Reflection 3 – Project Outcome
During the Better Lives unit, we had to choose a specification we want to focus on and also create a project. I chose to be in Fashion Activism since I was interested to learn more about Creative Direction and develop my project in that area. We were divided into groups and assigned a brand to look into. My group was assigned Lazy Oaf and its collaboration with a campaign Lazy Oaf x Time to Change ‘It’s Okay Not to Be Okay’. This collaboration focused on mental health and was created to mark the start of of the UK’s Mental Health Awareness Week. The profit collected is for donation to support Time to Change mental health and anti-stigma campaign. The Lazy Oaf collaboration with five different artists to create a collection supporting mental health has a strong connection to our Better Lives theme social responsibility and diversity. Therefore, for our final project of the Fashion Activism course we had to create a moving image connected to this collaboration of the brand.
The current situation with coronavirus had a strong impact on everyone’s mental health. Especially in times like these, brands like Lazy Oaf collaborating with campaigns that create a sense of support are very important. I, personally, felt like researching this collaboration and looking into the campaign made me feel more supported already. Since the message of this collaboration can be connected to each of us, our group decided to include short videos of ourselves in the final moving image. The message of the Lazy Oaf collaboration with Time to Change is ‘It’s Okay Not to Be Okay” so we decided that each of us will film a short video saying this phrase. For the final video, we added all the videos together and one of the group members manipulated the sound of the video so it is more interesting. The final moving image was in black and white.
Due to the coronavirus crisis, working in a group and coming up with an idea for a moving image was extremely challenging. However, Melodie and Karolina helped a lot with finding ways how to be creative in this environment. Because of this situation, I feel that I improved my critical thinking and problem solving skills since we as a group had to push ourselves to find alternative solutions. It was a challenging process and at some point I thought we will not be able to have an outcome. However, we tried our best to connect all the ideas together and to come up with something. There are some details we would change when doing the project the next time since we forgot to have a stronger connection to the Lazy Oaf brand. At the end, I feel like even though it was complicated to work in such an environment, I learned a lot from it and I enjoyed creating a project with my group and connecting it to the Better Lives lectures which are very beneficial for our future as fashion creatives.
8th May 2020 @ 12:49 pm
I read through a lot of different blog posts and I became very interested in the different points of views and perspectives that people have as well as the experiences they have had with their Better Lives Projects. I wanted to focus on blog post three because I’m curious to see what people have created in their projects and how they’ve considered the better lives themes.
The post I will be reviewing is by Emanuele Lapinskaite on “project outcomes and personal developments”. His Better Lives project focused on creating a moving image connected to the collaboration of Lazy Oaf X Time to Change “It’s Okay Not To Be Okay”. I like how you mention your experience in working with your team and the process you went through in order to create your final design. Also, i liked that you were able to connect with the collaboration you had to work on as well as connect it to current global issues. It was great that you included the experience you had within your group and the way you, as an individual, developed from this project. I would love to see the final design, it seems very interesting.
I was formerly unaware of this campaign and I think it is definitely something worth checking out. Mental health is such a wide spectrum of things, all of which had been seriously overlooked until the past couple of decades. To me this campaign can be linked to the theme of Social Responsibility.
The main point i would like to make is i think you should expand on and talk about the way you took into account the Better Lives themes a bit more explicitly, and also go more into depth with your considerations of it throughout the process and the duration of your project.
Link: https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/07/reflection-3-project-outcome/