blending

Blue Logan one of my fave illustrators www.bluelogan.co.uk/

Interesting Mind Maps

I never really put much though into mind maps, I normally just do some sort of spider diagram but these mind maps are creative and I believe show your line of thought in a much clearer way.

Travels to Dublin

I recently visited Dublin. I have been to Ireland before, in a nice country side environment but never a city.
Dublin is such a beautiful city. I was particularly impressed by the architecture. Everyone was very very welcoming; something I don't believe we do very well in the UK (London specifically). 
we visited the Guiness factory and ended up having a nice pint of Guiness (free) at the end of the tour!

guiness factory

friday 11.11.11

Berlin!

As a year group at University, we will be going to Berlin on a study trip.

I am excited about the following things:

-Fashionable people
-Photography
-Art (street Art)
-the city architecture
- Bread and Butter trade show! if we can get in!
- I feel really weird for saying this but the bookshops
-I am not going to lie and tell you I am not excited about the food...

Trafford Center Manchester. Travel Research.

LIGHTING

 

My favorite thing about the Trafford Center was that it was extremely cosy and had a lovely atmosphere despite the hussle and bussle of Christmas time shopping. I personally think this is a very rare feeling for Christmas time, and I cherished feeling this relaxed in a shopping environment during Christmas time. 

In my opinion, the use of dull lighting in the Trafford Center was one element of the visual merchandising which made it cosy. For example in this photograph above, the use of vintage light bulbs creates a feeling of timeliness and heritage which is a nice and warm feeling to have, especially at Christmas time. Even in Zara (womanswear), where the lighting is normally bright and uncomfortable, the lighting created a warm atmosphere. 

ARCHITECTURE

As I had never visited the Trafford Center before I was intrigued to see what the architecture of the shopping mall was. It was art deco with gold patterns as you can see above. Inside there were palm-trees with Christmas lights decorated around it. I thought this was a nice twist to the traditional Christmas tree and lights we always see which is, let's be honest, starting to get a little boring!

Trafford Center Manchester. Travel Research.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Staff interaction in the Trafford Center was brief and unhelpful. However, this was due to the fact Christmas was fast approaching and that staff had to deal with the long queues at the till. Therefore, there was very little staff on the shop floor to help with finding sizes or particular styles.

This was particularly evident in Zara, where number of sales seemed more important than valuable and thought out customer service. Customer service and staff interaction seems to go out of the window when it comes to Christmas time!

Trafford Center Manchester. Travel Research.

TRENDS

A reoccurring trend was homely heritage. Here in the shop window of this shop, you can see homely furniture such as a chest of drawers, picture frame, a fire place and a wallpaper that you might see in someones bedroom. This gives off a sensation of feeling comfortable which makes the shopper want to stay and relax which will increase the probability of the shopper to find something they like and buy it. Furthermore, they might exchange their experience of shopping in this store with friends and family which might persuade them to visit the store!

Military Man was another trend that I picked up in the Trafford Center. In Superdry's shop window they had part of an air force plane and a propeller. This trend was a reoccurring one in mostly men's shops. This trend is trying to say (in my opinion), if you come into this store, you are a 'Real Man'. Once you walked into the store, the lighting was very dull and the general atmosphere the store was hard and rugged. There was loud music playing which created even more of an atmosphere. Superdry are trying to make their brand macho and masculine, and that if you buy something from Superdry, you are manly and cool. The visual merchandising's theme in store was plane hanger. Superdry seem to be trying to move away from the surfer boy look, to fit in more with a more relevant consumer in Manchester.

 

Christmas Cut-outs of course it was Christmas. So the main theme that I noticed was Christmas cutouts of snowflakes and little cutsie girlie shapes. I noticed a very clean and contemporary theme throughout visual merchandising in many womans wear shops. With whites, beiges and blacks being a very prominent colour this season.

Black. 

BLACK.

and BLACK!

As I mentioned earlier the main colour trend I noticed were white, beige and black. With The colour black seeming to be on steroids or something.

A flack back into the past!

Over the Christmas holidays my fellow peers went to New York city to discover the fashion retail environment. For the unfortunate ones who were not able to go on the trip (i.e Me!), we had a brief to go visit a city in the UK and analyse the shopping experience!

I decided to take a visit to Manchester and visit the Trafford Centre, Manchester, one of the biggest shopping malls in the UK.

traffordcentre

"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different." —Coco Chanel.

Supreme Lady Gaga

Oh Gaaaaaga. you've done it again.

Right, so maybe its not the best way to sell clothes and skate boards, especially taking into consideration the audience supreme is targeting probably all sixteen+

It may be wrong and extremely expected from Gaga, but

I would buy that skateboard. and I don't even skate.

Photographed by terry richardson

http://hypebeast.com/2011/02/lady-gaga-shot-by-terry-richardson-for-supreme/

Off to London to get inspired about my future in Fashion.

So you want to work in Fashion?

PepperHaus Event

Well yes, yes I do.

We got told about this event at Uni in one of our lectures ages ago. There was a lot of um and arr'ing about wether to spend 15 quid on an event in London which was cost a bomb to go down anyway. 

Well 15 quid is a night out so I think we can afford to spare one night out, at least. 

 

So we got the train into St Pancras

 

Dearest Clare from Burton-on-Trent extremely excited to go to London.

 

Speakers from Fabulous magazine, Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Independent Fashion Blogger, Frank PR talked to us about their jobs in the fashion industry. It was inspiring to hear about their experience of how they got into the fashion industry; basically either a lot of hassling and rejection, or just pure luck. (Eek) 

But I tell you what, it was probably one of the best £15 I have spent in the last two years! 

NEXT STEP:

to get work experience for Easter!

Love. x

Oh and I wore this:

 

(just in case you wanted to know)

Jean Shorts.

Ive been wanting a pair of jean shorts for a very long time. So I searched and searched for the perfect jean shorts, finding a few completely out of my price range a long the way. But none took my fancy.


I thought to myself: "why not buy a pair of jeans and cut them up yourself?"


Well of course!

So I visited one of my favorite vintage shops in London, Beyond Retro.

Beyond Retro London, Leaflet.

When I got home, with total excitement and also nerves (?!) I cut up my jeans and ended up with a sexy pair of light jean shorts by 'Lee'. I also bought myself a nice black belt to go with it. Take a look.

Jean shorts by 'Lee' from Beyond Retro, Black 'Dockers' Belt from Beyond Retro, London.

The wonderful story of Natalie's jean shorts.

http://www.beyondretro.com/

Business Cards

Due to my job with Red Bull doing promotions, I manage to collect a load of business cards, just for reference on the places we go. I recently realised actually how many I have collected in the last few months. Me, being someone who does not like to throw away anything, I end up with this huge pile of stuff. So I decided today to scan a few of them in. Not for any particular reason. Just something to write about I guess. 

 Me, being someone who does not like to throw away anything...

Looking at these business Cards, I notice that every single one uses a different type face. Oh how important a Type face is to a brand. I guess the type face says a lot about the brand identity, Lush with its curly, swirly type face, SPITFIRE with bold statement type face, Le Chien et Moi, quirky. 

It makes me wonder, If i had to use a typeface to promote  Natalie Sawyer, what type face would I use...maybe something to consider.

Write soon. x

People in London

Luxury.

 

London's Luxury Stores.

Every store invites you in to be part of the lifestyle it is promoting. YSL (Yves Saint Lauren) showing off its traveling cases giving off a slightly heritage theme. The warm yellow lighting invites you in, it is homely. I particularly like these images- a black cab passing by- which reinforces the London lifestyle which, let's be honest, everybody wants to be part of. Well, I certainly do.

London.

Now that I live in Nottingham, I realise that living in London last year was a great opportunity for me. A recent visit to London reminded me of the vibrant city life I used to live in.

colours.

This is the second time I have photographed this part of London. It really is beautiful.