INDUSTRY LECTURE: LAURA PARSONS

Today we had a industry lecture with Laura Parsons. She created Microbubble which is a website for creatives.

She gave us advice on our CV's and said we should keep them clean, with one or two fonts. Include a small bio (15-20 words) and try to keep the whole CV to one page and make sure key skills, hobbies and interests are included aswell as experience and employment.

She also said that marketing yourself is the most important thing

- Make a website

- Create a Facebook/Twitter page

- Make a LinkedIn profile

Try to generate a brand - use the same colour or even make a logo and make sure it's a good font!

NETWORKING

- Don't be afraid to contact people

- Send emails!

- Go to social events

- Look at all types of social media (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter)

- Go out for coffees with people!

'Try internships to test the jobs that you may be passionate about'

'Blogs are great visual narratives especially if you want to get into styling or visual merchandising etc..'

TUTORIAL: READERSHIP FOR MAGAZINE

At this tutorial we explained to Tom and Eloise who our readership was:

Readership = Girls, aged 13-18

We then decided to do a reader profile which was a little bit more specific on the kind of girl that we are trying to attract.

- 16 Year old who is single

- Just finished school, about to start college

- From East London, Stratford

- Finished her GCSE's and is about to start her A Level's. She is going to study Art, Textiles, Media and Photography.

- She wants to be a fashion designer

- She dresses quite edgy and idolises celebrities like Cara Delevigne, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus

- Shops in Topshop, All Saints, Rokit and River Island

- Has a part time job in River Island

- In her spare time she enjoys going to parties, smoking and drinking and overall just socialising with friends.

We also explained the main ethos of our magazine which was based on customising clothing. Other than it being a more affordable way to look at fashion we wanted it to be for the more exclusive girl. The girl who wants to be different and wants that unique look that she knows nobody else can steal because she made/customised it.

Tom advised us that we should research into a section that is in VOGUE magazine which is called 'more dash than cash'. I did so, and put this research into my sketchbook. He told us to look at old sewing magazines and the term 'upcycling' - this will help us with building out magazine.

INDUSTRY LECTURE: RUI FARIA

Today we had an industry lecture with photographer Rui Faria. Rui Faria is a photographer, director of photography agency Areia and editor in chief of VOLT magazine. Rui Faria was born in Portugal but started his photography career in New York. He has had two covers for VOLT magazine and believes that 'there is only one sun so there should only be one shadow.

He enjoys shooting close-ups, especially eyes and lips. He enjoys shooting beauty, and shoots more beauty than fashion now because there is more money in beauty. Beauty allows him to be more creative as fashion photography mainly focuses more on the clothing rather than the creativity.

Rui Faria has shot for:

- The Guardian

- A lipstick company called Lipcote

- The make up store

- American express (with very expensive jewellery)

- Harrods

- Specsavers

He told us a bit about his magazine VOLT. It comes in a plastic polly bag and has no bind, all the pages are loose. He sees each page as a 'poster'. The concept that each page can be stuck on a wall.

He also gave us some advice on internships and what makes the perfect intern. He said 'No matter how talented you are, assist someone'. He also mentioned these great points:

- Try to identify what you like

- Be someones assistant, send a CV with a formal email or letter

- Be independent and have your own style

- An intern is someone who knows what they want

- An intern has a clear sense of direction

- An intern applies their skills to everything they do

- They are punctual and friendly.

When asked if he could work with anyone he said 'No one. Don't idolise anybody, anyone that I would have loved to work with are all dead'. 

After Rui Faria's talk I felt very inspired. He was such a humble and talented man and his talents and skills really showed through his enthusiasm about his work and talking about photography.

All images taken from Areia.com 

INDUSTRY LECTURE - ANNA LOMAX

We had an industry lecture with Set designer and Art Director Anna Lomax. Her lecture was very inspiring as she explained everything she had done within her career, from interning to creating a magazine. She told us that interning was the most important thing and bombarding people with emails and coming across as eager will really get you places.

'Say yes to everything'. Anna made it quite clear that we should really grab the chance at every opportunity can in order to get noticed and to make a name for ourselves.

These are a few examples of Anna's amazing work. (All images were taken from her website)

TUTORIAL: GIRLS MAG/CUSTOMISING

Today we had a tutorial with Jason and Rose and we explained to them that we have decided to focus on girls for our magazine. We decided to scrap the men's magazine idea as none of us in the group have enough knowledge on men's mags at the moment. It would be safer and most likely that our magazine would be a success if we do a readership that we are actually familiar with. We were told that we had to create a proper readership and reader profile to make it clear who we are trying to attract to our magazine.

ART DIRECTION LECTURE: TOM WATT

Today we had a seminar with Tom Watt. Tom was just explaining to us a bit about himself and what jobs he had done in the past. He told us that he worked at magazine Art Review and worked there as an art director before leaving and working at field projects which is where he works now.

Tom mentioned a few photographers that I knew and showed some of their work. I began to understand the photographer a bit more; especially Juergen Teller. I find it a lot easier to identify certain photographers work now as they all have their individual sense of style and they put their own mark on their work.

He gave us tips like keeping the fonts in our magazine if not the same then very similar. Our magazines need to have a theme running through them in terms of the fonts used. Tom also gave us a list of photographers and art directors that we should know.

The art directors we should know:
- Alexey Brodovitch
- Neville Brody
- Alex Wiederin
- Fabien Baron
- M/M Paris
- Lee Swillingham & Stuart Spalding
- Peter Miles
- Mike Meire

CV PREP AND WISHLIST

This is my draft CV and current wish list that I have prepared for my hand in on Wednesday 9th October.

This is my wishlist:

- Kim Howells, Stylist

- Angie Smith, Stylist

- River Island, Visual Merchandising placement

- ASOS, Merchandising internship

- Dazed & Confused, Fashion director (robbie@dazedgroup.com)

- Art Partner, info@artpartner.com

- Julian Watson Agency, info@julianwatsonagency.com

 

I will be handing both of these to Jo and wait for feedback.

INDUSTRY LECTURE: JEMMA SAWYER

Today we had an industry talk with Fashion stylist and consultant Jemma Sawyer. Jemma gave us a brief introduction to her career and where she started. She said she started assisting stylist Karl, and also Patti Wilson.

She also mentioned a website called Fashion Monitor which is a good resource for looking for internships and jobs vacancies once we have left university, or even during.

Her overall role includes her over looking the clothing and the overall look of the models. She is able to  put her own spin on things. Jemma has worked at VICE and SAM magazine and below is an image of her work that I came across. I think her work is very inspiring and I love her sense of styling.

Styling by Jemma Sawyer, Photography by James Pearson-Howes. Image was taken from http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/fashion-rock-roll-play-me-v15n1

INDUSTRY LECTURE: SUSIE O'BRIEN

Today we had an industry lecture with Fashion stylist and assistant manager at Scruffy Bird; Susie O'brien. Susie started off at the BHH creative advertising company and explained that they have a good internship programme there called BBH home grown. 

The main thing I picked up from Susie's talk was about her portfolio. She said that we should have a brief 'about me' section, maybe with an image of ourselves and include a brief introduction about ourselves, how long we've been working in the industry and our proudest moments etc. 

She also mentioned that it would be a good idea if we had out own Facebook styling page, LinkedIn and maybe a personal blog. She said that in the fashion industry it's all about contacts and networking. 

After this talk I decided to edit my personal blog, and create a LinkedIn page. Here are screen shots of both of those.

Personal blog page

LinkedIn page