Week 1.

During my first placement week I have been working on some patterns for a fitted bespoke tailored jacket for a client. The client wanted the jacket to fit as well as one that he already has so I have been using this jacket as a guide for the pattern pieces. The images above show how I have been creating the patterns based on a similar style jacket that we have taken apart whilst adapting the measurements in order to fit the client. 

Once I was happy that the pattern was accurate and would have a nice fit to it I pinned half the jacket to the manikin as if it was the real thing and was made out of fabric. The images above show how the jacket would fit if it wear on a real person, it also shows where each pocket would sit on the jacket and I have tested them out using the paper patterns so that they are really working pockets, this gives me as much accuracy as possible and shows me what the pockets, collar and the overall fit of the jacket will look like once it is tested in fabric. The jacket consists of one welt pocket with a flap and one piped jetted pocket, creating these pockets out of paper and fitting them to the manikin was difficult and took a lot of time as it is hard enough to achieve when trying to make them out of fabric let alone paper. 

The jacket pattern has taken a great deal of time to make and still needs some tweaking here and there  however it is almost ready to be toiled and the process was a lot quicker to do then a usual jacket of this kind due to some of the most accurate technical flats I have ever seen. This sped up the whole process and meant that I constantly had a guide to look at, I also now know the areas I can improve upon when it comes to my own technical drawings. This week has been great I've loved working on this jacket and have learnt so much about how many pieces go into making a tailored jacket (for this particular jacket it is 30 pieces.) Putting the pieces together on the stand taught me about how a jacket is constructed which confused ma a lot at first because there were shapes I hadn't seen before and patterns which I had no idea where they belonged. Not only do I have a better understanding of how to construct a tailored jacket but I'm also clearer about what fabrics are used and how much hand sewing goes into creating a jacket and also some of the different stitches used such as a Chevron stitch which is used to baste the fabric together and helps to create the structure of the jacket. 

Interview with Nylander Couture

On Monday I had my interview with Ivor Nylander, it went really well as he was extremely nice and liked my portfolio. After the interview I was asked to stay till 18:00 to take part in a trial, I was given a few different tasks to complete (shown in the images.) 

The image to the left shows an example of the beginnings of a waist coat. I had to stitch the front pieces together and create two pipped jets.  In traditional tailoring interfacing is not used so to replace this they use a canvas material, this is the method I used to create the jets. I also had to do a lot  of basting (tacking) which I don't normally do at uni however I could definitely see the benefits from basting rather than just using the machine straight away. It was quite challenging doing the jet pockets without any help as I have only ever completed jetted pockets once or twice and that was with the help of my trusty friend YouTube. So as you can imagine completing them by myself while feeling nervous and under pressure was a nerve-racking feeling, I eventually finished the pockets but made a few miner mistakes which meant that there was a little ridge/bump that you could feel around the pockets due to the seams being too small to press open. I attempted the pocket again shown in the image above  (on the left side of the fabric) it was a lot more successful as Ivor showed me some techniques he learnt when training in Savilerow and the methods they use. Although I managed to complete the pocket I definitely need more practise.

During I was also given some pattern pieces to experiment with, the pieces were two shapes that were curved and fitted together, all I had to do was sew them together (shown in the image on the right.) This sounds really easy and simple to do which is precisely what I was thinking, it turned out to be a lot harder than it looked as sewing around the curves was extremely difficult because the fabric would just get caught and pucker. 

After my trial Ivor spoke to me and said that he is willing to teach me bespoke menswear tailoring and I can start on Monday 14th 11am to 18:00/19:00, I'm extremely happy as although it was a very nerve-racking day I learnt more techniques and industry knowledge in one day then I have within a month of uni. I have learnt some things that I have been doing and or sewing wrong through listening to Ivor talk about his experiences and through observing how he does things in his studio. 

Bolongaro Trevor Or Industry Placement

After going through the interview process I decided to continue to apply for internships through emailing companies I had an interest in whilst also looking at internships and placement through websites such as fashion Workie and fashion united. I wrote an email to a company that I had a real interest in as they were offering to teach bespoke tailoring using the traditional methods that are used in Savilerow. I thought the placement would be perfect for me and I was hoping for the best. The image on the right shows the response I got, and it was very positive. 

Although getting an internship would be the ideal situation as I would be in a fresh environment getting a real sense of what it would be like to work in a job I truly enjoy, I also started to open up to the idea of doing the live project with Bolongaro Trevor.

On Tuesday the 1st of March we had a briefing for the live project, Kait Bolongaro joined us mid morning and stayed for the rest of the day, she spoke about the brand history, it's origins she showed us some past and present womenswear collections that the brand have created. The image to the left shows an example of one of the garments Kait brought in to show us. Throughout the day my enthusiasm for the live project began to drop drastically as I found it very difficult to get excited about the project when I just really disliked the style /look and feel of the brand. It is hard to work on a project when you can't see anything you remotely like about the brand. 

I decided that the live project wasn't for me and sent an email back to Ivor Nylander (the potential placement opportunity I had) to try and set a date for an interview. I set a date for Monday (7th March) at 11am I have everything ready from my last interview and this time I felt more prepared as I now know what to expect. 

Design Enterprise and Innovation

Before starting this unit I had desperately been searching for an industry placement focusing mainly on luxury menswear tailoring. The initial hunt for a placement was extremely difficult especially as I didn't want to settle for anything less then something to do with tailoring. I began my search by looking at quite high/ very well known tailors in Savilerow, I emailed a huge range of tailors in Savilerow as well as calling each company up. After not having much success I decided to print off my CV and cover letter on nice paper and in envelopes addressed to each company I wanted to see, I then headed off to Savilerow to hand each envelope out personally the experience was great as I got to see what the environment, the standard and the people were like in Savilerow as well as getting to speak to a lot of tailors personally which for me was one of the best experiences as everyone was very encouraging and welcoming. 

Walking into each tailors when in London was at first very intimidating, however after plucking up the courage to go into several different companies such as Gieves and Hawkes, Welsh and Jefferies, Cad & The Dandy, Ozwald Boateng (just to name a few,) I began to feel more confident and sure of myself. While handing my CV and cover letters out I went into Oswald Boateng's shop as one last quick attempt to get a placement, while I was there a women called Nadine asked me a few questions about where I study, what I do etc she briefly spoke about the company before offering me an interview for the following week (Thursday 11th of February.) I was over the moon and immediately went back home and started to work on creating a professional looking portfolio (shown in image above.) I uploaded my portfolio on Issue and printed an A3 hard copy using nice paper and the best folder I could find to present it in. 

During the interview I spoke to Selom K Amoa who is the senior Design and Art Director for the company. The interview went well as he really liked my work and thought I was a great designer, he complimented me on my designs and technical drawings, he asked whether all my drawings/designs were hand drawn and when I said yes he told me that this was impressive and that not many people hand draw designs anymore and that I am clearly a good drawer. Overall the interview was a huge success and Mr Amoa said that my CV and portfolio were perfect except for one thing, and this is experience he continued and said if I had more experience I would have been perfect. Initially I felt slightly disappointed however after having time to reflect on the process I released how huge it was to have such a successful person tell me that they liked my work and that it was good I now realise that to even get an interview with such a respectable company in the first place. 

Example of one of the emails I sent out

After my interview Selom emailed me with some links to books and websites that would help me learn more about tailoring which was really nice. The whole process has been a great learning curve and an enjoyable experience that reminded me how much I would love to get into tailoring.
https://issuu.com/savannahhall/docs/portfolio_final_b4767785f5a8f2

Evaluation

Working with I our group has had its ups and downs but for the most part we got through it and became a stronger group because of all the arguments. 

Working with Elissa has been a joy as she always try's to see the best in every situation and works really hard all the time and always went above and beyond for our group.

Working with Nikita had been a struggle, although she started off the project very enthusiastic this soon changed and she became increasingly difficult to work with, to talk to and even to get work off. I appreciate our group has had a lot of struggles but sometimes you just have to pick yourself up and brush it off for the sake of the group, this is not something she was able to do and I have found it very difficult to work along side her.

Chloe and marko have been great to work with they are always positive and enthusiastic about our brand they rarely complain and contributed a huge amount of work to our group. 

Danny and I had our differences at the start but once we moved on from them we got along great and even when she was not in for whatever reason she was very easy to contact and would always be willing to send work straight away. 

Amanda has been good with reasoning with the group when things get difficult, she always does her work when she says she will and works well in a team. 

Elsie has often caused a lot of arguments due to uneccessary gossiping. 

Although this unit has been difficult at times it has been great learning different aspects of setting up a business and I've enjoyed that side of things, and I also like the way that the majority of our group came together in the end and produced some really well thought out work, I enjoyed working with most of our group members and hope to work with some of them again one day. 

Creating a Website

I have created a website mock up for our brand Frey, the website shows our contemporary, modern and minimalistic style using a few of the selected colours we chose for our colour palette. The images show just an outline of what our website would look like if it was officially up and running. At the top we would have different links to our collections, lookbooks, and a little information about our company. 

Since our niche brand is quite specialised and focuses a lot on safety features and extra accessories that customers can add on their bags I decided to add this as a main feature on our website. I thought that people can click on the link and it could direct you straight to lots of different accessories that you can add to the bags. 

I have incorporated some of Marko's bag designs to the website as they would be on the final finished website if we were creating a live website. Ive incorporated both patterned and non patterned designs to give a taster of what we as a brand would have to offer. 

The image above shows extra added details that our brand could offer such as little note books, pencils, rubbers and lookbooks that customers can purchase from us or that we can add as a little touch for when people purchase an item.

I have incorporated contact details at the bottom of our website and also links to social media sites so that potential customers can see what we are al about. 

Business Cards, Key Rings & Swing tags

This week I used Adobe Illustrator to create business cards for our niche brand, the images below show the illustrator files, although they all look similar when they are printed they are slightly different sizes. 

Amanda and I decided to get the business cards laser cut, Amanda also decided that it would be nice to get our logo laser cut into some key-rings to add an extra personal touch to our brand.

Business card samples

In the image above we were testing the white card to see if it would laser cut well for our business cards, the paper cut well however it just didn't look professional enough to use for our final business card. 

Final Business cards

The image above shows our final business cards we chose to use a thicker black card as it cut better and it overall looked more professional. The image above isn't a clear representation of how successful the cards turned out. I used our final logo and adapted it a little so that it would cut out better when laser cut, the logo worked well laser cut and if I were to change anything I would make the lines thicker, the logo a little smaller and the writing a tiny bit clearer. As a prototype I think the cards were a success. 

Final Key-ring

The image above shows the final key-ring, the idea was that we could give them out as a gift with our bags, they are simple yet represent our brand well with our name and our distinctive logo.

Swing tags and Receipt 

 Amanda designed these swing tags and receipt for the branding side of the business. They look very smart professional they are also modern and minimal looking which is the image we are going for overall.

Website research

I have been looking into how to lay out a website to give me some inspiration for when we create a mock up website for our group. I feel as though it is important to get across the image of our brand and to make sure it is clear that we are a sports brand. The images above show some screen shots from the luxury high end sportswear brand Lucas Hugh, the brands website is very clear and minimal which is what we are going for as a brand. The website is very clear and concise and I think we can use some of these elements within our website as it is very well presented and very easy to understand. 

I looked at other website layouts such as the brand above called Falke, the website layout is again very clear however I don't think the layout would be good for our brand as it is alot more cluttered. I like the way each website has the brands contact details and social media links at the bottom of each page, I think this is definitely something to incorporate in with our brand website. 

Consumer Profile

Today I created a unisex consumer profile for Frey sport. Our target age is 25-40, our consumers would be quite active people, they would be an adrenaline seeker who is free and young at heart. The consumer would be quite comfortable financially, they are image/fashion and environmentally conscious. They are into their health and may appear quite sporty and athletic.

Our consumer is most likely to live in the city in a modest apartment, in a long term relationship yet does not yet have children. They maintain a very good job one where perhaps they have travelled a lot they are the kind of person to go for the slightly higher end product in order to get the best quality, practical, high end item. 

Business Plan

Amanda, Nikita and I are all in charge of writing the business plan, I have been writing step 1&2, Amanda step 3 and Nikita has been writing step 4&5. It has been quite challenging writing the business plan as I didn't realise how much actually goes into a business as I've never thought about it in great detail before. Writing the business plan has made me realise how good our brand could be or how good the idea actually is, it has also made us as a group think in more detail at areas of our brand that we need to make stronger and pay more attention to. 

Mission statement 

Our companies mission is to design and make a variety of sports bags using ethical and environmentally friendly materials and practices. We aim to use a minimum of 70% recycled sustainable waist for our product, labels, packaging and marketing.  Our brand is a company that gives back so as a brand we aim to give a percentage of our profits to underprivileged kids to get them into sports, we also aim to donate some of our profits into a charity that helps improve our environment.

Our product is both beneficial to the buyer and our environment in that we offer a luxury sports bag that retains the style and quality of your typical high-end bag yet is made ethically out of recycled materials.

I have been using our mission statement as a guide to help me write the business plan as I keep going back to it and reflecting on wha we really want our brand to achieve, the aim is to reflect this throughout the business to keep our brand consistent and strong.

Logos and Colour Palette

Colour palette options

Marko and Chloe are the groups product developers, they created these two colour palette boards. We want our bags to appeal to all genders so as a group we decided to pick out the best colours from each board. We all agreed that the pink in the second image was too bright to go on the outside of the bag and much preferred the subtlety of the orange in the first image however we still wanted to use the pink somehow. We decided to compromise and create two colour palettes one for the inside lining of the bag which could be incorporated in with a print and one for the outside of the bag. 

The image on the right shows the two final colour palettes we agreed on, still using quite  simple palette for the outside of the bag to appeal to everyone while hopefully still keeping the bag quite modern and stylish we decided to give the bag a vibrant twist on the inside to make the bag more appealing and exciting. The final colours we chose will be used throughout our brand image which includes websites, apps, and any social media pages as well as being incorporated in our shop layout. 

Adapting the logos

Although Amanda an I are in charge of creating the logos Dani had also created a logo that she was quite adamant we use. I thought the best way to try and overcome this hurdle was to try and come up with a strong logo that incorporates all of our ideas. 

Amanda's Logo Designs

Dani's Logos

The logos below show the adapted logo designs I created using Adobe Illustrator, the aim was to try and incorporate everyones logo design ideas to try and create a logo we are all happy with and proud to show off. Amanda's logos were very contemporary and quite futuristic and although toned down i tried to incorporate this within the font of each logo, I then incorporated the F from my logo still connecting the logo with our brand name while keeping the logo quite modern. Dani's logo incorporates a mountain and I personally feel as if this has been extremely over used within other sports brands especially specialist sports brands however I tried to come up with some other mountain ideas and designs that I thought might look different and make our brand stand out more and look more individual.

My logos

Despite putting alot of effort/meaning into each logo Amanda and I have created our work went unappreciated as the group didn't really take time to consider any of our ideas. Amanda and I decided that it would probably be best just to go with Dani's logo as it saves arguments and it consumes less of our time as we have alot of other work to be focusing on as well and we can't keep going back and forth with logo designs. 

Recycled Ethical Fabrics

I have been looking into companies that create or use recycled materials and I came across Ecoalf the company started in 2009, the idea of the company was to create a fashion brand that is truly sustainable. The company discovered that we were using 5 times more natural recourses than the planet is able to generate, this drove the companies need for change. The company recycle discarded fishing nets, plastic bottles, tyres, post consumer coffee, cotton and wool. 

The company use recycled bottles and plastic for their products with the intention of cleaning up some of the plastic islands focusing on the island in the North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic and the Indian ocean. Fishing nester one of the greatest killers in the oceans. The nets congregate driven by strong winds and currents. To create fabric out of plastic bottles the bottles are first collected and passed through a series of steps of cleaning, and crushing to obtain plastic flakes which through a mechanical process are then converted into polyester spun fibres that are manipulated to obtain the final quality. These recycled fibres are then used to develop fabrics, labels, straps, laces etc. 

Fishing nets are made of synthetic materials, which decay slowly and they often drift for years destroying the environment around it in its process. Many of them end up caught on reefs, they catch fish, turtles, crustaceans, birds and mammals. They also destroy hard and soft corals, wiping out complete ecosystems while swaying in the current. Although removing the nets can be costly and time consuming Ecoalf see the process as conserving our environment while creating sustainable fashion that can be worn for style and practicality. Fishing nets have some of the worlds best nylon quality and are often recycled into various different fabrics. 

The images below show some of the items from the Ecoalf Lookbook.

Ecolaf use some of the hardest materials to recycle and transform them into practical, wearable, fashionable garments that are both affordable and environmentally friendly. Ecolaf are a good company to look into and I have learnt alot about what they do and how various different materials affect our environment and I feel as though we can learn alot from this brand especially because our brand Frey aims to create sports bags using similar methods. 

http://ecoalf.com/uk_en/lookbook

Brand Strategy

Over the past few days I have been looking/researching into brand strategist to help me understand my role better and to refine our brand more. I found a good website (http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77408) that has been really helpful to look at. Looking up branding has made me realise that as a group we need a stronger identity for our brand, something that will make us stand out and become more niche as this will then attract buyers. 

I came up with the idea of making our winter sports bags out of recycled materials whilst still keeping the high end high quality feel to them. The idea being that our company would be promoting innovative high textiles using sustainable waist,  the theory behind this is that people who partake in winter sports are out making the most of their environment so keeping it healthy by recycling should appeal to them. As a group we had previously discussed that we wanted our company to be ethical I think using recycled materials and or off cut fabric pieces to create our bags would make our company extremely unique. 

Amanda and I had the idea that our company could also give back, we decided that a percentage of our profits would go back into the company, a small percentage would go back to the environment and finally a small percentage would go to underprivileged kids to get them into sports. 

When speaking to the group about this idea they all agreed it would be beneficial in making our brand niche and more appealing to our buyer we agreed to do some more research into recycled materials to help us understand how we can work with them. Creating these high end sports bags would mean the buyer could indulge in a good quality luxury sports bag without feeling guilty or overindulgent. 

Once I finished defining our brand in more detail I decided to play around with logo ideas, one thing I have learnt alot about branding so far is the importance of being consistent, everything has to link and flow nicely for the brand to make any sense. I decided to try and link the name of our brand in with the logo design as we chose the name Frey for it's meaning (image on the left) and the connection it could have with our brand. Frey also known as Freyr was the Norse god of prosperity and peace, I thought these symbols could be incorporated some how into our brands logo design. The Norse god Frey/r was one of the most powerful Norse gods who had alot of power over the weather and in turn the environment which fits in well with our recycled sports bags. Incorporating the meaning of our brand name not the logo is quite important as it is a big representation of our brand and what it stands for so I think it would be nice for that to be recognised in some way. 

The image above shows some of the logo designs I created using some Norse symbols that linked in with the meaning and definition of the name Frey. The logos on the right incorporate the Norse peace symbol, the logos on the left incorporate the symbol of prosperity and the logos on the top left incorporate the F which was the symbol for the god Frey. I have mainly used light grey and blue tones as this is what we agreed our brand colour palette would be. I plan on showing these logos to the group in our next meeting to get their views and opinions on the logos. 

London trip

This week we went to London to do some research into sportswear brands that are currently on the market as they would be our competition for our brand. We decided to look at some of the ways in which they were advertising their brands through shop layouts, window displays and even through clever packaging to give us a better understanding on what we need or could do to improve our brand and the overall image. While in London we looked at various different shops both sports and non-sports shops. It's quite clear that currently sportswear and staying fit and healthy is very fashionable especially amongst young people. This was very beneficial to us as it meant that we could walk into shops like Gap (seen in the image above) and look at what they have to offer and how this relates to our brand. Although Gap don't offer many sports bags it was good to see how they presented the shop floor and their garments, they showed a very clear layout/formation and a very strong colour palette. I think we can definitely take some ideas from Gap to use in our shop layout, visiting Gap also gave me a good indication of how we can pair up our brands bags with different outfits and styles. 

Looking at different window displays has actually proved tone very interesting. Selfridges had some amazing window displays some of them were to do with sports like the image on the left, however each display had something about them that would draw you in. the colours in this display made it stand out, the layout was also extremely simple which was very affective. I've learnt that when it comes to window displays simplicity and colour are key, Selfridges have used the simplest ways to convey their message/ideas which has created brilliant displays and advertisements, which is something I think we can use for our niche brand Frey. 

I really love this display (image on the right) it is another Selfridges window display, I thought it was quite clever as they used toiles and pattern pieces within the display which I think is really nice to see. Yet again the display is very simple but at the same time it feels quite honest because the garments aren't perfectly finished and developed. The complete process of the garment is shown on display from the pattern pieces to the toiles and then finally the finished product. I think it's a lovely refreshing way of presenting something, they made an ordinary jacket alot more interesting to the passers by. 

Creating a survey

Over the last few meetings we have been writing down questions that we needed to know from potential consumers to help us make our brand stronger and to identify the needs of our customers. Elissa and chloe took all of our thoughts and questions and turned them into a very clear survey that we shared via our individual Facebook pages and the Frey pages. So far we have received quite alot of responses from the survey and will soon be looking at the results. 

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/9XXCTVJ

Social media

Today the people in our group who are in charge of the social media aspects for our company created an Instagram, Facebook and Twitter account to promote our brand and get our ideas and images out there for everyone to see. The pages consist of some of the work we have done as a group such as moodpboard, colour palettes, initial logos and winter sports imagery. 

The pages include images and videos of famous athletes showing off their winter sports skills, the pages are designed so that potential customers get a feel of what are company is about and who we are targeting. I think they are played out nicely and shows very clearly what we are about as a company, I do think that we need to advertise our niche a bit better throughout the pages so that it is clear how we stand out from other similar brands. 

Business Plans

Today we had a lecture about business plans and how to make our brand stronger, we had a look through different zines from previous years. This was good as it give us an idea of what to focus on for our brand and what makes a good strong brand, we also talked about what needed improving in some of the zines and from that we focused on what needed improving within our brand. When then started to focus more on our business and started to fill out a business model canvas, as a group we struggled to fill this form out as it started to become clear that our brand idea wasn't clear and we weren't quite sure what made our brand different to the usual winter sports bags.  I have decided that as my role is branding I will look into other brands and research alot into what branding is and how to create a good brand to see if I can come up with any ideas on how to make our concept stronger to help us progress and move forward.