Final Major Project Evaluation

When looking back on my final major project proposal, although I have evolved and adapted many elements significantly, my main ‘Project Outline’ has stayed very concrete and accurate through out this entire process that was a primary goal of mine. The main focus of my project was to create an editorial and beauty coffee table stylebook that, through make up, hair and fashion styling gave those of all ages, male and female, the confidence and strength to belief in themselves and gave them inspiration to create their own ‘superhero self’.

At the beginning of this project I knew that, to create a book, time management would be a vital skill. Although I was a little off schedule compared to the ‘Plan of Action’ in my proposal, I think that staying as close to this as possible, reflecting back to it and seeing mentors every week considerably helped to keep the whole process more under control than in previous units I have undertaken at university. For example incidences have occurred in previous years where my time management became a lower priority. Therefore my work appeared rushed and something I was not proud of and the grades reflected this. From the beginning of third year I planned to make a new start and really knuckle down as I did not want this experience to happen again.  

Frequent communication with mentors and other peers is also one thing that I think has given me solid guidance and understanding of how to push my ideas further, even if at times the constructive criticism was hard to take it and stressful to deal with, it made me work harder and improve each concept academically and practically as well as my own skills.

As well as this preparing in advance, such as contacting photographers over the Christmas break, was something that, I think, helped to strengthen my performance as I knew I had begun to make connection and collaborate with reliable, professional people that could support me. This too is something that I have learnt to really consider as in previous units I have taken images myself that were not as professional and beautiful as I envisaged but due to this unit and collaborating I do feel my photography skills have gained significantly.

Although this was a positive to my performance there were also many a time when issues occurred due to not thinking as thoroughly I should have. Getting clear dates for models and photographer to co inside was extremely stressful as a few incidences happened when models would cancel last minute. Reflecting back on this I now see that I have learnt that there is no point wasting time panicking or crying, which did happen on a few occasions, but to get right to the problem and solve it which is something that, before this unit, I had never been able to do alone. I feel this is because I have gained such independence during my time at university and have faced many problems that, in the end, I manage to over come.

Something else I noticed when reflecting back to my proposal was that, I originally wanted my book to be of a large portrait size. This changed the more research I did on layouts and my competitors, advice from mentors and exhibitions I attended. I am now very pleased with having chosen a large square as this makes the book the contemporary, eye catching, coffee table style, beauty focused theme that I had hoped to achieve.

Another issue that I discovered was the amount of different elements I had thought I was capable of during the writing of my proposal which looking back was quite unrealistic. I found out during the testing period of my process that I had to change the path of my project slightly. This was by removing most of the special effects elements as I felt as though, not only was my special effects work not up to a high, quality standard I wanted but that my book was becoming a little mixed and was straying away from the editorial, beauty aspects I really needed to be my main focus for the viewer. This is something that in the future I plan to work on further to develop more skills in the special effects area of make up. I plan on going back to the LifeCast Ltd special effects company at Elstree Studio where I completed my work based learning unit to do this.

I have also learnt many new valuable skills through this whole process that I can now use in my future careers and within the industry. I have really tried to push myself this unit into uncomfortable territories that I knew, as a make up artist, I needed to get over and face my fears of. For example working on people other than relatives and friends but unfamiliar faces. Not only has this made me gain a better understanding of different face, lips and eye shape but also given me confidence to talk and work with new people, which after many challenging and long days of trials and shoots wasn’t as scary and intimidating as I thought. This prejudgement and over thinking aspect of myself is something that I am very aware of and is a real issue for me but I feel as though I have begun to develop this for the better.

I feel as though my IT skills have also developed considerable over this unit, especially after attending the helpful IT lessons supplied. This has never been a strength of mine as I do struggle with technology at times due to not being as patient as I should be. I have the tendency to panic when I get confused and I don’t learn as quickly as I hope to. This often lets my work down so I decided early on to really focus on learning these techniques such as Photoshop, InDesign and social media concepts. I now feel that I can confidently work with these programs to create the basics and I am now planning to continue to learn post-university to develop this even more as I have purchased the programs on my own laptop. To now have these skills also looks very good on a CV, which I can now add to mine as many job requirements in the make up industry, such as PR or assistant positions, contains IT skills such as these. Another element and previous unit that, I found, helped with this project was the trend package we had to create at the beginning of third year. I used this new skill to help me research in depth through out my major project as well as writing the intro to my book using websites such as WGSN and Trendstop for inspiration and guidelines. Trend forecasting is something I hope to continue in the future in my own time as it was something I found very interesting and enjoyable.

A main threat that I could not have foreseen was illness and personal issues. During my scheduled weeks of shoot I managed get the flu which I tried to push through but knew it was not wise to make my condition worse or even spread it to my creative team. I decided to think realistically and professionally and took a short time to recover. Although I did not waste this valuable time and instead spent hours on the phone re scheduling date and models. This was a very stressful and frustrating period but it was a good lesson as this is a possibility in the make up industry and health and safety has to be considered.

The challenge I think I under estimated the most was the difficultly and stress of actually producing a book as my final piece. Initially, I naively assumed that this would be simple but I was very much mistaken. The fear of the printing company not being reliable with delivery or the painful wait for the book to arrive, the paper or inking not being the high quality I need for my images, the struggle to find companies that printed books of an unusual size at a affordable price and the software to create the layout being too confusing and technically for me were just a few issues that I had not foreseen. I think found this so very difficult because the process of printing, once order, was out of my hands and I was not in control of my project for that period of time. Although this was an incredibly stressful process it was a very enlightening experience that I can now take forward in the future to always work hard and be prepared for anything to have its possible problems.

This process and experience has had many ups and downs that I have really learnt from and can now leave university with and, as a result of this, I am extremely proud of my final piece. I know I have worked on this harder than I have ever worked on a unit at university and feel as though this is the start of my path into the make up and hair industry and where I begin to make further improvements. If I had more time I would have liked to have developed my book further into a digital version as well as perhaps creating more concepts of superpowers using a wider age range of models to gain a wider target market interest. I also hope to re awake my make up artist website that I developed in the freelance and industry management unit by using the images created during this project to promote my work and to one day become a successful make up artist or designer.

Final Book Arrival!

Its finally arrived! All printed and bounded and the relief to finally have this in my hands is an amazing feeling. The three years of a lot of hard work has really paid off and I have gained so many skills, especially through this unit, that I never dreamed I would be able to do such a photography and editing. 

I think I completely under estimated the difficultly and challenge of creating a book would be. From having to research and rely on a certain high standard printing company, both on look and styles they would provide to the agonising wait of delivery time, to getting tests prints and designing the layout to choosing the texture and size of every element such as the front cover to paper. Its been a long and stressful process but one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences I have had to date and I am so proud of what I have achieved through this unit from creating the concept, in depth and primary researching, collaborating, designing, scheduling and organising, editing and creating the final outcome.

As my book has arrived a few days prior to the due day I have been really picky and over analytical of sections, such as if the spine of the book is too simple or if the editing is to a high enough standard, and the more I do the more I have been panicking as, with a book, its not something I can change last minute. I decided to show the final product to other students and also random people similar to my target market or who I do not know around university for a less biased opinion and this really helped to calm me down. I also need to remember that this is just the beginning of my professional journey and, considering I did not think I would be able to go to university, let alone get to this point, I am so proud of what I have achieved professional, academically and personally through this unit. I now feel ready to get into the real world and start my journey into the industry.  

I am so pleased with the 30cm square size of the book, it stands out and creates such as impacting statement when glanced at and matches the coffee table style layout I had envisaged from the start. The hardback semi gloss and semi matte effect I chose for the front cover has worked incredibly well to capture the whole ethos of the symbolic colour palette I created and subtly shines to give that professional finish to it as well as a smooth, soft texture when in my hands.

 Once opened the inking of the images has been refined with clarity as I specified many a time to the printers which was one of my most feared aspects as the images needed to be visually very clear and beautiful to capture the essence of the super power being conveyed in each chapter. I was very concerned that the images would be of low resolutions as I did have issues with the software that the printing company supplied but solved this issue as I liaised with the company frequently to understand the software more and got advice from my photographer and a few peers using the same software. I am so pleased with the choice of proline pearl photo paper as the shine brightens the image to life and gives all the hard work I've done that final detailed finish that it needed. I wanted the book and pages to really shine to convey the 'Superaura' and glow of emotions that my viewers need to reawaken in their lives as that is a huge part of my concept. I hope that this style of book gives that welcoming feeling that my reader will want to touch and be touched by.

Each chapter turned out much better than I had expected, my favourite chapters have to be either 'Flight' or 'Immortality'. I feel that 'Flight' captures the super aura of flying through every aspect very strongly from lighting that I had researched in my proposal, the dramatic make up and hair, strong pose and striking styling. Although 'Immortality' for me, is the one that conveys the most beauty and elegance and my skills as a make up and hair designer. It captures the colour symbolic meaning of gold that I throughly researched and the final outcome conveys the strong, regal immortal like status I hoped for. 

I am so happy with the exposure, saturation and the hues of the colours in each concept from the symbolic colour that introduces each chapter to the final images. At first I was worried that I hadn't spread many images over the space of two pages but this was a great decision not too as this is not a flat lay book and parts of the images would have been lost in the crease. 

Although I was initially over thinking the spine of the book, when placed amongst others and pulled out I love the sudden unexpected design that you see. When a viewer pulls the book out they may expect something simple and bland but the further it comes out the more interesting and dynamic the front cover can be seen. This will hopefully incise the viewer to take a closer look inside. I am also very happy with the extra photography images I took just to give it that real make up and beauty style to the book, to break up all the portrait images a little and also show another skill that I have gained over my time at university. 

Overall, I am delighted with the final outcome of my book. I am aware there are aspects that I now really want to work on to improve my skills further for the future such as returning to Elstree studios where I completed my work based learning hours to received more special effects training and also taking photoshop and Indesign lessons from my photographer where I could elaborate these images further. 

My final major project has challenged me both creatively and mentally. It has given me huge opportunities such as developing being a make up and hair artist, a creative director, a photographer, a editor, fashion stylist and a model scout that I would not have been able to do anywhere else at such an early stage in my journey. 

This book has pushed me so far out of my comfort zone at times and in doing so made me a more confident person that needs to believe in herself more just like the underlining messages I hope to give to the viewers. It has boosted my passion and love for this industry that I hope to keep with me wherever the path may take me. 

Final Book Layout Design

After a lot of designing and researching others that have created make up style books or coffee table styles I have finally completed my layout. I have decided to create a hardback, large square formatted book of 30cm x 30cm, similar sizing to the book 'FASHION: The Ultimate Book of Costume and Style' as this gives me the chance to incorporate clear close up images as well as good sized portrait images together. This will give my viewer a chance to see a small variety of each concept in a different angle. I also am reassured by this idea after Sharon posted on the Facebook group the best and more interesting sizes for coffee style books which included a large square. 

I have also decided to spend a little more on very good, quality proline pearl photo paper. Not only is it very strong but the shine enhances the final images and is much better to print on for that final professional look. 

To write my introduction I took inspiration and guidelines from the skills we learnt in our professional context unit. When developing my trend package, at the start of third year, I found websites such as WGSN very useful to help to write an incising, interesting and informative bit of creative writing that I needed to introduce the start of my book. 

My inspiration, as well as coming from the Vogue exhibition I attended, came from books such as the competitor book I mention in my proposal 'Make Up is Art', 'Faceprint' by Liza Eldridge and 'Miles of MAC' which too combines beauty close up and mid length images thought out the book which makes the book far more enjoyable to view. 

As well as this the book, 'Tom Ford' by Tom Ford, laid images out with borders just to either side rather than all the way around which I think makes the image wider and clear to view rather than wasting space and shrinking the size of the image to have borders all the way around. Another book that does this is the book 'Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty', which I purchased at his exhibition a the V&A last year. The left and right sides of some of their images have slim white boarders but the image fills up the rest of the entire page. I have also chosen a font that encaptures the strong, stance of a super hero style comic but also have the fine lines and detailing that will still keep within the beauty theme.

I have now made all amendments, spell checks, edits and advice given to me by mentors and also other students as I wanted as many opinions as possible. I also got advised by a few student photographers to ask for PDF version of my book before purchasing as this gives an accurate look of the final book. I am very glad I did this as I had to amend a few little errors such as text going off the page. I now need to send off my book to be published to make sure I have lots of time to receive it before the hand in date. I have also shown those outside of the industry to get there opinion as they are my target market and a huge part of this project.  

Test: Still Life Image Trials

After a sleepless night and a lot of stress over this new, additional concept of adding some still life beauty and make up images for the finalising touch but with a lot of ideas in my head I decided to get up early and spend the whole day and evening in the studio. I took a variety of products to test with as well as hiring a macro lens from the hatch in the basement of university. 

For the first time ever I went all by myself as normally I have a model or someone else to help me so this was quite a scary prospect for me. Luckily I had the studios on the fourth floor all to myself and gave myself the whole day so that I had no clock watching and stress which I actually really enjoyed. As well as this, Chris Overend was available now and again to help me out a little which was very reassuring.

Reflecting on this experience, I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the final outcome and really enjoying shooting myself with a macro lens on a camera. I was glad I bought quite a few different products in as this gave me a wider range of items and looks to test. I am really glad I did this and took Jane's advice as, although I was very apprehensive, this now shows another skill that I am capable of rather than just portraits or people. I also took Elizabeth's advice to shoot in studio rather that on location which I think was a great idea. Shooting in studio blends in with all my other images rather that creating shots on location that don't match my other images. I now feel like once these are edited I have achieved so much more that I thought I was capable and am now so excited and nervous so compose my book.

Bubbles with Food Coloured 

As you can see the bubbles above were not that successful at all. The camera would not focus on them in time as they blended too much into the background before they floated to the ground or popped. I tried this on black background too and the overcome with very similar. This was a shame as I had thought this would be the most simple look but it was much harder than expected. I am glad I tested this though as I now know that adding food colouring, in this case orange, didn't change the colour of the bubble at all which I thought it would.  

Inspiration for below images: 

Colour is an art. Tribute to Jackson Pollock. Made with LE VERNIS DE CHANEL.

Marbled Nail Vanish of Symbolic Colour Palette

This was one of my most successful tests and ones that after some editing in photoshop I am really considering using as a front cover or inside image. I chose colours that were all in my colour symbolic language to keep in theme. I spiralled all the different colours to create a paint palette art effect serval times between each shot depending which colour needed more or less, this made it quite a long process as well as getting the lighting to hit the golds and shine of the nail vanish in the right way. This was very successful and fun to experiment with and I think that all the colours are impacting making as well contrasting beautifully.

Added Glitter 

After I had completed all my nail vanish marbling images I wanted to experiment with some glitter or additional sparkle for that star like shine. For some images the light caught the multi coloured glitter nicely but for others they just looked like dark dots which wasn't the look I wanted. I also tested the dripping paint effect down a canvas with different types of lighting, this again quite artistically worked in some shots which I loved the look of as it really captured the make up and art beauty I was trying to catch but for others this just looked messy as the coloured blended together. 

Inspiration for images below: Powder Brush with powder product as well as front cover of 'The Make Up Book' by Joy Terri

Golden Pigment with Make Up Brush 

These images were another set that I really liked and very surprised with. As gold is a huge colour in my symbolic colour palette, it caught the make up, brush and glitter all very clearly and beautifully keeping in theme with my book. I think the macro lens was great for this as each hair a piece of glitter can be see as well as the tiny specs of gold pigment I covered the brush and paper in. I am considering editing these further in photoshop and placing these in the inside first page of my book to interest my viewer as well as give them a clue as to what its about. 

Powdered Bombs

The powdered bombs were really interesting to test with. They created a big planet like effect when zoomed in very closely the rough surface appeared very similar to images I have seen of the moon or in galaxy images which I loved the feel and vibe of as this fits the out of this world superpower theme my book also contains. I also shot the image so that the light shone from the front and so I took the image slightly from the back to just trial different lighting effects. Although these images need quite a lot of editing to be worth of adding to the book I would like to place them somewhere appropriate if possible. I do like the natural vibrance of the colours and how they contrast against each other. 

Tutorial with Jane & Elizabeth: Still Life Photography

After a productive easter break and a lot to discuss with a tutor I decided to have a tutorial with Jane. This was very helpful as she liked my final images and could clearly see the meaning of all my images and concepts. She did suggest using the liquify tool on photoshop to make some of my models slimmer and the overall image neater as well as brightening a few areas which I intend to do now. As well as this she went over my text and fixed any spelling errors and gave some constructive advice on perhaps adding a more intellectual and spiritual quote into my front page. 

Jane and Elizabeth then began to elaborate further and suggested, as a final touch, the idea of perhaps creating a few beauty still life images as a front cover or to start the book to break up the pages a little. At first I felt absolutely terrified at the concept and very overwhelmed but as they showed me a few examples from references, such as the Insight Instagram account and the Holi celebration, of what they meant I found it interesting and decided to give it a try and at least test this idea as I did still have some time before I had to send it off. They suggested using the elements such as fire, wind and water or keeping the beauty and make up style , which I preferred the sound of as this is what my book is all about, using powders, bubbles, sparkles and other interesting products to keep in theme with my book. 

I now plan to test both on location and in studio these still life ideas as it would be nice to have a front cover that was of my own photography. I am a little concerned that this may take away some of the make up based style of book I am trying to create including still life but I still plan to test and experiment to see the outcome. I am also worried as my budget is very stretched at the moment and I need to be careful of that too. As well as this I need to have time to get my book printing but even so I definitely intend of testing this idea. 

After my tutorial I purchased some products to experiment with such as bath bombs, coloured pigments, powder paints, bubbles, glitter and food colouring to test and take some images of to see what effects I can get with each. Unfortunately I could not find any sparkles due to the time of year. 

Brainstorming FMP Title

The last few days I have been feeling extremely overwhelmed and have constantly been doubting myself. This is something that I know I do far too much. I want to achieve the best and perfect outcome as I have been working so hard but I feel that due to this I put myself under way too much stress and pressure that I get myself worked up into such a mess and this can effect my work. 

This term and especially during this unit I have tried very hard to change this and remember the first lecture that Jennifer gave us at the start of third year about believing in ourselves and how we should aim high then we can achieve it which I have tried to do as much as possible when I get myself all worked up and feeling low. 

With this all in mind and going on I decided to clear my mind a little and create some brainstorming lists for a possible title that would fit my whole concept and would want the viewer to look further into the book.  

Above are just a few that I have begun to play around with. I wanted the a single word that was impact making and very strong. The title needs to consist of the super hero vibe of the overall content as well as the self belief, self esteem building and confident making images and feel using the colour symbolic language and style of make up, hair and fashion. I wanted the title to be beautiful and to roll of the tongue nicely as well as being a solid, new creative word or words that work together. 

My favourites are the ones highlighted with a bracket and star. The meanings are very close to the overall book intentions I want to achieve. Before I decide 100% I plan to see my mentor and maybe another to see their opinion and their guidance that could help me decide.

VOGUE 100: A Century of Style. Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

VOGUE 100 Exhibition

As I am now in the stages of designing my coffee table style book layout I was really worrying as I had a lot of ideas of how I was going to compose it but I wasn't sure if it was the right style for my book and I needed to know what would work the best. As this was the easter holidays I decided to attend the Vogue 100: Century of Style exhibition at the national portrait gallery in London. Although I know that Vogue is a magazine and I am creating a book I knew that this would still give me some great inspiration and insight into the layout of images focusing on make up as well as styling and hair. 

It was quite annoying as I was not allowed to take pictures during the exhibition but I made many notes of issues, such as March 1966 and June 1916, and front cover images that had very similar aspects to mine from the style of make up and colouring to the poses or hairstyle. I was also beginning to worry that perhaps I had made the wrong decision about not taking any full length images for my final book but after attending this and viewing the sort of images they take to advertise make up or cosmetic product I felt very reassured that I had definitely made the right choice as close up and mid length with subtle and beautiful poses were by far the most used style of image and it was only when the fashion styling was the main focus that they used full length and that is not what my book is all about. I have also begun to consider perhaps producing a square shaped book rather than portrait. Many of the images for make up were of square shape and this really defined the face with a high fashion feel as well as well as showing the make up in really fine detail.

I learn some very interesting facts and the change and overall variety of all the images photographers had taken, such as David Bailey, Cecil Beaton and Tim Walker, over the years since it begun in 1916 was so diversity and wide ranged which something I believe I have achieved in my final images. I also found that there is no perfect image for everyone. In the creative industry it seems to be impossible to please everyone and this is something that can be really get me down on my own work at times. This exhibition was very enlightening as so many people liked on image but then hated another that someone loved, it can be seen as all a matter of a opinion. 

I also found that the combination of full spread pages next to images with a whiten or black boarder were very commonly used and this gave such a high class and profession look to their magazines. I am so glad I attended this exhibition as I now feel very confident in my images and how I will test laying them out. I now intend to test this with my own images until I am 100% with the final look and I will check this serval times before sending off for printing. I also purchased a book that I will reference back to frequently when going through this process just for that extra bit of guidance.