Studio Practice: Collaborative Brief: Lazy Gear New Product Range Launch

For my big collaborative brief I will be working with Amin (from my class) who is offering a illustrative hand and Kat Owen (fashion photographer) who has previously approached me and asked to take photos of an old line of Lazy Gear clothing. I chose her as she's passionate about the brand I've built myself over the years. I've never quite been satisfied with the way I've gone about promoting or pushing my designs out there, I believe this has been due to lack of confidence in my own ability, however with the motivation of two talented people behind me I've never felt more motivated to push myself to my full potential, rebuilding the brand, promoting and being proud of my work.

The brief is to promote the new line of Lazy Gear clothing / accessories that strengthen the brand identity of open-mindedness. My job is to extend the line of unisex clothing (fabric screen print) and design the look-book. Kat will be leading the photo/ film shoot and Amin will be illustrating new designs alongside some promotional gifs for instagram.

These are some of the pictures Kat took of me modelling my own Lazy Gear handmade clothes last year:

This is the website currently which in the last month I stop paying membership for so had to reduce my list of products to just five whereas before I had several accessories such as handmade chokers and co-ords (crop top and shorts/skirts). I aim to build up this list and pay for a subscription again once this project is up and running and I can hopefully make sales to fund this.

Current Website

http://lazygear.bigcartel.com/

Lazy Gear Logo/ Branding Meaning

The whole premise of the logo and motto for Lazy Gear is about being 'open-minded'.

The logo itself came from the background of a collage I did in college, I was doing a project on transexuals at the time and hand inked these little 'open-minded people' which embodied those who were open to understanding and learning anything and everything from different cultures, race, sexuality and so forth. Hence also why the typography I've always used has been 'Chewy', bubbly, fun and playful.

My aim is to strengthen brand identity and broaden the range of unisex products. This identity is important to the brand which I feel currently isn't very apparent visually due to the limited design and products. I want to add more expressive pieces embodying this open-minded theme, straying away from the exclusivity sought after designer clothing often has.

Research

These Alexander McQueen tracksuit bottoms are a perfect alternative (pricier option) than the current rebirth of the popper trouser trend, with Kappa Tracksuit bottoms at the forefront.

This street style is exactly what I aim for with the new Lazy Gear product range.

Doing some research I looked into clothing brands Kappa, Champion and Adidas for their consistent overall prints, stripes and iconic logos as well as Mc Gaffy (bottom right) and above the Ikea branded homemade bucket hats. Considering the type of trousers I'm looking at different types of tracksuit and cargo trousers, I want to stray away from skirts as these typically aren't considered 'unisex' and my focus is to create a new collection which is so.

(Above) Charlie XCX x Illustrated People & Kappa Popper Tracksuit

Photoshoot Concept

I'm collaborating with Kat Owen fashion photographer, she's suggested for the photo/promotional video shoot we do it in the style of Ewen Spencer (featured above), his new book 'Young Love Lasts Forever' includes photos from the early 2000's:

"The resulting images are now some of Ewen’s most celebrated: a nostalgia-drenched headfirst dive into the sweaty, sticky underworld of saliva swapping and heartbreak behind every teenage night out."

She's suggested we do a test shoot first, I feel this may be more suited than my original plan of shooting it all at a industrial sight, the more natural feel to Spencer's photographs would be more suited to modern day culture, especially the student demographic who frequently go to house parties, making stronger connections and lifelong friends, the shoot would capture models in more of a 'natural habitat' than a heavily directed more forced shoot I had in mind. Kat's contribution is vital as she also is taking on this project as part of a brief she's been set collaborating with a clothing brand/ designer.

My other collaboration partner Amin is in my Graphics class however is offering more if an illustrative angle, his job is designing a new range of T-shirts while I'm in charge of the making: screen printing, buying in the clothing to print on/ making adjustments. As this is quite heavily textile/ fashion based, to ensure I have more of a Graphic Design output I'll also be designing a look-book available as part of the promotion. On top of this promotional aspect Amin will be making animations for Instagram as he is skilled in animation.

I've just researched and found suitable joggers, cargo pants a bucket hats.
I've just bought one of each pair of trousers so far and 4 bucket hats to experiment with, I plan to have one with a small logo on the front, one with an allover print and the two others possibly incorporating new designs from Amin (Illustrative collaborator).

This is my first order, I'll assess if I need more later on: