own devices, as all our previous uni work (except one essay) has been group work. Therefore, this is the time for us to really show what we can do. The brief we have been assigned is essentially what we did in first term as groups, but with a slight change. The brief reads as:
‘Your summative brief is a visual report which begins with researching into a fashion trend story + brand + outcome, then developing a series of ideas, creating a set of moodboards, and finally producing a series of visualisations and mock-ups.’
When first reading this, I was a bit taken back. It sounded like it was a lot of work to complete, especially for the first project. As well as this, our report has to be on InDesign, something I have absolutely no experience with. This is daunting in itself, however, I’ve got to start somewhere with using the software. I’m a girl who’s very happy and comfortable with Word, so I’m trying to break out of my bubble and explore the world of InDesign.
My trend story is ‘prints from the past’, for the brand All Saints, with a digital outcome. To begin with, I was very happy with the digital outcome as I had already explored this in previous work, although as I’ve been thinking of outcomes, I seem to land on too similar ideas to the previous project. However, in another way this is a positive, because it’s making me think a lot harder about how I can explore the digital outcome in an original and unique way, and not just take the easy route, which can sometimes end up becoming very boring.
The brief explores the stages of the FCP (Fashion Communication & Promotion) process:
- Contexts
- Ideas
- Concepts
- Outcomes
This revisits what we have learnt so far in the previous module, so that made me feel a lot more comfortable knowing I had a workbook containing a basic outline of how and what to include. As I’ve been doing the project, I’ve definitely been referring back to the group work to see how I may have started each stage, or simply how I lay out a page I liked and thought worked well.
I’m a few weeks into doing the project and, to be honest, I’m worried about my timing and whether I will be able to complete it to the standard I want. At the beginning of the Christmas holiday, I returned back to my job in retail when I came home, working long shifts pretty much every day. Obviously my first thought was ‘yay money’ but as the weeks progressed, I realised I wasn’t dedicating enough time to my project, purely because the free hours I had I wanted to try see friends and family, and recharge for the next day’s shift. Because of this I lost of few weeks of doing the project, leading to me now feeling a bit stressed and rushed. However, I’m trying to remain level-headed and focus on the project instead of getting myself into a flap. I have a couple more weeks to complete the project and have every day dedicated to it, so as long as I remain focussed it should all be okay.
I’ve shown a glimpse into my work on my FCP Instagram (@goose.fashion) and also an insight into my little doodles in a previous blog post, exploring my drawing style.
With this project, even though I’m obviously focussing on completing the work to a good standard, as it’s the first individual bit of work we’ve done, it’s almost a bit of time for me to experiment and explore. I’m experimenting with layouts and drawings throughout my workbook, to keep it interesting but to also try find what works for me. I’ll soon write more posts on what direction I’m going with the project, posting each stage methodically, which I think will create a good pathway to where I’m going with it, but also could help me see where I next need to go with it.
Now, I must get back to researching into prints.
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