Moving Image (Fashion Film) Blood is the New Black for Urban Outfitters

This is my Moving Image project that I have just completed for uni. It was aimed at Urban Outfitters, we had to choose a brand which they sell within their stores – which could have been anything we wanted. Everyone chose different brands from clothing to accessories, cheap to designer.

I decided to do my project on Blood is The New black – which is a T-Shirt company based in Los Angelis. The unique thing which they do is the promote the of of emerging artist’s work  (illustrators, painters, photographers and designers) by printing them on their high quality T-Shirts. 

The brand was launched in 2004 by Mitra Khayyam who wanted to be an artist but however never had the skills to draw. She decided to move towards fashion business. I personally saw a lot of myself in her as at high school I never done art until 6^th year and never knew about how creative I was until this period in time. When going to college I was able to develop my skills and found that I enjoyed the creative side of fashion as only I thought I liked or good at the business.  7 years later she was told by a photographer of a magazine publication that she would never make it or work in fashion again. After this she began to develop her thesis idea which she wrote years before. There are 3 aims of the brand:

1.           Display the works of emerging artists, designers and photographers in order to propel their careers and support the underground art movement, through design collaboration

2.              Introduce fans of both fashion and the arts to new designers, photographers and illustrators, to whom otherwise consumers may have not been exposed

3.              Create a line that is wearable, comfortable and stylish, yet has an opinion

I began my research book by looking at artist and illustrators. From this I was able to develop more areas spreading it to lots of different ideas – allowing for a wide scope. One thing, which the brand embraces, is an underground subculture issues that are not normally scene in mainstream society. Issues such as extinction of dinosaurs, love, death, sex, politics, status, money and religion. Looking at the PEST factors and something that most markets are aware of is the environment and pollution this began the start of my message for the film.

Using the research book I had to do 3 concept sheets:

·               Brand Image

·               Brand Direction of Concept

·               In Store Design installation

Sheet 1 – Brand Image

This is my 1^st sheet that represents the brand BITNB. It is a cool, raw and rock and roll vibe in keeping with the image of Los Angelis

Sheet 2 – Development of Concept/Brand Direction

Based upon my research this sheet is about my direction of the brand with the title of “Chaos Splash” as this is about all of the different and random elements mixing and combining together. Things that melt and move such as water, smoke, paint, blood and chemicals

Sheet 3 - In Store Design installation

I looked at the types of layouts that Urban Outfitters use, they are an embracing and creative brand which use ideas which are unique to excide and inspire consumers. Using things which are random and quirky I decided to embrace this to how the film would look in store.

You can see from this that it is OTT but very appropriate for the brand and client. I used an illustration featured on BITNB blog as a backdrop. For the fixtures and fittings as they sell only T-Shirts and smaller merchandise e.g iPhone cases they do not require large storage. I decided to use a old 1950s fridge to keep T-Shirts in with tin waste paper bins beside, a wooden coffee table (which other merchandise that Urban Outfitters sell can be put on such as CDs or books) instead of using the traditional screen to show the film I thought it would be interesting it to be shown on a white cotton extremely large T-Shirt handing from a large wire hanger from the roof – this would then stand out against the busy background

After finishing off the research book, in my case was 80pages and the concept sheets we moved into the storyboards and treatment (story of the film) I decided to keep it simple and straight forward – just what a T-Shirt is. We also has to choose music which would be used a “Mixtape” I looked at The Smiths “How Soon is Now”, Kings of Leon “Closer” and Coldplay “Paradise” from listing to all these I decided on King of Leon “Closer” as it is also a American rock band which links to the two brands also that the consumer and target market will recognize it all over the 140 stores. The beat is eary and dramatic with the drums that can bang in time with the paint splashing. The film only had to be 45 second to 1min 30sec so it had to have impact in the short period.

The final film which I hope you like it is 3 months worth of work, I enjoyed this project so much it taught me how much work goes into these fashion films and cannot wit to do another one.