NTU Degree Show 2016

Welcome back!

As a first year Fashion Communication & Promotion student, I made it my mission to have a proper look around the NTU Degree Show as I knew it would provide me with an invaluable insight into the standard I'll need to be working at for third year. My first port of call was the Newton Building - home to the incredible work of Fashion & Product Design students. I was completely blown away by the talent on show. 

'Oxley' by Hilary Shackleton.

 I fell in love with this tie-front clutch bag!

'Unveiled' by Stephanie Gunn.

I obsessed over the pieces by designer and communicator Darcie Scholes.

A pink lover's dream!

'Demetriou' by Georgia Demetriou. 

I was particularly impressed by this thermochromic long sleeve jacket as the colour would adapt to body heat.

'SMTH' by Daniel Smith was my all time favourite - so much attention to detail from the clothing to the walls surrounding it.

'Bare Baux Intimates' by Jessica Leigh Haughton. 

'Rohani'.

After this, I headed to the Waverley building - home to the FCP degree show branded as 'FLIP'. I said to the friend I went with who is also an FCP student "This is either going to make us super excited or super nervous." I can hand on heart say we both left feeling amazing. It was so insightful to see all of the work on display and I really enjoyed talking to a handful of the third year girls there (thanks for all of the tips if you're reading this!)

Above are some of the dissertations handed in for marking - a breath of fresh air from the spiral bound black and white copies most courses settle for.

Love, Lana Skye x 

Photo Credit: Myself. 

The Messiah Of Storytelling: Coco Chanel

Welcome back!

One of the key focuses during my first year at university has been brands and their narratives. 

At the end of the day, the items sold by the millions and millions of brands across the world are very similar. Why do we buy something from one brand instead of another? 

It all lies in how they tell their story.

This got me thinking about one brand in particular. Chanel. 

Being situated in the luxury market, for me, Chanel isn't just any brand. It seems to have evolved into a statement, a way for people to announce to the world that they have arrived. You're not a true Chanel fan unless you understand the incredible lady behind it, Coco Chanel. Her fame did not come to her easily, her life was filled with struggles, but it was her ability to view the fashion world differently that made her stand out among the rest. 

Their brand narrative is so prominent that its often quoted on social media.

Chanel epitomise how all brands should advertise themselves. They're attempting to sell a heritage, lifestyle and status, not just products. 

What do you think of Chanel's form of storytelling?

Love, Lana Skye x 

Photo Credit: Google Images.

Video Credit: YouTube.

Quote Credit: Twitter. 

If You're Creative Then This Is The Place To Be

Welcome back!

Last night, me and two other lovely bloggers for The Creative Quarter were invited to The Loom, located on High Pavement Street in The Lace Market area opposite the Nottingham Contemporary.

Once we arrived, we were warmly greeted by James and Samantha - a brother and sister duo whose passion for the place spilled out immediately. They shared with us an abundance of information, as well as enlightening us on The Creative Factory concept. James, being a highly skilled creative himself, wants The Loom to be a place where artists can come together and exhibit their work. They will have the opportunity to collaborate with ease, which is so so important!

The Loom is a bar/restaurant that opened last November, but has recently been beautifully refurbished. As you enter, everything is monochrome, resulting in feeling as though you've entered a time machine and popped out into an Old Hollywood movie. The gorgeous bay window and overall attention to detail had us overly impressed already, but then we walked in further and the excitement increased! 

Everything changed. The lighting, the decor. I felt like I was in a completely different venue. There was artwork referencing films that I've loved for years everywhere, such as childhood favourite 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Breakfast At Tiffany's'. 

Although the whole place is incredible, what really stole the show for me were the stain glass windows situated at the rear. I could've stared at them for hours! They featured iconic figures such as Bob Marley, Debbie Harry (Blondie), David Bowie and Andy Warhol. 

I really want to express how wonderful The Loom is. Me and the girls had another event to attend, but if we hadn't then we would have happily stayed until they closed. Even though there was a networking event occurring at the time, we felt relaxed and almost 'at home'. 

If you're reading this and thinking "wow, this place couldn't get any better" then believe me when I say, it can! They serve a whole host of amazing food and drink, which again has been thought out down to the very last detail. All of the options have been named (the Ha "Loomy" Burger was my personal favourite) and James' talented partner Faye Finney was responsible for all of the illustrations found within the menu's. 

I think I was so consumed by where I was that I almost forgot to take many photographs, so please please please go and check this place out. I promise, you will not regret it!

Love, Lana Skye x 

Photo Credit: Myself. 

Brand Launch Prep: Reminisce #1

Welcome back!

Last week I completed the 3rd phase of my Scent Brief at University.

In a nutshell, this involved creating a brand from scratch.

The 2 phases before this consisted of me, along with my assigned group, completing a hell of a lot of research to try and find an opportunity/gap in the market for a new scent product. The scent market is SO saturated which made this quite difficult, but even more rewarding when we came up with an idea!

Before we did anything else, the key thing for us was coming up with a brand name and creating a logo. Our brand specialises in producing scented journals that preserve memories through both sight and smell. We figured, journals are used to document memories, so whose to say we should only use our eyes to go back? After noting down a bunch of key words that we felt symbolised our brand, we went for 'Reminisce' along with the slogan 'Capture Now, Keep Forever'.
This is our finalised logo - ever so kindly put together by Millie Franklin - follow her on Instagram (@millfranklin).

I'll also enclose our full colour palette in the form of our logo! We wanted to go for quite innocent and bright colours that also had some link to the 5 key life events we have focused on. 

Birth, Milestone Birthday's (18th, 21st), Getting A Car, Moving Out & Getting Married!

One thing I've learned about this part of the process is that planning is SO IMPORTANT!

Before our photo shoot, myself and my team decided we wanted to get our Print & Video Advertisement's completed. We only had a 40 minute slot so we really had to be on our game.

Fortunately, the 12 hours of prep work we did was so worth it.

As you can see, our brand ad's were heavily prop based. We thought about getting a model involved but ultimately, the props seemed to convey exactly what we wanted them too.

Here are the finished results!

I have to say, I felt completely in my element during the shoot - everything came together so perfectly purely because we walked into the studio knowing exactly what we wanted!

After the excitement, we not only had to get down to editing our ad's, but also completing and finalising our presentation. This was the part that took the most work as it involved collating and fitting everything we had done over the past month or so into 15 minutes worth of content!

I'm so excited to say that as a result of our hard work, our presentation as a whole went down an absolute treat with the lecturers that watched. We will be presenting for a second time this Thursday, after finding out today that 'Reminisce' has been short listed for 'Best Video Advertisement' & 'Best Presentation'. We'll be showcasing our work in front of all of our course mates, as well as our lecturers and some industry professionals (eek!)

Love, Lana Skye x

Photo Credit: Myself.