Velocity The Report - Tess Halliwell

VELOCITY COLLECTION: THE REPORT

BY TESSA HALLIWELL

Since beginning this project in January, it has been a major personal project and kind of self-discovery journey. From answering deep questions that made me look into myself to answer as honestly as I could, made my process throughout this feel like I was re-discovering who I am and what has led me to this point.

Being so open and honest in the first portion of this FMP really helped me to explore all the other areas freely. The first three components really set me up to expand in my Final Major Project. At first, when answering the questions I was kind of scared of being openly honest as you are putting yourself out there to be judged, however I pushed that to the side and just tried to focus on being as free with the questions as I could. Now when I look back to that time I feel like a completely different person, I am surer of myself since answering the questions and I don’t know why I cared about being perceived. Once I had answered the questions, I moved onto what fashion market and style of communication I fit into, and to do this I had to reflect on the style of work that I have been drawn to in each module. I am a very visual conceptual thinker, the way I express my ideas and work is through croqui-ing and concept boarding. The market level I would like to work in, in a dream scenario would be RTW to Luxury. I feel this market would be best as it would give me the creative freedom that I would need, and these types of markets can afford this creative freedom with their campaigns as they are not so confined to trends as fast fashion brands are. So to begin, I researched into the market levels and who are doing the best in the business right now. A lot of the creative directors of the brands I follow are a major inspiration for me, such as Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent, Simon Porte for Jacquemus and phoebe Philo for Céline and Rick Owens of Rick Owens.

Their style and ways of expressing their ideas really move me and are a constant inspiration for me. Then I explored outside of solely fashion creatives and looked at the other creative arts, such as Tim Walker who is a fashion photographer with an eye for a conceptual vision. This style of dystopian seems to follow me, unknowingly to me and I needed to embrace it fully! The third component was me figuring out what my FMP was going to be, how I was going to fill the gap in the market and what would fully embody all of my strengths and what I enjoy the most. The first and second module set me up for this as I identified everything, I have learnt about myself and my skills throughout my time on the course. And the gap in the market I came to was a strong space for digital fashion to thrive.

A FINAL IMAGE.

I feel the gap in the market is the digital space for luxury brands and the reason there is a gap is it takes more time to break into, for luxury brands who follow their own set of rules to keep up with their own high standards. It can take them more time to get into the digital space as they don’t want to lose their consumer by changing their style too much. Some brands have tried, and it’s failed, which can be daunting for brands to follow as there is higher expectations on them to succeed however, I think this is the perfect fill for the gap in the market and it will be successful. This will not because it’s not just fashion but also a place to get fashion news and an escape from the real world, there is more variety, and it can be an escape for the lover of fashion.

By including luxury brands I am opening up that exclusivity to the people who want ‘in’ to that world. The reason I think this hasn’t happened sooner is that the brands could be worried about upsetting their current consumer, and in order to prevent this I would have a delicate approach to this, by still keeping their air of exclusivity to the luxury brands. This keeps their current consumer happy and will keep their intrigue. They follow less trends than fast fashion brands, but in order to stay ahead of the market they need to jump on the digital train and supply the masses with an alternative to consuming digital fashion. The escape from reality to this dystopian paradise, I don’t want this to be another type of digital magazine that are popping up more and more, I want it to be an escape for people- where people are hiding in work to get the latest fashion news, people are constantly refreshing the page for more news because they can’t get enough! It will provide the consumers with fashion and media that is current and interesting. When planning the strategy part of this module, it needed to be as strong as it could so that I was as prepared going into the next stage of the FMP. This meant reflecting on all of my research to make sure that it all links well throughout, and continuously research and developing my idea to make sure it expands further. In this strategy phase I figured out my market range of who I am angling my concept to and why I think they are the right consumer. Identifying my role was fairly easy after my research throughout component 1 and component 2, I feel most suited to a creative director role. I feel having control over all aspects is what works better for me, being able to thoroughly plan out the shoots and the postproduction, leading up to the marketing and the logo. I feel most suited to this role as it plays to my strengths, I am a very creative visual worker, and planning all of my strategy out with intent definitely works best for me.

A FINAL IMAGE.

I will be shooting all of my work solely, I feel this gives me the best chance at getting out what I truly want. this definitely plays to my strengths as I am very specific vision and being in full control definitely feels most fitting to me. This also gives me full creative direction and I feel that plays to my strengths that I have found over the past two components. Then I started nailing down locations of the shoots, poses, makeup looks and the colour palette, this was to help me plan my final major shoot to capture my images for launch night. In order to do this, I wanted to have a few test shoots to feel prepared with my plan in case anything went wrong, or I wanted to change my ideas.

Once I had figured out the bone structure of my Final Major project, I began to carry out my practice shoots in the lead up to my final shoot. I wanted to play around with styling, poses and colour palette, so when my final shoot day came around, I was fully prepared and could execute it to the highest possibility. The majority of my practice shoots were on mannequins, this was the easiest option for me as I didn’t have to organise a model or location etc.

Since I have a mannequin at home, I could easily channel any ideas or possible styling situations I had, document them and build them in my research.

Throughout this process of my final images, I have been researching and building upon my idea, this is so I can constantly develop my campaign and make sure that it makes sense not only to me, but the consumer I am marketing this too. In doing this I am ensuring that my work is strong and cohesive, and my concept has a strong outcome. With multiple test shoots for me to analyse and create storyboards with, I felt confident moving into my real shoot day. I booked studio 204 to use all day, this was so I had no interruptions and so I had no time limit on my creativity. The model I scouted is a professional dancer, which I felt would help with some of the statue-esc poses I had been looking at for inspiration. The whole shoot day was around 8 hours, this allowed me to take my time and really capture the content I needed. I felt extremely positive leaving the shoot, because when I was capturing the photos, I was excited with the initial images

A FINAL IMAGE.

So I knew they could be edited to what I was trying to capture for my campaign, and I knew this shoot was really successful for me. Fortunately this shoot worked out really well and I think it’s because I went in prepared. Having my makeup, styling, poses mood boards printed out for me and the model to constantly refer to was super beneficial to me. And having test shoots to refer to helped me to realise what I want and don’t want, which throughout all of the trimesters I have constantly developed on. After the shoot I began immediately on postproduction, and on these last two trimesters I have developed my photoshop skills exceedingly.

Having Sophie as a mentor has been a valuable experience for me, being able to have extensive one to ones developing my final images to their highest possibility and having any query or issue I have answered. This has made me feel so confident in my photoshop skills and made me feel like I could challenge other software, which is what I did. With recommendations off Sophie I looked at spark A R, which is a software used to create augment reality experiences to elevate your business. I created an interactive filter with this software to deepen the idea of my campaign, I used the Facebook platform to share this on. Using content I created in photoshop helped me to expand on this skill. To show this filter in action in my progress book, I shared the filter with my peers to display how it would work with actual consumers. When reviewing how it worked for other people, I was happy with the outcome as it was accessible and easy to use for them. As it is a work in progress, I am not opening this filter to the public, so I am happy to have this as a progress stamp of how it would work.

A FINAL IMAGE.

Throughout this final module I have felt the most comfortable, and I believe that is because of all of the prep we did in the previous module so I could aim my full focus at completing my final images and the extras I have added to build my campaign. In this process I added a mock-up of a website for my campaign. By creating this, I felt it was helping to deepen the connection to my research, and help my idea translate clearer. Using the final outcomes of my photoshoot to ‘advertise’ all aspects of my concept, feels stronger for my project. Although the website is not interactive, I am extremely pleased with the outcome as it perfectly embodies the research and development I have done throughout the modules on my final major project. The website includes ‘NFT’s to highlight the digital side, virtual fashion week tickets, the VELOCITY filter created by me, a giveaway to be entered, exclusive podcasts with creatives, limited access to the inside scoop of fashion news and pre order available with limits. This is to gain that feel of exclusivity and luxuriousness I was striving for in this campaign. The website is attached to the LinkTree I created for this specific project and the link will be easily accessible. Also attached to the LinkTree is the vlog I compiled of my final shoot day, behind the scenes of my editing process, campaign videos I trialled and tested.

To forecast this project, I see it being successful. This gap in the market is sought after, however when its been attempted it has landed flat. The reason I believe my campaign would work is because it follows the exclusivity Gen Z are longing to be a part of. Although Gen Z like to pride themselves on being ‘different’, I know they crave that exclusivity of being in on a secret not necessarily everyone knows. If I was to predict 6 months ahead of the project being released, I see a buzz of loyal fashion enthusiasts waiting for the newest update to the digital space. People sneaking on their lunch breaks to read the inside scoop on this year’s London Fashion Week. I believe this campaign would succeed and I am very pleased with the outcome.

A FINAL IMAGE.

CONCLUSION To conclude on this final module, I think reflecting on this project outcome and where I would improve. At the beginning of this module, I was trying to fight my creative, visual illustration strength and replace it with a more editorial, clean style. However, when reviewing my work I could see what worked the best for me and was the strongest. Which is my croquing, as it is the best way I can express my ideas and translate them in my work. I am glad that I came to terms with the way I express my work, however if I was to do this module again, I wish I could have realised earlier. This would have saved me a lot of questioning my work, and the outcomes. Although this did help me to develop my outcomes further until I was happy with them. This was my strongest module in my opinion, as we prepped the campaign thoroughly in the previous module. I felt we had enough time to execute our campaigns efficiently.

Juggling this module and our launch night tasks has helped me to develop my time management skills, and I balanced both tasks well. After reviewing all of my work, I am extremely pleased with my final outcome throughout this module, and what I accumulated for launch night. It is bittersweet coming to the end of this module, on one hand it is a relief to get to the end of this hard work. However, on the other hand this is my final module on the course, which I have learnt so much on. Throughout all of my modules on this course, this has been my most enjoyable as I have got to utilise all of my strength to create something really strong.

THANKYOU FOR READING.