CONTEMPORARY FASHION BUSINESS (AD6607) - REFLECTION REPORT SOPHIE TAYLOR

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CONTENTS 4-5

INTRODUCTION

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MEET THE TEAM

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GROUP STATEMENT

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ROLE AND KPI’S

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PERFORMANCE REFLECTION

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INVOICE

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CONCLUSION

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REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

For this module, I was part of the Studio 204 Creative Agency team. We were responsible for building content, and creating an attractive footprint for the new degree, due to be introducing itself to the world for the first time in the 2022 academic year, Fashion Communication Marketing (Social Media).

This group was the right place for me for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, I have prior knowledge and awareness of the new course and from previous work I had undertaken alongside Luke and our course leader Tracey Hall in building the first-draft framework for the new degree itself. The outline for this group/agency was on more of a creative basis, working to develop the outward-facing visuals and narrative belonging to the new course.

This report is to show how my contributions in the Media Manager role fitted in as a puzzle piece to our development, and to reflect on how we worked as a team to successfully fulfil our brief.

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EET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE T

HELEENA HOUSTON - COMMUNICATIONS PR

“As communications PR within the 204 Creative Agency group, I was responsible for a few different things, but primarily focused on the industry and alumni interviews. Within my roles and responsibilities, I have also created a new YouTube channel called ‘Planet 204’ and I have created TikTok content. I have uploaded trailers to our alumni videos and the fulllength videos too. I have created these videos using various software platforms, where I have successfully published professional and seamless interviews.

My journey across the 204 Creative Agency has been both rewarding and enjoyable as I feel satisfied with the work I have produced. Alongside my other colleagues, Sophie Taylor, Luke Owen, and Peter Kecskés, we have had a great opportunity in helping with the launch of the new Fashion Communication Marketing (Social Media) course.”

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MEET THE TEAM

Joining me in the Studio 204 Creative Agency team was Heleena Houston, Luke Owen, and Peter Kecskes – here is a brief introduction to us and our roles.

SOPHIE TAYLOR - MEDIA MANAGER

“Within the Studio 204 Creative Agency, my given role was that of Media Manager. This role saw me creating and building a wide variety of media under my responsibilities. These responsibilities in question were multi-media development, social media content creation and management, and research & development. Many of the visuals I have been able to create, including a media branding & promotion package of which hasf been beneficial to not only my colleagues, but across the year group for cohesive, recognisable content creation.”

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THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEA

PÉTER KECSKÉS - RESEARCHER

“As a researcher for the Creative Agency team my roles and responsibilities have revolved around completing extensive market and competitor analysis and through this data collection identifying methods that could be used to add newness to the outward facing digital communication of the new Fashion Communication Marketing (Social Media) course.

A significant part of the work I have contributed to the promotion of new course has been compiling information each week and pitching my ideas to the rest of the team as well as to the CEO of the Creative Agency.

Throughout our Contemporary Fashion Business module, I collaborated with Heleena, our Communications PR Manager in organizing video interviews for our professional website’s Alumni Feature. While all the video features entered post-production, I have taken the responsibility of completing write ups and creating individual pages for all our interviewees through my web development skills, in preparation for the course’s official validation.”

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“As a website and a communications platform developer, my role was to create and develop platforms that tell the FCM story, including but not limited to, profiling the modules on the website, creating and formatting social pages on this website, and branding the whole platform to brief. As well as this, I will be researching and developing new communication platforms such as Discord to integrate within the new course, these spaces will be for hand-in, guest talks, project launches, and any other course-related announcements and updates for the students to explore and use.

During this module I will also be assisting our program leader, Tracey Hall, in the validation stage, for this, I will be talking through our reasoning for our social media presence and how I think this is a positive step forwards for our educational experience.”

LUKE OWEN - COMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPER

MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // MEET THE TEAM // M

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GROUP STATEMENT 10

“We are the Creative Agency for Studio 204, specifically focusing on the creation and launch of the new course Fashion Communication Marketing (Social Media). During this module, we will be researching and looking into different marketing and communicating techniques to reach prospective students, such as engaging on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Within these platforms, we will create content that tells our story and the narrative of the new course, letting people know how forwardthinking and industry based the course is.

As well as this digital content, we will be conducting interviews with past and present students, talking about the new course and how they think it’s a positive step towards the future. These interviews will be broadcast on said social media and also our Planet 204 Zine which we have created. This Zine is a hub for all the course information and will give future students an in-depth look at FCM and through our past work and new work to come. We want to create a tangible methodology to pass on to future cohorts, such as a media content package that supports and helps them tell our story in years to come.”

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ROLE SETTING The first, and most vital part of the process was allocating positions for each of us within the team, as explained in the meet the team section. This allowed us to discuss and compare our strengths and look at what we could each bring to the table so to speak.

As an individual, I am visually creative, have a keen eye for detail and a high level of awareness for the software offered from the Adobe Creative Suite, such as Photoshop and After Effects. Content creation and creative direction are the key industry areas I intend to embark on post-university, so my role enables me to build experience within these areas.

Below and across are examples of my key areas:

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As well as this, I have experience with Social Media Management, having previously overseen the running of the Studio 204 social platforms (INSTAGRAM HANDLE: @ uoc_studio_204) before moving on to setting up and running the social page for the new programme (INSTAGRAM and TIKTOK HANDLE: @uocfashionfasttrack).

Building visually attractive promotional content for the new course is something I also had prior experience with, so it made sense to make the most out of this and continue to develop it further.

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RK // PREVIOUS WORK // PREVIOUS WORK // PREVIOUS WORK // PREVIOUS WORK // PREVIOUS WORK // PREVIOUS WORK // P

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ORIGINAL KPI’s Once my role had been identified, I built up several Key Point Indicators (referenced to as KPI’s moving forward) to keep myself on track throughout the project.

They were as follows: As these KPI’s were initial ideas, they would be subject to change as we moved forward.

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REFLECTING ON MY PERFORMANCE

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Upon reflection, I feel really fulfilled with not only what I was able to achieve, but how vital it became to our team, and the other groups.

PLANET 204 is the concept we built to group the new course, and the current course, showing how they were part of a larger, digital creative community.

We decided that as the new course rolls in with its predecessor rolling out, that we would keep Studio 204 as our own digital exhibition space, moving PLANET 204 more into the mainstream.

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DATED KPIS // UPDATED KPIS // UPDATED KPIS // UPDATED KPIS // UPDATED KPIS // UPDATED KPIS // UPDATED KPIS // UPDATE

UPDATED KPI’s As the project went by, my KPI’s altered slightly. This was to make sure that as we moved forward, I was able to prioritise what was most vital at the present time.

The educational visits unfortunately were something which as a team we decided wasn’t the most viable for the timeframe we had. We agreed that it was something we’d need to ensure we gave our all to, so opted to prioritise our individual KPI’s for the time being and putting a pin in the idea for now.

My updated KPI’s are as follows on opposite:

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MEDIA CONTENT BUILDING Through communicating with CEO Tracey Hall, we distinguished that we wanted for our Instagram page to be more of a visually pleasing prospectus for the course, taking inspiration from what Bournemouth were doing on a larger scale, (pictured on this page) doing the course justice for how amazing it is going to be. This included creating posts regarding teaching staff, industry mentors, organised industry talks and modular information.

See our current Instagram feed on opposite page:

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EDIA CONTENT BUILDING // MEDIA CONTENT BUILDING // MEDIA CONTENT BUILDING // MEDIA CONTENT BUILDING // MEDIA C

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CONTENT EXAMPLES

E X P L O R I N G DIFFERENT METHODS OF POSTING: BUILDING SINGULAR INFORMATIONAL POSTS VERSUS BUILDING SWIPABLE CAROUSEL POSTS TO KEEP TEXT SPREAD OUT AND MINIMAL PER SLIDE...

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RAW PROCESS

THESE PAGES ARE TO SHOW EXAMPLES OF WHAT THE PHOTOSHOP FILES FOR EACH SINGULAR INSTAGRAM POST WOULD LOOK LIKE DURING THE PROCESS AND DEVELOPMENT STAGES.

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CONTENT BUILDING // MEDIA CONTENT BUILDING // MEDIA CONTENT BUILDING // MEDIA CONTENT BUILDING // MEDIA CONT

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Something I can say which became apparent, was that content took longer to create than I had initially planned.

This was down to my meticulous eye, wanting to make sure that posts lined up correctly and taking text and adapting or fixing issues which arose with it (such as ‘unknown’ characters due to line breaks). As well as this, taking the same content and putting it into different aspect ratios to optimise it – this was so we could share content on different platforms (Instagram grid post to Story, to TikTok content).

Modular information posts are still in development at time of writing, using After Effects to build moving visual content.

As well as building visual, marketing content for Social Platforms, I also built a Save The Date to send out to prospective students and schools, inviting them to the Class of 2022 Launch Night, organised by group two, a banner and profile image for the YouTube channel created by colleague Heleena to host the fabulous interviews she conducted and edited seamlessly, and a new intro to the promotional video created by Class of 2021 Graduate, Becky Mann.

On a less visual level, I also built a Linktree account for PLANET 204 and STUDIO 204, to keep all of our important pages in one place.

LAUNCH NIGHT:

SAVE THE DATE INVITATION...

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RAW PROCESS PROMOTIONAL VIDEO CORRECTING

PHOTOSHOP PROCESS: SAVE EVERY OBJECT AS SEPERATE PNG DOCUMENT

AFTER EFFECTS PROCESS: MAKE EACH PNG DO ITS OWN TWIZZLY THING

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PREMIERPRO: CUT THE ORIGINAL VIDEO UP, AND COVER THE ERROR WITH THE FRESH EDIT

PHOTOSHOP PROCESS: GO BACK AND SAVE A JPEG WITH ALL LAYERS VISIBLE TO BUILD THE THUMBNAIL

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RAW PROCESS YOUTUBE BANNER BUILDING

PHOTOSHOP PROCESS: CREATE LARGER DOCUMENT IN ORDER FOR HEADER TO BE OPTIMISABLE OVER DIFFERENT OPERATING SYSTEMS

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EXTRA VISUALS CREATED

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RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Research and development included costings analysis. Faced with a budget, it was important to know the financial options in terms of growth, as well as the organic options, “organic reach refers to the number of people who see your posts, tweets and content without you paying for them to be boosted. Paid reach includes anyone who has seen you because you paid for promotions or advertising.” (TJS, 2019). An article from BetterCast put it best, stating that “Organic growth is more sustainable than paid growth…” (BetterCast, 2022), so this was an avenue we collectively decided to not think about too much at this time.

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Through my research into Social Platform development, I was connected with the BRICKS Learner Platform, where once I was subscribed, I was graced with guides on content building, handy tips to think about (such as spacing for social handles on different platforms when content is viewed, “… which marks where the Instagram Story image is cut off by the ‘Reply’ feature.” (Reid, 2022)) and access to industry contacts. This proved beneficial to ensuring professionalism was rife throughout, as it is a core value to Studio 204.

Also, on the note of research, I was also able to share previous findings with the group that I felt would benefit them on their individual endeavours, including an extensive list of competitor courses I had compiled, ranging from Fashion Promotion to Fashion Imaging at different Universities. I worked with Luke at the early stages, looking at possible unique platforms to move onto, focusing individually on Clubhouse, but this was research of which he took and developed further, making decisions later down the line.

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PLANET 204 MEDIA PACK As the primary visual creator, I took it upon myself to build a branding and marketing media pack for the new course, and current Studio 204 affiliated pages.

This was a collection of visual media that not only benefited our team, but also the other groups within the module. This enabled everybody to be making on brand, professional looking content which all semiotically reflected the PLANET 204 universe. The pack included colour codes, logo’s, caption building information and how-to guides to building social assets specific to us to name a few aspects.

The effect of the Branding and Marketing guide can not only be seen throughout the work of all Creative Agency colleagues, but also throughout the module from the other groups.

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IA PACKAGE // MEDIA PACKAGE // MEDIA PACKAGE // MEDIA PACKAGE // MEDIA PACKAGE // MEDIA PACKAGE // MEDIA PACKA

42 EXAMPLES OF PAGES FROM WITHIN THE MEDIA GUIDE

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LINKTREE SCREENSHOT FOR THE LINKTREE PAGE I BUILT FOR PLANET 204 AND STUDIO 204, KEEPING ALL LINKS ORGANISED AND TOGETHER.

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The final step in the project was to calculate an invoice for my contribution within the Creative Agency.

I found this part to be helpful, as going freelance is something I have an interest in, so researching into invoice building has given me a foundation of understanding in preparation for entry to industry as a graduate.

F o l l o w i n g research into the categories of the work undertaken, this is the invoice I have created:

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E // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOICE // INVOI

INVOICE

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// REFLECTION CONCLUSION // REFLECTION CONCLUSION // REFLECTION CONCLUSION // REFLECTION CONCLUSION // REFLE

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REFLECTION CONCLUSION Throughout the module, I’ve found myself collaborating and communicating with the group to a high degree, always ensuring the rest of the team were aware with what I was doing, what I had achieved and where I was up to. From my perspective, I feel that as a group, we worked together super positively, and we were able to help each other throughout the process. I feel that all of our roles enabled us to work efficiently as individuals, and to develop our own creative outcomes which will be able to complement one another – for example, moving forward I aim to work with the interviews created by Heleena to optimise and promote on the social platforms to add an extra level of relatability for the viewer, these posts would then automatically be posted and attached to the website built by our agency colleague Luke due to the intricacies within the coding and settings he worked to apply to our Zine Website (planet204.com)

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REFERENCES BetterCast. (2022). Should You Focus On Organic Or Paid Growth? | Bettercast Blog. Bettercast. from https://bettercast. io/should-you-focus-on-organic-or-paidgrowth/.

Reid, M. (2022). How To: Create Social Assets With Photoshop. Steady. from https:// steadyhq.com/en/bricks-magazine/posts/ acd14a41-6524-430f-b60c-1cbd5101f2c8.

TJS. (2019). Organic social growth vs paid - the pros and cons. TJS. from https:// www.tjs.co.uk/web-design-news-lincolnshire/ social-growth-organic-vs-paid.

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