Meeting with Ben . . . Photographer

I finally met up with Ben today he seemed really interested in doing the shoot and is available the week that we've said about doing the shoot. He asked about the post production of the images, as he's not that good on Photoshop, only knowing the basics, however this has worked out fine, as I don't want the images to look overly Photoshopped, I want them to look natural. I just need to find three models, sort out a location and finalise the outfits with Vicky and Naomi.

Magazine content and layout . . .

To help get me into the swing of starting to put the publication together, as well as getting an idea of the number of pages it will be I covered a spare wall in my bedroom with pieces of A5 paper so that I am better able to visualise the potential content of the publication. As I come up with new ideas I will slot these in and then transfer this to my InDesign file.

Tutorial with Gail . . .

I found this tutorial incredibly helpful in terms of coming up with content for the Dandy-Lion publication, as I'd kind of hit a wall in the past week and have been finding it increasingly difficult coming up with content ideas, and just generally anything to do with the publication, I've been really unmotivated.

However Gail gave me some really good ideas on how to progress with the publication, she also suggested having some kind of on-line presence whether it be a web-site or blog page, so that the publication is accessible to a wider audience given the estimated RRP of the publication.

She also said not to worry about the cost of the publication, and to focus on what I want the final outcome to be, and worry about costing restrictions later.

Ben Horrillo . . . Photographer

After meeting with Vicky and Naomi last week, we discussed finding a fine art photographer for the shoot, as the emphasis isn't going to be on the clothes more on the models and the setting in which they are placed. Ben was one of the first people to get back to me, and the only one really suitable. I love his simplistic way of shooting, he shoots in both digital and on film, I love the muted tones of the colours, it is exactly the kind of look I was thinking for the shoot. I have emailed him back about meeting up with Vicky and Naomi and discussing some ideas.

Second Meeting with Naomi and Vicky . . .

We had our second meeting to discuss clothing for the two shoots, I brought in loads of my own clothes, and between us we think we can make up the majority of the outfits, maybe needing some money for props and accessories. Which is a huge relief, as I was budgeting hundreds of pounds for the shoots, particularly the 'Land Girls' shoot, as it will be featuring three models, in two or three outfits each. We also had a look at the three photographers work who had responded to the email that I sent out last week, and settled on Ben Horrillo, the others work was far to commercial for the look I was after.

We've also arranged to meet up at the next Boscombe Vintage market and go model scouting, as well as looking for clothes to borrow from the vintage clothing stall holders.

New laser cut designs . . .

Following on from the laser cuts I completed at the end of last week, there were a couple that I didn't feel worked too well, and I wanted an initial ten designs and then whittle it down to a final four for the actual campaign.

Once again I've communicated my ideas to an illustrator, as my drawing skills just aren't good enough. I wanted the designs to be more fun, and reflective of the style of the Dandy-Lion publication. Both of the designs below will feature the Dandy-Logo, but so far I've found it hard to insert the logo so that it can be altered for engraving, but for now I've just left white space where the logo would end up going. Something that I need to speak to either Ed or Jamie about rectifying.

I also wanted the papercuts to be reflective of the content of the publication as well as the time of year for the first issue, and have therefore chosen the grow your own article and the typical image of leaves falling off a tree in Autumn. I'm hoping to get at least another four designs completed by the end of the week, so that I can book in for another laser cutting session towards the end of the week, looking at incorporating the make do and mend theme.

Antique book store shoot . . .

The Location . . .

Whilst in Winton at the weekend I took the opportunity to visit the antique book store in Cardigan Road, which I had never been in before. I was really surprised and wasn't at all what I was expecting from the outside, it was ram ful with books on everything you could think of. It also had a really cute vintage section with old clothes and photo's.

Definitely the kind of place that I was thinking of for the shoot.

I met with the owner on Saturday, he was definitely interested in the idea, although was concerned about the time it may take to do it. I am going back to visit him again on Wednesday so hopefully we'll settle on a date for the shoot, for the end of March, fingers crossed :)




























The Photographer . . .

I also met with Holly who will be photographing the shoot, she's really relaxed about when she's available to do the shoot. I just need to complete a storyboard for 10-12 shots and decide on the three outfits for the shoot, I hopefully got a model lined up as well, who I've used before. I also need to find a make-up artist but have a few contacts from Phoebe, who's producing another shoot for me, so hopefully I'll get someone from that.

We've arranged to meet again in a week or so which will give me time to put together the outfits, do the storyboards, sort out an actual date for the shoot, as well as confirm the model for the shoot. A lot to do for the couple of weeks ahead.

Beach Shoot Location ? ? ? Sandbanks

I finally got to Sandbanks this weekend to have a look around at some potential locations for the shoot. It was a beautiful day, and the beach was packed with dog walkers and families enjoying the sun. I much prefer this beach to the Bournemouth end, the beach is a lot more scenic the whole area just looks nicer. Unlike Bournemouth beach, Sandbanks uses rock groins which could be utilised within some of the images, particularly when the tide is out as the end of the groins are left exposed. There are also some nice permanent beahc huts just off of the beach, which are quite retro looking which could also work weel for a couple of the shots.

The shoot will hopefully be completed over the course of the day, so hopefully there will be some dog walkers around as I would like to get a dog in the background, something slightly bigger than the Jack Russel I used for the shoot in MPP.

I've emailed the images to Phoebe (who will be photographing the shoot for me) to see what she thinks about the location, hopefully she'll like it just as much as me, the other option is to use Boscombe beach.

Cath Kidston interview ? ? ?

I've sent the questions off to my contact at Cath Kidston today. I would of preferred to ask her the questions in person, but given her extremely busy schedule, it would of been almost impossible to get a date at such short notice. Hopefully she'll get back to me, I'm going to give it until the middle of March, and if I've then not heard anything my back up plan is to try and get in contact with Rob Ryan, which would be a good link to the paper cut slip case and advertising campaign that I've been developing. Plan C is a contact that Naomi (stylist) has, a semi-professional photographer who she's done some work experience for, who has a very similar style to that of the Dandy-Lion publication.

Laser cutter . . .

I finally started laser cutting today, I met with Sarah who is designing and making the slip case for the publication for me, I've never been on the laser cutter before, so Sarah gave me a crash course in how to upload your work, and showed me how to change the power and speed settings, as one of the first samples we tried, just ended up as a massive burnt hole.

I was really pleased with the results, some of the first trials, the power was still not strong enough, so it ended up just engraving the card rather than cutting it. However I really like the final effect, with the scorched effect.

I want to try doing a few more designs and trialing these out, hopefully by the end of next week I shall have some more designs, I also want to try adding the Dandy-Lion logo that Rachael sent me, having this engraved at the top of some of the designs, I'm not too sure how to do this, but will have a play around and see what happen.

Developments . . .

Last night I sat down and wrote down everything I want to include within the publication, and given the time scale I've given myself far too much to do, particularly in regard to the photo shoots.

Initially I didn't want too much involvement with the shoots, obviously helping out on the day and liaising with the photographers making sure that the shoot was on the right tracks, but I wanted to give a brief and have the photographer develop their own interpretation of the make do and mend/vintage theme. However it has not worked out like that at all, and have found myself involved heavily with all four shoots. Therefore I've decided to cut the shoot in the New Forest and concentrate on the three others which I feel will be much more successful, and find another way of incorporating the New Forest, maybe into a feature within the publication opposed to an actual shoot.

It's a shame to have to disappoint one of the photographers that I'd asked to do a shoot, but I think it will greatly benefit the publication, and is more realistic given the time.

Printing onto fabric ? ? ?

Today I FINALLY got round to printing on to some fabric, I managed to get my hands on some of the transfer paper you would usually use for t-shirt transfers, I opted to use calico as I wanted a fabric that was medium to heavy weight so that it could withstand the wear and tear of the reader looking through the magazine.

I was not that impressed with the results, I'm not sure whether it was the calico or the iron I was using but, the transfer bit didn't take very well to the calico and it took a lot of ironing for it to bond to the calico, the only sample that was completely successful was one with a print on it. I'm also not too keen on the plastic tacky feel that the transfer has (see sketchbook).

I also managed to get some samples of the fabrics that fabpad uses and think the wool or cotton satin would probably work best in the publication, particularly the wool, however it is one of the most expensive fabrics they sell at £11.49 a metre and that's before all of the additional charges for postage and set up to actually print the pages. Given the fact that I only wanted to do a couple of the pages in fabric, it is going to work out far too expensive to put into production, pushing the RRP of the publication up to about £40/45 an issue, which I think is way too expensive given that it's a quarterly publication.

Conclusion -
Something that would be good to maybe come back to as the status of the publication grew, but for the first initial issues to stick to using the three different paper stocks.

Paper Cut advertising Campaign . . .

Last project I only briefly touched on paper cutting, and all of the samples had been done by hand, inspired by the work of Rob Ryan, after visiting his shop in Columbia Road last Saturday, I wanted to apply this technique to the advertising posters for the magazine, promoting the launch of the first issue.
























I think the paper cutting technique represents the publication perfectly, with the use of recycled papers to make the paper cuts, as well as being an innovative approach to publication advertising as it's something that I've not ever seen done.

I had some help with the initial four designs, as my drawing skills are no where near good enough, but these are the designs that we came up with, developing some of the initial samples created in MPP -
























































I have booked to have an induction on the laser cutter on Friday with Ed in the workshop, I have had to scan in all of the designs, and live trace them in illustrator, which proved to be a very long process, as some of the lines were broken, I then had to change the line stroke to 0.01mm, as well as the line colour to red, so that the laser cutter would cut the paper rather than engrave it.

I found it a very beneficial process in that it re-acquainted me with Illustrator, a software I have barely used since second year, I also picked up some new skills, which will hopefully aid me when it comes to developing these designs further. I would also like to incorporate the laser cutter into my business cards in some way for PP.

PRINTERS . . . Finally!

Finding a printer has been one of my biggest concerns for the Dandy-Lion publication, given the nature of the paper that I want it printed on, as I would need to supply the paper directly to the printers, as all three all not commonly used within the publishing of magazine. I've contacted various printers with limited success.

However I needn't of worried quite so much, I went over to CopyPlus with a sample of each of the papers I want to use for the publication, and also with a request to try printing some of the pages from the media pack, produced in MPP, to see the quality that could be achieved.

I was really impressed with the outcomes, particularly on the transparent vellum, which I thought was going to be the most problematic. The pages look much more professional than the pages I'd printed on my own printer. Although the girl noted that the pages that I printed were more in keeping with the style of the publication, however she suggested that when it comes to printing the actual publication we experiment with the contrast on a few pieces of paper, so that the images aren't quiet so sharp.

I also got an estimate on how much it would cos to get printed, which came out a lot cheaper than expected -

17p a page at roughly 100 pages = £17.00 and I am hoping to get two copies printed so £34

All in all a very successful trip!

Lydia Pankhurst . . . Make Up artist

During the meeting with Naomi and Vicky, we were discussing how difficult it is to find a make up artist for shoots, as I said I was having some troubles, as neither of the ones I've used previously have got back to me!!

Vicky suggested Lydia who she has used previously on her shoots, below are some images from the shoot they collaborated on, I probably wouldn't want anything quite so noticeable more natural, barely there make up, particularly for the beach shoot.

Sarah Maingot - new inspiration . . .

Naomi suggested Sarah Maingot a photographer she has contact with, as I was talking about the possibility of the Cath Kidston interview, and she suggested Sarah if it were to all go wrong. Her work is beautiful, exactly the kind of imagery I can imagine being in future issues of Dandy-Lion. Her work seems to focus heavily on natural beauty, a key element of my own shoots, and may well end up getting in contact with her anyway, to see if it would be possible to do a feature on her work.

I love how she combines fashion shots with close ups of locations or props from the location, something I really want to do in the shoots for Dandy-Lion. I particularly like the image with the cakes in the shoes, something that is quirky that you don't notice on first glance.

http://www.art-dept.com/artists/maingot/

Meeting with Naomi and Vicky . . .

I had my first meeting with Naomi and Vicky who are styling two of the shoots for the Dandy-Lion publication, it was really good to finally meet up with them, and we had a really good brain storming session and a lot of decisions got made.

The two shoots they are styling for me are -

Beach - I've already got a photographer for this one, who's done some beautiful shoots already on the beach, I'm meeting with her tomorrow to show her some of the inspirational imagery that Vicky has sent me in regards to the shoot.

Both Vicky and Naomi really liked the idea of using the beach in Autumn/Winter as it's not something that is usually done. They were thinking of using summer dresses combined with chunky knitwear, which I really like the idea of, as well as using a mixture of vintage and high street buys. We were also talking about the type of model, possibly using a slightly bigger than your average size 8/10 to appeal to my readership, a more realistic beauty ideal.

We also spoke about using some of the products featured within the publication in the shoot, like the cushions and quilts of Fran's that I've featured in the 'New Talent' section of the publication, providing continuity.

I LOVE these images that Vicky sent me, particularly the girl in her swimming costume, the slightly worn and faded look of the image is something that I would like to achieve with the images we take. The one of the girl under the pier has given me an idea for using Bournemouth pier, I really like how her head is turned away from the camera, and the natural sunlight in the background.




















Land Girls -

This is going to be the biggest and most expensive of the shoots to go into the publication, we are hoping to do this shoot on a farm in the New Forest with about three different models, taking inspiration from the images I've included within my sketchbook, hopefully recreating some of these on shoot. We just need to find a farm!!!

All three models will be in similar outfits, adding a few pieces, such as chunky knitwear throughout the shoot but never really changing the complete outfit, with the images telling the story rather than the clothing. For this shoot I have yet to find a photographer, we were talking about finding one that has a fine art photographic style, as it's not really about commercial-bility of the clothing.






















The main things that came out of the meeting was the importance of finding the right models for the individual shoots. And to start thinking about the budget, something I had not given much thought to. But we are going to have a weekly meeting, our next one scheduled for next Monday, to bring in the clothes we think will be suitable for the shoot. We are also going to attend the Boscombe vintage market and try model scouting there, as I ideally would like to use local models.

The week ahead . . .

I've got a lot of meeting lined up with various contributors this coming week. I really want to get at least two of the shoots sorted, as I really want to have them done by Easter, I'm meeting with Vicky and Naomi who are both interested in styling hopefully two of the shoots, one to be on a beach and the other on a farm, I'm meeting with one of the photographers, Phoebe who will be doing the shoot on the beach just to confirm a few things, but we've penciled in a date for the 26th March on either Bournemouth or Sandbanks beach, of which I am intending to visit for a location in the next week.

I also want to try and get the Cath Kidston questions finished and sent off, as well as the 'Make do and Mend' article. A busy week ahead!

London ! ! !

The research trip to London went really well, I managed to get all that I needed minus some letter stamps, and found a lovely parchment paper to print some of the pages of the publication on, I'm not sure I've bought enough but now I know what I want and will order it off there website. It's just a shame that I have been unable to buy the paper in bulk, or had a greater variety of papers to choose from, as there seems to be a massive gap in the market for retailers of recycled craft papers in their unbleached form.

I also visited Muji, a shop I love for its simple design and layout, both of the store and the products they sell. I wanted to get some cheap notebooks for the stationary project I am hoping to start next weekend. I managed to get three different sized notebooks in the end. If they are successful I may make some more to help raise some money for GFW.

My trip to Covent Garden and Columbia Road was a resounding success, I love wandering down all of the back alleys that litter London. Columbia Road in Hoxton, was a new find, the entire high street was made up of independent boutiques and stores, including Ryan town. Not as big as I first imagined, the shop was Rob Ryan in shop form, I was really inspired by some of his laser cut pieces, so hopefully next week, after I've processed all of my designs on Illustrator, I'm going get them cut out.






















Covent Garden was crazy, so I couldn't really look around as much as I'd wanted, but made a point of visiting the Paul Smith store, and Ted Baker opposite, there window displays were really eye catching and fun. I also found the Mulberry store, which had beautiful window displays, using illustrated cut out cardboard mannequins with the products.






















My first stop of the day was at the Imperial War Museum, a bit of a job to find but got there eventually. However I was slightly disappointed at the lack of information on Make Do and Mend and The Land Girls, although there was a bit of information on CC41 which was good. There was a lot on rationing and the Grow Your Own initiative that was launched during the war. There were some really good posters that I managed to get some images of, I also got a ration book, I.D card and Cloths ration book, something that could be transferred into the layout and design on Dandy-Lion.




























I also found a really good book in the gift shop, devoted to cooking during WW2 on rations, which I'm going to get, as it will be really useful for the 'Grow Your Own' feature.