WHITE OUT

Polyvore is a website I have used on numerous occasions when searching for clothes such as my leaver's ball dress. I have also admired sets made focussing on specific fashion trends and colours. I therefore decided to make my own account, and below is my first set I've made which I have titled 'White Out'.

WHITE OUT by helenaclay 
featuring 

white sandals  /  Topshop body con dress / Topshop white bralette top / Topshop sleeveless top / Topshop ripped jeans / Topshop white skirt / Topshop white sandals

REVIEW: Clean Bandit in Birmingham

On the 5th May I went to see Clean Bandit at the HMV Institute in Birmingham, something which I'd received tickets for from my friend Mimi for my birthday.

 

Their music has been described by critics as 'fusion music'. They have created a new variety mixing deep-house elements with classical and electronic music. Unlike most bands they invite guest artists to sing their songs and produce the music themselves

Members: Jack Patterson (bass guitar, keyboard), Luke Patterson (drums), Grace Chatto (cello) and Milan Neil Amin-Smith (violin)

I was not sure what to expect as I have been listening to and supporting them for the past couple of years and was not sure how they would sound when performing live. It was completely different to all other gigs I have ever been to with a mixture of house and live violin and cello playing. They completely surpassed my expectations and I would really recommend anybody who gets the opportunity to go and see them live.

Product designer feedback

As a group we are extremely pleased with the outcome of the CAD design by the product designer, pictured below. It is exactly what we had pictured the packaging looking like and are glad that it works with our brand. 

We now need to create a logo for 'Bluff' that can be used on the wooden box that will encase the black bottle and our advertising material.

REVIEW: Everywhere festival Nottingham

On Bank Holiday Sunday 4th May Dollop returned with their biggest event yet 'EVERYWHERE 002'

With a line-up including: Artwork, Blonde, Hannah Wants, Karma Kid, Loefah, Mak & Pasteman, Mike Skinner, MK, Paul Woolford, Richy Ahmed, Route 94, Scuba, Skream, Snakehips and Waff it promised to be a night not to miss.

With mixed initial thoughts at the choice of venues such as Walkabout (a bar) and headliners performing at the same time (Hannah Wants, MK and Route 94) we planned who we wanted to see factoring in times to get into venues and I'm SO glad we did. After the event I have seen people complaining on blogs and social media feeds about queuing for nearly two hours to get into some venues but with something of this scale it was clear to me you would have to factor in waiting time.

Packaging brief for product designer

Bluff. – The Brand Bluff. 

embodies urban British street culture, standing to represent and speak the language of our niche male market. At Bluff.’s core are the talented young creatives, the artists, the musicians and the skaters that we proudly represent. We revolve ourselves around urban arts and graphics, electronic music, and the hosting of Bluff. events that epitomise all of this. 

The Product 

Born from the male fragrance industry’s restrained level of marketing (overly tanned, photo-shopped, muscle men posing on exotic beaches) Bluff.’s debut product is a male fragrance that aims to break the stereotype by providing a product that is far more real and street, something that our consumer can relate to. Bluff.’s fragrance promotes honesty through both packaging and marketing. 

The bottle 

1. Material – matt black ceramic 
The bottle itself will be made of a matt black ceramic material, appearing modern and simple, and avoiding the glossy, commercialised and ‘in your face’ type of design. Whilst this material has quite an urban look, it is also discreet enough to promote our idea of honesty, and differentiates it from the mainstream use of glass for fragrance bottles. 

2. Diffuser – black ceramic-like material 

3. Cap – wooden (same wood as box) Pushes down into bottle 

4. Logo placement – base of bottle The logo will be printed on the base of the bottle, and the visible parts of the bottle left blank. 

5. Size/shape - 50ml 

The packaging 

1. Material - unfinished wood 

2. Opening - sliding lid 

3. Logo placement – front of box

Mac Make-up

Need I say more. MAC is and will always be my favourite make-up brand. With their iconic black packaging, relatively reasonably priced products and both helpful and extravert staff what more could you want.

Below is an image of the MAC products I regularly use. Although as a student it is proving more and more difficult to afford…cue asking mum and dad to visit. 

Products featured:

Studio fix fluid SPF 15 foundation - in NC15 (for the palest of the pale…me)

At £21.50 for 30 ml, oil free and lasting up to 8 hours I believe it is a good buy and use it as my daily foundation.

Lipsticks - nobody ever buys one MAC lipstick. Once you have one you want them all, pictured above are angel which is a nude everyday colour and plumful which is red-y purple-y and good for nights out. MAC lipsticks smell delicious and last hours.

Eyeshadow - the top eyeshadow I actually use as an eyebrow filler/to make me actually have eyebrows #blondegirlproblems. Using a mac brush to create a natural looking defined eyebrow shape. The middle one is used with a silver eyeshadow to create a smokey eye effect.

Blusher - This has to be my favourite blusher I have ever tried. In fact I have had the same response from one of my best friends, liking it to the extent where it is now her regular blusher. It is subtle enough to be worn in the day, but with more applied can create defined cheek bones with a slight sparkle. 

Leather Jacket

A leather jacket should be in my eyes a wardrobe essential. It goes with any outfit and can be used as much in a functional way as it can be to bring together an outfit. Pictured below is my French Connection jacket, a timeless piece which although Ive had for years as not aged even slightly.

Yves Saint Laurent (60s collection)

I really like the way Yves Saint Laurent used block colours on a simple shift dress, which make it more interesting and different to other shift dresses. I believe his work is still as powerful and desirable now as it was when it began. I have found the colours used in the dresses very inspiring and could see myself possibly using techniques such as felting in the colours YSL has used. Although the colours are bright colours like Andy Warhol’s work, these dresses only uses primary colours, which make them even more amazing as they have used such simple colours.

Leather jeans

I got these as a present for christmas from Urban Outfitters and have worn them ever since. They are perfect paired with a blouse and denim jacket when going out for dinner or even worn to lectures and seminars.

I particularly like the detailing on the leg as pictured below with an abstract arrangement of the leather on each leg. They are different to a lot of the other jeans I have seen which tend to have tacky looking strips of leather. As all items I have from Urban Outfitters have, they have lasted well without any fading or ageing happening to the black jean material. 

Matthew Williamson

The brand first debuted with the collection ‘Electric Angels’ at London fashion week in 1997 and has gone from success to success ever since.

The brand has collaborated with a diverse range of companies from Swarovski in 2012 to coca cola in 2003. Its most famous collaboration is probably that with H&M where a holiday wardrobe featuring kaftans and bikinis in his signature style were created. This was one of H&M’s most successful collaborations with a high end designer.

Four women’s ready to wear collections are released annually into three flagship stores in Dubai, Qatar and the award-winning store in Mayfair. MatthewWilliamson is also sold across 170 prestigious wholesale accounts.

MatthewWilliamson trademark pieces are evening dresses in his signature style – combining colour, print and embellishment.  

 “I’m continually inspired by nature and the rainbow is one of nature’s greatest optical phenomenons. The sighting of a rainbow never fails to bring a smile to people’s faces. They signify optimism and positivity: with them comes the sunshine after the rain.”

Matthew Williamson has been quoted saying that ‘The Matthew Williamson woman is feminine and sexy, fun and free-spirited with a laid-back approach to glamour’. This sums up his consumer as there is not one specific type of woman as his different labels appeal to different audiences. Under the Matthew Williamson brand there are labels including ‘Butterfly by Matthew Williamson’, ‘Muse by Matthew Williamson’ and ‘Matthew Williamson’.

Matthew Williamson is a very unique brand who I would most closely compare with Monsoon due to its embellished and heavily patterned designs. However there is a significant difference in the price range of them both. Therefore its competitors would be brands such as Lanvin, Stella McCartney and Missoni. Missoni uses bright colours and pattern similarly to Matthew Williamson however this is a chevron print as opposed to the florals of Matthew Williamson.

Seminar: Rebranding

Rebranding Jameson's whiskey

TASK

Your agency has been selected to pitch for a new communication campaign.

You should present an integrated approach with a 'multi-channel' approach.

There should be consideration for all parts of the brand journey (awareness, engagement, conversions).

Think about - launch event, press adverts, websites, social media. What's the big idea?

IDEA

> Change bottle design: street graffiti - would attract younger audience, people may initially purchase for bottle design then like taste and repeat purchase.

> Rooftop/graffiti event: Would reinvent the brand as a cooler, younger & more appealing brand.

Brainstorm of my group's ideas for the rebrand pictured above (live graffiti art, product placement, cocktails experimenting with mixers - create relation with art & music)

Interview with model

After the photoshoot we interviewed the model to grasp a full understanding of his life and interests 

What course do you study?
International Business
What do you do other than your course? (societies, clubs etc)
President of snow sports society
Future plans - after uni (job, internship, travelling etc)
1 year working and snowboarding in Canada
Favourite restaurant
Chipolte
Favourite drink
Chocolate milk
Favourite night out in Nottingham
Detonate
Internet sites regularly visited
Shock mansion, stampd LA, forever ashbury
Favourite brands
Nike SB, Misbhv
Where most clothes are purchased
Online - America, Europe
Favourite magazine
Don't buy magazines
If got given £1,000 would buy
A new snowboard

Fragrance worn
Chanel Blue - would be willing to experiment: try a new one
What do you like about it
The smell and packaging (smell is what made purchase)
How much would you spend on fragrance
£30-40 for 50ml, this was bought as gift
Where would you buy fragrance
Would consider buying from a clothing store/Boots/department store

Black eyeshadow

I recently purchased a sleek eyeshadow pallet from Boots for only £7.99. It includes a good range of colours and is a fraction of the price you would pay for a designer make-up brand's eyeshadow. 

I love the black (pictured below) which is perfect for creating smokey eyes or a heavy eye look. 

Photoshoot

On the 30th April we did our photoshoot in Nottingham for our fragrance brand.

Model:
We decided to use my friend Chloe's friend Ollie. We thought he'd be perfect for our brand as both his look and lifestyle represent our brand's essence and values.

Locations:
Burns Avenue
White wall (shape in wall)
Blue gate
Park hotel
Inside photos? Possibly in model's house?

Images from shoot:

We were really pleased with how the images turned out and are looking forward to seeing how they will be translated into ads once we have edited them using Photoshop.

Big earrings: Guess

I have always been a fan of big earrings to dress up an outfit, add something a bit different and make a statement.

On a recent trip to New York I purchased these beauties from Guess which happened to be in the sale and so only ended up paying $10 for them. These are my favourite out of the Guess earrings I have so far seen as a lot are plastered in the word 'Guess' something I do not like at all.

Summer Plans

As much as I never want freshers year to end I CANNOT WAIT for this summer. Starting on Sunday 4th May with Everywhere festival in Nottingham. It is held at multiple venues across Nottingham including rock city, stealth, spankys, walkabout and rescue rooms. 

Line up for everywhere

I also have tickets for Parklife festival at Heaton park in Manchester on the 7th and 8th June, which could not be at a better time with my last deadline being on the 6th June. 

Leather Shoes

For ages now I've been looking for some shoes that I cannot destroy on a night out. Something that can be worn to a pub or club that do not come back looking like I've walked through barbed wire or attacked by a pitbull (the dog, not the rapper…although I don't know what would be more scary).

After a long search I FINALLY found these flat black leather crocodile print cut out shoes. Better yet they were only £10 in the Topshop sale, something that would never normally happen to me.

So here they are after being worn countless times out, still looking like they did when I first bought them. Heel wearing, fake eye lash loving, fake tan fans are probably confused by this post wondering firstly why you would wear flat shoes on a night out but secondly how on earth you could ruin them. Well if that is you I'm afraid my blog is not for you. 

Scrunchies

Initially popular in the 90s the scrunchie has made a big come back. With designers such as Marc Jacobs and Missoni showcasing luxe versions into their autumn 2013 collections. 

Even celebrities have been sporting the look such as J-Lo below and Jennifer Aniston being quoting saying she, 'loves a scrunchie'.

I've caved and currently have a collection of six scrunchies (some pictured below) They are perfect for people like me who can never be bothered to actually do anything nice to their hair and so rather go for putting pieces of it up in a scrunchie.

Bottom right - black velvet from urban outfitters from a set with a pink one
Others - Cow vintage in Nottingham The thing I particularly like about those from cow vintage is that they are hand made and so each very different. Some are also available to match co-ord sets.

Brand Essence Model

Today, we progressed with our fragrance project by drawing up an initial brand essence model. 

Design Equation:

Simple, honest looking
Courier font (typewriter looking)

Values:

Careless (casual, simple) lifestyle
Honesty
Simple
Dedication to customer satisfaction - theory of repeat customers

Personality:

Cultured, informed, creative, urban
Informed and opinionated but not pushy

Brand Truth:

A brand that speaks to an intelligent, modern consumer.

Embodies British street culture, standing to represent and speak the language of our niche male market.

At Bluff's core are the talented young creatives, the artists, the musicians and the skaters that we proudly represent.

We revolve ourselves around urban arts and graphics, electronic music, and the hosting of Bluff. events that epitomise all of this.

Attributes/benefits:

Intelligent, cultured, empowered by the brand, unique

Brand Promise:

A unique and intelligent brand that promises to remain culturally aware and deliver an accessible fragrance for urban people.

Tom Ford

Tom Ford was born in Austin, Texas and then spent most of his childhood in Santa FE, New Mexico.

He then moved to New York and studied art history at New York university and then onto Parsons school of design to study architecture. 

Brief timeline of Tom Ford's career:

1990 - Became Gucci's womanswear designer in Milan

1992 - Promoted to Gucci's design director

1994 - Appointed as their creative director - responsible for the design of all product lines. This includes perfume, clothing, ad campaigns, store designs and the group's corporate image

2000 - Became the creative director of YSL - defined overall image & positioning of the YSL brand (product categories & communication activities)

April 2004 - Resigned from the Gucci group following a buyout

April 2005 - Creation of the Tom Ford brand. Partnership with Marcolin group to produce and distribute optical frames & sunglasses. Also alliance with Estée Lauder to create Tom Ford beauty brand. Both brands now rank in the top 3 at speciality stores worldwide. 

April 2007 - First flagship store opened: 845 Madison Avenue, New York; Tom Ford menswear and accessory collections also launched

September 2010 - Presented womanswear collection on some of his style icons including Beyoncé

There are currently 98 freestanding Tom Ford stores.

He has one many many awards including:
4 Vogue fashion awards (1195, 1996, 1999, 2002)
Style Icon award at ELLE style awards (1999)
4 awards from the CFDA - Council of fashion designers of America (1995, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005)
GQ designer of the year (2001)

He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Creating our fragrance

On the 17th April following a lecture and seminar with Karen Gilbert we created our fragrance in our groups. We had to test different smells and mix together a combination of heart notes, accessories, heart notes and harmonisers. 

It was difficult at first to select the right combination as we wanted our fragrance to smell masculine yet fresh, and this proved hard as Karen initially said it smelt too feminine. We then replaced one of the floral smells for a woody smell.

Our final fragrance combination:

Heart

Muguet (green floral) - 40 drops

Naturelle Homme (fresh mens) - 40 drops

Woody (dry wood cedar) - 40 drops

Accessory

Green (green grassy) - 20 drops

Tobacco (aromatic) - 20 drops

Fixative

Mossy (green earthy)

Harmoniser

Bergamot (citrus)

Karen Gilbert

On the 16th April we had a guest lecturer called Karen Gilbert. She gave an informative lecture on creating and marketing a fragrance brand. Through this she explained and outlined what a fragrance is, where fragrance has come from and ideal customers. 

Karen originally trained as a make-up artist but then went on to the London college of fashion to study cosmetic science. She then did a placement at one of the major fragrance manufacturers - IFF for two weeks which is where she the training of her nose began and she truly discovered her career path. 

She then worked with M&S, Boots and super drug working on own label toiletries ranges. She then ran sessions which taught how to categorise fragrances and the raw materials used.

Her path then changed slightly, moving towards the natural skincare and essential oils side working in product development for Neal's Yard which provided an excellent learning opportunity. Karen then became the companies company trainer running workshops for both staff and members of the public.

Her teaching career progressed running natural beauty workshops for Neal's Yard remedies, trill farm and the make lounge. In August 2011 her first book, 'A green guide to natural beauty' was published after being approached by Cico books to write it. She has now written another book 'Perfume - The art & craft of fragrance', launched an online perfumery course and teaches many classes about practical perfumery. 

Karen Gilbert on twitter

Her website

Bill Skinner Jewellery

I first discovered Bill Skinner jewellery on the V & A website somewhere I often look for presents due to the originality of most of the pieces. Bill Skinner's jewellery is fairly reasonably priced especially considering the unique aspect to all of his designs.

Bill Skinner studied at Sir John Cass college of art and after graduation he began freelancing for companies in London such as Asprey, Garrads and Van Cleef and Arpels. Then in the 1980s he began working with Vivienne Westwood and Butler and Wilson this is when he became truly known in the world of fashion jewellery. His work then progressed into a thriving business that it still is today making a wide range of jewellery which even included some which was royally commissioned. 

Then in January 2012 he launched his first 'Bill Skinner' range. Each piece was hand carved by him and his UK studio team. He has received much critical claim which has enabled him to continuously created successful pieces. 

Pictured below is a ring I received as an 18th birthday present from my godparents. The bee on honey is also available in a bracelet. 

His website

Term Three

I have not posted on here for a while now as I have been away for university for the easter break. However this week I am back at uni continuing with our fragrance project which is part of module two - creative networks. Below are some images from my easter holiday.

The lacrosse girls in Loret de Mar (sorry Stace)

Mother's day meal at Pitcher and Piano

BLEW MY OVERDRAFT….Please someone give me will power 

(From Top left to bottom left: Topshop shoes, Topshop crochet t-shirt, Nike Roshe trainers, Topshop waterproof jacket, Topshop kimono, Topshop Joni jeans)

Natalie Massenet

Natalie Massenet transformed and changed the world of luxury shopping by bringing it to the world. This was truly recognised when she was made an MBE in 2009. 

In June 2010 Net-A-Porter celebrated its 10th anniversary and soon after sold for £350 million to Richemont.

Natalie Massenet, born in 1966 was destinied to be a big name in the world of fashion with her parents a Californian journalist and a British Chanel model. She spent her childhood in LA with her father where he scraped and saved to send her to a private school. She described being surrounded by very wealthy people as giving her the drive and determination to work hard and therefore be successful. 

She is perhaps not the conventional woman, describing herself as 'lazy' saying she cuts her own fringe as she doesn't have time to go to a hairdresser.

Women's wear daily in LA was wear her career began.She then progressed to working as Isabella Blow's assistant at Tatler when she was 33. It was here that she came up with the whole idea of Net-A-Porter. 

I would describe Massenet as a risk taker having raised £1.2 million with her husband in start up investments for a company that advisers were all forecasting would fail. 

The site started in a Chelsea flat filled with stock and iconic black boxes with a team of 15. In 2001 Roland Mouret was convinced to sell his first collection on the site. In 2004 the site first became profitable and Net-A-Porter won an award for best shop at the British fashion awards.

2,000,000 people log onto the site every week with an average spend of £500. Purchases are shown in the West london offices on giant screens which flash up the latest purchases (how much was spent and what was bought) from around the world. 

In June 2010 when the company celebrated its tenth anniversary Natalie Massenet revealed her idea to begin working with menswear with the launch of 'Mr Porter'. The British fashion council named her the chairman in September 2012.

Consumer profile for perfume brand

Today, looking further into our new fragrance brand we have created a consumer profile.

Name: Ed

Age: 23

Likes: Going out with friends, smoking, going to gigs, films, drinking, playing and making music, visiting art galleries

Job: Intern at a graphic design company

Listens to: The who, the jam, the clash, blur, oasis, pulp (old Brit music) Also J villa, Alt-J etc

Watches: This is England, Trainspotting, Drive, Clockwork Orange

Shops at: Cow Vintage, charity shops, ebay, ASOS marketplace, All Saints, Urban Outfitters, Supreme

Goes to: Bodega, Brickworks, Lacehouse, Market bar, Spankys, Stealth

Drinks: Jack Daniels, beer

Other info: Small meaningful artistic tattoo, tragus piercing, single, messy/unkept hair, stubble-no beard,  6"2, no glasses, flat with friends -> mixture of girls and boys 

I like: Chanel nail varnish

Chanel nail varnish

Retailing at £18 they are quite a bit more expensive than the average nail varnish but not excessively in my eyes considering you are buying from Chanel. I received the 'nail colour 583 Taboo' recently for my birthday and completely love it. Unlike other nail varnishes it did not smudge straight after painting them or chip the day after I had painted. I therefore believe it is worth paying more of a premium price as the product is certainly worth it.

Initial research - in Nottingham

Nottingham Research Day

Lush

The woman in the Lush shop was able to give us a lot of information about their fragrances which previously I did not even know existed - such as the fact that Lush scents are worked on by the Lush owner and his son. 

The packaging was something I really thought had been well done as it took away the serious side to Lush with the cartoonised boxes for the different perfumes. 

Lush is a much more innovative brand than I initially realised, instead of having a press launch or party they opened a perfume gallery in London in which each room was scented differently to showcase the new range. They also released a bath bomb called 'breath of god' which has inhale and exhale on which both contain different scents to relax the body.

The most popular product for men is a scent called 'dirty' which is a spray (like cleaning product) bottle and so although it is a unisex product, appeals much more to men. A lot of the products collaborate with other products to fill a whole range. An example of this is the dirty range where there is spearmint soap, springwash shower gel, toothpaste and sandalwood shaving cream. The idea is that when layered together the smell is 'dirty'. The range had the slogan 'don't be dirty, be clean'.

This image shows the Gorilla perfume which is different to all of the other perfumes. It is called Gorilla as it is to do with warfare and being against status quo. The perfume has simple, black and plain packaging which is more like the usual Lush products. 

 Zara

In Zara I found the packaging quite cheap looking. It is a cheap product with perfumes ranging around £14.99ish and so you would not expect the same look as a premium product but I don't feel it has been done very well. 

Crabtree and Evelyn

Interesting idea for a continuation of the scent into a range - bringing vintage up to date with a new product. They have re-released shaving soap but in a wooden box so retaining the vintage feel of the product. 

Kiehls

Kiehl's started as a pharmacy in 1851 making naturally derived, fragrance free products. It was the first company in the whole beauty industry to have a full men's range. They have since branched out further with a dog and horse range in America.

All their fragrances are unisex with the fig leaf & sage being most popular with men. Original musk is a scent which is a recreation of a perfume found in the basement of the original store in the 1920s.

L'Occitane

Here we mainly focused on the VM and the way in which the product was presented. We found that glass generally made it look like a cheaper product - with ceramic instantly making it more appealable. 

I liked the way they presented ranges with key words that sum up the product, an example is in the image below. Verdon eau de toilette - exhilarating, modern and fresh. 

Aveda

Products packaging focused on a woody theme with natural looking recycled elements. The men's care range is called 'pure-formance' which hints at a natural range reflecting on a need for good products. 

They clearly care a lot about the ingredients used in their products with a book called the 'buriti book' entirely dedicated about an ingredient in the oils, with the book being the actual size of a 'buriti'.