Stray Thought

A couple of spreads from my portfolio to round up the blog. The first contains my feedback from Susie, a couple of you guys, a word (literally!) from GTS and some interesting last minute feedback from London/Amsterdam fashion PR virtuosos Pressroom, whose new website I am starting work on this Weds.

Second spread was very much an afterthought to the rest of the folio, but has wound up being my favourite part... feels a bit like a storyboard of my progress (and was a lovely chance to publish all these cool images that I was unable to use elsewhere!).

Finally, thought I would add the final website animatic to go in the show (see below). Very ready for sleeping now... see you all in the morrow for ultimate destiny happenings and whatnot.

Bespoke tailoring meets Flash

More work on the website... one of Susie's concerns is that in some cases when a physical fitting is not possible, the bespoke tailoring will need to take place over the net. To accommodate this problem I developed a simple interface to make sure people got their measurements right... something that according to market research lots of women are unsure about.

Have a go for yourself here!

Photos of my photos

In a lovely north London studio this afternoon we got these done. Sadly these are the proofs without the new cover, but I didn't foresee that element changing when I made my plans. Still happy with these for the portfolio.

Good couple of days... various presentation materials for handing the work in arrived in the post, business cards are being made up to arrive on Fri with the final look books and managed to pick up a copy of OK featuring Michelle in my spare 5 mins. Not drunk this much Red Bull in a single week for a while (and its only Weds).

Websites ahoy...

Business Card

Just finished the business card and its caused some debate. I am considering using this front image for the look book as opposed to the previous plain gray and lavender design.

I have to decide this by tomorrow morning if I want it done and I won't get a proof unless we pay for more motorcycle couriers. Risky move since the gray looks alright, but I just think this has much more vibrancy, especially in light of the fact that we can't afford spot UV or emboss as I had wanted.

What do you think folks? Risk it or play safe? I'm consulting Susie with the same question.

Snapz Pro X Love

Having been working on website today I've been concerned with how to represent it well in the show. Animatics are clearly the way to go, rather than letting people click around the live site and having browsers crashing etc, but on top of an actual functioning website a decent animatic is quite a lot of boring leg work, as peeps involved in the D&AD digital brief will know.

The answer is here! Awesome application that turns a selection of your desktop into a Quicktime movie. 30 days trial version with no restrictions... say yes! Youtube compresses really badly but the actual MOV file is full res. It would be prudent to dress these with some control in Flash so users aren't forced in to the ugly Quicktime window... but all in all its great.

Look Book Proofs: a 'white gloves' situation

Proofs of the look book were today dashed over by motorcycle courier straight to my door, allowing me to ponder my critique over the bank holiday weekend. Overall it looks good but already I have spotted issues that I want them to change... there is some moire in places and some inconsistant areas of block colour, caused by 'barring' I'm told. By Tuesday the printers will think I hate it. Live fast, be anal.

My digital camera has died so only these shoddy mobile phone images for the time being. I have booked a professional studio and photographer for next weds (as our beloved Alex is heavilly booked it seems) to photograph the product for my portfolio, so good images available then.

Decisions Decisions

Thanks to everyone's help Susie and I have settled on images to make it to the final cut and the artwork for the look book is now complete and ready to go to press tomorrow morning (see below this post). Re. Portugal Place image... we decided for the full run that the more product based photo was best, but I am also going to print an insert with the vignetted 'alleyway' image in the copy I hand in for assessment as I am very pleased with the art direction in it and as many of you pointed out, it shows off the scene so well.

Next week I will get an uncoated proof and a matt varnished proof. Unfortunately I have had to forgo spot UV or emboss due to the £200+ set up fee quoted by all printers I approached. Photos of those to follow... exciting stuff.