look book inspiration for self promo

Timo Wieland by RoandCo.

I've started to think more about what I want to communicate to the studios I'm trying to contact and the purpose of a look book which is to show the personality of the collection whilst showcasing the product and the voice of the designer.
My self promo look book well not just display work (if it does at all) but will be a collection of images that communicate me as a designer and as a person whilst at the same time showcase my skills through layout, typography and images,

inspiration for self promo

Self promo for Ana Monroe, the powerful pink grabs you instantly and then the interesting imagery on the reverse inspires imagination.

Look book inspiration for self promo

This look book for Bodkin by RoandCo it
is small yet visually captivating, the collateral that supports the look book within the envelope is a triangular fold out which gives an extra dimension and interaction to the package. The look book itself gives me an idea how I can apply photography or images. I'm starting to develop more focused ideas on what the content of my self promo look book will be and how it will be composed.

self promotional research

The sleek black envelope the pastel pink and the bold numerals all do it for me here. I want something similar to this something subtle but interesting, something that doesn't give the game away straight away and encourages the recipient to explore through the publication. I would say my deliverable(s) will be more visual though.

self promotional research

This has a few elements of my 'look book' concept, a photographic documentation of the designers personality and design practice. I'm still looking for that breakthrough idea for my concept but this is a very close representation in the direction I want to go in, just maybe not quite my style.

self promotional research

I was really attracted to the idea of sending out a package or something tactile that involves a certain level of interaction or the feeling of opening something of mystery similar to a gift.

in store hanging signage

The idea came out of researching 80's icons and noticed the huge chunky chains that Run-DMC immortalised. All I could think of was hanging these in store but they had no purpose until I looked into 80's chains a bit more and found the famous if a little cheesy '$' chain and a few word chains. I'm going to develop this idea a little further but the plan is the hang signage such as the men's, women's and 'pay here' signs buy chunky chains.

Photographer's visual identity

Really simple, stripped back design. essentially typographic with the aid of block colours.

Really

Visual identity

I'm getting the pattern of stripped back black and white design in photography branding, quite sleek.

visual identity

Another sophisticated and experimental identity for a photographer, love the dark colours and white type.

visual identity

Relevant to two of my briefs really sleek simple design, sophisticated type and a cool trendy graphic element.

visual identity

Love stamps not quite sure if Anna does though, really nice grey design pretty sleek.

swing tags

Another example of some vintage swing tags, again different era of vintage but still a nice selection of type and colour.

swing tags

Quite a boutique feel to these, different decade than mine but still ideas to work with, good simple line illustrations topped of with a time relevant font.

Swing tags

Really simple typography not the biggest fan of the image/type but the layout is good.

Dear Sue identity swing tags

Good presentation of products and some nave imagery used on the swings tags, simple but effective.

Womenswear hang tags

For the hang tags I wanted to stay away from just slapping the logo onto a tag so I've opted to explore a more creative idea. For the womenswear tags I going to possibly use the shapes similar to theses new wave earrings and model my tags on these.

Everything 1980's

After last thursdays crit I've re-evaluated the blue rinse project and my approach. I surrounded myself with everything 1980's and below is a small collection of images and themes that I've been looking into. Everything from music to idols to architecture. Everything about the re-brand has to be thought out including instore furniture, wallpaper and even the music that is played.

Luke Hayman - Magazine design article

research into apparel sites

Apparel Website analysis

Urban outfitters: They have such a well designed and consistent website and style throughout, bespoke typography and a clean cut composition. It's easy to navigate and remains quite simple and I think that is where it's success lies. Plus I really like the full screen images on the home/flash page, grabs attention quickly and sets the mood for the rest of the website.

American Vintage: Again quite simple but with a totally different style to UO's website, really clean professional images on the home page that automatically change. Similar browsing to UO as well in terms of layout of products. Not too sure about the typography though, quite lifeless.

Beyond retro: Immediately you have a sense of theme to the company from the start. They have a clear and tailored aesthetic and it echoes the brand and the products they sell. When you start to deconstruct it however it's quite simple which is good as it lets the clothes have a voice and the surrounding illustration when browsing the collection is brilliant it continues the theme but not intrusively.

My Vintage: A really plain and lifeless layout to the site, predictable navigation too predictable maybe. I do appreciate the photography though, it holds everything together and saves the website from being a complete fail.

Adore Vintage: stripped back minimal website which allows the content to shine, again good photography and even though the clothing is displayed on mannequins they're done quite well. And the homepage/flash page is fantastic, a really impressive vintage feel.

Vintage kit: I only put this one in because I enjoyed the illustrations, it's mainly a children's vintage apparel store but the theme is pretty cool and relevant to the nostalgia of the shop.

Peekaboo: Great 1st image, straight away theres a stylistic feel to the site and a professionalism which makes you take the store seriously. standard rows of images for browsing the collection but it's successful as the images are only positioned 3 across and are larger than most other sites. 

Style and the City: The only redeeming quality of this website are the photographs that greet you on first look, the back drop is plain and soulless and the typography is awful plus the photographs of the clothes though better than blue rinse photographs are still poor.

The Packhouse: Though not an apparel store I put the Packhouse in because it was stylistically interesting, minimal and I like the nostalgic and ages feel to the photography used.

James Langdon

James Langdon's bespoke typeface for Support Structures is such a well designed and relevant visualization of the content in the book, which happens to be art installations where the artist has deconstructed a cube. It's made me think about the theme transformation which I've started to explore and how and object can transform into typography through manipulation.

Visual Editions - Tree of codes

 

I've started looking into how a publication can be visual and not use images. Joe Gilmore showed me this amazing publisher Visual Editions who believe "that books should be as visually interesting as the stories they tell" and this book is the perfect example of that. Each page had been die cut to reveal the right sequence of words to tell a story. It gives me something to think about in relation to the format of the publication and how it interacts with the content. 

Linefeed Reading List

Linefeed Reading List—October 2011 from Michael Bojkowski on Vimeo.


This was a great find and and an even better watch,
seeing magazines in depth that I probably wouldn't
of ever picked up gave me a new perspective on
magazine design and format.

A really smart publication featuring some good examples of how I could possibly layout the type, I especially like the display type on the left with the adjacent page having more of a magazine style layout.

This is a good example of a strong typographic zine cover, I like how the type sits on the right hand side and how the designer has arranged the words to create a narrower column. With my zine I'm going to try and design it solely using type with no image, which I hope I can pull off but I plan to apply colours and artefacts to support the typography.