Miss KG Sunglasses

Recently I visited Boots with my Mam to pick up some last minute holiday bits and I came across these gorgeous sunglasses. (Unfortunately I'm not the one going on holiday! She's gone to Tenerife with my dad for a well deserved break.) I have always had an obsession with sunnies - maybe because I always had to wear glasses until the age of 13 when I could get contact lenses, I'm not sure.  These ones make me super excited!! Usually I find they can be ill-fitting on me, far too big for my face and the arms far too long and sticking out from behind my ears for like a mile, which does not look good with a pixie cut! The price of these is great as well, all around £35 which I think is definitely worth it for the quality and how good the designs are.

I found these selling online at www.redhotsunglasses.co.uk and www.houseofbath.co.uk as for some reason they aren't on the Boots website! But they had a great range in store so I would recommend popping in and giving them a try!

I actually can't wait for summer to style some of these with cute outfits and have some colour and pattern and a tan in my life. Although the winter sun is blinding when driving lately so that may be a good excuse to get some right now. Possibly the round mirrored lens pair with the gold frames? Swoooon

Thanks for reading!

Laura Olivia xx

Setting Future Goals

As my second year of this course is well under way I'm going to reflect on what I have already done in my first year and last couple of months, and set goals for the remainder of the year.

 Last year I learned a lot in terms of how to create range plans and illustrated reports on InDesign. I was able to create my own style of work and I was happy with the outcome of most of my projects, although I did have to rush some of them at the end to meet deadlines, which is something I need to work on.

Some strengths I think I have would be:

• InDesign skills
• Web design knowledge (HTML, setting up a website)
• Writing skills
• Moodboards
• Fashion retail experience
• Drawing
• Visual merchandising experience
• Photography
• Organisation

Some things I would like to improve on:

• Time management
• Photoshop and Illustrator skills
• Confidence in my ability and my work
• Practical skills such as the marbling that I have recently done

During this year I would also like to gain some visual merchandising experience as a placement so that I can gain more experience in that field, which would benefit me in the future and in the career path I hope to take.

I have also completed a PPD skills, knowledge and Abilities Diagnostic using the PPD online module. This shows that I need to improve my knowledge in the following areas:

• Entrepreneurialism 
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Career Planning
• Culture and Etiquette
• Job and Interview Skills
• Analysis of Data
• Research and Referencing

Using the online modules I hope to improve these areas and be confident in them by the end of my course in April.

Laura Olivia

NCI 510: Developing A Negotiated Brief

As it's now the new year we have been given our final project for the level 6 course. For this project we have a lot of freedom as it's self directed and this is something I've never had the chance to do before. The first thing I did in searching for ideas was to look at trend forecasting on WGSN for spring/summer 2016. One trend in particular really caught my eye and that's what WGSN call the Sartorial trend, which is comprised of bold floral prints mixed with pattern and geometric shapes too. So much going on in one trend and one look! From this I comprised this Botanical themed mood board, really focusing in on the tropical side of this trend.

I'm really happy with the way this board turned out and I definitely want to encorporate some ideas from this board into my final work, whatever that may be! I will keep you updated as things progress!

Thanks for reading
Laura Olivia xoxo

NCI 504 Alternative Techniques: Topshop Window Concept Exhibition

Over the past couple of weeks we have been realising our VM concept ideas in a variety of 2D and 3D work to display as an exhibition in our college gallery.
Topshop industry clients were invited along to see our work and I got to explain my concept in person and gain feedback from them.
I'm happy with how my concept has been represented overall, however I would have liked to have hung the swing up properly with the boxes on it, as I had illustrated in my development work and had planned.
The marble effect 'tiles' turned out better than I had anticipated and I had a lot of positive feedback on those!




Laura Olivia xx

Creating the Topshop and Topman Metrocentre Blogs!

This past week at college I have been working on making the websites for the Topshop and Topman Metrocentre blogs. These will be password protected sites for the staff of not just the Metrocentre store but will hopefully be rolled out nationally. It is a place for staff members to update themselves on what's going on in store regarding anything happening that week, trends, latest street style and fashion news.

At first I tried to create the blogs on blogger, but found that cause difficulty with password protection and was not as simple as I thought. I tried another couple of hosting sites before deciding on weebly.com as it is a simple platform to use and update, and is easily password protected.

I used 1and1.co.uk to buy domain names for both sites which was quite straight forward, then I linked the weebly pages to the .co.uk names and the blogs are born!

www.throughtheshutter.co.uk is the Topshop blog

www.tmbthebrand.co.uk is the Topman blog

As I can't disclose the password to access the sites I will include screen shots!

Through The Shutter

Topman B The Brand

Laura Olivia

NCI 505 Skills For Making 2: Pitching My Prezi To Topshop

I recently gave a presentation on my 'Metalluxe' VM window concept to Topshop's regional manager and VM manager. This is the Prezi I showed to them to help to express my ideas!



Laura Olivia xx