Inspired by the LCF x H&M Sustainability campaign, I wanted to create my own response exploring the idea of a sustainability's relationship with visual culture. The emphasis with the LCF x H&M campaign was predominantly on garment design, sourcing material and exploring ethical practices to further push forward the fashion industry- things I am personally interested in as a practitioner. After further researching area's of Visual Merchandising and Window Dressing in a wider sense, I was drawn to the magical worlds created by Bergdorf Goodman, New York store.
Over the summer and since returning to university I have been hugely interested in the idea of a 'fashion story'. I wanted to see if a narrative or concept could be translated through Visual Merchandising, to the same effect a story could be portrayed through graphic design. Despite not having the facility or materials to create my own objects, I decided to source relevant pre-made things and give it a go for myself, self-learning along the way
This was a vital opportunity for collaboration- one of which being a team of photographers. Looking back on Level 4, collaboration isn't something I did a lot, but that is something I really want to change going into Level 5.
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| Photo: Alec Aarons / Me setting up the window |
All of the images were shot at night to retain a ominous glow seeping out of the window. Two photographers accompanied me, Claire McClean shooting on Nikon D3000, and Alec Aarons shooting with a Fujifilm X100T. Both photographers have different aesthetic qualities and values that underpin them as a photographer. I wanted to explore both styles and see how each photographer interpreted the scene, whilst I was providing art direction and scene touch ups throughout. It was also interesting to direct the model, Cloe Stead, posing as a real life mannequin.
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| Photo: Alec Aarons / Model: Cloe Stead |
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| Photo: Alec Aarons / Model: Cloe Stead |
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| Photo: Claire McClean / Model: Cloe Stead |
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| Photo: Claire McClean / Model: Cloe Stead |
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| Photo: Alec Aarons / Model: Cloe Stead |
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| Photo: Claire McClean |
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| Photo: Claire McClean / Model: Cloe Stead |
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| House at night / Jen Lea |
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| Street View / Jen Lea |
In total the process from idea generation to the final shoot was only 2 days, with approximately 12 hours of set up/sourcing time. We chose to shoot at about 2 in the morning, giving us plenty of space on the road without cars coming by, along with a dark dewey lighting desirable to boost the vibrance of the scene along the street.
As I decided to improvise, I used a bedroom window bay in my student house for the shoot- a quite busy area in Hyde Park, Leeds. Countless people were passing by and stopping to watch us work, it was nice to explain the idea to a bunch of drunken strangers (and it go down well!). Looking back it was a shame not to incorporate a documentary side to the social aspect that came with a night time window instillation. After myself and fellow collaborators posted the final selection on social media, an overwhelming response came back which is encouraging to do more (possibly using snapchat as a form of small scale advertising?).
I have learnt project management skills and more technical aspects, including art direction and directing photographers and models. I had to improvise with directing the model, using mobile phones on speaker phone to communicate hands free through the glass. All of these little things I've learnt will allow future projects of this nature to be much more organised and technically executed, as the important of a sleek outcome is essential moving onto Level 5.
In the future I want to expand my time frame, allowing development on thoughts and pieces to follow the same narrative in a more creative way. Other elements of design which interest me is Typography and the production of large scale typography. Andrew Bryom - 'If H Was A Chair' is a huge influence to this, especially when dealing with creative problems such as neon.
Since conducting further research into window displays and specialist studio's such as Harlequin Design, I intend to start creating sketches and digital mock ups- prior to jumping into the finished piece. After processing the images I submitted a select few to country-wide zines, one being GUM in Glasgow. I felt this was a good opportunity to get my own work out there and explore another interest- editorial design for fashion communication.
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