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.