typographic poster production

When thinking about how the typographic poster is going to be printed and on what paper, i drew inspiration from a number of sources i researched earlier in the project. One possible direction is to digitally print the posters on to glossy paper; in order to give a direct link to the glossy ladmag/adult magazines that objectified women in the late 60's and still do today.
Another possible direction is to screen print the posters, making a link to the printing processes in the 60's, I could screen print on the a variety of paper stocks, however i found another quote within the book (which actually leads on from the quote the project is inspired by) "i still recall those bodies in all their postures, like a human alphabet, presented week by week on cheap newsprint on the street corners of my home town'.
This passage directly speaks about the paper stock these posters were printed upon, which seems like a link that i should carry through to my production. Whilst talking to peers about the various ways i could print the typographic poster, one suggested that i combine the past and the present within the production of the poster, meaning that i use the cheap newsprint as the paper stock but use modern digital printing to print upon it. This provides both a link to the era of inspiration, and also a message that this is still happening in today's modern times

In terms of the size of the poster, the typography can be printed at any size, however for accuracy and legibility, i believe it would be best to print the design on A3 as this us a standard size for posters, and wouldn't take up too much room on street corners, however if when printed the type is not as legible as i intended it to be, then some changes may be needed.

colour of paper more vibrant in person

I experimented with printing various colour experiments on to neon pink newsprint, i chose to use neon newsprint over regular newsprint as previously stated i found a passage within Promiscuity's which referred to the colour of  sexuality (being) hot pink - pink neon, like the sign, or Balenciaga pink, like lipstick. I believe the use of neon also adds to the fact that i intend for this poster to be noticed, for the message to be easily seen, and hard to ignore. 

In the above experiments i believe that the most effective variants are the two images on the right, both using black. The first test uses a thin black line and a red tone within the letter-forms, although the type is visible, due to the fact the red is printed on top of neon, it dulls the tone and makes it appear to be more of a brown shade, i also don't believe it has a strong enough contrast in comparison to other variations. 
The next experiment uses the thin black line only, although this was previously my preferred design on screen, once printed it's no where near visible enough, with the thin black line disappearing against the vibrant neon pink of the newsprint. 
The next two variants are similar, with the black tone being inverted. Overall these variants are the most appropriate due to the bold contrast of the black against the neon pink, which ensures both the neon pink is visible, and the letter-forms and their silhouettes are easily seen. 
During a peer-led crit i asked people which out of the two final prints on the right, they thought were the most bold and legible, the majority of the people i asked said that the poster on the left was the most bold and legible due to the negative space being used for the letter forms which allows the whole quote to be read more clearly as the letter forms don't appear as if they're touching as much as in the other variation. 

In terms of the sizing of the poster, A3 works in terms of ensuring the quote can be read.







I then decided to experiment with printing one of the previous designs which used the thin black line and two tones of pink, printed on to gloss paper. I chose gloss as i believe it communicates the tacky way in which women are presented in the pages of glossy adult magazines such as Hustler which was previously looked at. As can be seen below, the quality and gloss of this print is much more effective than the newsprint in terms of being eye catching, although the previous newsprint prints perhaps have a stronger link to the book the project was inspired by, the overall look of the gloss poster is more appropriate for the brief, due to the vibrancy of tones and a quality which almost resembles latex, a commonly used fabric within the sex industry. 

Typographic Poster Developments

Whilst deciding on a colour pallet for the poster, i was going through Promiscuities again, looking at notes i had highlighted to see if there was anything that could spark inspiration for the colours used. I came across the following passage within the chapter titled 'The Time and the Place: 1968-1971' It reads the following "From an early age, we understood that the colour of  sexuality was hot pink - pink neon, like the sign, or Balenciaga pink, like lipstick" From this passage of the book it seems appropriate to use hot/neon/Balenciaga pink (which is basically hot pink) somewhere within the typographic poster, whether that's through printing or the paper stock.

I began to experiment with adding pink to the typographic poster, both adding colour to the type and to the background. The hot pink variation (on the right) is a lot more visually imapactful and vibrant than the more red-ish tone on the left, however the typography seems somewhat too full and dark. Taking inspiration from the pink passage above, i believe that the poster, although it should use some elements of black, should be more focused on using pink tones throughout, in order to allow the typographic poster to not only communicate the book which it's inspired from, but also to fit in with the late 60's era with the use of bold vibrant colours as the design in taking visual inspiration from said time period.

In order to still have some elements of black within the poster, i outlined the typography in a thin consistent line quality. From just outlining the type alone, the design already looked more representative of the 60's style.

I then added colour within the typography and the backgrounds as can be seen below, i tried out a concept, similar to earlier experimentation on the left, of just adding colour to certain words, for impact, however i soon realised that by highlighting certain words, it disrupts the flow of reading the poster, as the eye is first drawn to the words or letters which are highlighted. I intend for people to read the posted from top to bottom, and so by highlighting certain words it results in the way people read it to be different than i intended.

I used several tones of hot, bright pink however i believe that i will need to print the typographic posters out and then see how the colours are in person rather than on screen. I want to achieve a very over the top, neon colour pallet which you can't help but be drawn towards, I will experiment with printing directly on to neon paper, as well as other varying tones of pink.

typographic poster initial ideas

I began to experiment with the typography in order to try and achieve the female silhouettes, i believe it's important to experiment with the composition and sizing of the letters in order to make a visually interesting typographic poster. 


Below i began to experiment with the Dreamline typography, i sketched over the dreamline type and began to try and incorporate female forms within each letter form. Due to the curvy, bold nature of the type it was quite easy to see where the forms could be within the type. I first experimented with utilising negative space with the type, however this felt too obvious and less like the typography was the female forms, as it can be seen below they looked more like illustrations within the original Dreamline type.  
I then utilised the curves of the type and added in silhouettes, at first i was apprehensive of changing the sizing a shape of each letter, however the typography should look separate to the Dreamline type, with subtle hints of the 70's era. 
Left can be seen three variations of the style of typography i intend to design each letterform in, i believe the addition of the female forms are subtle at first, but once you find them, you can't un-see them, which really fits well with the whole concept of this project. I will later experiment with using both filled, and outline letter forms within the typographic poster.

 I then began to sketch over the Dreamline type for each letter i required for the typographic poster, Some letterforms were more difficult than others in terms of finding how and where the female silhouettes could be incorporated, for example the 'W' which can be seen below, due to the structure of the letter i felt that maybe illustrating three female figures might be too much in terms of space, however due to the fact that only one W is used throughout the whole poster, it doesn't feel like it's too cluttered or busy. 


I then began to experiment with the layout of the typography at first i though that due to the shortening of the quote, it might be quite effective to have some words bigger than others such as 'society' as this is what the poster is criticising, However as you can see on the left, due to the nature of the typography it's not quite the most legible of type faces, this combined with differing sizes and connecting the letter forms
wasn't the right way to go.

Although i previously found that having differing letter sizes and connecting letters didn't work together, i decided to still experimented with the different sizes of different words within the quote.  I believe that the issue with the previous composition was the fact that even in the same word, the letters were all different sizes, i isntead made each word the same size and in the same position. I did this partly to communicate the importance of certain words, and also to fill up the space of the A3 size document this was created on.
I believe that this layout is a lot more suitable in terms of getting the message across in a legible but still impactful way, in addition to this  the overall design of the typography is very effective in terms of subtly displaying female forms in a way that still shows the essence of the dreamline type, whilst still being unique to itself.

Typographic poster research

In order to create this typographic poster, i first needed to decide what typeface the body of the letterforms would be based upon, i will be building on top of the chosen type in order to achieve the desired sexualised silhouettes.

I began researching in to the 70s (the time in which Promiscuities is set) in order to try and provide a subtle link to the book which has inspired the project, Hustler, a popular adult magazine, first came out in the 70s, i found that the headline type they used was Futura SH demibold, this type could possibly be appropriate due to not only the link to the time frame, but also the nature of the magazine which relates greatly to the overall nature of the project. With the magazine using sex to sell copies, and the typographic poster using sex to point out the absurdity of societies control and use of women's bodies.





I tried to gain access to the exact futura type however i couldn't seem to find it, below is a collection of the futra styles which are most similar to the demibold used by Hustler magazine.



I believe the medium style is the most accurate match that's currently possible, however due to the fact that i can access the type used i'm not sure whether the link to the magazine is really there. 

I then began to think of other types that could be used as a base for the poster. Promiscuities, the book which has inspired the whole project discusses the 70's and the impact the summer of love (1969) had on the girls becoming women in the 70's. I started to look in to popular typography from the late 60's and 70's as i feel like this will be an appropriate link to the book, and also due to the characteristics of typically used 60's and 70's type, the tick serif letterforms will allow me to build and distort them to achieve the silhouette effect.

I thought that an appropriate way to find a selection of type would be to look at album covers from the time period.

Roberta Fancy,  Designed by Robert Trogman for FotoStar

Dreamline, mecanorma 1969

Davida, Louis Minott 1965

The three type styles above i believe capture the late 60's and early 70's in different ways, i conducted a crit in order to get opinions on which type i should use as the base for the poster. There were varied results, however the majority of people felt as if Dreamline was the most appropriate due to the thickness of the letters, which would allow me to manipulate/build upon them in order to create the silhouettes i intend to.

I was only able to find a capitalised version of Dreamline, however i don't think this will be a problem, if anything it will communicate a more bold message, however due to the length of the quote i feel as if i need to cut it down, so that the type can be expressive & legible. I've decided to use the opening line from the quote which reads it's all society is, the repressed sex drives of men, the objectification of women, i believe that this line perfectly captures the essence of the project, with the link to past, and present societies with the quote speaking in present tense creating a connection to todays society, in addition to the typestyle which links the design back to the time in which the book was set. 

Typographic Poster

The brief, what, why, what do intend to do

During summer i read Promiscuities by Naomi Wolf, a book which explores women's sexual coming-of-age from the perspective of women crossing the threshold of adolescence in 1970's San Fransisco. Within the first few chapters of the book i came across a passage which inspired the idea for a project, it read 'Their slender but quite ordinary bodies were contorted this way and that in hapless calisthenics. And i wondered: are they there because they are having fun? How can they be having fun if there are no boys with them? what is fun about this for them-for big girls? i knew this imagery was 'sexy', though it did not look to me like 'sex.' But i could not see what was in it for women. I still recall those bodies in all their postures, like a human alphabet, presented week by week on cheap newsprint on the street corners of my hometown.' This passage immediately got me thinking about designing a type face made up of women's bodies, contouring in to the letters of the alphabet, like Wolf saw. 

Within Promiscuities Wolf accounts the way in which women's bodies were used to entice and advertise, as she mentions a sign, which stood about twelve feet high, advertised her. It was made in the shape of her body. Perched on the sign's immense neon breasts were two red lights that blinked comically on and off. The use of a nude, or near enough nude female form being used to sell products isn't a thing of the past, and it didn't begin in the 70's, Pearl Tabacco featured a naked women on their packaging back in 1871, and within todays society it's still just as prevalent. 






















Sex, or rather the use of women's sexualities to sell products, is as relevant today as it was in the 70's, however female sexuality being utilised to spread awareness/object to it's very nature isn't as common. From looking in to the negative, degrading ways in which women's bodies are used, and thought he idea of creating a typeface based on Wolf's observation of women in the 70's i've developed the concept for the below brief. 

A typographic sign made up of hyper-sexualised hand drawn letterforms depicting the female form. The sign will read 'it's all society is, the repressed sex drives of men, the objectification of women, their paranoia, the posturing, the macho stances, the beauty standard, it's all just one charade masking a never ending hard on' - Trevor D. Richardson. The typographic poster will aim to communicate the idea that women's sexuality can be and has been used to sell anything, or promote anything, even if the very nature of the product is arguing against it's self. 
I can't really think of a better way to say this, but the main message i want to communicate is that maybe people will look at 'it', take notice of 'it' (whatever it may be) if it has tits on it, and i believe the above quote by Richardson fits perfectly for this brief, i came across it some time ago and it feels like the right fit for the overall message, perhaps within development it will be cut down so it isn't so long, however we will see. 

The Prawn Shop complete branding

Below are all of the elements of the prawn shop branding, including the logo and sticker pack. I'll be trying out several paper options when it comes to printing the designs, taking in to consideration cost, durability when posted & overall visual result. After designing the logo i updated my instagram page with the new logo as the icon photo, i received an email from an enamel pin manufacturer and we have arranged to produce 100 pins featuring the new logo, this is a really great way of not only releasing a new product to the prawn shop, but also to get the logo itself recognised and remembered.

The Prawn Shop Order Slips

Producing a range of free stickers to be placed within customer orders is a way to not only promote the brand, but also make the customer feel a more immersive experience from the brand they're spending money on. Order slips are something i've been thinking about for a while, and i at the start of the brand i used to hand write notes within each order, however due to the scale that the brand is growing at, this isn't possible anymore.

The order slips, will be more like thank you cards for the customers, thanking them for supporting a small brand and it will also provide them with a discount code to use next time they order, which both gives them an incentive to order again and also allows them to hold on to a small piece of design. 

Of course, i will be continuing the colour pallet and overall style of the previous branding designs in order to create a cohesive brand pack for The Prawn Shop. 

I utilised the same layout and composition as the business cards to create the designs on the right, although i think they are visually cohesive to the brand, i believe the imagery could be more directly related to the customer ordering again, for example an illustration of a person browsing the prawn shop website. 

I continued to work on the customer thank you slip, based on the findings from the first variation. I added an illustration of a laptop to communicate the way in which my customers order the products, however i tried to keep some elements from the previous branding, such as the outdoor settings and use of a block colour boarder. I believe that this design is more cohesive and relevant to the customer than the previous. Similarly to the stickers, i will bring re design the thank you slip for each new collection, using imagery that is featured within the collection at that time. 

The Prawn Shop Sticker Pack

As a way to make customers orders more personal, i've decided to create a stickers that can be placed within each parcel. The stickers will allow the brand to be seen as caring for the customers, making the buying and unpacking experience as enjoyable and immersive as possible. In addition to this, the stickers will act as a way to promote the brand, with the idea of people sticking them on to their laptops/phones etc.

The design style of the stickers will follow that of the updated branding, with the same colour pallet and line quality being used throughout. I'll look through the archive of prawn shop pieces to see what imagery people respond well to, ensuring that each piece has the brand name on it, so that it can be easily recognisable to people who may view the sticker.
I also think it will be interesting to play around with the fruit sticker concept which inspired the logo in the first place, each sticker could play on the fruit/food concept possibly.

I began to think about the shape of the stickers, i've printed stickers before which didn't have a boarder/were within a clean cut shape and so they were lasercut. Although this means that the sticker can have a unique shape reflective of the design, a white boarder is left behind, due to the rebrand of the prawn shop  having a boarder around the sticker will not be cohesive to the rest of the design.

A streetwear brand, extravitamens, release sticker packs to sell/include with customer orders (as seen above), theres are within clean shapes such as squares and rectangles. By approaching the sticker designs this way it not only means the the stickers will be more clean (as their will be no need for them to be laser cut, rather they can be cut using a guillotine) but it also means that they are more reflective and cohesive to the brand.

Taking inspiration from the shape and clean-cut nature of the extravitamins stickers i have created the designs on the left.
I've tried to capture imagery thats most frequently used throughout the brand such as the nude female forms, vibrant scenes and typography.
Using a consistent colour pallet throughout the branding has been really useful in terms of creating a body of work that is visually cohesive, and represnets a brand that is serious and passionate about it's message and it's future.

From designing these stickers to create a more immersive experience for my customers i've developed the idea of producing a new set of stickers for each collection the brand releases, this will be an effective way of showing my audience that that thought is going in to each aspect of the brand, not just the clothes.

The Prawn Shops audience of 18-25 year old predominantly females i believe will really respond to these stickers, due to the vibrant bold nature and how they communicate the visual style of prawn shop.

The Prawn Shop Business Card

After designing the logo, i felt that i could now carry this strong visual identity made up of thin black lines, block colours and a distinct colour pallet in to a business card.

Above are examples of the designs i created based upon the visual identity of the logo. As quite a lot of the prawn shop designs depict scenes, i wanted to communicate this through the business cards as-well, making them more of a piece of design than a corporate card, as i feel like this is more appropriate to the personality of the brand. 

I experimented with manipulating hand drawn typography however this didn't feel like it related to the brand in anyway, as type manipulation hasn't been done before. I tried out different types of 'scenes' illustrated on the business cards, i found that the ones which were the most appropriate were the ones which used elements from the logo, such as the clouds and sky. 

The bottom left hand side design worked in terms of the imagery however it felt too empty, with the unlined clouds not visually flowing with the lined type. The bottom right hand side design was believed in a crit to be the most appropriate, the use of a simple scene and the combination of lined and unlined illustrative aspects makes the design cohesive to the logo and the rest of the brand identity. 

Above are 4 variations of the chosen business card design, having differing colour combinations i believe communicates the differing designs of the prawn shop. At this moment in time there is no email address on the business card; i'm currently in the process of getting a business email address in order for the brand to present itself as professionally as possible, however the email address is not yet secured and so i didn't want to put on an address that i might not be using in a couple of months, nor did i want to have an email address on the card which said 'outlook.com' or something similar, as i don't believe it sends the right message about the brand to potential clients and collaborators.
However my website link and instagram handle have been included, both of which contain clear information of my contact details, so for now this shouldn't be an issue, i will simply add an email address once i have confirmed it.

The Prawn Shop Logo

One of the key aspects of The Prawn Shop as a brand is the fact that each piece of clothing is different, the t-shirts and jumpers the designs are printed/embroidered upon act as a canvas for the designs, with each design being completely unique to its self, this is something that i believe is important to consider when designing the brands logo; how can i create something that is cohesive for a brand, that can be placed on to 30+ pieces of clothing that differ in design and colours.

As i started to think about the above questions in regards to the logo, i began to think of the similarities throughout each piece of clothing; the line quality is one, each design is consistent with a thin black line. The colours, although different, are all vibrant, with tones of pink and primary colours being used frequently. If typography is featured within the design, it's always hand drawn with qualities reminiscent of a cartoon show from the 90s.

I began to experiment with the prawn icon which is used throughout some of the prawn shop pieces; with the latest collection featuring the prawn frequently.

Here i have began to experiment with the prawn icon, using pink and red tones often used within the brand.
The prawn felt too big and too distant from what the brand is about.











I experimented with cropping the design as seen below however the overall shape of the logo felt too awkward, in the way that it couldn't be easily incorporated throughout all of the designs the brand offers.

Using the prawn icon didn't feel right for the brand, i began to look through past designs i came across an item from the collaboration i did earlier in the year with Tom.

We created a small circular icon incorporating elements from both of our designs, the colour of the logo and positioning changed throughout the pieces within the limited edition collection, with the circular shape making it easy to position is a visually pleasing way.

This prompted me to begin looking at other circular icons/logos and i came across an archive of fruit stickers from a fruit sticker instagram page (@fruit_stickers).

From looking at various fruit stickers i was inspired by the layered composition of the design, i thought that the way that the designs are so separate to the fruit they're placed upon was quite a fitting concept for the prawn shop as although the brand in a clothing brand, the name suggests it would be something completely different.
The logo, like the fruit stickers are placed, can be printed/embroidered on to each piece of clothing as if it was an actual fruit sticker.





The circular shape was taken forward from both the fruit stickers and from past experience with Tom, embroiding a circular icon on to the clothing.
I really liked the composition fo the ALINDOJAYA sticker and i took the composition forward and experimented with the imagery and type.

Above i experimented with using familiar prawn shop imagery and typography to create a fruit sticker style logo,
I experimented with the language on the sticker with slightly provocative/cheeky type reading ;looks good on you' and 'best served soft' on the lower half of the sticker, however i then thought about the direction i want to take the brand in the future, and i do want to expand the product range to furniture and home ware and so having type specific to clothing felt too restrictive.
 

I decided to experiment with the design which featured 'The Prawn Shop' wrapping round the outer circle of the logo. The colour pallet on the top right hand corner felt like a really nice colour combination however it wasn't representative of the brand and the colours most frequently used.





























The colour pallet of the logo on the left communicates The Prawn Shop more so than any of the other experiments, this logo can be used throughout the website/on any other brand material it feels applicable for, however when it comes to placing the logo on each piece of clothing i believe it would be visually cohesive for the overall garment if the logo design stayed the same however the colours changed depending on the piece, below are some examples of the colour pallet the logo would take for specific designs on the website.

The Prawn Shop Branding

My clothing brand The Prawn Shop has been operating for around 2 years however i haven't had the opportunity to fully design the brand identity, there is a distinct design style to the designs on my clothing however i believe that i can't continue to progress with the brand until i have a distinct brand identity, including a logo, business cards and order slips for customers. Providing The Prawn Shop with a full brand identity will not only allow my self to feel more organised and professional as a business owner, it will also allow the brand to be perceived in a more distinguished way which will be important when it comes to future business meetings with possible stockists or collaborators.
I also want to take this opportunity to make the most of the printing facilities at university, by producing and printing an array of brand material which i can use once i graduate.

The Brief:

Design a logo, business card, order slips & stickers for clothing brand The Prawn Shop.
The designs should reflect the characteristics of The Prawn Shop as a brand, using bold familiar colours, playful imagery that may feature nudity (a common image throughout the brands clothing). The designs should be able to be printed/embroidered on to the clothing as well as featured on the website, consider how one logo can be visually cohesive throughout different products the brand offers. The designs should communicate the design style of The Prawn Shop, and be appropriate for the brands 18-25 predominantly female audience.

• logo- to be used on the clothing, on the brands website
• business cards- consider the fact that the people who i will be giving the business cards to will most likely already know what The Prawn Shop is, not entirely necessary to explain the brand 
• stickers- these will be placed in customer orders 
• order slips- to be placed in customer orders, more like a thank you slip with a unique discount code for their next order

Above shows a selection of some of the most popular and latest prawn shop clothing designs. 

Lookbook video concept

The Lookbook video as previously discussed will be filmed after the submission, however i believe it will be a good decision to plan out the story boards for the video now so that filming can run as smoothly as possible. I also want to plan out the character personas for the video too, this will be useful to have knowledge on so that when i'm buying props and clothes to style the looks i can have a clear vision in mind

Character highschool persons & what they can be doing in the video

• sporty - can have tennis bat etc in shots
• superficial - putting on lipgloss in mirror
• metal head - listening to music, head banging
• stoner - eating a snack, looking dazed 
• school band - come on with a clarinet or something
• skater - skate on to the shot
• geek - calculators, briefcase 
• musical - boombox, headphones
• rich - jewellery, money, sunglasses, cher from clueless 
• goth - comes in to the shot cleansing the air with sage
• mall rat - texting on a flip phone, lots of accessories 
• reading - glasses, reading books 
• class sweethearts - a couple
• grunge - moody, shrugs, yawns
• beauty student - painting nails, fixing hair clips 

The inspiration for the style of the video is based on the Golf A/W 2018 video and the intro to Freaks and Geeks, the video holds the same concept as the Freaks and Geeks video (links and images from both below) with different characters coming in to the shot, having there photo taken and leaving, but the stylistic inspiration comes from the Golf video, with the split screen showing full body shots and up close details.

Lookbook concept (book + film photographhy)

Although i won't be able to submit the lookbook for the module submission, as the shoots aren't taking place until after the submission, i still want to have a clear concept for the lookbook, know who i want to send it to and why. My goal for The Prawn Shop after i graduate is to have my clothing stocked at sold in stores with a similar audience to mine, such as Top Shop and Urban Outfitters, i believe that sending a physical piece of work to these brands and companies will be a step in the right direction in hopefully building a relationship and bringing my brand in to the public eye. In addition to this, i also believe that possibly getting a feature in magazines such as iD and teen vogue would be amazing advertising for The Prawn Shop, and open up the door for collaborations and other opportunities.

Jay and Amin are going to help me produce the lookbook as i want their input in to how the collection will be presented, as they helped to create it. Within the book i want to ensure that the brand is explained, with all of my contact details, i also want to include the contact drtials of the people who made the collection possible, Jay, Amin and the photographers who end up shooting the collection next month.

Content:

• collection title 
• brand ethos 
• brand customers, engagement and growth 
• my contact details 
• images of the new collection 
• illustrations 

Design: 

• inspired by 90s highschool aesthetics 
• year book style images with quotes reading the clothing names 
• location shots 
• illustrated boarders around the collaborative pieces 
• double page spread with image of all the models in the clothes 

Locations (for film photography):

• basketball court 
• year book style (these will be taken at the same time as the website images) 
• maybe a party scene - consider doing a launch party and photographing guests in the collection 
• shots in 'highschool hangout' locations - takeaway shops, skate park etc 

lookbook photography locations, style and compositions within book

concept for lookbook cover design; playing on the school photo theme which the lookbook video is based on; front and back cover of the lookbook will show a 'class photo' with all the models faced with their back to the camera, then within the centre of the book there will be a double page spread which has the same photo but the models are turned around to face the camera 

Page concepts for the lookbook, more animated character based shots, really pushing the highschool aesthetic, location shots, studio shots, collages and illustrative boarders to show the collaborative pieces

Below is a list of the brands/magazines i intend to send some of the copies fo the lookbook to, once it's produced in May. Jay and Amin are also going to provide a list of places they would like it be sent to also

• iD 
• Mushpit 
• Urban Outfitters 
• Topshop 
• teen Vogue 
• Broadly 
• Girlboss 

Product shoot Concept

After discussing the shoot with potential photographers we soon realised that it isn't going to be possible to do the shoots before the module deadline. We realised this after the photographers told us that they wouldn't be able to photograph/film until after their deadlines, same goes for the models who we previously contacted. Due to this, we have decided to have a test shoot before the moduel hand in, to show the collection, check that the samples are okay, test the type of shots we want and how the lighting and the props will work. This will be the first time that there has been a test shoot before a prawn shop photoshoot, however i believe that it will be a really good experience as we can experiment with the shots and the poses to see what does and doesn't work, which in effect will make the actual shoots run a lot smoother as we will be able to give better direction to the models and the people shooting the collection. 

Below shows the fabric i've bought for the background of the shoot, we chose a dark teal crushed velvet as we predict that the light will reflect nicely throughout the varying textures of the fabric, i also purchased a 3m x 2m roll of wood laminate flooring in order to try and achieve the same effect that the Golf A/W 2018 collection has. 

Within the shoot for the website the images will be taken on a digital camera so that people can zoom in and see details in a higher quality than they would be able to if it was shot on film, this shoot will be more about the clothes, showing the details and the way people can wear them, with the character personas not being as prevalent as they will be within the lookbook & the video, within the test shoot we will experiment with poses, lighting, positioning and everything else so that we have a clear plan going in to the actual shoot after the hand in, although i am disappointed that i won't be able to submit the lookbook, the video or the actual shots for the submission, i know that it just isn't possible to reach the high standard i want this collection to be at, mostly due to the time constraints of the other people involved, however due to how ambitious we're being it's understandable.   

Final collaboration piece

When designing the collection, hay and amin both designed t-shirts, although the collection will be released in May when it will most likely be hot weather, i felt that we needed another jumper in the collection and so we collaboration on this three way embroidered design (to be placed on magenta magic jumpers) 

The concept for this design came from a sketchbook illustration i saw of Amins during one of our check up crits. In his sketchbook he had illustrated balloons with faces on them, i thought this concept would be a good way to merge our three styles without the piece looking too all over the place.
The design shows a hand with a bangle reading 'The Graduate Collection'. the three balloons have each been illustrated by myself, amin and jay, with each of our signature illustration faces presented on the balloon. The idea i'm trying to communicate through this design is the message that we're so close to being set free in to the world, after 20+ years of being in education, with the floating hands grip on the balloons being very loose, this in addition to the rather dazed out, unenthusiastic almost worried look on the balloon characters faces expresses some of the emotions myself, jay, amin and we imagine many other graduates feel.

Collaborating with Jay and Amin

Myself, jay and amin met with each other each week to discuss how their designs were going, both of them had many ideas but had trouble being fully happy with a concept, from my experience with designing pieces and collections, i know that feeling finished with a design is almost impossible, as there will always be elements that you want to change but we set a deadline of the 22nd of March for the final designs to be done (as i informed them we have to give at least 2 weeks for the samples to be produced and arrive to us), however when the 22nd arrived i had yet to see the final designs or collaborate on them, both Jay and Amin showed me designs which had preexisting prawn shop designs on them such as the one below which features elements from the 'Mother Nature' tee

After Jay sent me the above design, i expressed to him that i didn't want to include preexisting designs within the new collection, of course small elements are okay like the prawn longo, however to have the center piece of the design to be taken from an existing design didn't feel new and it isn't something that The Prawn Shop does. I told this to jay, and informed him that i would be more than happy to create a new illustration for the piece, i asked him to provide me with art direction of what he wanted, and he did (as seen left). 

I followed Jays direction and created this piece for the back of the t-shirt, to be surrounded by type reading '3 minds are better than one' i think the concept for this design is really strong, theres a deep meaning behind it but to the customer it just looks like a visually pleasing t-shirt with a new design, rather than a preexisting one.  

For the rest of the designs from both Jay and Amin i didn't create any new work, they took elements from existing designs and distorted them to fit the aesthetic of their concept, i didn't have a problem with this as the elements looked completely different in the end however in reflection i would have liked to collaborate more closely on the design, as it came down to seeing the designs once they both classed them as being done, i made changes to the designs they thought were completed however i do think it would have been interesting to do more collaborative work like the above piece, taking art direction from the two of them to create brand new pieces and imagery. 

Jays Final Designs

This design will be embroidered on to the chest of black t-shirts, originally jay intended this design to be printed on to the back of the t-shirt with the outline of a prawn emborodiered on the front (so that it was consistent to his other two designs) however i explained to him that the pieces aren't necessarily going to be next to each other on the website and so having them being consistent isn't vital as the collection is a mix of 15 designs. I suggested to jay that we embroid this design in to the chest of the front of the t-shirt as it sets it apart to the other pieces, he agreed.

The coral t-shirt design i've previously discussed will have the prawn shop prawn logo embroidered on the chest of the t-shirt, with the printed illustration and type on the back. 

Jay has titled this design 'sketchbook' it features the prawn embroidered again on the front, in a colour that will (hopefully once samples arrive) be similar if not the same to the teal on the back of the design. This design uses existing prawn shop elements however he's edited them in a way that makes them look like new elements.


I think that jays designs will be successful on the website, they bring a more gender neutral approach to the designs, where as the current prawn shop designs, although they're all unisex, are centred around women and femininity.

Above are Amins 3 designs, the first is a fully embroidered piece (top left) titled 'don't cry over split milk' Amins inspiration for his designs was very centred around his university experience, during one of our meetings we devised a list of words to inspire us for the design of the collection, words such as habits, repetition, freedom, alone etc are very clear in his designs, such as the white t-shirt which features back to back embroidery which will be titled 'habits', these designs are all original to amin, however there are prawn shop details throughout. The final design (orange t-shirt) came from an illustration i found of amins, the tower block type apartment scene relates to the student accommodation we all first lived in, with my women illustrations being used on the balcony. We're going to wait for the samples to arrive, however we both think that this design will work better on a yellow tee rather than an orange, as it will flow in to the t-shirt more smoothly than the orange and the yellow, however we'll see once the samples arrive.