As proven by outcomes of the ‘Brand Me’ module, my own personal brand is one that infuses flavours of a highly digital aesthetic and contradicts it with elements of analog visual communications. Boiling this brand down to a tangible product has proven to be a challenging process as some serious decisions had to be made quite early on regarding what the outcome was going to look like, and the ways consumers were going to engage with it. Whether this product would take a digital format or become a print publication was the first one of these key decisions to be made. It seemed that the best route to take was to create a document that can be accessed through an online download, and alongside it a small number of physical copies of the same trend book would be printed out for promotional purposes throughout the promotional campaign.
Upon completing my social media research for this module, I stumbled across the Instagram page of musical artist Lucius Arthur whose brand image is all about a highly digital aesthetic. Through his social media feed, the artist communicates a sense of ambiguity as the images that he represents himself with create the illusion of a part human, part machine being. His attention to detail impressed me as soon as I found him, especially on the image showcased on the left here where Arthur’s neck is digitally compromised to make him look like as if he had USB ports on him. The visual messages communicated here made me think about new ways I could bring a strong sense of digital futurism into my own styling shoot. Alongside Lucius Arthur other young innovators, musicians, Instagram stylists and micro influencers were researched as part of the creative process.
Ikeuchi hiroto
Building on this theme of digital futurism, an artist I have looked at when I was working on my Generation Beta Buyer’s Guide was IKEUCHI Hiroto, who is a Japanese artist that explores high-tech designs in an entirely surreal way. Since I reported on his work in my research book Ikeuchi has collaborated with Italian fashion house Balenciaga which is a great confirmation for me of his relevance for both the art and the fashion world. In this collaboration Ikeuchi has designed props in the shape of headgear to accessorize the couture pieces that Balenciaga’s models wore for their most recent fashion presentation. In my trend books I talk about the rising popularity of VR and AR technologies. Combining elements of machinery with clothing is a theme I am hoping to explore further through my own visuals.
Once the nature of my 360 campaign was established it was time for me to move onto the planning stages of the process. Creating a checklist of all the aspects that needed to be covered to execute my final major project has proven to be the best possible way of ensuring the success of the production. My list included finding the models, venue, the garments I was hoping to photograph, the photographer, props and an extra pair of hands to assist me with the styling and hair & makeup.
The decision was made early on that I would fill the role of a stylist and creative director during the production of my final major project. A timeline had to be created in order to ensure that all the other components are organized prior to the shoot day. Below you can find the monthly breakdown of my responsibilities, leading up to our final hand-in date, the 19th May. Before the end of January: budget for total cost of production, enquire about opportunities to collaborate (designer, photographer, production company). Before the end of February: confirm locations, source garments and street cast models. Before the end of March – Work on skeleton (layout) of trend publication and write copy for trend books. Complete fashion shoot before the end of the month. Before the end of April: finalise all trend publications, design social media promotional campaign. (post-production period)
Although I was keen to keep the creative lead on the project, I knew that I wanted my digital zine to be a collaborative effort. Opportunities where I felt I could use additional support were fashion design, photography, and production. As I am attracted to digital technologies and the idea of innovating fashion communication, I intend to contact tech companies, hoping that they will help me capture my creative concept in new and exciting ways in the upcoming module.
When it came to the promotion of the zine, I aimed to utilise various social media channels, as it seemed to be the outlet most concentrated with youth culture currently. My zine is designed to be heavily engaging visually, so Instagram would naturally act as the perfect host for promotional material relating to this 360 project. Other avenues such as TikTok were also taken into consideration as I believe short videos or reels showcasing consumers engaging with physical copies of my publication to be highly successful visually.