Yellow Fever

Yellow is one of those colours that is really tricky to wear. It can make some people looked washed out and others need to find the right tone of yellow to compliment hair and skin tone. This is why, when I conducted my survey, this trend was one of the most popular that people wanted style advice on. I put a lot of thought into this shoot from accessories to hair style in order to get the best out of the trend. I was thinking of doing a shoot for blond model and a brunette model so that the differences between different hues of yellow can be challenged with two colours of hair. However, with the already broad range of content for my magazine, I think that it would be a little too much, but I may still consider this.

I had arranged for a great make up artist student to collaborate with too so the shoot went smoothly and i didn't have to do too many things on the day.

My model I had chosen is professional and also a ballet dancer and i had to pay her for her services. She was really natural in front of the camera. The images were in RAW format from the camera, but for some reason the files recognised on my laptop so I will have to change them on the library computers before I go home for Easter to TIFF files. I think this is an issue with the camera that my fashion photographer was using.

Up and Coming Shoots

I have 3 shoots planned, one on Friday 30th March in studio and the other two I will do at home in East Grinstead. I am collaborating with a Fashion Photographer who coincidentally lives near me and a few models from around the area.

The first shoot will be based in the studio and styled around the colour yellow. Its big this season and as its quite a daring colour that some people are afraid of i want to show my target audience that they can wear this vibrant colour and look good in it!

The second shoot we wanted to do is going to be at a sports centre in Eastbourne. The photographer is doing a health and fitness magazine and as the sports luxe trend is big the season I wanted to create that look to go into my magazine.

The third shoot is going to take place at the Alexander House Hotel, where I work, I have permission to shoot there, but have to ring up and confirm tomorrow the date and times we can shoot. Its really exciting as the location is beautiful and the facilities are stunning too. For this shoot I was planning a grandeur, luxe feel with extravagant make up and a floating material. I have yet to plan it fully but will do that nearer the weekend.

Indesign Layout

During the shoot with Francesca Hughes in Farnham, i was with my Graphic Designer and she had taught me a few things on Indesign and helped me set up my magazine. The layout seemed quite easy to get the hang on, but for me i found it quite difficult and daunting to actually starting putting images and copy to the page. So today i finally came over my fear, had finished most of my editing and started to accumulate pages. With just shoots alone, and having a few more left to put in, I have already filled up less than 40 pages. This was the estimate (40-50) I had given to the printers and this could cause a problem. I either have to edit down the shoots I have, or ask for more pages and less copies of my zine in order to keep costs down.


Printers

I visited Indigo Printers in Southampton a week ago and went through the types of paper I will have and am going back tomorrow to get full quotes for my amounts I need. I was told that in order to keep in my budget of £200-£250 I would have to cut down my original amount of copies (100) to half. Hopefully more pages wont increase the price even more and i may have to make some cut backs somewhere.
The first quote i have received stated that i should most likely choose Digital printing over Litho as Litho printing is far more expensive for my budget, 50 copies of A5 would roughly be about £160 only 36pages or 100 copies would be £240. Therefore I am returning for another appointment tomorrow in order to rejig my order and see if i can get a lower price for lower amount of copies. Also i will organise a deadline date, which ideally will be 2/3 weeks before hand in.

Copy

Most of the Zine will be full of mini tips and short caption on the content, however for the talent section of my zine, I have created a short interview and added a fun word association game to go along side it in order for the audience to find out a little bit more about the artist. I have sent this interview out and am waiting on 2 of my contributors to send it back, but am confident they will send it in time!

Layout and Style Research

I have been analysing magazines such as Company High street Edit and Asos Magazine in order to formulate a template and layout for my magazine. I feel that these types of magazines are similar to my publication and harbour a certain feel and style I am going for. I have been looking at simple circles and square designs for image boxes, echoing a magnifying glass shape; I feel that this would suit the context of the Zine because of focus on detailing and styling. I have also drawn a few sketch up pages of each page to try to work out how many pages exactly I will have to have in my Zine in order to gain a proper quote from the printers. I don't want to feel restricted on the content, as I feel this is way more important than the quantity I can get printed.

Shoots so Far

Vamp Inspired Shoot

This shoot was taken at the end of February and based on a Vampish look. This particular week, i had three shoots booked in a row and unfortunately, like most days, i was finding it hard to find models in time. Even though every day i had been looking on Model Mayhem, messaging models from any surrounding areas of Southampton/ Hampshire and checking their availability. However, Laura, my model from the Print Clash shoot had recommended a friend who was also interested in modelling.

The theme was based on the Vamp look from the winter, but with a summer twist. I wanted to convey a dark and mysterious look, focusing a little more on beauty. As the model turned up she wasn't exactly what I had in mind for the shoot, but luckily she really suited the styling and especially the make up. Her face was very good with the glittery eye make up and also she had piercings that completed the look. I wasn't pleased with all of the images that I had, but I think I have chosen and edited the ones that were most striking and suited the mood I was going for.

Although this shoot turned out well, i am still undecided as to whether it will fit into my magazine. As my Zine will be 'published' in the summer time, this look wouldn't be suited to a spring summer look, even though there are a lot of grungey styled shoots and collections.

All the make up, hair and styling were done by myself and the photography by Flora Martin.

 

Grunge

I wanted to create a Grunge styled shoot because of the popularity of the style in society today. This look is really big amongst students and college students too. Also I wanted to play around with different Photoshop styles and effects. I collaborated with a Fashion Photographer and I did the hair, make up and styling myself. We wanted to attempt some more photographic effects with the camera to really go with the styling and theme of the shoot, so we decided to put the shutter speed low and creating some ghostly images. For some reason this effect would only really work when the lights weren't as bright, and therefore created dark images. However i was really pleased with the way in which they had turned out and I feel that it added to the grunge theme even more. I had 5 outfits in total and with most of my shoots I'm having difficulty in deciding which images to choose! Also another problem is that I have based my zine and shoots on the number three, so three ways to style an outfit or wear something, but i always end up having more outfits than three and finding it hard to pic images from just three outfits! I guess that when i finish putting together my zine and have to edit it at the end, i will have to be cut throat about it and take images out that are unnecessary.

Maxi Length

For this shoot, I have planned to collaborate with an Illustrator i am interviewing for my magazine. He is in the process of drawing on top of these images, in a kind of Cinderella-esque style shoot with an Aladdin/Arabian theme. The shoot went well apart from the fact that the lighting kits were mostly broken in the JM building. This meant some of the equipment didn't work properly and the background wasn't as bright as i wanted and the images weren't totally in focus. However i managed to select enough photos that were good enough to illustrate on. I suppose this worked in my favour as the shoot is meant to be hazy, dreamy and illustrative. If the illustrations do not work with the images i will re shoot. The idea was based on maxi length items and how to wear them in different ways, but as i was shopping for the garments it evolved into a festival themed. I then had my tutorial with Sharon who said that instead of the Cinderella theme, as it has been done before, I should go along the Aladdin, exotic and Arabian feel in order to make use of my model's curves.


Pastel

To follow up on the spring/summer trends of 2012 I chose a shoot inspired by Pastels and Lace. Chanel's 2012 collection proved this, with bursts of mint, baby pink and yellow. Also i wanted to base the shoot around the shop Primark to show that you can still get a high fashion look and keep up with the trends but still using budget shops.

 

Following the pastel and lace trend, i wanted to combine the two and create a 60's inspired shoot with a modern twist. This is a big trend at the moment and will be really current in summer. Looking at the Chanel collection, i wanted to really play on the mint green colour that is also really big this summer so i incorporated that a lot within the shoot. I used little mint in the lace detailing i added to the hair, the nails  and bought ribbon for the shoe laces and little accessories to go with it to really give that subliminal mint green message. again i had troubles finding a model, however last minute a model had recommended her friend Penny, who had only done a few shoots for friends to model for me. I was a little apprehensive as she told me she was 5ft 3", but amazingly she doesn't look it in these images! Also she was very beautiful and was really natural in front of the camera. Also my make up artist had cancelled last minute, so i did the make up myself. Another last minute wonder was working with a fashion photographer- Lulu McArdle. It really helps having a full team that knows their speciality and Lulu made some great suggestions like using a different coloured background. As I had bad experiences with colour before i wasn't entirely sure, but as she knew what she was talking about I went with it. I'm glad i did as the orange background brought the colour of the pastel out and made them pop. It also added to the 60's, fun and playful idea I had in mind. This is one of my favourite shoots so far and goes to show if you have the right team and the right lighting anything is possible!

Beauty Shoot

Ways to Wear a Shirt

This shoot is aimed at the fashion styling section of my zine and based around styling shirts. The focus of thi shoot was to show people how to create different styles with charity shop and vintage clothing, and to mix and match with high street. This is because i am aiming to promote that it's not where you buy the clothes from, its how your put them together.

Francesca Hughes Shoot

At the weekend, I planned a shoot with my knitwear designer in Farnham and also planned to interview and shoot my Graphic designer and Photographer, all of which are featuring in the talent section of my zine. Danny photographed the shoot in and around the forest in Farnham and also in the house that was owned by my knitwear designer's boyfriend. The rest of the week, the weather had been sunny and clear skies and as the Zine is going to be published in the summer and the collections were aimed at spring summer, it would have been ideal for good weather. However, once we arrived it had already started raining heavily and by the time we had finished hair and make up, it was snowing heavily! However, we went outside once the snow eased off and shot anyway. Im really pleased with the way the shoot turned out. We only had the camera and a few hours of sunlight left but they were actually really vibrant, the models hair, the texture of the clothing and the colours went really well with the brown/reds/greens of the background.