OUGD601 - Evaluation

Evaluation

To what extent are streetwear brands reliant on advertising and promotion through social media?

Overall OUGD601 was a big step up from my work in previous ‘context of practice’ modules as it was a more academic. I am please with the outcome of my dissertation as I felt like I started with a large body of research, which I believe helped me achieve a strong conclusion. I am also proud of my practical as I felt that it linked in well the research gathered from my dissertation and my own beliefs. As well as my dissertation and my practical, I also believe that I have a very strong synthesis as my dissertation, practical and my ‘extended practice’ work all have strong connections. This is going to help me develop my practice as I can now design with a large body of research influencing my work.

For the dissertation, my research methods consisted of a case study of the brand Rolex to held define the term ‘brand’. A face-to-face and online survey was held to gather an understanding of the relation between streetwear and social media. Many books, online journals, articles and websites will also be read to gather greater information for each of the topics discussed within this dissertation. I chose to use these research methods, as it was a good mix of first hand and second hand research which I felt was appropriate to my dissertation subjects.

As the main topics of my dissertation are branding, streetwear, social media and the theory of ‘Othering’, which the research gathered, I decided to brand my own streetwear company ‘FOURE’.

The company was set out to be a ‘Luxury streetwear brand’, which was inspired through Hip-hop culture, the items would be of better quality at an affordable price range for a young target audience, which again linked to the research within my dissertation.

For this design brief, I managed to complete the branding guidelines, a branding guidelines publication, a manufactured sample t-shirt, a photoshoot targeted at social media and luxury packaging.

I am pleased with the outcome of all my practical elements within this brief and I feel like the brand is now ready to progress. This will now link into the ‘design practice’ module, as the Spring/Summer collection will be designed, developed and produced as a brief.

My highlights of this module have creating the black foiling on the ‘luxury box’, as well as having a piece of clothing that I have branded and design myself being produced. Black foiling was something that I had never use before, therefore I was slightly worried that it would not look professional and I had only one ‘luxury box’, so I could not fail. However, after many practice attempts on card, the box turned out to be a success and I am defiantly pleased with the outcome.

If I was to have more time or re-do any part of my practical, I would change some elements of the brand guidelines book. Although I am really happy with the design of the book, some problems occurred when binding. The first was that the ‘Instagram mockup’ page did not bind properly. Therefore it will make the book look slightly unprofessional. The second problem was that was that I could not find a black metal spiral bind, so I had the choice of black plastic or silver metal. I ended up choosing the black plastic as this is the colour I wanted to fit with the box, however I would of preferred it to be black metal.

As a whole, I am really happy with my dissertation, practical and my synthesis, as I believe that they work all have extremely strong links. I am very pleased I chose my dissertation topic, as my research and conclusion will majorly influence my design work in the future.

Thursday 14 January 2016 by James Smith
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