Merci

Concept store, Merci, situated in central Paris. 

Happy Pills

My housemate recently went travelling around Europe and told me about a shop she came across. Happy Pills is a 'pharmacy' concept sweet shop. They use signature fluorescent pink cross logo and lower case type. The idea is that customers pick 'n' mix their sweets and place them inside clear glass medicine bottles.

It has recognized that sweets are fun and sugar makes you feel good/better, and linked it with medicine and pills.

http://design-milk.com/happy-pills/

http://mocoloco.com/archives/004309.php

Project Visuals

Here are a series of ideas of different ways I could communicate clothing for my look book, using a 'Pharmacy/Medical' concept. All three ideas clearly depict the clothing in a fun yet informational way.

The top image would be created using a photographic image (a styled model) and the bottom image is cut out photographs of clothing placed inside a medicine bottle.

Florence + The Machine

The album artwork, produced for music artist Florence + The Machine's single 'Dog Days', reminds me of an English country village fete: jam, cakes, bunting, face painting, bouncy castles, petting zoo, competitions, coconut shy. It also reminded me of the woodland animal illustrations which I did.

Incorporating illustrations and photography can work well in some cases. I want to try and discover who produced this artwork and view their other work, it will be interesting to see what else the artist has done.

Postcards

For Part 1 of my Negotiated Studies project I created a pack of 20 postcards as an alternative 'out of the typical tourist trail' 2009 shopping guide for Milan. The concept of the guide is 'inspirational shops'. I researched shops in Milan that inspired me. I produced a guide that recommends shops/stalls/boutiques/events/galleries/markets that I discovered, and drew an illustration of a particular interesting and inspiring product or feature within each of the places.

The idea of the postcards is that readers can use the postcards as a guide but also contribute to the postcard by sending in illustrations of their inspirational places to be featured in the up and coming pack.

Spektacle

I attended a lecture with John Noi, the editor of Spektacle magazine. His unique selling point was QR codes. QR codes are the latest technology in gaining information, only usable if the reader owns a Kaywa supported mobile phone, mainly found in iPhones and Blackberrys. They're used by 'snapping' the codes- which means scanning the code using the phone's integrated camera, this then automatically connects to the internet on the phone and links the reader up to further information. It's innovative, and a quick source to information. This idea has turned a magazine into an interactive magazine. Readers have the opportunity to gain further information quickly, literally within the touch of a button. What inspired me about the lecture was that John Noi has created a magazine that has a USP that can not be found in any other magazine, and he has cleverly continued a concept throughout the magazine within the images that are used and also the lexicon that is used. It made me realise how important unique selling points are, what makes my product better? http://www.spektacle.com -for a free PDF download of Spektacle.