Brief 6: gender neutral/boy beauty Market research

“Millennials and Gen Z are driving the culture shift towards gender fluidity and opening up new possibilities for men to explore beauty products.”

According to Euromoniter, the male grooming industry — including haircare, skincare and shower products — is expected to reach over $60 billion by 2020, outpacing men’s haircare and fragrance.

Despite more men wearing makeup than ever before, some worry this is just a passing trend.

'By announcing a shift to gender neutral products, or suddenly including men in a product line, Sable says it can appear tokenizing or can come off as an obvious marketing tactic. She also feels another issue brands face is making a statement with an inclusive campaign or brand face but then never addressing the issue again.'

Despite more men wearing makeup than ever before (with youtubers and beauty bloggers inspiring worldwide), some worry this is just a passing trend.

'By announcing a shift to gender neutral products, or suddenly including men in a product line, Sable says it can appear tokenizing or can come off as an obvious marketing tactic. She also feels another issue brands face is making a statement with an inclusive campaign or brand face but then never addressing the issue again.'http://www.verygoodlight.com/2017/08/29/boy-beauty/

Tom Ford have campaigned 'boy beauty' since 2006

Furthermore in this country, more advertising of boy beauty is being displayed such as Nyx displays on their shopfronts. Nyx are very much using a modern advertising technique relating to popularity of beauty tutorials/gurus on social media and this is bringing in variety of boys/trans/fluid people represented in the beauty sector- showing its snowball in popularity, a reason to create this packaging concept.

Brief 6: Existing gender neutral make up branding

Being described as 'no-nonsense' gender neutral minimal skincare, these are some of the images that come up on a search.

It is understandable and admirable brands create minimal branding that wouldn't look to far gendered in anyone's collection as they are very simple and usually black/white/grey. However, to a huge majority of makeup wearers, this means adding colour and tone to their body. For exciting occasions, every day wear etc. While celebrating gender neutrality with bold colourful looks, why not make the packaging the same? Instead of focusing on 'feminine' and 'masculine', why not combine these together, as gender neutrality does?

Although the main focus will be on the portrait on the packaging and ofcourse the makeup, I don't want to create minimal packaging as it doesn't have any celebration to it which these designs will aim to have.

Brief 6: Campaign imagery

Illamasqua

Asos 'Go Play' gender neutral beauty campaigndesire to make beauty more inclusive — angling the launch as colorful products all genders should feel free to use. "There are no rules or limits, just endless ways to be you," reads the brand's press release.

I wish to make a project on this as it is a fun, dynamic new direction of advertising and a glimpse in to the future. Makeup is always directed to women when men have had various makeup trends throughout the years- no matter how small, there are men and those who see themselves as gender neutral wearing makeup and instead of just campaigns, to have these packaged in a fun expressive way can only add to inclusivity and diversity within the beauty industry.

Sara Hill

Brief 2: Emerging body positive campaigns/featured artists

MISSGUIDED

Recently this artists work has been shared and celebrated all over Instagram for using collage, primarily glitter, to celebrate women's stretch marks in a delicate but effective way.

'I imagined that when the skin stretches, glitter pops out from the inside! haha” so the more you stretch the more shiny you get! “  I posted that artwork! and my god! the response was super shiny!

https://blog.missguided.co.uk/blogger/interview-sara-shakeel/

Missguided are encouraging on their babe zine, their customers to submit images of their stretch marks to be glittered. this is a great way of showing young women that they shouldn't be ashamed of something so natural and that is truly unique.

This is an example of how body positivity thrives on social media, in particular Instagram, and makes me even more sure of using the platform for my images. Would be amazing to get even half the attention. I had considered adding glitter to stretch marks but think it is good that I have used other symbolic details such as flowers and hearts.

I will create a hashtag that will hopefully encourage others to share and tag


Through Instagram they are campaigning and using hashtag #makeyourmark which is attracting a lot of attention and praise, proving the point that body positivity movements are growing in popularity particularly the Instagram platform as its visual media is what we look to relate to in daily life.

Also body positive campaigners promoting reassurance for those with body doubts over the festive season (which I considered linking to the instazine)

Brief 2: Final scanned and edited images

Start Bodyposizine
Upload one a day
Use hashtags to attract audience
Ask for submissions, keep eye on comments
Tag those who let me use their images

The final Instagram is on hold as I am waiting for a delivery of something to decorate the images with to re scan in. I have a clear idea of how the Instagram will look thanks to my talk with Liv and am ambitious to create a printed zine from this if succesful or keep the instagram going.

Brief 2: Feedback from Liv Siddal

'Instagram is the new zine'

general feedback was

-to create more of these images, making them a consistent set for the instagram account.
-work in rows, using other additions such as magazine cut outs and glitter etc instead of just flowers
-'Instagram is the new zine'
-take comments off the images as they take away from the visual, and just post as the caption
-in terms of zine, if instagram is successful and gets submissions/feedback, make the zine a new project including articles even
-to create more images i will use any submissions from my envelopes around uni and add more stories from friends and myself

'Instazine' crops up in thousands of tags but a lot are within one post, with multiple spreads. this will be arranged to be the entire instagram, consistent

Brief 3: Step On Posters

Even though I had fun with the illustration and envisioning the image it wasn't working, so took it back to basics. Illustration was very out of place in the set of posters.

Brief 5: YCN Art Fund

Brief to make a campaign for students to get an art pass in Autumn 2018.

Want to approach this in a relatable humorous way to make the campaign stand out 'amongst all the freshers clutter' as they say in the brief.

Before I get feedback in a tutorial today, my inital ideas are:

Exploring the worlds beauty on your doorstep

'Gap Yah' play on student cliche's- instead of a gap year they go on about all the amazing places they have visited with the art pass
Get Cultured
Something to talk about
Get Inspired
Something to share

Bringing galleries and museums back in fashion
No more expensive dates to impress your Tinder date

Sick of your laptop screen?
Words not making sense anymore?

FREE: culture, history, escape, trip, procrastination, date, inspiration, discovery, flat outing, adventure, city hopping

Brief 3: Ever Fallen In Love poster design

To keep in a punk/rock and roll fashion the song/time of the song is in, people have suggested to represent the heartbreak-

Pour black thick liquid on to a heart
Stick pins in the heart
Photograph the heart smashing
Punk DIY aesthetic
collage/pins
cut outs/rough texture marking
screenprint broken heart

Brief 2:Plan of Action

Create the Instagram based on 'New Year New Me' terminology, the phenomenon of after the holidays when everyone starts to feel guilty and review their body images. Can be a stressful time for those with body image issues. Start positive Instagram that references beauty headlines as a reminder to love their body quirks, These will all be from responses I obtained.

In the run up until this point, I will create gifs of these phrases and continue to decide what to add to the collages I have so far. Will also keep contacting and looking out for zine submissions to spread these to a wider audience.

Suggested was also to turn this in to a zine as a contradiction of the famous 'Burn Book' from Mean Girls, a film that in this generation is notorious for being quotable and is one of the most popular films. The style of the burn book is DIY and in the film, was to slate people. Turning this around and in to something positive matches my theme and would attract attention as a zine for the recognizable style.

This way it can also attract more attention online for its association with the famous design and give the series another layer.

if this was to be made in to a zine i wanted more feedback, preferably written. therefore i have stuck up envelopes for students to post in, around the university.



If i receive a decent amount of feedback (which hopefully i will as they are situated all over the building) the zine will go ahead as more content is needed for the purpose of this project to become a zine as well as an Instagram.

Brief 2: Final Feedback

-Symbolism of flowers works well for the target audience and as metaphor. Adds positivity they need to get message across
-Make a zine as edits are very DIY
-Actually cut and stitch in zine style
-Draw, add illustration to images
-Start an Instagram and keep it going, keep adding content, ask for submissions
-Add positive wording that is a pastiche/mockery of the phrases magazines use such as 'Hot Right Now' and 'Style 'Steal' to make the account larger
-Keep making these
-Add GIFS to Insta
-Stickerbombing, spreading positivity
-New Year New Me- manifesto?
-Instead of 12 Days Of Positive christmas theme, go for the 'New Year New You' angle using magazine phrases to give inspiring positive messages opposed to those in magazines. Using the rest of the responses I got within my survey in which people sent what they didn't like about themselves.

These phrases were picked up whilst cutting magazines up for my initial collages.

These are also on publications in most high street shops.

Hot Right Now- Stretch Marks
Style Steal- comfortable in your own skin
Beauty Hack- celebrating all skin tones
Mix and Match- moles, scars, stretch marks, vitiligo, quirks
Life Hack- love your wobbly bits
The Perfect Excuse- to celebrate your hair type
Trending- boobs and bums of all sizes!


Within feedback there was a contrast of opinion on wether to make a zine or not, as this project has developed to focusing on social media platforms, and the style and particular subject/content may not be big enough for a publishable zine. Making an Instagram will suit the message better as they are shared worldwide through hashtags. To get these featured in a zine/mag would be the ideal way to get the images and message distributed.

Contacts

-Today the images have been sent to Honey Magazine (taking submissions for next issue on Instagram)
-The Butterfly Project charity in Australia.
Body Gossip- replying saying they don't respond to work other than programme enquiries

Brief 2: Distribution methods

Instagram Account

“Prior to Instagram, you just saw whatever online. Now you can follow people that are into body positivity, feminism, radical body love, artists. People that inspire me,” 

“It’s really important to surround yourself with people that uplift you and support you, and so you really have a community of that.”

A digital space for all sorts of bodies

A recent study ranked Instagram and Snapchat as the worst social platforms for body image, though Instagram had good marks for self-expression, self-identity and emotional support. And Instagram has made a concerted effort to foster these online communities by building programs around well-being, and by prioritizing safety and inclusion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/style/body-positive-instagram.html

Zine

Zine format to reference the 'safe space environment' given by the DIY collage style, sharing and contributing to fight body image beauty standards. The contribution from those allowing me to use there posted images for the same purpose, and the collected responses produced a female based focus on embracing and celebrating previous body hang ups, and the comments the way they are answered promote acceptance and that these are normal hang ups to have- even ones consumers may have not heard others talk about before. This zine would create a relatable celebration for a variety of women, and with the Instagram format influences being familiar.

Linking to charity/getting sponsored

Sponsored ads on Instagram are now the most succinct way to advertise within a users scrolling habit of their Instagram feed. Ideally, this would be a way to bring body positivity and reflection in to their social media use while they may be comparing themselves to others on the social media app (one of the hugest modern causes of body image issues). My plan is to link to a charity in which hopefully will sponsor the images, causing them to appear in this way. This is an important end goal of this project and why I was careful to only use imagery with permission, as making this commercial would be the point of a project like this.

Companies such as Cosmopolitan are using this sponsored feature to promote body issues and create a discussion within the Instagram community such as the above campaign which people share their make up confidence stories.

Have messaged Polyester and charities, awaiting feedback. I tried to be as succinct, clear, and especially for Polyester who get so many submissions, standing out with the title and a GIF.

Brief 2: Reading 'Cut It Out' for inspiration

From this book as well as looking at contemporary collage styles that combine mixed media by hand and digital graphic design, seeing where artists source their imagery from was important for this project.

Many are from old publications, their own companies visual work or gettyimages/ free image sites. Like with the flowers I have used which are free images, I can begin looking for relevant images to combine my existing images and experiments with for this test. Many artists also specifically collect weird and wonderful old books to use for reference images.

Although this style looks brilliant and the concept of having mixed up views on our bodies is relevant to collage, the way the project has developed is using social media imagery/comments as the core element and as it is made positive, using flowers as a metaphor for growth and natural beauty, I find it hard to maintain this message using the cut outs from magazines I have with the responses.

Therefore, to stay synced to the responses and have a positive growth spin on this series, I am going to use my developed digital experiments altering slightly adding perhaps stickers/illustration/wording, rather than a whole collage of unrelated images.

In feedback, the zine style of the experiments was a comment I got a lot, so continuing to work in this style with adding and scanning back in can be done. As well as posting these on a new body positive Instagram I will make, making a zine of the images to accompany the Instagram would fit well as the theme of these images and developed project are appropriate for a zine sharing 'safe space'.