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

Website update: Nearly there!

It is now deadline week and I am getting to the point where my website is looking like a professional site!

It is really exciting to see everything I have created in one place, and have a site to show all of my hard work from the last few months.

 I noticed that when the page is open in a browser, the tabs and url show the titles as I have named them in muse. This takes away from the professional look and feel of the website so I will adjust this accordingly.

 This is the as seen in page. the thumbnails when selected will bring up a slideshow of the images from the shoot. I am really happy with how this page looks as I think it is simple and professional looking.

I noticed when including the drop down menu that the How-to page had not automatically been given a label in the menu, so I will put this in. I have included a footer on all pages other than the home page to ease navigation and bring in search engine traffic as John has mentioned this when talking about optimising website traffic. I chose not to have this on the home page as I felt it looked a little messy on smaller screens, and took the focus off the image slideshow.

 I will have the shop page up and running tomorrow as I have everything set and ready to go, I just need to think about pricing of the pieces. For the time being this will not be a working shop as I feel that there are areas I still need to develop before I can launch this as an official business. I will have images and links to pages with prices of pieces however, but instead of being able to purchase the pieces there will be a button stating that they will be ready for purchase soon.

I decided to put a contact page in as many businesses have these, and it gives a more personal touch to the website. There is currently an auto reply on the website thanking the sender for the message, and I have these emails forwarding onto my personal email so I get notification whenever one comes through.

 I noticed when opening my site up on a large iMac that the screen looks very small, so I think I need to play around and ensure that the page is set to be responsive to the browser size to ensure that the website is clear and smart throughout on whatever screen or browser that is being used.

I am really happy with how the site is looking so far, and feel that I will be able to get a great final site ready for the hand in on Friday after a few final tweaks and additions.

Collaborations: Zara & Love

As I mentioned before, to give the website a more realistic product based feel and to take some of the pressure off myself I decided to have three shoots of my own and then do some collaborations alongside my projects using the pieces, featuring some of these images on my site in an "as-seen-in" type of page.

The first of my collaborations was with Fashion Stylist Gerda Skirkevičiūtė on a Zara inspired shoot. I spoke with her before the shoot about the style she was going for and she explained that she wanted a simple minimal style so I recommended the fern-like pieces.

On the day of the shoot Gerda was a little apprehensive about whether the pieces would suit the look, so we agreed to only have one on the wrist so that it was subtle and would not be visible in all the images so she could choose whether to feature them in her own work or not. There were meant to be two models but unfortunately one didn't turn up, so only one piece was used for the whole shoot. I think it worked quite well in this shoot and there were some lovely images to feature on the website.

The next collaboration was for a second year stylist's shoot- Lauren Saltonstall. Lauren was a model for my New Forest shoot and when she saw the pieces she told me they would be perfect for a Love magazine inspired shoot she had coming up. This was great for me as in my proposal I named Love as a magazine I can imagine these pieces being featured in. I brought a few pieces along to the shoot and Lauren chose the branch like leaves to go on the sternum, almost like a body chain.

She took some images with the piece both flesh toned and painted, but unfortunately didn't encourage the model to play around with poses so there were not many images I could use as only one pose was used from different angles. I was tempted to ask if I could get some pictures of other poses but I had to remember that the point of these collaborations was to let someone else have artistic control over the final images so they all turn out differently.

I am really happy with how the piece looked overall and I can't wait until I see the final images on the magazine cover mock up. Unfortunately Lauren has informed me that this will not be until after the 6th May, but I have some final images for the time being.

Final Video Tutorial & Feedback from Ellie Neville

This is the second version of the tutorial. It has been cut down a little and the logo has been changed but ideally I would have like for it to have been cut down a little more. I think for now I will show it as a video which the pieces have been featured in rather than an official tutorial, as I think for an official tutorial it should be filmed in a studio to give a more polished professional finish.

After getting this copy off Ellie I asked her the following questions about the pieces and working with them:

• What was your initial impression of the Abbellita pieces- please refer to design and quality.
• How did you find the application process? was there anything which you feel could have been improved?
• When would you be most likely to use these pieces, both personally and as a make up artist? 
• Are there any more comments you would like to add on the overall experience of working with Abbellita pieces?
• Could you think of any ways in which the ease of application could be improved, or any way the product could be improved to make it more consumer friendly

 Her responses were as follows:

• Initially I thought these Silicone pieces were beautiful and intricate. The designs were varied amongst a theme. The pieces seem sturdy and felt like they would last a day of wear.
• The application was simple. Only a handful of products were needed. However, with the more elaborate pieces I found it difficult to melt away the edges without peeling up edges of the pieces and having to glue them back down, making it a slightly lengthier process
• Personally, I would wear the Abbellita pieces to a festival or a summer occasion. As a professional makeup artist it could be used on a fashion shoot to make the looks different and original
• Overall, the experience of working with these pieces was one I would love to experiment more with!
• The size of the excess silicone around the edge of the piece could be reduced to make it easier to blend and cut down. The pieces could also be pre-painted for consumers to have different collections throughout the year

Ellie commented on the application process and how she struggles with blending the edges out as they would roll back up. I think this could have been down to using witch hazel instead of IPA as the alcohol melts the edges and thins them out so they blend into the skin without pulling. She also spoke about the excess area around the pieces and pre-coloured pieces which are both areas I have begun to look into and experiment with, so this backs up that the development I am doing is important and useful.

Packaging

I have been thinking about how to package Abbellita products and have looked at a few examples from competitors and brands which sell similar items: FaceLace, Paperself and MEL.

Screenshot of MEL products packaging.

 The MEL products are stapled onto a cardboard backing and packaged in a clear plastic case so the silicone doesn't crumple or get squashed. I have seen many other flat moulds in these types of packaging when at IMATS but unfortunately this was before I started this project so did not think to take pictures, and could not find any more examples. It seems logical to me to package Abbellita products in this way as it is a tried and tested method for silicone pieces. The design around the packaging however will be personalised to the Abbellita brand.

Paperself tattoo product packaging

Facelace product packaging

Both the Facelace packaging and the Paperself packaging are really simple with a white frame and clear front, clearly stating the brad name. I will have this style of packaging as I feel it is effective. I may try adding some designs around the outside of the packaging but this may be too busy and make it look unprofessional.

 Above is the first design. It is simple and clear, in white card with the grey area being clear to show the product. I like this design as it looks clear, simple and professional, but I would like to play around a little.

 Above I added my name, as Phyllis Cohen has on her Facelace packaging. I am not a fan of this as I think I would need to make a name for myself before putting my name boldly on the packaging like this, as currently it does not bring any further interest to the brand.

Above I took out the "silicone skin jewellery" subheading and added "Roses" along the bottom. This would change depending on the collection that had been purchased. I am not really a fan of this design as I think its too in-your-face and not decorative or simple enough.

 I then printed the plain template out and drew on the outline of one of the rose pieces. This could be laser cut on the packaging so it came across the open frame which I think would look really nice and would be a great way to add another dimention to the packaging without making it look over crowded.

I then added the butterfly wings on the other side which I liked,  but I think this may have been a little too much detail for one packaging front. it may be worth considering having an outline of an item from each collection for the pieces in that collection.

 Again in the mock-up above I was playing around with having the name of the collection on the packaging, with the rose on the left. I don't think this works very well as the title looks a little awkward and although I played around with placement I couldn't get it to sit right.

This is my favourite packaging mock-up out of the ones I created. As I mentioned the rose will be laser cut, and the "Silicone Skin Jewellery" subheading will be on the page. I think this works well as for anyone who sees the packaging and doesn't know of the brand it will be clear what the piece is and what its intended use is. I think that just the rose for all designs will be a nice touch, but I may look into having a design from each collection laser cut on the front.