Rukhmah-ProCon3

Alright boi’ssssss! So I have just completed a two week internship with Loaded magazine in London. I haven blogged recently, which yes i am partly to blame for but i will fill you in on the recent ongoings and random bits that might be of interest. So initially i thought i would not be doing very much at this internship but i was proven wrong from the very first day. I started doing stuff straight after a quick introduction with the very small but nice team at loaded. So i got se up at my very own desk for the two weeks i was going to be there for and was showed the last issue so i was familiar with the way the design team worked. The layouts were pretty simply, they had strict guideline within which they work in which i suppose worked in my favour i was not thrown completely in the deep end where i would have to design for features from scratch. 

To begin with i was to design the fashion page which was just placing pictures and pricing items although i did mix a few things round thought id try my luck and they kept the changes. Just as i was getting into it though the Art director asked if id like to assist with a shoot in a studio round the corner. Obvs i said yes! Working for a magazine is not as glam as it sounds everything is done on a budget and shoots and all require more initiative then money. This is something i believe i am good at so when thrown into situations where i had to find props and call people to get garments in for shoots i found easy. 

Although i havent got the PDFS with me of the pages i designed and the features i assisted with at the moment i will be posting them as soon as the june issue has been printed. I did a good few pages considering i was an intern and during my time there i met so many people which has certainly helped me secure a career in this particular field. I have exchanged contact details with all the team and am already in the process of updating my C.V to send to magazines like Heat and Shortlist. 

Loaded have offered me the opportunity to come back and work for them in the summer as they have a position available. I am so happy that they liked me and that i actually picked up some skills not just regarding my way of working but how to maintain a healthy relationship within a company so they call you back. This does not mean be there skivvy it means listen the first time round and make yourself available for when opportunities to arise because they will not just fall in your lap and the Editor will most defo not be asking you. 

My name will appear in the June and July issue of Loaded Magazine. BONKERS! 

Finally managed to get my disso feedback from Mrs.A. I must say my draft went down a bleedin treat. I knew when i handed it in that some of my references may not be seen as reliable because i drew info from a few blogs. However i have finally got hold of one of the best books ever ‘Culture to Catwalk’ and it is bang on what my disso is about so i can change the ref issue. Along with that i needed to break my essay up a little with a few headings which i discussed with Aileen. Chuffed with my feedback because Aileen said it is well on its way just needs tweeking and a few more points can be added and im ready to rockk! One more thing i have altered my title because looking through my essay what i had before helped me put the info together but it needed trimming and the new one is straight to the point.

Do fashion designers use religious iconography as a gimmick?

Managed to catch a few minutes or 15 of them with Tash today and i’m happy. Asked for my Procon mark and i’m chillin on an A but i still want to get the highest i possible can because it all adds up. So i am going to spruce my last self promotion project up and send it in for the D&AD competition. I have been applying for a few placements around the area i wish too but i have not got a solid portfolio prepared so i am going to work on that to with Tash get it up to scratch. 

Me and Chantel talked about out NMP progress aswell and its game on suckerssss! This week me and Chantel plan on going to the Youth organisations we have been in touch with to get some inspiration because we are aiming out project at teens. Then we want to work towards setting up an event in Uni to begin the pimping as Tash put it! Keep your eyes peeled for the event details. 

Managed to explain our idea to Tash on Tuesday so we can now start to work on outlining out unique selling points, our deliverables and demographics. Me and Chantel started off looking at existing fashion brands and in particular which items or trends were most popular. However from the beginning we decided we did not want to create a fashion brand of our own because in the way we work we felt we would use up a lot of time on elements like the logo and in turn diverting our attention from all the other deliverables. We all know that in recent years it has again become fashionable to reinvent your own clothing to reflect your personal sense of style and just to be seen wearing something someone else hopefully has not got. From this we started looking into past movements that changed peoples perceptions on making their own clothing to suit a similar recession period that we are currently adapting to. 

Make do and mend. A movement that peaked after the second world war saw the notion of tweaking existing garments and fixing any faults at home become desirable and a massive area in which individuals could save money on. This rule applied to other things like food and furniture but wanting to produce a more fashion based outcome this seemed to be a really good starting point. 

We both have carried out individual research looking at past and the present links with the make do and mend idea and how well it was sold to the public. In the past the make do and mend concept concentrated more on repairing garments but we want to promote personalising clothing because we have access to a lot more materials then they possible did in the past. 

I mentioned earlier that we did not want to create a whole new brand so having researched into other companies that have worked with a similar concept we have decided to work with Elle girl. This outlines a stable framework for us to work within so instead of worrying about all the fiddly bits we can start on the stuff that we are both really interested in, fashion. We have decided to work with Elle girl because we thought a project like this would be too difficult to aim at people who although love fashion have established there personal sense of style to a point where they are set in their ways. Aiming at a younger audience will cause more of an impact…get em while they are young and all that business. 

Speaking to Tash she mentioned we need to really concentrate on why our make do and mend project will stand out because several magazines have done spreads on this idea and there are always workshops running all over the country. We still need to develop out USP but we are thinking of displaying techniques that use objects from around the home to add that individual touch to say a plain white shirt. Not only is this catering for the recession but it is more likely for people to use our ideas because they do not need to go out looking for the parts needed. 

In terms of deliverables we are aiming for a set of things for both me and Chantel to reflect our way of working and joint deliverables to back up the work we have produced as a group. This way we both have things we can stick in out portfolios when applying for our preferred jobs. We are planning on sitting down together and listing all the deliverables outlining a few USP and making a week for week plan so we do not fall behind. 

26TH February we are going to an event in London hosted by Tatty Devine where they are organising a huge make do and mend workshop. It is a chance for us to learn some techniques we may not be able to find online or in books and chat to people who are regulars to events like this. GO TEAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!