Final Website

abbellitastore.co.uk

After all the hard work I have put in over the past few months, my website is finally up and running.

I am so happy with how it has turned out, and I can't wait to develop this brand further in the future, after a little break of course! Thinking of how this idea started back in October with a more tribal influence, to my proposal where I had a small selection of random designs, to a collection of nature inspired pieces and chains, I could not be more pleased with the final designs and the products overall. 

I feel that I have a professional looking, functioning website that I am proud to show off.

Inspiration from Phyllis Cohen

http://face-lace.com/the-birth-of-face-lace/

After reading this blog post from Phyllis Cohen about the creation of Face Lace, I feel so inspired to take Abbellita further and really see how far I can go with it. After all, I am young and don't really have much to lose! Face Lace is a brand I like to link Abbellita to as I feel that they have similar brand visions, and I will definitely be keeping an eye on them and looking more into their ambassadors, customers and marketing to see what I can learn from them.

Re-Editing Leaf Shoot

After seeing the images from the leaf shoot on a different screen, it was obvious that I needed to re-edit them to clear the skin up and make the images look cleaner.

As I mentioned before, I wish that I had shot tethered to the mac so that I could see an accurate representaton of the colours and lighting in the images, as now all I can do is try to restore the exposure and lighting in the images.

Here are the initial edits, even though I tried to brighten them and reduce the redness, it was still very visible and made the model look uncomfortable.

Below are the re-edited images. I have re cropped some, and others I have adjusted the colour balance and exposure to make the images more crisp.

I think these re-edited images look much more polished, professional and have a better finish. I am glad that I took the time to re-edit the images as I feel it will really show on my website.

Final website screenshots

Here are some screenshots of my completed website. I am really happy with how it looks but I do feel that it may be a little awkward to navigate for someone who is not used to the website. I have found it difficult to find the balance between an image focused editorial website and a store, but I think by putting the focus on the images it gives a more fashionable, professional looking site.
 I do feel that I need to get some more feedback before I am happy to submit this as my Final Project though.

Further Brand Development

As the deadline is now on my doorstep there is no more time for developing my FMP. There is however a lifetime of opportunities for brand development within Abbellita, especially as I plan to take this further and start it up as a business some day.

Personally, I have applied for and am hoping to attend a business bootcamp at university at the end of May to learn more about how to start up a business and what to expect, and I am really excited about this. It is amazing that I have the opportunity to attend this course free of charge, as if it goes well it really could be lifechanging.

As it stands there are a few areas in which I feel Abbellita needs to be improved either before launching it or shortly after.

• Coloured Collections

I have experimented with making the Abbellita pieces in coloured silicones, and in the future it would be amazing to launch these either alongside the core collection or as seasonal limited edition pieces. I need to test how different colours blend into the skin and see what the possibilities are with two tone colouring, neon colours or shimmers and glitter.

• Remake some molds- include borders

As I discussed after the Colour Gels shoot featuring the rose and chain pieces, the lack of borders made it more difficult to apply the pieces as the edges would fold up and stick to themselves, making an unsightly lump. I will remake these molds and include borders so the pieces can have them. I also need to remake the initial butterfly mold on flat plastic so that the mold will cast an effective silicone piece.

• Show on a wider range of skin tones

I have shown three different skin tones on my shop for the pieces, but I have not been able to show the pieces modelled on a darker skin tone. This is something I need to rectify as I really want Abbellita pieces to be universal and available for all skin tones. It seems outdated to not cater to all skin tones nowadays.

• Develop more sheets of small intricate pieces

I showed my friends and family my website with the Abbellita range and one thing they commented on was that they would like to see more sheets of small assorted designs, either to group with other pieces to make a larger design, or for a more subtle look for the less confident or adventurous make up wearer. I think this is a great idea and it is something I initially intended to do with some floral pieces, but as i developed my core designs these pieces got left behind unfortunately. I will definitely be revisiting those design ideas.

• Revisit chain designs and develop

Of all the designs I created for Abbellita, the chain designs are my least favourite. I think as they were the first pieces I made I really struggled and was too nervous to experiment with more intricate designs, and the designs I did make reflect that. It is hard to find the balance between delicate and easily overlooked, and I think I need to spend a bit of time experimenting more with this theme and create some more effective designs.

• Look at decorative scarification and tattoos for design inspiration

I looked at decorative scarification quite a bit when preparing for my FMP Proposal, but since then as I got locked on my nature/chains path with designs I stopped really looking to these for inspiration. I think it would be beneficial to look at decorative scarification and tattoos because there are lots of small delicate designs that are becoming popular, and people may want to achieve the appearance of these designs without the lifelong commitment of actually getting scarification or a tattoo. Also the benefit of the Abbellita pieces is that they can be placed anywhere on the body whereas scarification would not necessarily scar in the same way on the neck for example as it would on the chest.

I really look forward to developing this brand further and really pushing the boundaries to see what I am capable of achieving with Abbellita. Even if it doesn't start up as a business, I will continue developing it as a hobby.

Editing my Final Images

As I am confident with Photoshop and other Adobe programs I decided before my shoots that I would edit my own images to ensure I got the finished look I wanted, and also so that I didn't have to ask too much of the photographers.

The photographer for my colour gels shoot, Ellie Mitchell, offered to edit the final images for me which was great. I met up with her ad selected around 20 final images, and let her know that I would like 12 to choose from, and from those 12 I featured 8.

For my second and third shoots I didn't have a photographer, so all of the image production was down to me which was fine as I am confident in this area.

With the New Forest shoot the main adjustments I had to make were to the exposure as the camera showed everything to be much lighter and more contrasted than it actually was. There were a few edges of the pieces which needed blending in a little more as I was really rushed when doing the makeup, but nothing too major.

Before

After

The Leaf shoot images were a little more difficult as again the images came out much darker than they looked on the camera. I wish I had taken the time to look for a Mac and shot tethered for this shoot as it wouldn't have taken much effort at all and would have improved the images so much.

My model has quite bad eczema so there were quite a few patches of discoloration on his skin, including his arms which contrasted quite a lot with his back as his back was quite yellow toned whereas his arms were quite red. I learned how to do this by looking at a variety of tutorials on Youtube and photography websites, as well as playing around with different tools on Photoshop.

Before

After

Pricing

I have decided on some prices based on competitor prices and the amount of time and material that went into making them.

These prices may change when some further research into demand is done.

 The roses are quite small pieces so I think I will price them at £12 each, of £30 for three of them

 The smaller leaf will be £9, and the larger two will be £12. For the three of them it will be £25

 The small leaf will be £3 as it is very small and I don't think it will be purchased often on its own. The two smaller branches will be £12 and the large will be £18. The complete set will be £40

 The small ferns will be £10 each, and the larger ones will be £15. For the whole set it will be £40

 The bottom chain piece will be £18. The -o-o- link will be £14, and the other two will be £9. The whole set will be £40

The small butterfly wings will be £12 for the pair. The larger ones will be £18 for the pair and the more delicate skeleton will also be £18. The set will be £40