Very productive for a Monday!

This morning I shot the advert that will be part of our magazine. It was to advertise Heriot- Watt School of Textiles and Design and encourage students to come to study here. We obviously wanted to appeal to the 'Elle market' (our model magazine) so we wanted something clean and fashionable. This idea was one of the groups but the picture, editing and design is mine. I am really happy with it as i think it goes well with the whole look of the magazine and as editor that has been my main priority I think i might have another look at the text as I am not totally happy with it.

I just hope our tutor likes it too!!!

Catch the Cover

With my magazine deadline fast approaching there is only a few final tasks this week, one of which is our cover. Following the 'Liberty' theme we wanted a soft yet confident cover that would engage with our audience. Elle (the magazine we are working from) always has very strong covers that are also famine and chic, just the right amount of edge to catch attention yet not offend any of their huge market.

We tried two different looks for our covers. We wanted to keep with the idea of Eve (our main spread in the magazine) so our first cover focused on the innocence of Eve early in the story. We used the apple as a prop along with pearls creative an almost angelic pose. I like the first shots but as a group we agreed they were not quite strong enough for a cover. They are slightly too posed and the hair etc is too perfect. If you look at any Elle cover there is always an element of freedom/ life.

Our second cover was a lot more successful. Using a different model with a stronger profile we styled her in white to keep in line with the softness of the original idea but had her hair was looser and more relaxed, showing a confidence and self assurance. All cover girls have got to have an identity that is captured in the picture. Though we wanted a classic Elle styles cover we also wanted to incorporate some of their edge, so rather than an apple we used a snake. The famous sayings”never work with children or animals" will be remembered in the future!  Though our snake was no man eater, it had diva traits. Once we had managed to stop both the model and snake from wriggling away we managed to get some good shots. Though these are not the final edits it will give you an idea of the look we are going for.

Capture the 'Elle' girl

With my current university project based around Elle, each of our features has to capture the Elle girl for the Elle girl. The challenge is however that our magazine must be based around the Borders, which is not the 'glossy-est' place in the world! But we feel we are managing slowly but surely and it is really helping me to develop my 'creative eye' as it is important to remember it is not where you are that matters it is how you focus and shoot the look. So for one of the features we are doing an Elle travel styled article on a local village we felt is very Elle as it's pretty and country chic. So here are some of the first pictures I took to go along with the piece. We are calling the feature 'A day in Melrose...just for you' and it is a girl about town/ladies of lunch look.

Fashion Communication

This term at University has been nonstop since the word go. I was extremely excited to begin the intro to my own course this term and though very busy, I love it! Our brief was to create a magazine in the style of Elle based on the area we are living in. This required a lot of creative thinking to make the borders high fashion magazine but we are raising to the challenge and working in groups of 8 we are now two weeks until the magazine goes to print we are making good progress.
As though this project wasn't scary enough we also had to pitch our initial ideas three weeks ago to Hywel Davis, a writer and lecture from CMS. We had heard horror stories from last year’s first years so everyone was feeling the pressure. However after a great lecture from him I figured he would be profession but honest in our pitch and I just hoped he liked our work...and I wouldn't break down in front of him!
The pitch could not have gone better and it was one of the best experiences of my life! The next big challenge was delivering all of the ideas we pitched. We have done three shoots around the theme of Female Liberty. With Eve being the first women our main shoot was based around the story of a girl being tempted and rebelling and in that finding independence and freedom. Here are few of the first pictures from the eve shoot and I will post the final magazine up in a few weeks!