The summer research that I chose to work with was Fashion Editorial. I found it pretty hard to narrow down to an idea that hadn't already been done before, because the area is such a widely used subject. Here are my initial ideas and mind maps...
When thinking about possible target audiences, I realised that there are a lot of different people that are interested in the different areas of Fashion Editorial. I decided to stick to fashion students / graduates, as this particular age group would relate to myself and be a good base to work from.
In the studio, we were asked to come up with 5 possible pages for our website. As I hadn't found a solid idea just yet, I went with possible pages for an online magazine / fashion blog.
We were also asked to come up with possible homepage layouts, and then gather feedback from other people in the class.
My feedback was as follows:
- I'd probably go with the bottom left idea (most simple and effective)
- Will a background image take away from other content on the website?
- Good that you're working with grids already in your initial scamps
- Simple
- Easy to navigate
- How does the design reflect fashion editorial?
- What's the website for?
- Clear
- Strong ideas and visually strong
- Navigation needs to be clear
- Could make it like the magazine layout / cover
- The bottom left idea is well structured and balanced
- Perhaps include more imagery or info-graphics
- Navigation bar at bottom might not be very clear over different platforms (phones, tablets, etc) which might make people click off of it
- Clear and minimal
- Very good for easy navigation (just not the nav bar at the bottom)
After receiving my feedback, I found that quite a few people's feedback was annoyingly contrasting, for example the fact that a few people said that my navigation was clear and easy to follow, yet another person told me that my navigation needs to be clearer. I think that my feedback as a whole was really good, as people weren't too basic with it and I received quite a bit of constructive criticism. I think I might ask for some more feedback like this when I have some more relevant website sketches to my actual idea for web design. At the moment, it's hard to work on this feedback as it isn't relevant to my actual idea, however I can take note of what has been said for when designing my website. It seems that most people want me to follow the clear, simple and minimalistic approach.
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My housemate's sister was a fashion student and is a main inspiration for the kind of props, sets and ideas for the editorial shoots I can suggest to the target audience:
http://www.victoriacadisch.com
What are you trying to communicate? An idea, a concept, a message or a lifestyle?
I'm trying to communicate a lifestyle / concept or idea. It's hard to narrow it down, but the website will be communicating a lifestyle in fashion editorial photoshoots, whilst giving ideas and possible concepts to the reader.
What is your subject matter?
I have decided to produce a website, aimed at current fashion students and recent fashion graduates, helping them set up their own editorial fashion shoots off campus, using other facilities rather than what the uni gives them. The website will contain things such as sites for shooting (eg poppy fields, burnt down houses, etc), props they could take to shoots to make it editorial, props they could buy from the website, companies you can hire equipment from, examples of interesting editorial shoots at the sites suggested, etc.
Who is your audience or 'end-user'? What do you want to achieve and why?
My target audience is current fashion students and recent fashion graduates. I want to be help them achieve interesting fashion editorial shoots without the use of college / uni facilities - as they need to learn how to work in the real world, without the safety of university.
How will you use the creative potential of interactive technology to effectively deliver your content?
Using a website will help deliver my content, as it's a good media base for things like google maps (to find possible sites for fashion shoots), buying things online (props, paints, smoke bombs etc), showing a gallery of photographs, etc.
What is the most appropriate / effective form of content? Text, image or info graphics?
Images will be used mainly in my content, as the end user will be going out and creating their own images so will need a good source of inspiration. Images will also help them to understand how to use props like smoke bombs effectively. There will be a bounty of text as well as info graphics on the website, as it will all be useful in their own little sectors around the website.
What is already out there and how can you adapt, modify, reuse or respond to it?
There are already websites, such as Lavish Locations, Location 25, and Shoot Factory which help the user find places that they can hold their photoshoots, however none of them have been aimed specifically towards current students or recent graduates. All the websites seem a bit too formal and the aesthetics aren't appealing. I've also found that there aren't really any websites that you can find it all on - sites, models, props, equipment, etc. They are useful though for research, and for search bar ideas.
What sector / industry would you be designing for?
The fashion industry.
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Produce 3 scamps of how your homepage could look on your website. Keep them simple, don't worry about colour, just think about the layout.
