Yesterday was the last day of my senior project. In the morning I went to the turn-in meeting. This meeting is where the company's buyers come and present the merchandise they have selected to sell in the coming months. I stayed through tabletop and home decor.
I left the meeting early to go meet with Julia, a stylist for the company's clothing catalogs. She explained to me the styling process. First, after recieveing samples, the stylists get together and split the clothes into themes and then style them accordingly. Certain designers who are more brand-protective have certain rules, mainly that their products can only be styled back to more of their products. This can make a stylist's job difficult. After the stylists finish each look, they photograph them and they are reviewed by the Director of Fashion Styling, who makes changes where she sees fit. The stylists are also responsible for casting the models they want.
After talking to Julia, I drove to another building where a met a seperate styling team for lunch. I shadowed Brandy, a stylist I met yesterday, in finishing up the shoot I talked about in my last post. We finished up all the outfits, photographed a Fourth of July spread, and did some really cool video work.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Second Day
Today was the second day in my senior project, and I spent the entirety of it the company's Irving offices. I spent most of the morning sitting in on meetings. The first meeting was to schedule upcoming promotions for the company. The end result was a promotional schedule that looked nothing like it did when the meeting began. In the second meeting they discussed the corresponding e-mail schedule for the promotions. Because the schedule had been completely rearranged, the meeting was largely superfluous, and thus very short. The last meeting was much smaller, dealing only with creative. Trey, who I shadowed yesterday, came to this meeting to show the rug shots from yesterday, which turned out great.
After the meetings, I talked with Karen, who discussed test sites for website refreshes, the company's online catalog, and the creative aspect of banners and e-mails. I finished out the morning with Lori and Carmen, who were both very sweet. They are web designers and they showed me how they design the banners and the web catalog Karen had talked to me about.
After lunch, I spent two hours with Leigh, an director for the fashion side of the brand. Leigh and the rest of her team were finishing up lunch when I got there, so she showed me around the studios, and explained the entire process. Becuase of the vast quantity of merchandise, organization is very important. Before each shoot, the stylist selects a sereies of complete head-to-toe looks, that are clearly labeled. All of the outfits included a tag with a barcode, that makes keeping track of the pieces in each photo very easy. They resumed the photoshoot shortly after lunch, and it went very smoothly. A couple of things that I found interesting: Everyone know models are very tall and skinny, but I didn't realize how tall and skinny they actually were until today. They were wafer thin, but they towered over me! Also, you think that models only look that good beacuse pf Photoshop. Not so, I saw the raw images, and they were practically perfect. Leigh told me a good hair and makeup team are far more important than any digital touchups.
During a break in the photoshoot, Leigh took me to see Peter, who does all the design for one of the company's offshoots. He took me to talk to Erica briefly about writing copy (the headline and byline used to describe and promote a product), and then sat me down to design my own e-mail. I also went back to the studio and took a couple of snapshots for the brand's Facebook page.
To close out my busy day, I went and talked to Michael, who designs and sets up website refreshes. He is responsible for making sure that every time the website is changed or an e-mail is sent out all links function as they should. He talked a bit about the different formats used to make the website viewable on desktops as well as on iPhones and iPads. He also told me a little about IC and EC codes that collect data on each person who visits the website or recieves promotional e-mails. This information is used to form marketing strategies to promote the brand.
After the meetings, I talked with Karen, who discussed test sites for website refreshes, the company's online catalog, and the creative aspect of banners and e-mails. I finished out the morning with Lori and Carmen, who were both very sweet. They are web designers and they showed me how they design the banners and the web catalog Karen had talked to me about.
After lunch, I spent two hours with Leigh, an director for the fashion side of the brand. Leigh and the rest of her team were finishing up lunch when I got there, so she showed me around the studios, and explained the entire process. Becuase of the vast quantity of merchandise, organization is very important. Before each shoot, the stylist selects a sereies of complete head-to-toe looks, that are clearly labeled. All of the outfits included a tag with a barcode, that makes keeping track of the pieces in each photo very easy. They resumed the photoshoot shortly after lunch, and it went very smoothly. A couple of things that I found interesting: Everyone know models are very tall and skinny, but I didn't realize how tall and skinny they actually were until today. They were wafer thin, but they towered over me! Also, you think that models only look that good beacuse pf Photoshop. Not so, I saw the raw images, and they were practically perfect. Leigh told me a good hair and makeup team are far more important than any digital touchups.
During a break in the photoshoot, Leigh took me to see Peter, who does all the design for one of the company's offshoots. He took me to talk to Erica briefly about writing copy (the headline and byline used to describe and promote a product), and then sat me down to design my own e-mail. I also went back to the studio and took a couple of snapshots for the brand's Facebook page.
To close out my busy day, I went and talked to Michael, who designs and sets up website refreshes. He is responsible for making sure that every time the website is changed or an e-mail is sent out all links function as they should. He talked a bit about the different formats used to make the website viewable on desktops as well as on iPhones and iPads. He also told me a little about IC and EC codes that collect data on each person who visits the website or recieves promotional e-mails. This information is used to form marketing strategies to promote the brand.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
First Day
Because of my mentor's schedule, today was the first day of my senior project. Becasue Stephanie Sarles and I have mentors within the same corporation, we spent the day together shadowing the same person, Trey. Trey is an art director, and we spent today on location photographing rugs for the upcoming catalog and website. Today was the second day of a two-day shoot; they had already shot the cover pictures and a couple of spreads. Today we shot several sets of photos and the back cover.
We met Trey at the studio where they do most of the catalog's photography. After a breif tour, we left the studio and went to an on location photoshoot. Once we arrived, Trey introduced us to the rest of his crew. There was a photographer, a photo editor, a location scout (who was responsible for finding the place we were shooting today), and several assistants. While they were setting up, Stephanie and I explored. We were in an old flour mill that had been partially converted into lofts. The building was huge, and really interesting to wander through. Lots of the original parts of the mill were still intact.
After a while we went back down to the courtyard where the photoshoot was in full swing. Prepping for each shot took much longer than you would expect; everything had to be perfect. The rugs had to be hung perfectly straight, without any ripples or bows in the fabric, the fringe was swept into submission, and once hung, each rung was steamed smooth. Next came the lighting.
I learned that the lighting of a product was paramount. Catalog covers can have darker, more dramatic lighting. The majority of a catalog's images, however, should be as light and neutral as possible without being boring. The biggest concern when shooting a catalog photograph is that the product be well-displayed. Images sent in emails should be very neutral with simple backgrounds that don't distract from the product.
What surprised me the most about today is how time consuming a simple catalog photo can be. A photo's pre-production takes forever! The location we shot at was great, but I have to admit, taking pictures of various rugs for eight hours gets boring, and the minutae involved can be very frustrating.
We met Trey at the studio where they do most of the catalog's photography. After a breif tour, we left the studio and went to an on location photoshoot. Once we arrived, Trey introduced us to the rest of his crew. There was a photographer, a photo editor, a location scout (who was responsible for finding the place we were shooting today), and several assistants. While they were setting up, Stephanie and I explored. We were in an old flour mill that had been partially converted into lofts. The building was huge, and really interesting to wander through. Lots of the original parts of the mill were still intact.
After a while we went back down to the courtyard where the photoshoot was in full swing. Prepping for each shot took much longer than you would expect; everything had to be perfect. The rugs had to be hung perfectly straight, without any ripples or bows in the fabric, the fringe was swept into submission, and once hung, each rung was steamed smooth. Next came the lighting.
I learned that the lighting of a product was paramount. Catalog covers can have darker, more dramatic lighting. The majority of a catalog's images, however, should be as light and neutral as possible without being boring. The biggest concern when shooting a catalog photograph is that the product be well-displayed. Images sent in emails should be very neutral with simple backgrounds that don't distract from the product.
What surprised me the most about today is how time consuming a simple catalog photo can be. A photo's pre-production takes forever! The location we shot at was great, but I have to admit, taking pictures of various rugs for eight hours gets boring, and the minutae involved can be very frustrating.
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