Forever Unique: Week Three

This week I made what felt like another million and one quotes to be uploaded over a period of time to the Forever Unique Instagram page, having first found inspiration on Pinterest. One of my main roles will be to create content like this which I think is a positive step for the brand's social media strategy because now one person will be consistently creating things in their own style which will look much more aesthetically appealing. I do truthfully think that the brand needs a huge revamp content-wise, having learnt a lot about successful marketing tactics already; I can see that Forever Unique need to take more risks and invest more time into creating interactive and integrative content. I've found that communication across the teams hasn't been great so far; content which I've made has slipped through the cracks and not been uploaded at relevant times or I've been given incorrect information, so this is an area I'd like to make some improvements in during my time here!

Eilidh, who I'd been relying on for a bit of support for my first couple of weeks, went on holiday on Monday so I was left with a couple of her weekly tasks to complete which included updating the content on the transactional website and designing the weekly e-newsletter sent out to customers. She briefly went through the process of completing the tasks the evening before I was left to go it alone and reassured me that plenty of other members of the team would know what to do if I got stuck - this wasn't the case unfortunately. I left on Tuesday evening with the website half done and on the verge of tears that I hadn't been able to get everything done on time. I was only really frustrated that the other senior members hadn't found time to check on me throughout the day - only in the final half an hour of the working day did I get inundated with feedback on what needed to be changed which was really unfair to be honest. I suppose everybody has bad days at work and since I'm still adapting to a full-time role plus commute, there's a lot that I need to get used to in terms of team dynamic and responsibilities. The next morning, I came in early to finish off what I had started and I felt much more capable now that I had a clearer and calmer head.

I also tried out assisting on a shoot for the 'ghost' images on the transactional website, which are basically the images of the garments captured on a mannequin and then edited to appear on a blank background. This was a really interesting approach to styling and truthfully I kind of preferred to not be working with models and potentially uncooperative hair and make-up team! I had to work strategically to pull garments from the warehouse floor in the order that they appeared on the list provided to me, then steam them and unzip them ready for the photographer to arrange them on the mannequin. I also had to balance my time here as certain garments required two pairs of hands and so, I had to make sure I was assisting with the photographer as much as I could while maintaining the rail of new garments to shoot and returning the garments which had now been photographed. This task gave me a better insight into how significant the editing process is in the maintenance of a fashion brand's website and the occasions where styling a garment by cutting loose threads etc. isn't really necessary.

I was really excited to get stuck into creating some GIF mock-ups for social media this week, as instructed by Eilidh while she was away to review with her once she's back. I'd never had to make a GIF during my first two uni years but was required to make one for my second interview stage at Forever Unique so I fully expected that I would be making them for the next 12 months. I set myself a theme to work around so that the mock-ups would have a purpose then started to refresh my knowledge in the process using Photoshop. It seems like the brand is at an awkward stage in terms of content creation because the PR & Marketing team are still pushing for SS17 collections while the Content Creation team are focussing on the upcoming AW17 launch; since I lie somewhere in between these teams in my role as Fashion Intern, there isn't much content for me to use as inspiration right now. 

I've also retouched a number of images for the e-commerce website this week which has been interesting and I'm surprised that I've enjoyed a tedious task as much as I have. It is time consuming however, so I've been happy to hear that we are looking to hire an out-of-house retoucher - not only because my retouching skills are very amateur but also because I know I could be producing much more creative content than airbrushed skin and wrinkle-free garments! 

Forever Unique: Week Two

My second week was much more repetitive than the first and I haven't felt quite so optimistic about the distribution of my responsibilities because the tasks I've been given have been slightly more mundane. A large majority of my week was spent resizing images to be posted in the correct dimensions on the Forever Unique social media platforms. I've realised that even though I thought I was quite proficient in Photoshop, having self-taught myself everything I know means that my technique sometimes isn't quite right or isn't the most efficient method. For this reason alone, doing basic tasks like resizing images has been really valuable in cementing simple Photoshop techniques. I've also learnt the best methods to recolour backgrounds for images which will be used on the transactional website.

I created a few quotes to be used on the Instagram page this week under the instruction of the PR & Marketing team. Quotes are regularly uploaded to the page which suit the brand values of the brand, which consist of glamour, girl-power and accessibility. I created the quotes with ready-made templates to support me so that they would be consistent although I'm not especially happy with how these initial ones turned out because I was instructed to experiment with a pink background and I don't especially think this looks good on the Instagram feed. 

I also created some e-flyers to be dispatched by email for the international wholesale side of the business. Again, I used a template to create these so all I was really required to do was insert an image and reposition the text to fit well around the model. I know I'm capable of creating much more impressive things and taking on greater responsibility in terms of digital design so it is a bit frustrating to be set tasks well below my capability level. A positive in this is that it's definitely become much more clear to me how much I enjoy layout and digital design because I wish I could spend more time doing much more challenging things! 

On the flip-side, I took on a task (or rather, a task was pushed upon me) this week that I felt completely unqualified to do! I spent two days this week working shooting new images for the website's AW17 collection. While I did mostly assist on the shoot, I was left to my own devices for last half of the final day and I was t e r r i f i e d. The hair and make-up team were quite unprofessional and not especially focussed on the task at hand, and since the weather has been so unbearably hot we were all feeling quite frazzled. I was so anxious about not doing a good job because I know that ultimately the standard of the images shot does come down to the stylist whether the rest of the shoot team are really pulling their weight or not. I was extremely thankful for my prior experience on photoshoots in the past two years at uni because I at least knew to look for the obvious errors like visible knicker-lines, hanger straps sticking out or visible tags etc. although this was undermined by the heat which caused the model's hair to frizz and make-up to melt off by this late stage in the shoot! I did my best and I can only hope that the images will be up to everyone else's standards. I'm still really conscious about making a good impression and proving myself; even though I feel like I'm under-qualified to do a task like that, I suppose I was chosen for the job for a reason.

Forever Unique: Week One

Placement year once felt like such a faraway prospect that it seemed like it would never come, and now I've suddenly found myself hitting the ground running with five of the essential forty-two weeks under my belt. I said all along in second year that I wanted to be working and living in London for the entire 12 months, splitting my year up into a number of shorter placements in varied roles. Yet somehow, I've found myself accepting an offer for a 12 month position as Fashion Intern on the Creative team at Forever Unique in Manchester. It was a really difficult decision to make and I'm still truthfully questioning whether or not it was the right choice; the opportunity itself is amazing since my role is really varied and I'm exposed to all of the different departments that make up a fashion company, but I do worry that I'll miss out on the London experience since I'm now back at home with my parents and commuting in, and that I might start to feel a bit lethargic since this is the longest I'll have spent settled anywhere since I started uni two years ago.

I realised quite quickly during my first week at Forever Unique that I would definitely have the level of responsibility that I was promised; albeit I am still just an intern, but the tasks I've been set so far have been quite intense and that has been an absolutely terrifying adjustment to make. Having just about been trusted to send and receive samples and steam clothing for the past month, it will definitely take some time before I start to feel comfortable being responsible for the completion of really significant and important tasks. Not that I'm complaining - I had worried all along that I wouldn't be recognised for my hard work in a larger company and I was really concerned that I'd kind of 'slip through the cracks'. Having been drawn to intern positions advertised with smaller and start-up companies all year throughout the application process, I suppose, unexpectedly, that this is what I had wanted all along. 


TASKS THIS WEEK

Charity Danceathon preparation

Mancunian's are typically very proud of their heritage, and given the horrific attack at the MEN last month, there has been a fantastic display of community spirit which has really affected and uplifted the North West during such a tragically sad time. Fashion brands Missguided and Boohoo, both Manchester-based, have launched a non-profit collection of Manchester-themed clothing and Megan Ellaby, fashion blogger, has announced that she will be holding a charity clothing sale in tribute to the victims of the attack. During my first week, plans were also being put in place for Forever Unique to get involved in celebrating the lives of those lost and standing together in unity against terror. I was heavily involved in this early planning process, despite it only being my first week, by being set the task of designing t-shirts available to purchase on the night of the event as well as additionally designing an e-invitation to be sent to members of the press, bloggers and the public. I hope nobody could really tell how terrified I was by being granted this level of responsibility. I was SO fearful about getting something wrong or nobody liking my ideas. This is something I really am going to have to overcome ASAP because I know it's only holding me back from taking risks and really pushing myself creatively. 

Social

I also was responsible for creating a lot of social media content, including this notice about a sample sale held in London which I adapted from an original invitation design to fit into Instagram story dimensions. I also had a taster of setting up some of my own flat-lay designs for Instagram posts by laying out new arrival clothing samples with props and different lighting and backgrounds. This is a task which I've been told will be one of my bigger responsibilities for the year; it has proven that employers really do check your social media platforms as my line manager says he loves the flat lays I create for my personal accounts, and so it worked in my favour, as I think the team saw a niche in my creative skills here that they have been missing in their social media strategy. Being responsible for delivering a lot of important content really puts me under a lot of pressure that I've never experienced before, since even during group work in second year, I was still only ultimately responsible for my final grade and the consequences of getting something wrong definitely weren't as scary. Something I need to work on is not becoming too tense under the pressure to perform well, as I know this will only hinder me in the long-run.

AW17 Campaign preparation

My final tasks for the week involved the upcoming launch of the AW17 campaign. On my first day, I was briefed on the theme of the campaign which concerns space-age and futuristic concepts then set the task of creating some different Pinterest boards to get some ideas. I spent hours scrolling through Pinterest this week but I feel a bit disheartened that the task itself was really a bit pointless (so far anyway) since I haven't actually done anything more with the images I saved and nobody has had the time to talk through my ideas with me. I know that I'm not the priority as intern, so I've been feeling a little bit despondent that I haven't always had anything to do - especially since there was always something to do in the Fabulous fashion cupboard.


Something exciting that I did contribute towards the AW17 launch, however, was the design of some invitations to be distributed among the Forever Unique staff. The invitations are designed in line with the space theme, designed to replicate ID cards on board a spaceship. They will be printed on transparent perspex so I had to consider the requirements of printing on this kind of material - like spacing out the font enough and in a big enough size. I'm excited for the rest of the team to see these invites because I was particularly proud of the way the final design looked and it was a really cool opportunity to get to create something so unique.

A Retrospective Summary: Fashion Desk Intern at Fabulous Magazine

Prior to beginning my placement with Fabulous Magazine, I was given a brief description of the tasks that my role would include which consisted of the following:

• Organising and overseeing the fashion cupboard
• Completing fashion returns
• Organising necessary couriers
• Completing the magazine mail out and updating books
• Assisting on photoshoots
• Writing up credits

Later on, I was provided with an intern guide which gave me a much more in-depth description of the various processes that would be required of me to complete each task. I tried my best (but failed) to learn the intern guide off-by-heart before I started the placement, but since I only had one week’s notice beforehand, it proved to be pretty impossible. The intern guide seemed a bit abstract and difficult to understand at this stage because I initially couldn’t relate the step-by-step instructions to any firsthand experience. With hindsight, I now know that there was nothing to worry about in terms of not understanding what was expected of me or finding anything too difficult to complete; my role was challenging physically, but mentally, each task was repetitive and simple. I soon caught on. 

My first week at Fabulous was pretty scary, which meant I arrived nerve-inducingly early everyday ‘just in case’ something went wrong along the way. There were a number of other interns there during the month and I definitely got the impression that there is always a very high-turnover of interns. This was a bit problematic at times; everyone obviously has there own approach to completing a task and some are more organised than others. This meant that things weren’t always filed away or saved in the correct format and for the duration of the month, I had to deal with missing samples that had been lost under previous interns and members of once-permanent staff who had moved on. It always made me feel quite frustrated to receive an email from a PR searching rightfully for some missing samples which should have been returned months and months ago but had never been sent. Before this experience, I wouldn’t have believed that huge orders of dozens of samples could just go ‘missing’ in a cupboard a few metres wide - but apparently they can. 

While it was difficult at times to work with so many other interns in such a confined space, I really enjoyed meeting and sharing my time with new people at a similar age and experience-level to me. It’s nice to know that I started my month not knowing another soul in London and now at least I know a few people fairly well at face-value. The repetitive nature of working in a fashion cupboard involves quite menial tasks. Excluding the extra tasks I completed regarding the shoots I assisted on, my day-to-day tasks in simple terms (rather than the sugar-coated description I was initially provided) would involve: 

• Unlocking the main fashion cupboard, returns room and stylist’s cupboards
• Turning on the computer, logging into the e-mails and Fashion Monitor
• Checking the e-mails for anything sent after 6pm or before 10am that day
• Responding to enquiries about samples which had been called-back by PRs
• Searching for these samples and returning them either by multi-drop standard delivery, special 1st class delivery or by arranging for the PR to send a courier to collect them
• Returning necessary samples which had come from photoshoots that week
• Sorting through delivered samples and organising them into the stylist’s sections
• Notifying the stylists of deliveries
• Taking post up to the stylists’ floor
• Returning the backlog of other returns

I left Fabulous feeling especially proud of the number of backlogged samples I was able to return over the duration of my month there. I was told that the special delivery returns (which involve a much lengthier returns process using an online courier booking system) had piled high up in the corridor not long before I started, and at the time I left in had dwindled to just a few boxes of mis-matched samples. The staff at Fabulous were always really appreciate and kind, being lenient on rare occasions where I couldn’t work my full 8 hours like when I took an extra hour in addition to my lunch break to go to an interview at Alexander McQueen. It was a really interesting insight into the lives of a fashion assistant or stylist to be around to hear their conversations and chit-chat about work. They were sent a ridiculous amount of toiletry and skincare samples, alcohol, books and chocolates - all of which I had to carry up a flight of stairs to their desks on the next floor! Returning samples required me to think critically and prioritise certain orders over others. Due to the repetitive nature of the tasks, I had to be systematic and consistent in my approach. Organisation was vital and it made my life much easier to keep the cupboard as tidy as possible by clearing one task up completely before beginning another. As much as I tried to keep the cupboard spotless, it really was quite impossible to maintain with samples being thrown around left, right and centre. This was overwhelming in the beginning, but I learnt how to cope with the stressfully messy environment over time by keeping a level head.

Their overall opinions on bloggers really surprised me; it wasn’t positive, that’s for sure. A number of members of the Fabulous team went on work-trips to Ibiza and Majorca during my month there and came back with stories about stuck-up women with no social skills, glued to their phone and more concerned with looking good than having a good time. This mainly surprised me because when I see bloggers go on these brand-sponsored trips on my social media, they’re obviously portraying themselves in the best light and having the best time - enough to make their followers envious but inspired all at once. I got the impression however, that I mostly follow a different kind of blogger to the ones that Fabulous magazine could probably afford to collaborate with because the girls that I like write blog posts with substance and seem pretty down-to-earth to me - or maybe I’m just a bit naïve? I was definitely shocked to hear the stylists throwing around figures well into the thousands for the bloggers’ payments, even so.

At the beginning of my final week with Fabulous, a terrorist attack on London Bridge and the surrounding area struck and the News Building which houses Fabulous and the Sun, among other publications, went into lockdown. This was a really sobering time and in all honesty, it was difficult to feel positive about the placement for a couple of days afterwards since I felt so unsafe being metres away from where people had lost their lives. The MEN Arena had only just faced an attack, much closer to my home, and it was overwhelming to see it plastered over mock-up headlines and computer screens all day everyday in the aftermath. This was no different. At the beginning of that week, I felt homesick for only the second time in my living memory. I'd never felt so far away from the safety of Huddersfield or my little Lancashire village. Still, once the building was reopened under crazy strict security measures, there was a relaxed sense of community in the building which put me at ease. I definitely had some reservations - and still do to a certain extent - about associating myself with a tabloid newspaper, especially at such an early stage in my career when any experience is absolutely vital, but it really was so inspiring to look out of the cupboard to see actual living breathing journalists working hard at their rows of desks. I lived to overhear their conversations, especially as I was there during the run up to the election and post-result. The hypocrisy of tabloid papers like the Sun, who latched onto the anti-Corbyn rhetoric and then quickly backtracked on their skepticism was sometimes a bit too much to bear, but this obviously didn't detract from my positive experience at Fabulous and the valuable skills that I gained from my time. I take away from my month at Fabulous the satisfaction that I'm on the right track and pursuing the right career for me, as well as a huge confidence boost knowing that I organised the entire month away alone and miraculously pulled if off.