Placement Searching

It had been such a relief and a breath of fresh air to spend the month of December dedicating my time solely to placement searching, which only confirmed to me that I had made the correct decision in leaving my placement at Forever Unique after completing only half of my 12 month contract. The culture of insensitivity, blaming and punishment in addition to a total lack of transparency from higher management to staff had ultimately pushed me away and made me deeply uncomfortable to be there. While the working environment was partially to blame for my departure, I also worried that I was no longer fulfilling my true capabilities or my ambitions to learn as much as possible about all aspects of the communication and promotion sectors within the fashion industry. And while Manchester is an ever-growing and thriving city of fashion in the UK, it's a given that it does not offer the same amount of opportunities as the capital. Ultimately, I had an unsettling feeling that I wasn't carrying out my placement year in a way that I would be proud of once it was over. As a result, during my search for a new internship, I was much more conscious about the culture and morale of the companies I was applying to which led me to be more selective throughout the application process. I want to challenge myself to explore a completely new role, therefore enhancing my skill set and giving me a better chance at matching the experience criteria for any given role.

After sending waves of initial applications and a series of follow-up emails but receiving very little back in way of communication from the companies I'd applied to, I couldn't help but feel a bit fearful that it would take me much longer to be employed again than I had first hoped. I stayed hopeful by checking FashionWorkie religiously every day to stay ahead of the game, ensuring that my applications were submitted early and constantly reading up on the best things to include in cover letters. 

I was invited to an interview with Alexander McQueen for a PR position in the menswear department. I had quite high hopes for this interview because I felt like I had a lot of advantages under my belt already; I'd previously attended an interview for the same position in the McQ diffusion line but was rejected for not having enough experience - now that I was returning with 6 months of experience at a luxury brand I felt quite optimistic that they would be satisfied with my developed skill set! Sadly, that wasn't the case, but I took away from the interview the importance of not getting my hopes up too high or being too confident about whether or not I'd be offered the position. I've found that even if I'm completely qualified for a role and consider myself a 'perfect fit', sometimes it really just isn't meant to be! I've decided not to put myself forward for any other role that becomes available at Alexander McQueen for the remainder of my placement year because I found that their approach to interviewing candidates was kind of nonsensical; the interviewers were aware of my previous experience on both occasions that I attended an interview yet they could only suggest my lack of experience as a reason not to hire me.

Next I was invited to attend at interview at Coach. I was so excited to attend the interview, having been a huge lover of the Coach brand since undertaking two huge marketing assignments on it in second year. I knew that I already had the upperhand against other interviewees having studied the brand's competitive status in the affordable luxury market in such depth. I used this fact to my advantage by reaching out to the hiring manager Grace Simmons, PR Co-ordinator, to let her know that I had submitted an application for the role. In the email I also attached my final marketing assignments so that she could see the extent of my knowledge. In effect, I had already lain my skill-set bare to her before even setting foot in the Coach HQ! I immediately knew that this interview had gone much better than my interview at Alexander McQueen; conversation flowed much better and I stayed cool, calm and collected with every question asked. I think it also really helped that I came with my very own Coach bag, gifted to me on my 21st birthday, on my arm! It definitely left a positive final impression and communicated clearly my genuine love for the brand. Within a couple of days I had been offered the position and naturally, I didn't even have to think twice to accept it. I can't wait to experience PR from the perspective of a luxury brand, having already interacted with brand/agency PRs from the position of a fashion intern at a weekly magazine.

And then, within hours, I was offered an additional position as fashion intern at Look Magazine. It seems to be a recurring theme during placement year that internships are sparse and I start to worry that I'll never be hired and then all of a sudden they start to come in thick and fast - a lot like waiting for a bus and then three come at once. While I've already had a similar experience to this role at Fabulous magazine, I'm interested to see how the Fashion Cupboard process may differ from publication to publication. I'm also keen to get more exposure on the set of main fashion shoots where I can see experimental and trend-led styling firsthand and become familiar with a brand new host of photographers, hair and make-up teams and stylists.

Pure Hydration

Pantone's Powerful Predictions

6 Months into Placement Year: CV & Portfolio Development

I began my preparations to move on to a new placement about 4 and a half months into my time at Forever Unique. At that point, I was feeling more and more compelled to leave with each day but still hesitant about making any big decisions. I started updating my CV to ease my anxiety about the decision to leave, having not updated it since the beginning of my placement year in May. By doing this I felt like I was being semi-productive in looking for a new placement without actually having to commit to the decision yet. 

I also set up an online portfolio to showcase all of the exciting projects that I've been working on. I'm really happy with the final outcome of this and hope that potential employers will be equally as impressed by my initiative as they are by the actual content of my work. I will provide the link to my portfolio in an interactive PDF when submitting my CV and cover letter to applications, so that the hiring managers can click straight through. In addition to these preparations, I've made sure to strengthen my LinkedIn profile by making new connections in my colleagues at Forever Unique and updating information to reflect my new skills. My CV and portfolio are available to click through from on my profile. My social channels have also been edited to reflect my experience; I feel that at this stage in my placement year, the tagline 'Fashion Creative' is much more relevant to my skillset than simply 'Fashion Communication and Promotion student' and the link to my portfolio has also been provided. Having secured my placement with Fabulous magazine and an upcoming work experience with the Press Association through Twitter, I definitely appreciate the powers that social media can have in paving a new career path.

Now I am eagerly sending carefully penned cover letters to a number of companies I'd really like to gain experience with. I'm particularly interested in a role where I can put my writing skills to professional use, as this is an area which I have yet to explore on placement. I'd really like to work for a print publication - ideally one which I already have a personal affinity for - as there is something very rewarding to me about seeing my hard work come to life in the flesh between the pages of a magazine. By working for a magazine, I could also have the opportunity to develop my experience in styling which is an area I am intrigued about.

My online portfolio can be viewed at www.lauratownsend.wixsite.com/portfolio.

A Retrospective Summary: Marketing Intern at Forever Unique

My time at Forever Unique began tinged with sadness as it meant packing up and leaving London to move back to my family home. I was sad because this had never been the plan; I'd always envisioned spending my entire placement year in London, doing a variety of different placements. I'd never imagined the possibility that I'd find a paid, full-time position in a really interesting role with a 12 month contract in the North, where placement opportunities are undoubtedly much more limited. Nevertheless I was really anticipating getting stuck into this role; my expectations were high and the interview process had left me feeling extremely positive about the workplace. 

My day-to-day schedule was always busy - often frantically so - and I was never stuck waiting for something to do. There was also a lot of responsibility in the tasks I was assigned, to the extent that in actual fact, I no longer felt that I was being 'assigned' tasks as I quickly adapted and immersed myself fully into the team. My independence has evolved dramatically as I gained the confidence to intuitively make decisions in my role, such as designing social content without a brief or alter aspects of the website. While learning skills in website management had never strictly been a part of my job description, I have really valued the time that I have been able to dedicate to enhancing the website and the customer's consumer journey. In order to enhance the customer's experience using the Forever Unique transactional website, I focused on improving the selection of imagery using for product listings and trawled through back-dated product to correct errors. I'm pleased that I can add experience in CMS to my CV as I have always got the impression that this is an extremely desired asset to have among interns and it has certainly broadened my opportunities as a result. In addition, I was always pleased to see my purpose-designed graphics used daily on the Forever Unique brand's Instagram and Snapchat story platforms. When I began this placement I had never designed a gif animation before, and while this side of my role was also never strictly included in my job description, it was the area which I spent most of my time working on.

With the introduction of a Head of Digital, considered to be the leading manager on my retail team, much more emphasis was concentrated on driving sales, beating targets and increasing conversion rates. I'm satisfied that the time I took labouring over the website and social media channels must have played a role in increasing the average conversion rate by tracking a more improved journey from start to finish through the customer's exposure and experience of the brand.

Unfortunately, it was a repeating pattern within the business that my team were generally fulfilling tasks which were not technically part of their official role. This left me torn; as an intern, I should be flexible and willing to lend my hand to any additional role, but I couldn't help but feel like myself and others were often being taken advantage of. Of course I wholeheartedly expect that in this industry companies won't hesitate to under-pay and over-work an intern beyond their means, but it was a very worrying realisation to recognise that the entire team were being subjected to the same treatment. My team were hard-working and resilient with a lot of expertise to utilise, but sadly the failings of the entire management team meant that their strengths were not recognised. The general morale across my team was incredibly low and our managers remained extremely ignorant to it. To this day I still remain quite angry at the atrocious statement that the Sales Directing Manager fed to me during my interview, where he claimed that there was a very low turnover of staff at the business. I now know this to be extremely false - in my six months there I watched closer to a dozen staff members leave, some of their own accord and others forced out for cost-cutting reasons regardless of the length of time they had spent as loyal employees to the company. These instances were very uncomfortable to witness, and while I do understand that the fashion industry - or any industry, for that matter - can be 'cut-throat' and vicious at times, the manner that these dismissals was carried out was totally unprofessional and quite frankly, just not good enough. No provisions were ever made for the absence of dismissed team members, and no plans were put in place to hire a new replacement on a lower wage. Communication about such matters was anything but transparent - this completed alienated us all from the management team and made us extremely distrustful of them. It was regular talk between the team about 'who would be next' to get kicked out. The rest of our retail team were simply expected to pick up the pieces and continue as normal, sharing out our lost team members' responsibilities between us. Perhaps it's outrageous and unprofessional for me to say, but I can't help but feel that the people running this business are not fit to be doing so.

Towards the end I was very reluctant to adapt to such disruptions, having already been stretched to my limit. I'm cautious not to overstep the mark with my criticisms - I know I'm just an intern - but I still think I have the capacity and experience to recognise when a business is not caring for it's staff well. The work culture at Forever Unique was appalling. The team members were this company's greatest asset and in retrospect, it seems horrendously ironic that in an attempt to improve the customer's experience, our working experience suffered as a result. While we cared about each other on the retail team, our assurances and time to vent frustration was hushed and silenced due to the tense working environment. As a result, I often felt alone. With such a massive weight of responsibility on my shoulders, I often found it hard to socialise during working hours, and given the fact I was living at home and commuting into Manchester city centre, socialising out of working hours on those rare occasions was also difficult. In my next placement, I hope to feel much more at ease in a strong and supportive environment. While it wasn't a hugely important factor to me at the beginning of my placement year, I've discovered that feeling happy where I work is really important to me and it will be something that I ask questions about when I reach the interview stage of new potential internship opportunities.

Ultimately, it was the low morale within the company, the lack of respect from management and the changes made to my role were enough to make me hand in my notice despite having agreed to a twelve month contract. I no longer felt that I was learning anything new - the skills which had been coming thick and fast in the first several months had become stagnant, and my day-to-day role was starting to feel repetitive. Perhaps the lack of new variation would not have been enough to make me want to leave, if only I had felt appreciated for the work I was doing.

I am partially frustrated that my summary of this placement has been so negative in retrospect. While I have a lot of criticisms to offer, I don't regret the experience or feel like I have been badly affected by it. In actual fact, I feel like I have massively benefitted from the amount of responsibility I took on during these six months and in a sense, I know that it has advanced my experience beyond that of my peers. Being thrown in at the deep end really does have its advantages.

The experience I've gained in styling has been a particular highlight. I was pretty against the idea of ever wanting to pursue styling as a career prior to beginning placement year but now that I have gained so much exposure of the process behind styling campaign and commercial e-commerce photoshoots on such a regular basis, I am much more open to the idea of directing shoots as a career path. I really have developed my understanding of the photoshoot process from start to finish, by creating initial moodboards, researching concepts, booking hair & make-up artists, photographers and models and preparing props, sets and garments before finally carrying out the shoot to reach the final imagery which I have then selected carefully for the editing process to begin. After being edited, it was my role to upload these images to the website using my aforementioned newly acquired CMS skills. This really does capture the way that I have experienced the cycle of e-commerce. I've also been quite shocked to reflect on how advanced my skills in Photoshop have become; creating daily content for social media has done wonders for my knowledge in digital design and I am just itching to put all of the brand new techniques I have learnt into practice in final year.

Final year still feels very faraway and I am admittedly very happy about that. I've enjoyed the first half of placement year so much - even with all of the bumps in the road along the way - and I'm suddenly very happy about what the next six months will have in store for me, now that my placement at Forever Unique has come to an end prematurely. I'm excited to get stuck into something new and deeply want to pursue something in magazine publishing, hoping to further the initial experience I gained at Fabulous magazine.

Seventeen Prom Magazine Advert | Forever Unique

I was approached by the Sales team to lead the design of an advertisement for an upcoming issue of Seventeen magazine's US Prom addition. I was so excited to get stuck into this task, since Seventeen is such a worldwide respected magazine! 

I saw this task through from start to end. I put in the initial research by looking at past advertisements and the general voice of Seventeen mag and then designed mock-up drafts for approval by higher management. The Sales team drafted up prom dress options which they are anticipating to be popular, hero pieces of the season and I selected complimentary combinations which would be visually effective. It seemed appropriate to select a number of different garments for the one advertisement as this gives the consumer a number of options, rather than alienating them if one dress isn't to their taste. To ensure that the advertisement looked professional and up-to-date with Forever Unique since its rebrand, it became clear that we would need to shoot imagery specifically for the task's use. I was responsible for preparing the garments and studio ready to shoot and dressing the model, then liaising with the Head of Creative to select and edit the final images before constructing the final outcome.

This task relied heavily on communicating with higher management who had secured our space for an advert in the magazine. This was often challenging at times as the communication was often one-sided; I had been left out of e-mails which would have been beneficial for me to be CC'd into so I was often unaware of criteria and important information. One last minute addition to the advertisement which had been arranged and agreed upon without my knowledge by management was the inclusion of a Snapchat QR code which would take readers directly to the Forever Unique website to shop instantly. This is a really interesting example of digital/social realms merging with print press - especially at a time when print press often appears to be declining into extinction, what with the closure of several women's print magazines in recent weeks.

I can't wait to get my hands on this copy of Seventeen Prom so that I can add it to my small but ever-growing collection of magazine contributions!

Halloween Heroes Shoot | Forever Unique

Let the Slogan Speak

SkinnyDip x Grazia Advertorial

International Press Event Linesheet | Forever Unique

Following on from my development of the Brand Profile, I was requested by the PR team to create a linesheet for an upcoming international press event in a similar creative style and format to the Brand Profile template. I worked collaboratively with the PR team to select garments which would suit the audience at the press event, from retailers to customers, in order to enhance the likelihood of sales and sponsorships for the Forever Unique brand. After building the initial title page and linesheet page templates using the signature Forever Unique branding, I carefully selected garments based on style and colour similarity to merchandise. Merchandising the styles meant that the pages would flow well and the garments would be complimentary against each other, increasing the attractive visual appearance of the linesheet overall. Editing and ensuring that everything is aligned correctly is a really important part of putting together a linesheet or lookbook, so as with the Vow Bridal Atlanta Apparel Market linesheet that I had previously created, I spent a lot of time cross-referencing product codes to style images to ensure that no mistakes had been made. This process was a lot quicker in this case however, as the Idonea Press linesheet only consisted of 7 pages in total while the Atlanta Apparel linesheet was about 20. I have found that I really enjoy the process of creating linesheets which is unusual for me as the technique is very precise and the approach quite logical, while I am usually drawn more to expressive creativity. I recently saw an internship advertised for a linesheet creator at a brand I am unfamiliar with, which is interesting as I hadn't realised there was such a need within a business for such a specific role as this.

International Bridalwear Linesheet | Forever Unique

I was really excited to create this linesheet for an upcoming overseas bridal event as part of the Forever Unique brand's American wholesale branch - a task which I was given full management of by liasing back and forth with the various departments. I was initially briefed by the wholesale Sales Executive who had been requested to feedback the linesheet to the international team within a very restricted timeframe. I was provided with a basic list of styles which should be included in the linesheet as well as the key information of the particular event that this marketing material was intended for. The intention of a linesheet is to promote the pieces available in a catalogue format at a showcasing event such as the Atlanta Apparel Market in the USA, to encourage international retailers to stock a concession of the Forever Unique collection. To support this, I developed the format of the linesheet in order to tell a particular story surrounding the event. This particular event at the Atlanta Apparel Market centred around bridalwear, so I merchandised the product listings I had been provided by splitting the styles into specific wedding/occasion categories including Bridal Shower, Bachelorette and Bridesmaid. This ensured that the linesheet would flow well and that retailers browsing through it would be able to make sense of the large number of different styles, identifying which pieces would be better suited to their brand and target customer based on the occasion. Reviewing and editing was vital before submission of the linesheet, in order to make sure that no mistakes had been made in labelling the names and product codes of the styles. I liased back with and forth with the international team to confirm that the contact and address details were up-to-date and the Sales team to confirm that they were happy with the final product.

Brand Profile | Forever Unique

I was presented with the task of designing a ‘Brand Profile’ this week by a newly obtained member of staff, a Branding Manager. It became exceptionally clear during the process of this project that this organisation has some fundamental issues with communication across departments and within them. The briefing process was completely deficient; I was approached in person by the new manager (whom I had never previously met) with nothing recorded in writing and expected to understand and memorise the requirements of the task in full with limited instruction. Moreover, I wasn’t given information on the purpose of the Brand Profile - from its audience to its final destination. Basically, I was extremely ill-equipped to take on such a large task - and while I don’t want to pass the blame onto others for my disappointment in the final outcome, I know that I wasn’t supported throughout the duration of the design process as an intern should be. The fault in this laid entirely in the time management and communication skills of the responsible manager. I was not set a realistic or cemented timeframe in which to complete the task and no consideration was given to my other work commitments which suffered as a result. I didn’t have time to eat lunch, drink enough water or even regularly go to the toilet as I tried frantically not to disappoint the senior managers that I deeply wanted to impress. If a system exists in a workplace where any member of staff has to sacrifice their physical and mental needs to complete a task, there is clearly a very serious problem with the way the business is being run - especially when that member of staff is an intern. In hindsight, I realise that I should not have sacrificed so much to complete the task but rather worked at a healthy pace. I regret that I let myself get so flustered by the stress. 

The most challenging part of this task was being solely responsible for chasing up other departments for necessary assets, such as copy from the Copy Editor or suitable/preferred E-commerce imagery from the Campaign Manager. Naturally, these assets arrived late - only increasing my stress level - because each individual member of staff who contributed to the Brand Profile also had absolutely no idea of its contents or final purpose. Nevertheless I was extremely grateful for their support, although the rest of the team were left quite powerless and uninformed to assist me. Their was no plan in place for exactly which images or copy would be required, so it was often left up to me - an intern with 3 months of experience at the business - to decide what I thought would be most appropriate. I feel very despondent in the fundamental design of the Brand Profile itself, because I was instructed to replicate the design of an outdated branding material which no longer represents the branding and personality of the Forever Unique brand as I know it. This is even more frustrating given that the Brand Profile centres around the SS18 Collection which will be even more outdated in comparison to the campaigns and materials produced by my Retail Team when the collection is promoted early next year. I was very limited creatively by this, and with the added pressures of restrictive time limitations, I was always doomed to struggle with achieving my full capabilities.

Truthfully, I’m still not especially clear on the purpose of this 33-page long Brand Profile. I am unsure who is using it, or distributing it, or whether it serves any informative benefit. I hadn’t quite fully realised how negatively I felt about the process of creating this project until penning it to my Critical Journal, which has been beneficial at least in getting my thoughts together in order to develop a critical understanding of the briefing process within this company. Because of the demands of this project, I missed out on my opportunity to assist on the Christmas campaign shoot - a shoot which I had taken on a huge amount of responsibility in planning and preparing for and was so looking forward to watching come to life. My one aim during this placement year - aside from getting as much valuable experience as possible - is just simply to enjoy myself, but unfortunately I dreaded the thought of going to placement this week.

I have chosen a selection of pages from the 33-page document to include here.

Poster Redesign for NYC Event | Forever Unique

In September I was set the task of redesigning the current outdated template for posters and e-flyers distributed in the run-up and duration of the Coterie event held during New York Fashion Week. Coterie is an international tradeshow event which showcases up-and-coming women's fashion retailers, with similar events held across America in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The purpose of Forever Unique's attendance at the event is to showcase our upcoming collection to the American wholesale market, which makes up a large segment of the business. In this case, the event was showcasing our brand new and not-yet-released SS18 collection.

I worked with the branding and design teams to select bestselling styles to feature on the posters and worked from the past template to use the existing information of the event. I used Photoshop and InDesign to reach the final outcome which are two skills I have enhanced significantly during my time at Forever Unique. It gives me a lot of satisfaction that thousands of people have seen my work, although to them it will obviously be quite insignificant as I'm sure guests attending the tradeshow will have been inundated with similar posters from a number of other fashion and occasionwear retailers throughout the duration of the event! In terms of the process of designing these posters, I felt quite restricted by unrealistic time pressures and a heavy weight of my other responsibilities which meant that I wasn't able to develop my creative technique or advance my skills as much as I would have liked. In retrospect - and given more time to complete the task - I would have experimented with cutting the model images out and adjusting the background colour as I do feel that although the plain white background was easier to work with, it is quite bland and forgettable. Something that would have benefitted me during this task would have been to research into what marketing materials the direct competitors of Forever Unique and other brands present at this event have used in the past. I also would have developed the positioning and alignment of the text more, in order to draw more attention to the date of the event in particular. 

In an ideal world, I would have used really impressive campaign images of the collection which would have immediately gained a lot of public attention. However, at the time of the event we as a Creative team had not yet shot the SS18 collection as a campaign so I unfortunately only had the e-commerce shots to work with. While this may be a recurring issue at a lot of fashion retailers, I can only speak from my experience specifically at Forever Unique in saying that there are often a lot of flaws in the infrastructure of the yearly calendar whereby marketing deadlines aren't aligned with the necessary shoot which could really benefit the effect of the materials and ultimately, propel the status of the brand. I think that these problems are mostly caused by poor communication from international branches of the business to the UK HQ and within the UK HQ, between and within different departments.

Christmas Campaign Shoot | Forever Unique

The Christmas campaign was the first big campaign process which I was heavily involved in from start to finish, collaborating with the rest of the creative team. One of my main responsibilities in the run-up to shoot day was researching into local venues, having been given a general moodboard and venue style to follow, and contacting them for prices and availability. This whole process was pretty complicated given the number of venues that I contacted, but keeping clear separate lists with information for each venue helped to keep the system organised. The process also included visiting our selected venue first to view for specific shoot locations so that we would be able to break the day into different 'looks' which consisted of three trends. In the days leading to the shoot, I worked closely with the campaign management team to ensure that the styles had been selected well in advance and of those styles selected, that we would have a high quantity for sale at the time that the Christmas campaign would later go live to the public. The garments were sourced in our warehouse and steamed by myself in the days leading to the shoot, then prepared in dress bags for transportation to the venue. On the day of the shoot I arrived early to meet the model, photographer and hair/make-up team as well as the rest of the Creative team to set up, which involved hanging garments into shoot order and laying out shoes, accessories and the styling kit. 

I was really enjoying the day up to this point, and it was my first taste of an off-site shoot since working as Stylist's assistant at Fabulous magazine. Sadly, however, my day ended abruptly as I was called back to complete some outstanding work. This day ultimately became the worst day that I spent at this placement, as I was wrongly blamed by high management for the incompletion of the work - I emphasise that this was wrongly done since the unrealistic deadline and total lack of communication across the wider team at the company was overlooked. To maintain my professionalism, I won't go into much more detail about what occurred! The most significant thing that came out of this was a new briefing system which was established by a member of management to be instigated immediately by all members of staff when setting myself and the rest of the Creative team any kind of task or assignment. This was the beginning of a much less stressful placement experience where my role became clearer and my time was being used somewhat more efficiently, given my new ability to be properly assigned tasks. While this new system did work to some extent, this still marked the first time (and not the last) that I cried on my way home from this particular placement and it remained tainted somehow; I never really felt 100% comfortable there again. After this, I really felt quite despondent with updating my Critical Journal with weekly entries so this is where they stop. Instead, I have gone on to update my journal with summary entries of each separate major project completed between September to November upon my time of leaving the placement.

Nevertheless, I am still extremely proud of the outcome of the Christmas Campaign shoot!

Forever Unique: Week Ten

This week largely involved shooting in-house in the Forever Unique HQ studio. Shooting in a studio on-site has some advantages, including having all samples already located on the grounds and having access to adequate changing/hair & make-up areas, steamers, lighting, colour rolls and props etc. which keep the shoots flexible and casual. It does however make it harder when very little budget is allocated to a shoot - as is often the case with the brand - and so there can be limitations to what is achievable. One of my briefs prior to the two shoots this week which centred around the themes of Faux Leather & Jackets, was to find a shoot concept which didn't involve the use of a model in order to cut costs. I looked to Pinterest for inspiration, as well as a number of different brands on Instagram for interesting campaign content. I'm happy with the final images, which I co-styled along with Mark, as they remain very on-brand to the Forever Unique personality while also appearing quite experimental. 

I had several meetings which seemed to drag on foreeeeever as the team has grown by several new members in the past couple of weeks. A new Social Media Manager has started and is bringing fresh ideas about what she'd like to see across Forever Unique's social media platforms in order to gain the highest level of engagement possible. I really like and appreciate all of her ideas so it'll be good to see engagement levels increase over the coming months and have more and more people see the content I'm producing there. The flat lays I create always get a higher level of engagement than average which really excites me! One of her ideas was to compress the Instagram and Snapchat stories structure into a more compact format where each image of a garment also features its name and a reminder to use the stoppable function all in one quick sequence. This keeps the audience alert and interested, meaning that they are less likely to click away or swipe through the story without properly digesting the information.

Forever Unique: Week Nine

In keeping with the way I seem to begin every post, this week has yet again been very intense and high-pressured. With the launch of the A/W17 campaign now fully underway, a lot of time is being put into creating up-to-date content. I get the impression that this season, the creative team are trying to be much more daring and striving to create content which is more challenging. In light of this, my role this week largely involved assisting on shoots. The prospect of being partially responsible for the creation of content which will roll across social media, the website, the three-times-weekly email newsletters and various other aspects of the campaign is very daunting. Nevertheless, I really enjoy the freedom to explore new things and take creative risks that comes with this placement. This week, I created a series of flatlays for all of the soon-to-be-released handbags which will launch this coming season and I'm so happy with the results, especially  now that Mark, head of creative, has edited them in post-production. Creating effective flat lays requires a really fine attention to detail and a methodical approach in terms of experimenting with all possible compositions and angles possible. I'd really like to use my strength in product photography to my advantage in final year somehow, whether it be during the magazine project or my final major project. 

This week I took on a really big responsibility to fill in for an absent team member by being in charge of the social media coverage while assisting on a shoot which involved Shelby tribble, a blogger 'taking over' the Forever Unique social channels for the day. While juggling my photoshoot assistant skills of steaming clothes, hanging samples, keeping things running smoothly and generally lending a helping hand wherever possible, I also had to keep Forever Unique's Instagram and Snapchat feeds updated regularly throughout the day with interesting and integrative content. It was really interesting to learn more about Instagram's business features on this day, and I enjoyed being able to trial functions firsthand, such as linking images and video clips from Instagram stories straight to the shoppable Forever Unique website. It was really refreshing to get out of the office for half a day for a location shoot. I was part of a very small team that day which literally consisted of myself and Eilidh, plus the photographer and Shelby, the blogger, so a lot of responsibility was very much on my shoulders. My experience on shoots at Fabulous was really valuable, but this time it was exciting to get to have more of an influence in styling Shelby's accessories myself and directing her poses occasionally. I had to be switched on at all times in order to also get good quality content to upload to the social media channels, which would have been difficult if I hadn't been enjoying myself as much as I was. 

This week I was also much more involved in the planning process behind the shoots, tasked with creating mood boards for all of the upcoming shoots all the way through to October. I did this by using the creative team's pinterest boards to find inspiring and relevant images before arranging them on inDesign. I was also tasked with the mission of reaching out to companies and organisations which could assist with our ideas. This week, I've send out what felt like several hundred emails to arcade, amusement and fairground businesses as well as the Southport and Blackpool councils to pay to use a fairground setting as a backdrop to the images for Forever Unique's christmas campaign. I've also reached out to several bars in the Manchester area and organised for myself, Eilidh and Mark to visit some to look at for more potential shoot locations. These tasks really reminded me of the event module which we completed for Stephen at the end of the final term of second year, so it didn't feel to alien for me to be emailing a high number of people at once to arrange logistics and costings.

Forever Unique: Weeks Five to Eight

The past four weeks in my second internship position at Forever Unique have been quite intense, hence the backlog of journal entries as I haven't managed to keep on top of my blog week by week. 


I've been quite caught up in the stress and demands of a 40 hour week so I am really appreciative for this time where I can sit and reflect on how my skill-set is developing as my internship progresses. I've just reread through my first month's journal entries with Forever Unique which has actually been so valuable in reminding myself about how much can change during a month. I still feel just as overwhelmed and anxious a lot of the time during the week because so much is expected of me, although at this stage I do recognise that I have the capability to achieve difficult tasks - if only I wasn't limited by a lack of time, communication, budget and man power at the company. I am really struggling to adapt to the working environment which I'm finding to be unprofessional at times, and often incredibly bitchy. Communication falters on a daily basis and I often feel like I'm being deliberately left in the dark about things that would actually help me to know more about. I don't fully know how I'm supposed to approach this kind of problem as an intern, where I'm very cautious about not overstepping the mark and fully aware that I am a representative of the uni and the course above all else. I don't want to feel uncomfortable in a place I spend most of my week in for the entirety of my placement year, so this is just one of the many reasons which brings me back to the big debate inside my head about whether I'm going to be able to stick out a whole year here. 













Nevertheless, looking back on the work I produced in my first month has made me really appreciate how much I've enhanced so many skills since then. There have been some issues with the allocation of my tasks and the rest of the team not being clear that my time is limited and tasks that they would like me to complete aren't especially my priority. I've had to adjust to prioritising my tasks very quickly, which was hard during the first month (and still is to some extent even now) because I have never been given an extensive list of my tasks or a job description to refer to. My roles in the past four weeks have included creating GIFs for social media stories, producing content like quotes for social media posts, assisting on shoots, researching into ideas for the recently launched AW17 campaign, producing flat lay compositions to be photographed for content across all social media and website/email-newsletter assets, and generally undertaking any other creative task asked of me which this month, has included painting suitcases to be sent as press packs to various department stores, organising the jewellery in the studio, arranging sets, renaming hundreds of files, designing e-flyers for the US wholesale side of the company and even making an impromptu trip to IKEA for some showroom furniture! 

I have attached a variety of my favourite creations from the past month onto this post - many of which were only created this week, which is a good sign that I am progressing well even if I've often been feeling like I haven't. I definitely feel like I have a greater understanding of the brand and I can see that I'm beginning to develop my own personal style to express the brand's personality. Finding a voice for the brand on social media was something I really wanted to do during my first month so I'm glad that I have begun this process and feedback from the management team has been positive.