Cosmetics advertising

My most recent assignment involved creating two bus shelter posters for a cosmetics product, there were other options I could have selected from the brief and originally I had decided to work on a mobile phone network campaign. After sharing some of my ideas which I thought were a good starting point, the feedback I got wasnt so positive...

It was then I decided to switch my idea and work on the cosmetics campaign, I had this idea about organic makeup and I wanted to apply the makeup to flowers. I researched the market and found lots of reference to flowers and products shown alongside them but nothing that showed the makeup applied to the flowers, as I had changed my idea at a late stage and so close to the deadline I quickly started with some test shoots and experimented with my idea.

The first test proved that it was going to be difficult to dress the flowers and actually make them look nice and not like they've been coloured in by some 4 year old with a set of crayons, I talked my housemate into helping me and we spent the night experimenting with the makeup and came to the conclusion that seeing the nail polish dripping out of the flower was the most effective.

 

 

I chose the daffodil as it represented spring time and my campaign was to promote a new spring collection, the difficulty I had with the nail polish campaign was that it didnt work as a package. The nail polish was bright and colourful and I couldn't find an organic range to match that style, this meant that the flower only represented spring and not the organic product. The bright coloured range also would be marketed to a younger audience who wouldn't necesserilly be interested in this kind of imagery.

I then decided to use the ideas I had from another test shoot using botanical bath oils, this approach made much more sense and the campaign worked much better. These are the two posters I submitted, I feel that in the end my final images were a some what watered down version of what I had imagined from the start however this is where my idea develop and working process lead me.

 

 

 

Hard Times By Paul Wenham-Clarke

Paul is one of my tutors and he recently shot a series titled Hard Times, the project documents a variety of Big Issue sellers and is part of their celebrations as this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Big Issue. Paul was kind enough to invite us to the private view in Trafalgar Square and I'm glad we went as it was a really good evening, I was so busy thinking how cool it was to be going that I under estimated the significance of the event and didn't know what to expect. 

It totally changed my opinion of the big issue and I was moved by Paul's speech as working on the project clearly opened his eyes to the realness of some of these peoples situations, the series has some powerful images supported by some brief descriptions about the people and their lives. It made me think about how photography can be used in such a positive way to really make a difference in society, I thought about how amazing it must feel for Paul to know that he played his part in this project and as well as changing other peoples lives he also gained something personal from it also... I want to know how that feels.

Time lapse

Me and my two housemates regularly discuss each others assignments and we help each other develop ideas and concepts which is cool because I often find it easier to think freely and more creatively about other peoples assignments, typical that I cant do it for my own but I think its maybe because I put too much pressure on myself when its my own work. These talks that we have often help me to think outside of my uni work and bring me back down to earth where I can treat photography more like a hobby again.

As part of one of their assignments we've been looking at time lapse video sequences and the other night we went out to do a quick little test, this clip is one of the end results and it has definitely inspired me to take it further and do some of my own experiments soon.

 

Time_lapse_car.mov Watch on Posterous

Coffee and night projects

Toby Smith was a guest speaker at my university and he showed a series titled light after dark, it shows all 32 of Englands power stations shot at night. He described himself as a night person and was well aware of the fact that he was way more productive late at night then he was during the day. I also work in this way and it made me realise that planning shoots of this nature will help me to re-establish some enthusiasm in my work, I remember I had worked my way through college this way and often joked with my tutor about being up late with the candle and cheese. Time to get planning...

 

Gary Salter

Gary Salter was a guest speaker at my university and I found his work colourful, funny and full of character. Gary has an amazing ability to create the images for the ideas that he visualises in his mind, whether it is a relatively simple and quick image or a large and complex group shot he invests lots of his own time and money into making his ideas come to life. This is something that I need to get better at, making notes from the rough ideas I have and then bringing them to life and I was able to see the potential in this method after seeing the successful results of some of Garys personal projects.

 

Adidas Classic

This is the sequence of layouts I submitted for my fashion classic assignment, the concept changed a number of times as I worked through the project and grew from just being about the trainers to including clothing as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you do when the music stops?

So many quotes, so many lyrics and so many beats But more than anything is the memories. The Streets really have been the soundtrack to my life and the latest and what is to be their last album "Computers and blues" was released in February and has yet again come at a time in my life which will most certainly be associated with the music, their albums always carry with them a heavy nostalgia that for me generates so many memories of people, places and emotions and they help me to keep them memories close. This weekend will be the 3rd and final time I see them live at Brixton in what is sure to be the climax of this journey, but when the music stops the memories will last forever.

"All races, many faces from places you've never heard of. Where you from, whats your name and what you on? Sing to the words, vex to the phat ones. The tribal drums, the suns rising. We all smile, we all sing." The Streets, Weak Become Heroes.