UNIT X / DRAGONS DEN / MUSEUM OF THE CIRCUS

In the group project for dragons den our aim was to explore the potential of a brief. The brief we were most interested in and inspired by was ‘Museum of the Circus, tell us more’. The concept and idea for this project started from researching into how people act in society, and focusing on the idea that life is circus, and everyone plays and act.

Pinning down our final concept was the hardest part as a group we had to decide on, but further and more in depth research into the physiology of dressing up and the link to personality traits we came up with a concrete idea. A turning point in our project for the concept behind it was when we all sat down in our group with a course tutor and discussed possibilities.

Thinking of ideas was one of the things I enjoyed the most on this brief, as I felt I had a lot of contribution to this. Our idea being that subconsciously when dressing up in fancy dress people reveal a bit about their personality, which we could then relate to an act in the circus.

Below show photographs from our event, including the wall of photographs of the participants dressed up in fancy dress we updated during the day.

A big part of our project was putting together an event, a pop-up museum that allowed people to come along and try on different props and have their photo taken (which we the posted online after the event http://museumofthecircus.tumblr.com/ ) we would relate this to a personality trait and then an act in the circus, which we gave them a trait card as something to take away.

Planning the event took a lot of preparation, which I particularly enjoyed, especially screen-printing the posters, shown below.

These are the prop tick cards and the trait cards we gave out to the participants of the event.

As a group we did really well making sure everything came together on the day, and they event was a success. During the day we filmed the event, here are a cople of screen grabs from the video.

Link to the video of the eventhttp://vimeo.com/66225943

After this we designed the potential for a website, where participants would visit after and view their event and their personality traits in more detail (shown below) To create more depth to the experience, we would offer a service that would allow a group to learn circus acts and skills for life. Our company we targeted mainly to work places as a social tool for team building.

After we had completed the work we had to present to the ‘dragons’, overall the presentation went well, none of us forgot what we wanted to say and it ran smoothly. However the feedback we got seemed as though they didn’t really understand part of the concept of it, which was disappointing as we felt our idea was what was the strongest part of our project They did say however that it had a good starting point, just could have developed it more/taken a different angle. They did comment on how it was a natural presentation and they liked they way we presented to them as if we were trying to sell our business. I do not feel we sold our idea as well as we could of as it came across from our feedback that they were a bit lost on our concept. I learnt a lot from the Dragons feedback, not just from our presentation but from listening to the other groups as well. Learning that, a lot of the time getting straight to the point and skipping all the long-winded descriptions is a lot more effective, too much information can confuse them. I learnt that a presentation is more of a performance, you need to keep them entertained because people loose interest easily, also reading from a sheet is not good, if you don’t know it yourself how are they supposed to get it. The improvements that we could have made were in our presentation to get straight to the point and simplify it. I also feel that we if we hadn’t spent as long trying to decide on our concept we could have produced better and more design work. As we spent a lot time working on our idea and the event it felt like we didn’t have as much design pieces as other groups, which may have let us down as it would have come across in our presentation, however we put a lot of time and effort into our event which is what I feel was strong as it gave our project more depth. This project has allowed me to develop skills for working in a group, which involved a lot of organisation, delegation and being able to bring all our individual skills together. We had a challenge at the start with one of our members who we ended up firing, but the rest of us worked really well together. Other skills I feel I developed were my presentation skills, gaining more confidence in this and feedback on how to improve next time. These skills I will be able to take forward and help me develop as a designer.

UNIT X / TOPMAN / REFRACT

This brief set was to create a campaign that would promote the launch of a new collection that combined science with fashion; this collaboration was between Topman and The Wellcome Collection. My research brought me to looking at light sources and how they interact with their surrounding space and conditions, Taking inspiration from different light sources, shadows, reflection and refraction to create atmospheric and unique patterns to design the clothing range. I developed my research further by looking at how light had been used in fashion, the science behind light, in particular refraction and the colours it creates, and collecting different imagery that related to my chosen theme, and also into Topman as a brand. For this I have designed a number of different things, including; a look book, a mini look book for in store, posters, flyers, t-shirt designs, shopping bag, tote bag, invitations to the launch, VIP discount cards, flyers to promote the launch night and labels for clothing.

Initial research into science and fashion led me onto looking at different light sources, and also image collection.

After speaking in an presentation of my work and to tutors I realised one problem I had was that my collection name, originally ‘The Lux’ was already a name for a clothing collection, so had to change it to Refract. I have learnt from this that when branding, always check that the name hasn’t been used before. I also struggled consistency in my project; I seemed to have different logos and different ways of placing my logo combined with the Topman logo and my collection name. This caused slight problems, as I had to go through all my work and find all the differences and make them consistent. However creating a consistent style makes a better project. Speaking to fellow students on the course and tutors was a great help throughout the project as it enabled me to talk through my ideas and realise ways I could improve.

These sketchbook pages show the feedback from the presentation and talking with tutors and the steps I

took to gain consistancy in my project.

Experimenting with different stock papers was a big part of my project; he’s a page showing some of the tests I made. This project has made me understand more that the choice of stock is extremely important as it can change the whole look and feel of the design.

Promotional Posters

What particularly inspired me at the start of the project was the beautiful imagery that could be created with light, especially the vibrant colours that were produced. By looking at imagery that explored light sources and the shadows that were created, I was able to develop my own ideas on how the could make patterns for fashion. Combining imagery like this together I was able to come up with what I feel is a distinct and energetic brand design for my collection, which is what I believe coincides well with Topman.

In Store Graphics: Thinking about the bigger picture is important when designing a look for a collection, it is important to understand and test that it will work in the context of the shop.

I also experimented in my sketch book looking at different ways it would look when advertising, I mocked up posters in bus stops and on billboards.

TOPMAN AND THE WELLCOME COLLECTION HAVE COLLABORATED TOGETHER TO EXPLORE THE

CONNECTION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND FASHION.

REFRACT IS A COLLECTION THAT IS BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF LIGHT AND ITS INTERACTION WITH ITS

SURROUNDING SPACE AND CONDITIONS.

TAKING INSPIRATION FROM DIFFERENT LIGHT SOURCES, SHADOWS, REFLECTION AND REFRACTION TO CREATE ATMOSPHERIC AND UNIQUE PATTERNS

TO DESIGN THE EXCLUSIVE CLOTHING RANGE.

SHOP INSTORE AND ONLINE JUNE 2013

PROMOTIONAL FLYER GIVING INFORMATION ON THE COLLECTION

(DOUBLE SIDED)

PROMOTIONAL FLYER (DOUBLE SIDED)

LAUNCH PARTYLONDON OXFORD

CIRCUSFRIDAY 14TH &

SATURDAY 15TH JUNE6PM -12PM

20% DISCOUNTGOODY BAG

DJ SETLIGHT SHOW

& MUCH MORE...FOR MORE INFORMATION

VISIT TOPMAN.COM/REFRACT

REFRACT

in stores jUne 2013

WWW.TOPMAN.COM/REFRACT

PROMOTIONAL FLYER FOR LAUNCH PARTY (DOUBLE SIDED)

PROMOTIONAL FLYER FOR LAUNCH IN STORES (DOUBLE SIDED)

TOPMAN AND THE WELLCOME COLLECTION HAVE COLLABORATED TOGETHER TO EXPLORE THE

CONNECTION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND FASHION.

REFRACT IS A COLLECTION THAT IS BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF LIGHT AND ITS INTERACTION WITH ITS

SURROUNDING SPACE AND CONDITIONS.

TAKING INSPIRATION FROM DIFFERENT LIGHT SOURCES, SHADOWS, REFLECTION AND REFRACTION TO CREATE ATMOSPHERIC AND UNIQUE PATTERNS

TO DESIGN THE EXCLUSIVE CLOTHING RANGE.

SHOP INSTORE AND ONLINE JUNE 2013

PROMOTIONAL FLYER GIVING INFORMATION ON THE COLLECTION

(DOUBLE SIDED)

PROMOTIONAL FLYER (DOUBLE SIDED)

LAUNCH PARTYLONDON OXFORD

CIRCUSFRIDAY 14TH &

SATURDAY 15TH JUNE6PM -12PM

20% DISCOUNTGOODY BAG

DJ SETLIGHT SHOW

& MUCH MORE...FOR MORE INFORMATION

VISIT TOPMAN.COM/REFRACT

REFRACT

in stores jUne 2013

WWW.TOPMAN.COM/REFRACT

PROMOTIONAL FLYER FOR LAUNCH PARTY (DOUBLE SIDED)

PROMOTIONAL FLYER FOR LAUNCH IN STORES (DOUBLE SIDED)

Promotional Flyers (double sided)

Invitation to Launch Party (double sided)

VIP Discount Card (double sided)

Clothing Labels and T-Shirt Designs

Mini In Store Look Book

Look Book

I feel that my strengths in this project lie in my visuals I have created, I believe I have created quite a recognisable brand that would stand out and also work well with Topman. In the time we had I have tried to explore many different forms to promote the new collection and I am please with this variety. I feel that I have developed my skill for image making and have also learnt a few new skills, such as book binding, which will be useful to me in the future. I particularly¬¬ enjoyed experimenting with different paper stocks as they all gave different and interesting effects, something I hope to continue exploring after this project. I also have continued to grow in

confidence in my ability to use the Adobe applications.

I had a lot of ideas for how I visualised the direction of the project going in, such as window displays, light shows, experimentation with glass. This involved technical requirements I didn’t have the time to explore, so if I was able to continue to develop on this project I would like to be able to put my bigger ideas into practice, which would ultimately create more depth and improve my project. I felt my biggest challenge was time on this project, I felt I held back at the start because I didn’t feel I had enough time to experiment with some of the things I wanted to. I also found technical issues with printing another challenge to overcome. However, overall this project has been one of my favourites to work on this year, I didn’t feel their were any strict restrictions on the style of and what I could design and produce, I really enjoyed the freedom to explore and experiment on this project, and the biggest thing I feel I will carry forward is growing in confidence with my ability and

also that if I have ideas I should try make them happen.

ABBIE BAXTER10976488

YEAR 2UNIT X