There's no place like home...

Just the other day i was talking about jellies- the shoes that is. And how if i could, i would. I had a pair of glittery heeled red ones in school and i loved walking about in them when i got home until i went to bed and now my grown up dream has come true and Vivienne Westwood has teamed up with the creators of the jellied shoe,  Melissa, to put a unique spin on her new collection footwear, what a great idea for a collaboration. 

Draw In Light

Draw In Light print with free hand silk techniques with their motto 'everything is unique' that is certainly the case. Elegant, minimal, raw, smart, understated are some words that spring to mind and i don't know what attracts me to these garments but i can't stop looking through their collection, all there collections aren't as sombre, their recent 'bleached' collection boasts pastel colours mixed, tie and dip dyed into beautiful works of art that are pure and unedited, i do happen to like how much film plays a part in their promotion as well. 

JALOUSE

I came across this advertisement for the french lifestyle magazine, Jalouse at university when we were discussing viral videos, this being a successful one. The irony of this is that it is mocking everything bad and the norm of viral videos this day, this Matthew Frost piece has got to be my favourite. If irony is the way forward for advertisers on limited budgets and large coverage then we should all look to Jalouse- jealous?

Pinterest

Recently i have gotten rather carried away with Pinterest and grouping together inspirational sets on images for future reference in university and work projects click here to follow my pinterest boards ranging from cats to visual merchandising, 1950 to graphics...

YOU magazine: subs

Thursday was spent with the sub editing team of YOU magazine, they are responsible for proof reading and correcting all articles and text that is featured within the magazine. My first editing task featured the crossword and horoscopes. I had to fill in the crossword (which is a lot harder than it sounds when the clues are cryptic) and spell check the horoscopes.

The second task involved creating headlines and sub text for an June photo shoot featuring a model dressed in white luxurious clothes on a cruise liner. Titles included cruise muse, liner luxe, cote couture and cruise couture.

The second shoot involved a trend review of fashion to wear in the city vs fashion to wear on the beach, my suggestions included beach retreat vs city escape, beach breeze vs city chic, palm paradise vs concrete jungle and beach break vs city make.

During the afternoon i attended the picture review which featured all the photo shoots and articles photos that had been shot that week for the editor to crit and select her favourite ones as well as the magazine review for the up and coming four issues and planning the foundations of the fifth. This was a good insight into how a magazine runs and how the different groups come together

YOU magazine: features

Features focuses on different interviews, press events and trends specific to every issue. It roughly takes up a third of the magazine. The first task i was set was to research the rumours for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a talent festival featuring thousands of signed and unsigned acts for the up and coming press day.

Secondly, i was assigned British actress Olivia Williams as an interview preparation task, string in films such as The Postman, Sixth Sense and Friends, Brit actress is now an established brand in her own right here in the UK after ditching Hollywood for more local projects such as Playhouse Presents. The task involved fully researching her life, researching previous interviews and what worked and didn't work as well as taking note of interesting questions and responses. This was then inspired to create a number of questions and put in a logical order including career, relevant projects old and new, family life and love. 

My afternoon task involved reading through the application forms for YOUs latest competition. In collaboration with Breast Cancer Awareness YOU were asking for people to submit entries for people that have survived or are currently battling the disease. I shortlisted the applications that ere in their hundreds and then spent the afternoon typing out and getting the editor to sign letters of condolence to unsuccessful applications, but thanking them for taking part and making them aware of the strong competition. 

YOU magazine: picture desk

My Tuesday at YOU involved working at the picture desk. With a magazine photographs are either taken by the YOU team and their freelance photographers to produce a personal shot to the article or photographs are sourced from image databases such as REX or IDS. 

The first task i was assigned was to find out all the picture credits that were in the next issue of the magazine, that involved going through the image only copy of the magazine and found it on IDS, when selecting the image it is brought up in high resolution and provides the name of the provider and any copyright infringement i then created a database and sent this to the layout team to put together with the images. 

The next task that as given to me was to collect photos of celebrities that were needed for a up and coming skincare article, celebrities tweeted their skincare routines and then they were published within the article and advertised in collaboration with the brands. Recent celebrity faces were found on photo databases and high resolution images were ordered to feature in the magazine. PMS was used to store files within a folder. 

I then archived the products sent to us by the brands featured that need to be photographed and scanned though the copy to see if any were missing. I then had to contact the PR agencies such as Nivea, Tom Ford, bare minerals and YSL and request the products to be sent. I then had to do the same with fragrance brands for an up and coming fragrance article. 

YOU magazine: fashion editorial

This week i have managed to get some work experience at YOU magazine, which for those who don't know it is the supplement given out within the Mail on Sunday, weekly. With only five days at the magazine, each day i am shown a different aspect of the company/ production of the magazine. Day one was within the fashion editorial section which is made up of 6 individuals. 

The first task i was given at YOU was to read all the weekend newspapers and supplements available to analyse the current newspaper and magazine market and current issue of interest. I had to cut out relevant articles and all fashion articles and report these to the editor along with my findings. 

I then began to archive the last year of YOU magazines, by categories including front cover, fashion shoot and regular features. It was interesting to see how the team come up with the topics weeks in advance and suit it to the mood of the moment or season. May included tropical prints, monochrome, pastel and of course, jubilee. 

My next task was to go through the future features and label all the brands of the clothes that were features. The next step was to search through design directory to contact the relevant PR agencies (either in-house or agency) and ring up on behalf of the magazine and ask for the stockist details and name so this can be published within the magazine so readers can purchase the clothes that are seen with ease.

[spent lunch in the hyde park heat.. this is the life]

The next task was probably the most stereotypical of the fashion magazine- the clothes cupboard. My task was to distribute and wrap up the garments that had been used previously for photo shoots and send them back. The first task that was involved was to find the relevant distribution archive sheet for the bag of clothes. The clothes were then taken and out and matched to the items on the list and archived on the YOU magazine sheet for personal reference, half was given back to the brand along with a disclaimer sheet and half was kept for the YOU records. Everything was folded and packaged neatly and brand directory was used to find the relevant PR addresses of the brands, along with a letter.

It was the best of times

Photography by Hayley Louisa Brown
Styling by Safiya Yekwai
Hair by Magdalena Tucholska
Makeup by Catherine Chater
Model(s) Jake Shortall @ AMCK & Valeria B. @ Premier

Paperwhite

Needing inspiration on a current university zine project we have chosen to focus on nostalgia and memories. We are asking people if they have any outstanding moments they wished they have on camera and we are getting Nottingham creative talent to produce some illustrations to accompany these, if you have any memories you wish you'd of caught on camera click here to post, alternatively if you would like to collaborate with our zine contact me. 


The reason i choose this shoot was for the layers and composition of the photographs, the layering and the shadowy atmosphere that is projected that reminded me of my project. 


Photography by Yoo Sun
Art Direction by Audie Umali
Styling by Rebecca Palmer
Hair by Tetsuya Yamakata
Makeup by Aya Komatsu
Model(s) Patricija Motiejunaite @ Next