Campaigns and Events :: P , R , D

In order to promote my brand/campaign i need to create an audience.
I need to make women more aware of the power they posses and help them celebrate it in order for my brand to generate consumers.
So i have been researching into existing campaigns for women such as dove etc , shown in previous posts.
Other than the article in Hunger Magazine, online advertisements , tv-commertials and in-store events like lock ins , celeb appearances i need a different method along with these to make my product stand out and grab women s attention publicly.

I had the idea of having a campaign celebration on an open top/Double decker buss , plastered with my textile design and influential quotes.
This way i can go to my audience as oppose to having them travel to an event.
The campaign event would be spontaneous and have a real good feeling.
There would be a range of different women on the buss talking to the audience about the campaign and new brand,  handing out t-shirts , bags and flyers promoting my women power range.

Whilst the buss is driving about , i would also propose that there would be women speaking, singing , chanting through microphones to attract out audience.

On the subject of women power and busses , i remembered an old favourite film of mine , spiceworld. 

For the promotion of the film aimed at a female audience , the girl band used a double decker buss, and it caused a great response. 

The buss would visit at least five big city's in the U.K a week before the launch of the website.  

Woman's Confidence :: P , R , D

A small advertisement campaign on Facebook for dove....  

Face-bookers can comment and like the photograph , leaving comments about the subject and how effective their campaign is and their views on women confidence. 

Woman's Confidence :: P , R , D

Today i came across a website campaign promoting the beauty of women and their body. 

I found a poster contest on the website....

The posters purpose was supposed to “challenge the media’s use of violent, drug-addicted, starved, surgically-enhanced images of women and to fight against industries that profit from women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies.” . 

I came across this poster...

As i scanned through the colourful icons of different women i became more and more confused with what message the poster was portraying. 

This particular poster was chosen from the winner of the competition for this project , to design a poster which demonstrates beauty and how it is not limited by size , body shape , race , age and physical disabilities. 

Although the poster shows icon illustrations of women in all of these areas, it does not necceserily celebrate or portray the beauty within the different types of women, If anything it makes it comical. 

I dont feel like this competitor has fully understood the concept and how women are portrayed , Firstly they are all wearing the same dress which suggests that all women are/should be the same in terms of individuality. Secondly using a ladies bathroom symbol can be slightly comical and make the concept less important. 

Also the use of colour of the illustrations dont necessarily show different races and skin colour, however i do like the use of bright colours in terms of celebrating the women , and showing that women come in all different colours, although these are not the correct ones. 

Another problem within the images is that the representation of disability is not shown , or if represents , it is not very clear! Maybe this is because it would be generalising someone with a disability, like all of the icons are! 

However there was one poster submitted which i loved!!!!

.....

So simple yet the message is so strong, clever use of type and a fresh feel of colours used, the type is perfect for a female audience.

Woman's Confidence :: P , R , D

Women who have disabilities , medical problems or physical defects are also effected by a lack of confidence and can become VERY depressed when it comes to how they look. 

I love The image above, it certainly shows the beauty in all of these women!  They look gorgeous , and i even got a little jealous of how good they look in the dainty pink dresses, something like this really influences me as it shows their strength and beauty , despite their disability, it shows that it is not such a big problem and that you can live just like other women without a disability. This kind of effective response of mine is what i want to create for my audience. 

Woman's Confidence :: P , R , D

Nearly every woman has some form of dissatisfaction with her body but Weight & Food Issues within women are extremely common now than they ever have been, the media and how people perceive women , and even how women are expected to look leads to illnesses such as Obesity, Anorexia, Binge Eating, and More. 

In my opinion Every woman needs to come to terms with her body, her self-image, and self-esteem, which is what i want to promote towards these women lacking in confidence and strength! 

There are excising campaigns to promote this already , some more effective than others!! 

Here are two campaigns recently launched by two different beauty products 

Victoria's Secrets 'a luxury underwear range' - Love my body campaign , Using the slim , flawless models in their underwear range, in one way it promotes the beauty of all skin colours , however , if someone not so small was looking at this , i dont think it would necessarily make them feel good about their body. 

And compared to this Real Beauty campaign by Dove just shows the contrast in messages portrayed through both campaigns. In this photograph by dove it shows both range in size and skin colour of the women , in my opinion this is much more effective for promoting towards all women throughout the world in every situation. 

Woman's Confidence :: P , R , D

Another issue that decreases a women's confidence and strength is weight. Here is an interesting article on the media and how it sets such a bad example towards the weight of what women should be.

Beauty and Body Image in the Media "We don’t need Afghan-style burquas to disappear as women. We disappear in reverse—by revamping and revealing our bodies to meet externally imposed visions of female beauty." Source: Robin Gerber, author and motivational speaker Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women—and their body parts—sell everything from food to cars. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner. Some have even been known to faint on the set from lack of food. Women’s magazines are full of articles urging that if they can just lose those last twenty pounds, they’ll have it all—the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women, the majority of whom are naturally larger and more mature than any of the models? The roots, some analysts say, are economic. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. And it’s no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. If not all women need to lose weight, for sure they’re all aging, says the Quebec Action Network for Women’s Health in its 2001 report Changements sociaux en faveur de la diversité des images corporelles. And, according to the industry, age is a disaster that needs to be dealt with. The stakes are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion (U.S.) a year selling temporary weight loss (90 to 95% of dieters regain the lost weight).1 On the other hand, research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls. The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight control—including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting. The pressure to be thin is also affecting young girls: the Canadian Women's Health Network warns that weight control measures are now being taken by girls as young as 5 and 6. American statistics are similar. Several studies, such as one conducted by Marika Tiggemann and Levina Clark in 2006 titled “Appearance Culture in Nine- to 12-Year-Old Girls: Media and Peer Influences on Body Dissatisfaction,” indicate that nearly half of all preadolescent girls wish to be thinner, and as a result have engaged in a diet or are aware of the concept of dieting.  In 2003, Teen magazine reported that 35 per cent of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70 per cent of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Overall research indicates that 90% of women are dissatisfied with their appearance in some way.2 Media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes that, "Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight." Unattainable Beauty Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea and eventually die from malnutrition. Jill Barad president of Mattel (which manufactures Barbie) estimated that 99% of girls aged 3 to 10 years old own at least one Barbie doll.3 Still, the number of real life women and girls who seek a similarly underweight body is epidemic, and they can suffer equally devastating health consequences. In 2006 it was estimated that up to 450, 000 Canadian women were affected by an eating disorder.4 The Culture of Thinness Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery. Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a woman’s worth. Canadian researcher Gregory Fouts reports that over three-quarters of the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in twenty are above average in size. Heavier actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies ("How about wearing a sack?"), and 80 per cent of these negative comments are followed by canned audience laughter. There have been efforts in the magazine industry to buck the trend. For several years the Quebec magazine Coup de Pouce has consistently included full-sized women in their fashion pages and Châtelaine has pledged not to touch up photos and not to include models less than 25 years of age. In Madrid, one of the world’s biggest fashion capitals, ultra-thin models were banned from the runway in 2006. Furthermore Spain has recently undergone a project with the aim to standardize clothing sizes through using a unique process in which a laser beam is used to measure real life women’s bodies in order to find the most true to life measurement.5 However, advertising rules the marketplace and in advertising thin is "in." Twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman—but today’s models weigh 23 per cent less. Advertisers believe that thin models sell products. When the Australian magazine New Woman recently included a picture of a heavy-set model on its cover, it received a truckload of letters from grateful readers praising the move. But its advertisers complained and the magazine returned to featuring bone-thin models. Advertising Age International concluded that the incident "made clear the influence wielded by advertisers who remain convinced that only thin models spur the sales of beauty products." Another issue is the representation of ethnically diverse women in the media. A 2008 study conducted by Juanita Covert and Travis Dixon titled "A Changing View: Representation and Effects of the Portrayal of Women of Color in Mainstream Women's Magazines” found that although there was an increase in the representation of women of colour, overall white women were overrepresented in mainstream women’s magazines from 1999 to 2004. Self-Improvement or Self-Destruction? The barrage of messages about thinness, dieting and beauty tells "ordinary" women that they are always in need of adjustment—and that the female body is an object to be perfected. Jean Kilbourne argues that the overwhelming presence of media images of painfully thin women means that real women’s bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The real tragedy, Kilbourne concludes, is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the beauty industry's standards. Women learn to compare themselves to other women, and to compete with them for male attention. This focus on beauty and desirability "effectively destroys any

Woman's Confidence :: P , R , D

Often celebrities use skin bleaching products to make their skin look lighter, what kind of example is this setting to women today?! It is so wrong as there can be terrible side effects such as the skin becoming multi-colored and marred with inflammation which leaves sever scars. 

Due to A survey carried out by the British Skin Foundation, the cream has been banned by the government, however it is still accessible, especially in Uganda where the cream is sold over the counter , along the roadside or by hawkers then imported into different countries for people to use. 

The survey found that 16% of dermatologists believe lightening creams are ‘completely unsafe’ and 80% feel they are only safe when prescribed by a dermatologist for small pigmentations in the skin such as birthmarks , moles etc. 

Here are some images used in various campaigns to stop this awful cream...

Woman's Confidence :: P , R , D

This new New Documentary called ‘Dark Girls’. The programme Looks at how Black Women Struggle with their Skin Tone. Throughout the programme are several interviews where women share heart breaking and disturbing stories of how they hate the skin they are in.

This just shows how vulnerable and unknowledgeable women are about what real beauty is! It 


makes me want to shake some confidence into these women.

                              

One of the women whilst being interviewed says.. “I used to wish I could wake up one day 


lighter. Or wash my face and think that it would change. I thought it was dirt and I tried to clean 


it off, but it wouldn’t come off.”Another woman said, “It was so damaging. It made us feel like we 


weren’t wanted. That we were less than.” In a really surprising snippet, a teacher asks a young girl 


to look at a spectrum of girls from very light to very dark, and pick out which girl was, “smart and 


pretty” and which one was, “dumb and ugly.” The child confesses she thinks the light girl is smart


 and pretty “because she’s white,” and the dark girl is dumb and ugly, “because she’s black.”


 -THIS IS HORRENDOUS! 

Digital Proposals :: P , R , D

This was interesting , i found a quiz online where you can find out what kind of flower fits your personality best. This sprung an idea to mind in terms of my product , I could maybe think about bringing a digital media to my product by having a similar quiz using an app to determine which flower represents the women you want to be 'what you lack in' i.e confidence, and this would choose the theme and style of the dress, t-shirt , bag , interior design etc. 

Flower Meanings :: P , R , D

I have been thinking about what kind of flowers i am going to include in my textiles, So i have started researching into flower meanings and what they symbolise.
As i am trying to influence and promote power and confidence within women i thought i better use flowers which are supposed to represent these areas.
This will also expand my range as i can make different patterns and colours using the various flowers and meanings behind them.

Plum Flower - Beauty

Web Design Research

I came across this website by a young graphic designer / Textile artist. I like the combination of the textiled pattern with a graphic element of type to it. However i feel the choice and use of type could be improved , i would use something a little more professional, but this is the type of style that i want to go for when designing my website. 

Research :: P , R , D

Some fashion textiles that i found , although i am not thinking about producing anything like this , it is good for inspiration as i like the range of block colours used and the spunky style of the garments. I think using a similar style within my textile design would stand out and brand my concept and product well. 

Research :: RANKIN :: P , R , D

Facebook advertising , a visual ten day countdown to the next issue of the hunger magazine , for the last ten days of the countdown before the next issue , the profile picture of the facebook forum changed. I enjoyed seing such good photography each day, so inspiring and it was 

Research :: P , R , D

David Mabb exhibition 

This is a Utopian vision, an image of Cokaygne. Mabb's paintings, photographs, textiles and videos all, in different ways, work with and against Morris' utopian designs by contrasting them with other forms of modernist production, including Malevich, Rodchenko, Stepanova and Popova paintings and designs, modernist architecture and photographs of industry.