Posh Nosh: Branding

I always find it helpful to define the terms used to give me a good understanding on what i'm trying to communicate.

I had quite a clear vision of how I wanted to bring the two elements together and create the contrast of the two words. I then went about sourcing the typefaces I envisioned.

I wanted a really curvy and childish type for the word 'nosh' and a handwritten type for the word 'posh' so not only were they visually contrasting but also took on the qualities of the word.

It was quite difficult to find two typefaces which strongly represent the words characteristics but also work together as one is script and the other sans serif.

Whilst doing this I tried visualising how it was going to work on the food packaging. I sketched out a few layouts but didn't feel they were very creative.

 I had an idea for the campaign of using food photography making it appear very 'fancy' when the food was really just basic items. Key items would be the Selfridges yellow, tying in the the brands identity.

After doing more visual research so I could pin down the priority of what I wanted this novelty range to communicate I started sketching out more layout possibilities for the packaging.

I then tried visualising them digitally.

I need to have a bit of space to think about the layout of the packaging and then possibly a crit to get some feedback as the whole concept is in the packaging and branding of this range.

Posh Nosh: Research

Posh Nosh: Selfridges Range

I found this range already created for Selfridges which had a few characteristics that I was planning on applying to my range such as colour coding. However my brief is a novelty range with a different tone and approach so hopefully I will be able to do something quite different to what already exists.

Designed by Dave Richmond | Country: United Kingdom | Font: Trade Gothic

“A re-branded food range that echo the store’s forward thinking and contemporary attitude towards retail. Although there were over 100 own brand products within the store it was somewhat unrecognisable and lacked shelf presence. Our approach was to create a range that was unique; that did not follow any traditional sector cues. Colour coding everything black would make an incredible statement with only the type to reflect what was inside for example strawberry jam would have pink type. The typeface used was trade gothic range left and all the same point size across the range where possible. This ensured clarity and uniformity.”

D&AD: Initial Ideas

After looking at the previous article I took several points from my understanding of the exhibition. The main thing that stood out to me was morphing/shifting of a new genre due to the technology revolution. I looked at the idea of morphing and this can be applied to design. When looking into visuals of morphing the shape of a triangle came up. I thought of the shape of a triangle and how its the strongest structure. Visually looking at how this is applied:

I then looked at the meaning of the triangle shape which was interesting as it mentions past, present and future which is the exhibitions purpose.

I tried experimenting with type initially and came across this 'eclipse' typeface.

I liked how the letterforms where created by only the shadow and the rest would adopt it's background, morphing into it's context. I tried experimenting with this myself using layers and colours.

Due to this discovery I then started looking at visuals based on shadow and dimension.

This really inspired me so I started going with the concept of morphing/shifting of this new genre from past techniques into new digital techniques.

As me and Seb were in different places I made these boards of the ideas I had had for the concept pointing to examples of what I meant to try and get an understanding of my sketches.

We discussed what I had done and he agreed he really like the morph dimension aspect. He had ideas on the concept of mirrors which he was going to develop and we would converse together at a later date with our initial ideas.

D&AD: Past exhibition

The British Council is delighted to announce Dressing the Screen, an exhibition in China of nearly 100 films that will bring together work by some of the world’s most famous and innovative fashion designers and film-makers from the last 50 years. Organised in collaboration with the Chinese lifestyle magazine Modern Weekly International, and Swarovski Elements, Dressing the Screen was open in Beijing on 26th October 2012 and run for two weeks.

Featured designers and filmmakers include SHOW studio’s Nick Knight and Ruth Hogben, Alexander McQueen, Tim Walker, Rifat Ozbek, Vivienne Westwood, Ossie Clark, Hussein Chalayan, Gareth Pugh, Henry Holland and Burberry. The exhibition highlights pivotal moments in fashion, film and technology – from pre-internet experiments such as the early films of Ossie Clark, Rifat Ozbek, Bodymap and Bella Freud, to pioneering technological advancements such as POST magazine, Burberry’s holographic catwalk show and Cassette Playa’s Augmented Reality.

The UK is seen by many as the birthplace of fashion film and Dressing the Screen will explore the origins, history and the pioneering role UK film makers and designers have played in its development, alongside exciting presentations of China’s own fashion industry experimenting with this new form of expression.

Kathryn Ferguson, exhibition curator, said: “The digital revolution has transformed nearly every part of our daily lives, shaping how we share information and how we view the world. This new media has had an enormous impact on how we experience fashion. From online virals to fashion blogs and platforms, the growing thirst for fashion imagery seems unstoppable. Fashion film has become one of the main tools for showcasing this digital generation, giving immediate access to high fashion delivered in an exciting and dramatic way. This exhibition celebrates a new genre, still in relative infancy, giving a comprehensive overview of its development and as the genre is constantly shifting and morphing by the season, it also explores possible future trends. It represents a significant partnership between cutting edge fashion film makers from the UK with the very best of the new Chinese fashion film industry and I am excited about the potential of this collaboration.”

The British Council is the UK’s leading cultural relations organization, and has the arts at the heart of many of its global projects. Dressing the Screen is the grand finale of the British Council’s UK Now Festival which has taken place between April and November 2012 in 17 cities across China presenting recent and exciting artistic work to audiences in China to promote the UK as a powerhouse of creative thinking with an emphasis on new-media and technology. It also falls in the year of the 40th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between the UK and The People’s Republic of China.

Exhibition Structure

Dressing the Screen provides a comprehensive look at British and Chinese fashion film divided into nine sections, starting with an exploration of early experiments in fashion film from the British Film Institute (BFI) archives, including work by Ossie Clark, Vivienne Westwood and Mary Quant. The exhibition then moves onto look at theatre, spectacle and the fashion performance featuring displays by Bodymap, the 1980s fashion label whose revolutionary catwalks were more performance art than runway, fashion performances by Leigh Bowery, one of British fashion’s seminal muses in an experimental video by John Maybury, and the early catwalk of Hussien Chalayan.

A chronology of SHOW studio, the pioneering fashion film website founded by Nick Knight in 2000, displays films and collaborations with Alexander McQueen, Michael Clark, Maison Martin Margiela and Walter Van Beirendonck.

The main section of the UK contribution is dedicated to work created in the last five years from 2008-2012. Titled “Digital Revolution”, it features four wall-sized screens which form the centre piece of the show, featuring the groundbreaking work of film directors Ruth Hogben, Barnaby Roper, Inez Van Lamsweerde, Vinoodh Matadin and Marie Schuller, Quentin Jones, Elisha Smith-Leverock, and Sarah Chatfield for fashion designers such as Holly Fulton, Fred Butler and Henry Holland; and the work of visual artists and photographers such as Julie Verhoeven, Alice Hawkins and Sarah Piantadosi.

The final part of the UK contribution looks at advances in technology and the future of fashion films, highlighting experimental new ways of showcasing fashion from the innovations of POST magazine, Test magazine and DIS magazine through to a holographic catwalk display by Burberry.

The Chinese selection of films, curated by Modern Media Group’s fashion director Ms.Ye Xiaowei, shows the rapid growth of this genre in China from 2009, when Miuccia Prada invited Chinese artist Yang Fudong to shoot the fashion film Short Spring.

It has three themes. The first, Fashion Icons, features a film of Zhou Xun by Stephane Sednaoui, and short films interpreting the style and beauty of ethnic Chinese supermodels by Madame Song, Wing Shya, and Christopher Doyle. The second, New Design New Energy, displays works created by innovative China-based designers including MASHA MA, Chen Shaoyin, Qiu Hao, Zhang Huishan, Zhou Xiangyu, and Ou Minjie. The third theme, Art and Game, explores the application of fashion by contemporary artists including Yang Fudong, Cao Fei, Huang Ran, and Lu Yang. This section of the exhibition will feature close to 30 Chinese short films and a specially-commissioned secret film will be shown for the first time during the opening.

The exhibition space at the UCCA Gallery in Beijing’s 798 Art District has been designed by British architectural firm Serie Architects.

http://en.cafa.com.cn/the-british-council-presents-dressing-the-screen-the-rise-of-fashion-film-at-ucca-featuring-nearly-100-films-from-the-last-50-years.html