Find me on Google+ So says Lu...: March 2011

Sunday 27 March 2011

Harvey Nichols and the iPad queue

Ok so I am feeling a little bit worn out today, have had a crazy weekend helping to see off a friend of mine who is leaving for Afghan with the RAF, so last night was a late one!
This week has been a bit crazy so apart from writing my VM essay plan, I haven't done much more college work, but now the boyfriend is back at home, I have a few weeks to crack on!
Wednesday was the Harvey Nichols event, this was the second one I attended and this time I did not spend as much money, and actually bought something useful, and that was included in the 10% and £10 off offer; a Marc Jacobs iPad case, but more on the iPad shortly.
The evening at the Leeds store was just as lovely as last time, champagne and wine available on every floor, helpful staff, and a wonderful fashion show displaying the new season stock. I did try to get some pictures, but I only took my point and shoot and they aren't really worth uploading because most of them are blurred.
The women models all sported vibrant pink eyes and cheeks and slicked back hair, and trends displayed were pretty much what can be seen on the Vogue website. All in all, a great night :)

And now for the iPad 2, the new love of my life, a love which the boyfriend and I queued for 5 hours in the Currys York store for. Luckily the lovely staff let us sit in the store rather than queue outside, and operated a ticket system for their limited stock of 12 iPads, (which did not include the one I originally wanted, so I compromised, and also stayed up until 2am to order the smart cover I wanted, because they didn't have that either!) So I ended up being the first person to purchase an iPad in York, and came home with the 32gb wifi version in black, and I love it. I will post at some point about cool apps and features once I have explored it more thoroughly. But here is some photos of mine and Justin's adventures:


Our tickets


Doing my Wordsearch


Cheesy Grin


Smiles all around :)

Sorry this is not a very detailed post, just a summary of a wonderful week. Now best get going to pick up my Akbar's takeaway, mmmm :)

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Tuesday 22 March 2011

The Weekend and The Window Display

Since working on my PPD4 project last week, college work took a slight backseat as my sister came to stay for the weekend, (I did do a bit more work on my sketchbook for FMT2 though).
My sister and I, amongst other things, attended the York Affordable Vintage Fair on Sunday to see what vintage treats were available. This was the second of these events we have attended and have enjoyed both, however they are very busy so patience is required. For a reasonable £1 with a student card, you can enter the Hospitium in York Museum Gardens and rifle through the clothes, jewellery and homeware available from several small stalls. There is everything from denim shorts to fur coats and leather handbags. We picked up shirts each, mine used to be a large Levi's denim shirt but the lady selling them had re-worked them into cute summery tie-up shirts, and I thought it was quite a bargain at £15. I really wanted to take some pictures in there but it was so busy that you sort of just had to move with the flow of traffic, but I will try and attend the next one and go at a quieter time, (it opened at 10:30 and we were there just after, so it was probably peak time). 
We also went to York Designer Outlet and into the city and shopped 'til we literally dropped, then I had to find the energy to make a Sunday Dinner! But all in all a great weekend!

So that was the weekend, and now for the promised Window Display. I have been waiting for an image for it so I haven't been able to blog about it until now. So on January 15th we had to set up Window Displays made predominantly of plastic bags for our VM project. Quite a challenge really, how do you make plastic bags look fashionable and form a creative and high-end window display out of them? Well, a bit like this:


Our under-water window display was inspired originally by this dress from the Vogue trend website:


My group of Avneet, Becky and I were instantly inspired by the colour and style of this dress, and with my interest in all that lives under-the-sea, decided that this would be the ideal theme to work with. Sourcing blue plastic bags was a little tricky but it so happened that we had plenty of those at work, and I got a hand from home with the blue cellophane (and fairy lights). We wanted to create something really simple and effective which would appeal to the high end market. 
It would have been really easy for us to go mad with coral and fish and all things reef-like, but we felt that a few carefully placed props was the right way to go. So with that we decided on a couple of pieces of large coral / seaweed, which we made from cardboard, ripped up plastic bags and gold spray paint, and some bubbles, (which due to the image quality can't be seen that well, but they are glass baubles filled with iridescent shred). We also decided on using lots of white carrier bags to cover the back and floor of the window, and to also blur the light of the fairy lights to give a more sea feel to the whole display.
When making the actual dress we found that plastic bags were very hard to work with and that it would be difficult to create the flowy effect of the inspiration dress. So instead we decided to create a more up-and-down silhouette and added a belt. I think we still made a very fashionable dress that suited the theme of our window display.
Overall I am very pleased with how this part of the project went, I think that my team worked well together and we achieved the image that we originally set out to. If we had more time and more resources I think that we would have tired to get bigger bubbles so they stood out more, and also more fairy lights. Furthermore, we would have covered the sides of the window with white bags as well, so they fit in better with the rest of the window. But all things considered, I think our attempt at a high end window display, (made out of plastic bags!), was a success. 
Opinions and comments are most welcome.

Right, I think I am all up to date now, and I have just finished my essay proposal, and it's been a sunny day, so happy times!

Enjoy the sunshine, long may it last!!
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Wednesday 16 March 2011

PPD4, almost done :)

Yesterday at college I finally got to designing my business cards to go with the rest of the promotional material I am working on, (I will be putting pictures of these on the new page on my blog, you see that up there, shiny new pages!!) I am really pleased with how they have turned out, and the design came about quite by accident. I was working on a polaroid theme, which is reoccurring throughout my promotional material, and I was trying to create an image of myself with a few of my own images of my interests around me. When importing an image of a rose, (which I took), into the business card, it appeared huge and as though I was stood in the flower. Instantly I liked it and thought it was quite surreal yet effective and eye catching. My original plan for my business cards was to create several different images with polaroid type sleeves / frames, which the card could be pulled out of to reveal my details, however, after some research I found this would be difficult and expensive. So instead I have incorporated the frame into the card itself and used 4 different images of flowers to create different business cards, but all on the same theme and layout. Please let me know what you think once they go on the new page.

On another note, the tutorial on essay writing we had yesterday was very useful and it has made me think more positively about writing my mini dissertation. And the tutorial on my WRL4 module never happened as my tutor didn't turn up, which is slightly frustrating.

Finally, as soon as I get the images for it, I will be blogging on the team window event we undertook a couple of weeks back, because I think it's definitely worth a mention, and my team of Avneet, Becky and I are very proud of what we achieved, so keep an eye out  for that :) right, best get those business cards uploaded, and then get ready for pilates!
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Monday 14 March 2011

That Monday Feeling

So today I am working on my sketchbook for fashion marketing theory trying to get to the end of the designer trends I am researching. This project requires me to undertake extensive research and so far I have researched designer trends for Spring / Summer 2011, as I feel that this will influence the designs of my handbag charms. From this I am going to focus on designer handbag trends and then turn my attention to high street fashion and handbag trends. Finally I will look at brands that already have handbag charms in their product line and see what trends are influencing these. 
From this I will be able to draw some inspiration for my own designs and then start to think about how I will package my product. One of the constraints of the project is that my product has to be able to hang, but I am also considering including another packaging option such as a small bag for if the product will be given as a gift.
As I previously mentioned I think I am going to focus on knitted handbag charms as I like to knit as a hobby. The theme for my charms will probably be florals, as this trend reoccurs every spring so the charms will be a long lasting accessory, the product line could just be updated every season depending on how the florals trend changes. I also considered focusing on under-the-sea themed charms but I feel this trend will die down quickly and it does not fit my interests in eco-fashion as well as florals do.

I am creating my sketchbook on InDesign, which I am still learning to use, but I am finding it a great programme. I think it is a cross between Photoshop, Illustrator and Publisher, and with a basic knowledge of these three programmes you can start using InDesign quickly and easily and get great results. So far I am very pleased with how my sketchbook is going. I will eventually put pictures of some of my favourite pages onto my Deviant Art account (Click here to see it =]), but I think I will have to wait until it is printed as all the editing boxes within InDesign make the pages look messy and you don't get the overall effect.

So there's an update on how this project is going. Tomorrow I will be working on PPD4 and attending a lecture on how to construct essays which will help me in starting my dissertation. I will also  having a tutorial about my WRL4 project so I will give you and update on how that is going tomorrow. Best go get on really =]
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Friday 11 March 2011

Japan

Also, just a very very short post to just express my thoughts to Japan and the other areas affected by the devastating earthquake and tsunami, such a devastating act by Mother Nature :( 


I am following the live updates on the BBC website, sounds like there has been several more powerful aftershocks, which is such a tragedy. 


I hope that the people of Japan get the help they need very soon <3 Pin It

New Start...Prettier Blog

Oh My Gosh!

Yes I have been rubbish, but to be honest, I HATED the theme of this blog, it was awful. But, as I now have to do a blog for college, I got myself in gear and played around with editing it, and I am much much happier with it =]

So, it has been nearly a year since my last post, and I can't be bothered going through everything that happened, but here are the important points:

- I live in York now.
- I have taken up Photography as a hobby.
- I have a job, I work as a sales assistant for Bill Baber York, a family run knitwear company.
- I am still at Harrogate College but I am going to York College in September, to top-up to a Business Management Degree.

That's a brief update! I also now have a Deviant Art account so check out http://lucyslilworld.deviantart.com/ if you have some time. Most of my photo's and my college work will be going on there, but I will post the odd photo on here too.

So college now requires me to keep a blog, so hopefully that will get me into a good habit for the future, because I do actually like blogging, but I just seem to get lazy.

Well I should just give you a quick run through of the projects for this term, my final term, eep! The projects are quite exciting, but there is a LOT of work to be done:

Work Related Learning 4- This term I am required to come up with a business and cost it. I do already have an idea for this, but, as I may plan to do this in the future, I am kind of reluctant to post my full idea online, (not that many people read this, but you never know!), I am pretty excited about the idea, and if it seems like I could run with it in the future, I might just do so!

Fashion Marketing Theory 2- For this project I am required to undertake extensive research into a specific line of accessories, and then design a product and it's packaging related to the research. I am looking at handbag charms and in particular, knitted ones, which combines one of my hobbies into the project. I am enjoying this project, at the moment I am on with a lot of research, and am creating a sketchbook on Adobe InDesign rather than a paper one, so it's a never ending learning curve at the moment, as I am still getting to grips with the software.

Personal and Professional Development 4- Probably my favourite project at the moment. I am required to design and create a set of promotional materials for myself, including a creative CV, business cards and a digital portfolio, (hence this and the Deviant Art account. Also in this project I have to undertake some careers research. I originally undertook some research into other creative promotional material to gain some inspiration and ideas, I am going to display these ideas in another sketchbook created on InDesign. At the moment I am working on the promotional material, and that is where the new theme for this blog came from. The materials have to represent me, and I think that the theme I have chosen is quite true to myself and my interests.

Visual Merchandising- This is the biggest project we have this term, and we are treating it like a final major project including a mini dissertation. So far we have worked in a group to create a window display made from plastic bags, and have also created presentations about visual merchandising and store image. The presentation will aid us in our dissertations. Also as part of this project we have to create a 3D model of our dream shop and a decoupage of our dream shop window, and support these ideas with A3 boards and sketchbooks, (I am also working on InDesign for this project). I have some initial ideas for my shop and window display, (linked to my WRL4 project), but at the moment I am working on some trend research, and some research into shop interiors and window displays.


I will be using this blog to document my progress in my projects and my thoughts and feelings towards it all. On top of this I may document other events, (such as the Harvey Nichols event that I am attending on 23rd March), and projects that I am undertaking in my spare time, for example my photography, (most of my images go on Deviant Art, but I might post about my outings to take some pretty pictures!)

Anyway, major long post! But hopefully now I am more up to date :) and I WILL keep on top of this, I promise.


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