Project Evaluation

The theme of this project was more focused towards my preferred area of the make up industry. Fashion and Beauty imagery is something I am really into, which is a result of my love of both fashion magazines and fashion.  The brief required me to create a minimum of 6 images, two for an editorial spread, two for a day and night advertisement spread and finally two catwalk images. The guidelines were pretty slim with our only restriction being the brand we chose. The brands covered many different type of styles and I decided to go for a more clean and simple brand, Charlotte Tilbury. I thought that this specific brand would challenge me because I knew nothing about Charlotte herself or her brand. I wanted to steer away from typical brands such as Chanel, Illamasqua and Nars because I knew many people would be doing these brands.

My most enjoyable moment of this project now it’s complete and I can look back thoroughly would be a couple of things. Firstly, the brief instantly excited me, more than others have in previous projects. I was really looking forward to creating some amazing images that reflect my work and my style more than I had previously done. Secondly, I enjoyed being free with the whole project, although difficult, I enjoyed the research of SS16 trends and loved re watching some of the shows I had already seen as part of my research. Lastly, being able to travel made this project so much more interesting. I visited Exbury Gardens for my final shoot which was for my Editorial Images, driving through the New Forest and into Exbury Gardens was amazing, as I am a big lover of nature so I was really in my comfort zone. The gardens themselves were just as beautiful as the drive up.

I have learnt several new techniques during this project, specifically in Make Up and Hair master classes. This semester I decided to concentrate and try much harder at working on my hair skills which seems to have paid off. I can now say I have completed many hairstyles to a great standard and enjoyed it, for the first time in my university experience. I have particularly enjoyed learning S Waves and Beach Hair and the advanced plaiting lesson was amazing. My make up skills have grown immensely this semester, I have learnt little tricks and tips from staff such as tight lining and I have also improved my skin application techniques, which is a big plus for the style of images I have been creating.  

I would like to continue to develop many techniques I have used during this project, the most being my hair skills of course, there is still room for improvement which I hope to make next year! Lastly, I would like to go more in depth with eye make up application as this is an area I have no confidence so again, next year is the year I master eye make up.

I have spent a huge amount of time during this project looking at other people’s work and researching artists. My main person of interest was Charlotte Tilbury, as I haven’t particularly followed her work in the past, I needed to understand her style and what she was all about, I have now fallen in love with her style and work ethic as well as her brand. My research took me on many paths and journeys, I looked at many artists and designers such as Rachel Zoe, Jeremy Scott and Raf Simons and also looked at artists such as Val Garland and Pat McGrath. I have also spent time watching brand videos and looking online on Vogue to get a clear understanding and visual image of the current SS16 trends.

Charlotte as a professional artist influenced my work massively, her clean style and perfected face is something I love about make up. I think if you were to put both my images and Charlotte's together, you would see the influence she had, although my work would be slightly poorer than hers due to her incredible experience. Rachel Zoe and Jeremy Scott also had a huge impact on my final outcome of this project, as Charlotte has not got a clothing line which some of the other brands had, I found this difficult to link a trend to my brand so I started to create a collaborative idea, without Rachel and Jeremy my editorial images and catwalk images would not have turned out as well as they did. 

My most successful part of this project has to be the outcome of my Editorial shoot. I now feel I put more effort into this because I believed and was passionate about my idea and I think that reflects the outcome, which is a collection of seven images! I wanted to create something a little more magical and I desperately wanted to get out of the studio so I think this also played a part in the success of my images.

I encountered many problems throughout this project, particularly with the sourcing of locations. Persistence is key and eventually I found an amazing place which was great.  I also had many other problems such as models dropping out and very close to the deadline hand in for this project I found out I needed to use at least three models, meaning my one model for all categories wasn't going to cut it, so I had a struggle trying to source models in such a short space of time.

Problems always come with a solution, whether it takes a day or a week to find. My problems all had solutions which thankfully didn't eat up too much of my time, however, I have now learnt many lessons such as always checking the brief, specifically once a week just to ensure I am doing what I am supposed to do. I think some of the issue that arose during the projects have slightly affected my work, such as my location, as great as it was, was slightly off what I wanted but I had to compromise because I couldn't afford to pay to use a location.

If I was to re do this whole project I would most definitely stick with my original brand because I believe this is a reflection of me and my style of work and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would re do my advert images if I could, which I can’t now because I have no time but I am slightly unhappy with them but we can’t always be 100% happy with our work. 

Overall, this project has made me more confident in myself in regards to my skills and designing ability. I think all my images are of a good standard and I am happy with my marks for my assessment. I have found myself trying to be much more in depth with my posts and I am trying to be more reflective after receiving poor grades last semester as I know I can produce some good work but I feel my time management lets me down as I tend to prioritise certain projects which eventually makes my other projects unsuccessful. This semester I have divided my time between each of the three units as best I can and I have learnt that quality over quantity is better.