ORIGINAL IDEAS

My original idea was to design a skull which was half human and half skull. The reason behind this was to create something shocking to get peoples attention, and look stylish at the same time. Here are some early designs I have created:

But there was no relevance to breast cancer or the getting the point across to people, because it was just too dark so back to the drawing board. Except I am still going use the silhouette/stencil style to create something more relevant.

WORKING TITLE

I thought i would put up some early title designs i have done in my spare time while researching. The reason why I chose "it affects us too" is because it is an open ended question that could be too anything? It will get people wondering "what is that all about?" it doesn't scream breast cancers "pink fluffy look" which some people recognise, this is a serious subject on top of looking funky too. This is hard to capture but I feel with these early designs have some potential.

BREAST CANCER IN MEN

A tremendous amount of promising research is under way to determine the cause of breast cancer and to establish effective ways to prevent it. Still, doctors can't always explain why one woman develops breast cancer and another doesn't.
Male breast cancer is rare. It happens most often to men between the ages of 60 and 70. Risk factors for male breast cancer include exposure to radiation, a family history of breast cancer and having high estrogen levels, which can occur with diseases like cirrhosis or klinefelters syndrome.
Symptoms of male breast cancer include lumps, changes to the nipple or breast skin, or discharge of fluid from the nipple. Treatment for male breast cancer is usually a mastectomy, which is surgery to remove the breast. Other treatments include radiation, chemotherapy and/or hormone therapy.

RIVER ISLAND MENS WEAR

My evaluation of River Islands Mintel report is that River Islands research proves that it is highly successful selling towards age 18-30 impressionable young males. young males are getting more interested in fashion and keeping them interested is key to keeping a loyal customer base for River Island. To produce a Breast Cancer t-shirt to the River Island customer it has to be Fresh and funky but by adding this shock value to it will create a bigger interest outside River Island customer base. This is needed to compete with is biggest competitor Topman.

STORE PORTFOLIO:

• The chain aims towards teens to young thirties, fashion concious customer.


• Mintels reasearch shows it is hugely successfull in the 15-19 age group.


• With the secong largest market penetration for men buying formal wear for that group at 26% level with Burton and just behind Topman.


• In june 2005 River Island told mintel it had 197 stores in the UK as well as 9 franchise stores in Cyprus, Malta, Poland and Turkey. And ten in the middle east.

MERCHANDISING:

• River Island shop lift is now a very Zaraesque whitebox type approach, with a clean modern minimalist look that gives it quite an up market feel.


• product ranges from a predominately casual with sophisticated to detail, style and colour and River Island is able to chargerelatively high price as a result for instance a two-in-one [fake layered] cotton polo shirt with a print is £19.99, while a crew neck t-shirt with piping is £8.99. a long sleeved casual shirt with frayed stitching getail is £34.99 .

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE:

• The latest financial figures available relate to 2006, and show robust growth. River Islandis on top form and has re-established its hold on the younger end of the market. The results for 2007 should be equally good.


• Sales, and more importantly profits have improved markedly since 2002. Underlying factors include a more focused product offer and improvements in the store environment and customer communications.


• The majority of the overseas franchised operations are still relatively new, and many have not yet had enough time to become fully established. It may be too early to judge the company’s performance in the new countries yet, but many of them, especially the Middle East ones, seem a good bet.

ADVERTISING AND MARKETING:

• The company is looking incresingly towards P.R as its main source of publicity, withits sponsorshio of graduate fashion week giving it a halo effect. Although it undertakes some print advertising, more importantly it has increasingly successful in generating free editorial copy on the back of the design of its product.


• There were some promotions in conjunction with magazines such as Loaded and FHM.

STRATEGIC EVALUATION:

• River Island is a highly successfull bussiness that is starting to reap the rewards of investment in its stores. productand brand image, with an operating margin that is among the best in the industry. While not immune to the deflationary pressure on the market. It has managed to side step them to a large degree bt enhancing its product design fashion levels.


• from a rather down market image a few yaers ago, River Island has begun to look like an increasingly sophisticated brand and in doing so has begun to appeal to a large number of fashion conscious young male customers. It is therefor well placed to withstand the advance of other chains like Zara offering fast turnaround fashion, as well as to eat into business of established high street brands like French Connection.


• The companys status as privately owned business has enabled it to invest in a long term turnaround rather than going for quick fixes. It is the strategic approach that has enabled it to see through a major repositing of River Island over the past five years.


• Although some of its growth is coming from additional space, much od it through relocations, a considerable proportion is coming through organic, like for like rise in turn over giving very high sales densities. This a robust and profitable form of growth because River Island is not buying extra sales with expensive shop space.


• Unless it loses its touch on design River Island will continue to be successfull because of its focus on providing excellent product at a reasonable premium to its competitors it will be the greatest threat to other retailers in its market that fail to provide interesting, different clothing.

ANOREXIA

This week i have been lookng into Oliviero Toscani recent add campaign with Anorexia.Fashion photographer Oliviero Toscani is not one to shy away from controversy or shock tactics. Now he is taking on the anorexia epidemic in a new ad campaign picturing an emaciated anorexic with the tagline "No anorexia." The ad is sponsored by Italian clothing company No-l-ita and will be featured on billboards in many Italian cities--just in time for Milan Fashion Week. "I've been looking at the problem of anorexia for years. Who is responsible? Communication in general? Television? Fashion?" asked Toscano."So it is very interesting that in the end a fashion company has understood the importance of the problem, and with full awareness has found the courage to take the risk this campaign involves," he said in a No-l-ita press release.While we don't think the media and the fashion industry are entirely responsible for causing anorexia, we are completely on board with the idea that they should take responsibility for promoting healthier images of beauty. The images in this ad clearly show what un-retouched anorexia looks like. No makeup. No designer clothes. No forgiving lighting. It's not pretty.Toscani raises another important point, though. The industry does need to be aware of the gravity of anorexia. But what about other eating disorders? Public education campaigns (and celebrity tabloids for that matter) have long relied on the image of the emaciated anorexic because it is the most startling and visible of eating disorders. However, most sufferers do not wear their illnesses as skin and bones. Millions of people are caught up in dangerous, life-threatening eating disordered behavior. You wouldn't stop in your tracks if you saw their pictures on a billboard because they don't look skeletal. You wouldn't gasp or speculate about their health because they have pretty "normal" bodies. Too-skinny model spotting has practically become a media pastime, but there are plenty of curvier runway regulars who are suffering, too.

BREAST CANCER FOR MEN

My new approach to "Fashion Targets Breast Cancer"

"Breast cancer is far less common than in men but it is possible for men to develop breast cancer. Breast cancer research estimates that about 1,450 new cases of invasive breast cancer are diagnosed in men each year and approximately 470 men die from breast cancer annually. Male breast cancers account for approximately 1% of all breast cancer cases."

As this is such a low percentage, men seem to be ignorant towards this because they think it will not affect them and only mainly affect women.
To get the message across it has to have powerful enough statement and concept to make awareness, such as photographer Oliviero Toscani did with united colours of benetton. I am going to research into photography and film add campaigns such as “drinking and driving” that use this blatant shock approach to get there points across. This will help me get an idea on censorship and the limits companys have gone through to suceed with out too much critism.
My approach will not be as exstreme as Oliviero Toscani because of it being a sensistive subject but I will get the message across to men about breast cancer awarmess.

FIRST WEEK BACK

The first week back was hard work, we were given a lot of work to accomplish in a small amount of time.

• The first thing on the list was to choose our brief from a select few. I choose the "breast cancer" brief. which was to design a male or female t-shirt which included the Fashion targets breast cancer logo.


• The reason i choose this brief because it is graphic design based and this is the direction I'm heading for in the future.


• I had to write a learning agreement which was 600 words on what and how I'm going to approach the brief. Here is an insight to what i am looking into:

I once brought a t-shirt which was worn by David Beckham it was done by a brand called “Jakes”. I had never heard of the brand before but I saw David Beckham wearing the t-shirt in a newspaper and thought “wow that looks cool on him I want to wear that”.