Blog 3- Reflection on project outcomes and personal development
In this blog I’m going to reflect on a few key milestones that helped me achieve my project’s outcome and some of my personal developments.
For my Fashion Activism classes, our project brief was to brainstorm, direct and create a visual campaign keeping in mind the themes of sustainability, diversity and social responsibilities. The campaign was designed for the clothing brand Lazy Oaf in collaboration with the mental health charity Time to Change. At first impression Lazy Oaf seemed like a progressive fashion house and that already resonated with the themes we studied, ie. sustainability and diversity. Whereas the mental health charity very clearly clicked with the social responsibilities theme and so we felt quite confident with the video we wanted to make. When we broke down each aspect of the campaign we had to make sure that they reflected both Lazy Oaf and Time to Change’s identity as well as the three themes.
For example, when thinking of sustainability we ensured that every prop, pieces of clothing and illustrations were already available to us or made by us. This means we didn’t have to buy or borrow anything, thus reducing the amount of waste created. Being a diverse group we each brought different skills into this project, some created props using paper and recycled paper, some styled themselves in clothes that we already owned and some created illustrations with materials locally available to them. As we were creating this during the Lockdown period, using our own materials was key to stay safe and also make sure that we don’t over use resources during such a difficult time.
One of the issues we encountered was with the theme of diversity. Although we are a racially varied group, we were originally planning to be more inclusive as wanted to shoot with people from different age groups as well. In an ideal scenario we would’ve invited older and younger people, as well as people our age to a shoot, however due to the Lockdown rules we had to adapt and film ourselves and our families. It would’ve been interesting to maybe hold a casting call through social media and shoot people via Facetime or Zoom. Alternatively found footage could’ve been an option, but during my research I couldn’t find much to work with so it was better just to film ourselves.
We decided to put a lot of importance on the theme of social responsibilities because it strongly represents the charity this campaign was designed for. In fact our outcome’s message was around the idea of taking care of yourself during this pandemic and being in charge of your mental health whilst practicing social distancing. Spending a lot of time by ourselves, isolated and away from university, family and friends can have a big impact on creativity and wellbeing. So we thought of shedding light on that as it is a type of social responsibilities. To ensure that everyone had a voice and input we discussed and brainstormed ideas, and also hosted Zoom calls to discuss further implements to the course of action but also to check up on each other. In a way this project happening during a pandemic has brought us together as a community and made the outcome feel more authentic and meaningful.
Below is a link to our outcome:
https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/a4de2caa-d871-4abb-8f33-7e777761a8f7