Ideas development

 IDEAS DEVELOPMENT 

1. Is art direction the most important sector in fashion branding? (Do customers really care about the concept behind each branding approach?)
2. How is consumers’ behaviour shaped in fashion branding? 
3. How is gender being conceptualised in fashion branding?

How effective it is instead of how "good" it is

- definition of effective (number of sales)

- algorithms 

- trends ("fast-fashion")

- style according to trends or brand's signature style? 

- ethical? tokenism? virtue signalling? (body-positivity, racism, classism, disability...) (nike, fenty)

• eg. celebrity endorsements (eg. travis scott mcdonald’s?) 

Is the use of trends in advertising effective? (Streetwear brands)

• compare “effective” and “ineffective” advertisements 
• Define “effective”
• Define streetwear 

Social Media’s influence on advertising

• Social media is a new platform for people to go on to to create trends 
• Spread info easily (Globalisation)
• Influencers
• Trends changing v quickly (similar to fast-fashion)
• Big data 
• Surveillance Capitalism 
• Maxist criticism 
• big companies trying to appeal to the masses 
• Unethical 

Books 

• advertising 
• Social media

Terms 

• Homogenous (globalisation, internet culture, influencers, social media)
• Viral 
• Mainstream 

• Globalisation 
• Internet culture 
• Making branding boring 
• All look the same 
• Fashion brands logo 

THE SOCIAL DILEMMA (NETFLIX SERIES) 

AZA RASKIN 

• Firefox n Mozilla Labs former employee 
• Centre for Humane Technology Co founder 
• Inventor of Infinite scroll 

We are not paying for the thing that we use, advertisers pay, advertisers were the customers, we, users are being sold. 

“if you are not paying for the product, then you are the product” 

Our attention is the product being sold to the advertisers 

The gradual change in users’ behaviour and perception is the product 

Succesful businesss 

Sell certainty 

Have to have great predictions 

You need a lot of data 

Surveillance Capitalism

Fab, sc, ig, all competing for your attention

Keep people engaged on the screen 

How we get as much of this person’s attention we possibly can

How much time can we get you to spend? 

Research on social media and fashion branding

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-20/why-fashion-brands-all-use-the-same-style-font-in-their-logos 

Why Fashion Brands All Seem to Be Using the Same Font

• “‘Luxury typography’ is kind of a non-sequitur,” he says. Instead, he was guided by Tisci’s desire for the treatment to work just as well on a gabardine raincoat as on a chiffon blouse. He describes what he and Tisci settled on as “modern utility,” adding, “It looks like it’s been there forever, but it’s still contemporary.”
• When the Burberry redesign made its debut, design blog Brand New gave it a snarky welcome: “It is no more different nor more or less interesting than any other fashion sans-serif logo.”
• Ultimately, luxury isn’t about mimicking trends. It’s about a timeless and enduring form of value: current yet classic, expensive but worth it. 

https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2019/02/20/debate-commercialism-ruins-art/ 

Debate: “Commercialism Ruins Art”

• In the end, no one really gets to enjoy that piece of art, especially since art museums can’t keep up with rising art prices
• When art accumulates that much commercial value, it starts being seen in the same way as a really flashy car that is too expensive to risk driving. A piece of art gets bought by a millionaire who knows it will accumulate value as time goes on, and to decrease the risk of anything happening to it, they ferret it away in their private museum.
• So, does commercialism destroy art? It seems that an answer to this question must first consider what we look for in art;
• From a historical perspective, I think commercialization doesn’t destroy art but makes it more interesting. Commercialization is really just another aspect of art’s sociological meaning.

https://www.creativebloq.com/features/has-branding-become-boring 

Has branding become boring?

• Recently, the logos of the world’s biggest brands have opted to go character-less, rather than character-full.
• When new brands are born they have the flexibility to play. They can take risks, be light-hearted, look different and divide opinion. They’ve got little to lose, so a fresh, alternative approach helps them stand out and engage with consumers.
• But as brands develop they often find it harder to be fun and show their personality. They worry that it may isolate and deter potential customers. They feel the need to be seen as a safe bet, becoming more serious. And naturally the fun tails off.

https://hbr.org/2016/03/branding-in-the-age-of-social-media 

Branding in the Age of Social Media

• Social media would allow your company to leapfrog traditional media and forge relationships directly with customers. If you told them great stories and connected with them in real time, your brand would become a hub for a community of consumers. 
• In fact, social media seems to have made brands less significant. What has gone wrong?
• To solve this puzzle, we need to remember that brands succeed when they break through in culture. And branding is a set of techniques designed to generate cultural relevance. Digital technologies have not only created potent new social networks but also dramatically altered how culture works.
• Digital crowds now serve as very effective and prolific innovators of culture—a phenomenon I call crowdculture.
• Classic ads like Alka-Seltzer’s “I Can’t Believe I Ate the Whole Thing,” Frito-Lay’s “Frito Bandito,” and Farrah Fawcett “creaming” Joe Namath with Noxema all snuck into popular culture by amusing audiences.
• social media, influensers 
• Social media —> fast fashion —> fast changing trends 

https://brand24.com/blog/social-media-marketing-for-fashion-brands/ 

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/professional/blands-direct-to-consumer-marketing-playbook 

Initial ideas brainstorming

 

Areas that I am interested in 

• typography 
• Branding 
• Fashion branding 
• Style imaging 
• Art direction 
• Social media
• commercialism 
• Fashion stereotypes? gender? 
• crowdculture

Topics that I am interested in

1. How does branding create the sense of buying? 
2. Are art direction concepts essential in a launch of items in the audience’s point of view? 
3. Is art direction the most important sector in fashion branding? (Do customers really care about the concept behind each branding approach?)
4. How is consumers behaviour shaped in fashion branding? 
5. Is fashion branding becoming too commercialised? (pros: help gain exposure? Cons: being too boring and look-the-same)
6. How is gender being conceptualised in fashion branding? 

IDEA 1 

As I have created a clothing brand with a friend during the summer, I realised that the aesthetic of the branding is much more important than the concept behind the design approaches. When there is a launch of items, customers tend to only look at the overall branding aesthetic of the launch, instead of really looking into the concept of the art direction behind. 

Does this affects the depth of concept of the art direction of each launch? Does this means that art direction is becoming devaluated? 

FASHION BRANDING 

Artsy art direction (anaisjourden’s new launch) vs straightforward 

Aesthetic based vs product based ?

IDEA 2

How does typography affects consumers’ psychology in the fashion branding. 

Font psychology

Emotional personality 

serif, sans, scripts, handwriting, blackletter, tilting, and decorative 

Context of design can enhance and weaken the proposed message 

EVENT BRANDING

After showing my work to peers, they suggested that the designs could be applied to into 

I also came up with the idea of sending the designs to the government tourism board for their exhibition branding. The design could be used as the branding of their events for promoting the HK culture. Membership cards for staff and helpers were made, wristbands are also made for visitors, also, banners will also be put up at the event space to strengthen the branding and to make it significant and recognisable. 

1st attempt 

final outcome

The designs are being refined to look more professional.

SOCIAL MEDIA MOCKUPS

Social media accounts will also be set up to make it easier to spread and promote the idea. The hashtag #Hongkongcultureisnotdead is also created. This is inspired by the contemporary propaganda way of distribution. People made use of social media platforms to spread news. Especially the #eye4hk campaign, the information spread really fast after the hashtag was made.

Twitter

IG

• instagram 
• twitter 
• tag #hongkongcultureisnotdead 

FINAL POSTCARDS

The following are the final designs of the posters/ postcards. Hong Kong culture is being categorised into 3 main sectors, food, architecture and city.  They are meant to be distributed in flights to travellers to promote Hong Kong culture and to prove that #HongKongcultureisnotdead. Qr codes were added to all of the postcard designs for easier access to information. 

FOOD

Food1

Food2

Food3

Food4

CITY

City1

City2

City3

City4

ARCHITECTURE

Architecture1

Architecture2

Architecture3

Architecture4

NEW BANNER IDEA

I also came up with the idea of making a banner as a part of the campaign. It is planned to be put up in the Hong Kong international airport, to gain exposure from travellers who would like to know more about Hong Kong. With the postcards that they have received in their flight, it could definitely help to promote Hong Kong culture. The banner turns out to look really well on the billboard. The background makes it really eye catching and the simple design is straight forward enough for passerby to scan through at first glance. 

a banner mockup

billboards in HK international airport

I am planning to make an Instagram account with the design work that have made. A #tag will also be created like the #eye4hk campaign, to further spread the designs.

PLANNED OUTCOMES

• banners 
• postcards 
• #hkcultureisnotdead
• instagram account 
• twitter account