Collaborations: With Danielle

Danielle Packman approached me and asked if I would be interested in collaborating with her on some shoots for her FMP and of course I said yes! I spoke with her about the style of pieces she wanted, and she explained to me that one of the characters was quite sexy and would be wearing a lace cat headpiece, while the other was more innocent and lighthearted. I brought a selection of the pieces for the shoot, including the new butterfly wing designs that I had planned to apply in my minimalist shoot which fell through. I thought that these butterflies would be perfect for the more light hearted character in the shoot.

I am really happy with how these images came out and I hope Danielle is too! from what I gathered from her she was really happy with the appearance of the pieces.

These will be featured on my site in the "As Seen In" section.

 I really love the whole look of this shoot. The white crisp brightness makes everything look fresh, and the pieces matched with her skin perfectly and blended in really nicely. It was a great way to show off the butterfly pieces!

As there was not much skin showing in the second look Danielle and I agreed that a single rose on the chest almost like a pendant was the best for this look. I think it came out really nicely, but it would have been nice to have some vine-like pieces to put around it coming out from under the dress. this is a possibility for a future design.

Logo Development and Final Pick

After seeing the initial logo created by Suzie on the website, I didn't feel that it was right for the brand which is a shame because I do really like it on its own.

I decided to go back to basics with the logo and strip it down to a simple text saying "Abbellita" or "Abbellita Skin Jewellery". I went onto dafont.com and found the font that Suzie had used in the initial logo: Riesling, to see how this looked on the website.

I like how this looks but I feel that it is still too soft. I tried it out just saying "Abbellita" but this didn't fill the space effectively and looked messy. I continued to browse Dafont and found Amethyst. I was drawn to this font as it is simple and bold, but has some detail to add dimension and bring interest to it. This font is free to use anywhere with a donation so I donated a little to the creator and have put it in my website:

 I think this looks great on the site, and for the video tutorials or any business cards, packaging or anything I have created the mock up below which can be transferred onto any of these items.

Initial video tutorial

After discussing where to expand this project, Sharon suggested I gave some pieces to another make up artist to try them out and do a shoot. Ellie Neville is a first year student and she agreed to take a few pieces and create a how-to style video.

I noticed that she blended the edges with witch hazel in this video which I had never tried, so it is good to know that this can work as some consumers will not have Isopropyl alcohol to hand at home.

I have asked Ellie to adjust the video slightly and cut out some of the blending time just to make the video quicker and more professional seeming. Also I have since changed the logo so this will be changed on the final video.

Leaf Piece Shoot/Minimal shoot

This was my final planned shoot and I planned on having two models and showing the leaf pieces and butterfly wing pieces. I had booked two models through model mayhem; one of whom was mixed race with a dark complexion. I was excited to have the chance to show the versatility of the pieces and show a darker skin tone in the pieces. Unfortunately neither of the models could make it in the end and only let me know the day before. As I have discussed in a previous shoot post I will allow a budget on projects from now on for models and stylist to lock models down and make sure they don't back out! With three collaborative shoots booked the week after this, I didn't have time to reschedule so decided to do a simple shoot with the leaf pieces I had made so I didn't waste the studio time I had booked. I used my boyfriend as a model and obviously he isn't a professional but it didn't matter too much to me as I had nothing to lose from doing this shoot and wanted to keep it simple and laid back anyway.

My images so far have been targeted towards consumers and regular people, in particular women, wanting to use these pieces for festivals or just for decoration, but I actually think that using a male in this shoot and arranging multiple pieces across the back shows some variety and examples of how make up artists could use these pieces to create unique looks.

I decided to have a quick play with colouring these pieces using Aquacolour as I have not shown this possibility in any of my other shoots. I really love how this turned out and am really glad that I didn't waste the studio time and took the opportunity to have a laid back shoot, which allowed me to be more creative with the pieces.

I do wish that I had connected the camera to a mac though while shooting as I feel that all of the images are coming out much darker than they appeared on screen at the time, but this can be improved in photoshop.

When applying these pieces I didn't use any foundation on them and found that this has given a great result. there is a little shine from the pieces which did shine through the powder with the flashes, but in person these blended seamlessly into the skin.

Website progression

Now I have a good amount of images it is time to begin putting my website together. I am using muse to create my website and I actually find it more simple to create a website in Muse than in Wix as I found that there are less restraints and everything is laid out clearly.

I am happy with how it is coming together and I feel that it is easy to navigate. I need to play around with the text and edit the images but this shouldn't take me too long. When I put the logo which Suzie the graphic designer created for me onto the page I felt it didn't really fit, and while I really like the logo on its own I feel that it gets lost and is too confusing on a small scale at the top of the page. This is one of the first things Sharon commented on also, echoing my point, so I think I will have a go at a more simple, clear logo and let the pieces speak for themselves.

Neill Gorton with MAC, and Kryolan- What is my USP?

Recently I was flicking through snapchat stories and I saw something on Kryolan's that caught my eye:

Screenshot taken of KryolanOfficial shapchat 14/4/16

This latex piece was being shown in a workshop by Helen Elvins a few weeks ago and as you can see it is purely for decoration! The theme is very similar to that of Abbellita pieces- with liquid latex, commonly a special effects material, being used for a fashionable embellishment and being blended into the skin. I was so excited to see this as if brands such as Kryolan are holding workshops featuring this style of work it must mean that Abbellita has a place in the industry and it can only gain popularity! It is definitely not riding on the coattails of a trend, but more coming up with it!

I then went to talk with Sharon who told me she spoke to Neill Gorton and saw him showing MAC Make up artists how to apply some decorative silicone pieces ready for a demo at UMAE. Unfortunately I could not find any images of this, and UMAE is the weekend after the hand in for my FMP, but I will definitely be looking out for images of these pieces to see how they compare to Abbellita.

It is exciting to hear that other brands and artists are beginning to work with materials in a similar way to how I have been using products and creating designs, as it means that there will be interest. What sets Abbellita aside from Kryolan and Neill Gorton with MAC is that their products have just been used for demonstrations and seminars, whereas Abbellita products will be available to purchase and are designed for both makeup artists and members of the general public to be able to apply and wear for any occasion they choose.

Initial Logo development

As I am no graphic designer I have been talking to a design student and she has offered to create a logo for the Abbellita page. I have shown her some of my reflections and designs so she could get an idea of the pieces, and discussed with her that I would like something decorative to match the decorative nature of the pieces.

 This was the first design she made for me. I really like the ASJ, but I feel that the "Abbellita Skin Jewellery" writing looks like it is just floating underneath the logo. I asked her to incorporate it into the logo a little more and she sent me two further designs:

I really like these two logos but feel that they are not really clear, and think that the logo would look better with the "Abbellita Skin Jewellery" curving round the inside of the "s" loop or something. Again I talked this over with Suzie and she sent me back the following:

My favourite of these images is the last logo, and I feel it looks really effective and decorative, as well as unique. I can't wait to try this out on my website.

Adding colour After application

I decided to try out different ways to colour the skin toned pieces as these will be the most popular as they are the most versatile. I playes around with aquacolour, eyeshadows and glitter.

 In the images above and below I have used aquacolour. These worked really well but it was a little difficult to get an even colour with a brush. Instead I brushed the product onto a cotton pad and patted the colour onto the piece, This worked really well and I will have these as a recommendation on the site.

 Above I have used a UV eyeshadow that I have, I don't think this worked particularly well as the powder wouldnt really adhere to the piece. I think it would be best to stick to aquacolours or products with a liquid/gel like texture to them.

I then applied glitter. I probably wouldnt use this glitter with this piece but it is good to know that it is an option for other pieces. I used an eye shadow base that is quite sticky to adhere the glitter to the piece which worked quite well.

Testing colouring the pieces

While making some pieces I decided to have a go at putting a colour in the silicone to colour the whole piece. I have tried this before but it didn't work too well, but I decided to have another go. To colour the piece I used an eyeshadow. I made sure that I was really careful but firm when scraping the excess away to avoid colouring the super baldiez around the piece.

On my first attempt I thought id mix some of the skin colour silicone in with the pink, but this didn't coat the underside like i thought it might, so I don't think that this would be necessary if the baldiez isn't coloured.

 The first attempt didn't go too well- I think it was more an issue with the baldiez not having enough time to set before the silicone was added as it was still quite wet. I decided to try again and had great results!

 The super baldiez around the design has coloured slightly, but as it is a pink tone this is not too noticable. If it were a blue tone or something less natural it may need to be covered by a little foundation but it is so sheer that it is not too much of a problem.

Next I decided to try out a really shimmery, almost glitter eye shadow pigment that I have. Seeing it in the mold when its wet was really exciting as the gold really shimmers through and looks gorgeous!

Unfortunately when the piece was removed the glitter doesn't show up as much so metallic pieces may not be an option, especially not at this stage. But that is an area to develop and experiment with later after the initial collections are released.

New Forest Shoot

Here are some unedited images from my location shoot. I am so happy to have this done as it was really difficult to rely on the weather, and I previously had to postpone it twice. Unfortunately my photographer could not do the shoot and let me know the day before so I was unable to find a replacement, but I didn't want to have to rearrange again as I could not guarantee that we would have another sunny day. I took photography as an A-level and after attending the photography classes that had been arranged for us I felt confident that I could create some great images.

For this shoot I had a first year make up student Charli Roth assisting me and she was brilliant. She did the hair and makeup on the girls while I concentrated on the application of the pieces which made the whole shoot go much smoother, and she came along to the shoot ready to do any touch ups and happy to help by holding reflectors etc while I was photographing the girls.

Overall, I am really happy with how the images came out. I still need to edit the final images for the website but once that is done they can go straight on there and I can start to build the final site.
When applying the pieces I found that the fern-style leaves (in the bottom image) were much easier to apply and blend in than the branch like ones. I think this is because there was less Baldiez to blend away on these pieces, and the baldiez has a slight shine to it which will stand out in images as it is not skin texture. The borders worked really well and made it much easier to apply the pieces, but I feel they may have been too far from the original piece as there was then lots of baldies to blend away and get rid of. I am also starting to find that foundation often makes the pieces look less realistic, so I think I will only use foundation to subtly blend pieces into the skin tone, rather than to try and cover them.
I feel like this should could have benefited from more experienced models as I think that many of the images just had the same facial expressions/poses, and while I did my best to direct them it would have been great if they were both more comfortable at trying things out and looking more natural in front of the camera. I got these models through posting on the Solent casting page, and I only got responses from these two girls so didn't have any to choose from. I feel that had I been paying models, I could have got a much more professional looking shoot with models booked in.
 Also I really struggled with the styling for this shoot, and I think that this really shows. It is a shame as I was posting/advertising for a stylist and even spoke to a few, but none of them had clothing for the girls as they were size 10, and as I didn't have budget for the styling I was left to do this for myself.
In future after the issues with models, styling and photography I think I will set aside a budget for these areas as it would be much easier to book in these professionals to give a much better overall look and shoot outcome.

Website Template

I have begun planning and mapping out how I would like my website to look once I have all my images together.

It is quite difficult at this time to put a website together as the main focus of my website is the final images so once these are completed and edited I will be able to proceed very quickly.

When opening a link to the page or typing in the url the first page that will be seen is a 'welcome' page which will feature three portrait images- one from each shoot I have planned specifically for the Abbellita website.

The logo will remain central at the top of the page throughout the website. This is still being created by the graphic designers and I will have it by the end of next week.

The website will be white to help all the images stand out while keeping it looking clean and crisp. The text will remain a neutral tone to keep with the subtlety of the pieces. Depending on how the logo turns out I may match the text colour with this or I may just make it a colour in a similar tone to tie it all together.

 There will be no captions on the images on the welcoming page as I think it looks much cleaner to just have the images there to entice the viewer. These will not be links either as I feel that if they linked through to the shoots the home page could be overlooked and this is not how I would like viewers to navigate my website.

To keep the homepage and master template looking clean I will have everything other than the home link and links to the three photo shoot images in a drop down menu under the 'home' tab. This puts the focus on the images themselves, but it is still simple to navigate the website.
I will need to think of names for the photo shoots which match with both the shoot and the Abbellita style of fashion, elegance and embellishment so the titles flow with the website.
The "About" page will have a brief overview of the brand and thoughts behind it. It will explain the process of the creation of the pieces and tips on how to wear them.
The "As seen in" page will feature images of the Abbellita pieces in other shoots which have not been commissioned and organised by me.
The shop page will feature images of the pieces on their own, and will also include recommendations of products to buy alongside the items such as coloured paints, glitters, adhesives and removers.

I am really excited to see how this website looks once the the images are on there, and am hoping to start creating it in muse next week as I get my first set of edited images back from my photographer on Wednesday 13th.