As you all know (especially if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook), I’ve been busy putting together the various props and pieces for the school exhibition that opens tomorrow. Having gone through about 8 cans of spray paint and countless hours fiddling around with various ideas and whatnot, it’s finally starting to come together and look like a cohesive collection.
And breathe. Seeing as I’ve already been marked on my capstone and the whole exhibition portion is more for myself and exposure, I’ve had a few “why am I doing this?” moments, wondering why I’m putting so much time and effort into this. But I think it will be worth it, to get that greater sense of bicyclette through the exhibition set-up and have a space that truly represents the brand. Ask me tomorrow and we’ll see what I say then … !
So, without further ado, allow me to show you a few sneak peaks of the progress I’ve made …
Thrifted, repainted frames showcasing various brand elements
Laser cut book cover. Look closely for the etched bike in the corner ...
Repainted vanity drawer, Eiffel tower sculpture and the brand book itself
Dolce Vita dress from the new shipment (that perfectly matches the branding...)
I decided to include the last photo because I’m thinking I might buy/wear the Dolce Vita dress for the exhibition one of the nights, as it perfectly matches the colour scheme and, well, I kind of love it. Plus, I’ve been promising some snaps of the new shipment, but haven’t had the time to organize it, so this was a good excuse!
Hoping to see some of you at the exhibition tomorrow or Thursday!
As promised, the details of my thesis exhibition (which opens next week), via a lovely little invite done up by the volunteer committee. Like I mentioned before, let me know if you’re thinking of coming, and I’ll make sure I’m there to greet you!
Today’s brand spotlight is on … well, bicyclette. As you all know, I’ve been working on the brand book for awhile now, and I thought I would share the progress I’ve made thus far. Still have minor details to update and a few additions, but … this is the essence of it, through a few of my favourite spreads.
I would love to know any thoughts or feedback you might have before I get it printed and bound for the exhibition. Like I said, these only represent a selection of the layouts I’ve done… a teaser, if you will.
The idea is that I’ll have the bound book to share with attendees, which will be displayed on the vanity that I found and am repainting in one of bicyclette‘s branding colours (thoughts? Aqua or blue-purple?), and I’ll also print off the individual pages and frame them, displaying them in a more gallery-worthy setting and adding an extra element of bicyclette. That’s one of the techniques I want to use in the merchandising of the store, so I thought this would be a good chance to execute the idea and create a portion of the store environment at the exhibition. That’s where the thrifted frames I’ve been collecting come in. Next step is spray paint, silver leaf and sand paper … craft day, anyone?
I’m running on very little sleep and still have a lot of work to get through tonight, but I wanted to get in a quick interiors post. I was working on a project last week (or was it the week before? Oh my…) for my visual merchandising class in which we had to research and design an idea for a window display, and the first step was to find two inspirational stores. The first one I used was Love of Mine, which I posted about here, and the other choice was easy: Anthropologie. I had the pleasure of working at the opening of the location in Yorkville back in the summer, assisting with setting up the store and being part of the visual team, and it was a great experience, as there is no store that has such a strong vision when it comes to interiors. Anthropologie does an amazing job with their visual displays and merchandising, using found materials, handcrafted props and art to create stories and themes that are innovative and inspirational. They make organized clutter and chaotic creativity work and breathe new life into seemingly useless junk.
Here are a few of my favourites, collected over time and tucked away into my inspiration folder, so unfortunately I’m unsure as to sources …
Also, here’s a quick snap of the thrifted goods I found this past weekend that I mentioned yesterday, to give you an idea of what I’m working with. As soon as I finish my brand book (due next week, wow), I’ll be focusing my attentions on the exhibition props and adding a bit of bicyclette flair …
It’s been one of those weeks. Started it off with a couple of way-too-late-nights and have been trying to play catch-up ever since. Work was busy, school was busy, and thus I am exhausted and the blog has been overlooked for an entire week. I’m sorry!
I did an interview on Wednesday with someone from the Ryerson school paper about boredom, or in my case, lack thereof, and ended up on Ryerson’s Job Spot blog as a “Student Entrepreneur Extraordinaire”. Woohoo! After a lot of stress and craziness lately, it feels nice to be acknowledged and recognized for all of the hard work I’ve been putting into school, work and all of my personal projects. Merci! The article goes over a little bit of my history, plans for bicyclette and a typical day in my life. These are a few of the photos from the interview, but I encourage you to take a look at the full interview here.
I’ve been at my parents place in Guelph this weekend, working on the next version of my business plan for the next (and final) business plan competition and doing some antique shopping for my bicyclette-related thesis exhibition. Guelph has a couple of gems in its’ downtown with the prices significantly lower than Toronto, and I walked away with a small mirrored vanity that is begging for a coat of fresh paint, a few vintage frames that are perfect for a wall vignette, and a tabletop Eiffel tower sculpture. Now I just need to get through this next week so I can start repurposing them … photos to follow!
As I’ve alluded to before, I recently did a photo shoot for my second creative thesis project, starring my lovely friend Jen. Here are the final results! You just have to imagine them poster size, on nice fancy paper….
So the idea behind them is that they would be put up as posters around the city as an alternative form of promotion for the blog and bicyclette as a store concept. You can rip off the little tabs at the bottom, which has the blog address on it, so people who are intrigued by the photos can take a look.
I’m curious to hear what everyone thinks of them? I really enjoyed coming up with the concept and putting it all together, and I would love to hear any feedback…
Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. It’s been five days since my last blog post.
I don’t believe in making excuses, but allow me to quickly explain:
These past couple weeks for me have been crazy, between work, school, and everything in between. Mid terms and thesis creative project due last week, website storyboards due this week. As much as I’ve entered into this haze of sleep deprivation, constant computer attachment and work overload, it’s actually been good in terms of exploring my store concept in various ways and starting to put together some visual materials.
For my creative project, I decided to compile and explore my sources of inspiration, and create a mini-series of printed t-shirts representing that. Et voila! The idea was to try to make them look vintage and reflect the aesthetic of the store environment.
Unfortunately in my mad rush to get out the door the morning they were due, my photographs weren’t very good.
For the first one, I did a series on words representing my store concept and the inspiration behind it. Basically a collage of ideas and concepts. No photo, sorry.
The second was more abstract, playing on the idea of a floor plan. The photo didn’t turn out, but here’s the graphic.
And the last (my personal favourite) was based on my collection of inspirational images. I can’t wait to start wearing this, I’m really happy with how it turned out and the colours that emerged.
And there you have it! Nothing that will launch me into a t-shirt designing career (at least not yet), but a good means of exploring and communicating some of the ways and images I use for inspiration.
The website I’m currently working on is for bicyclette, and meant to act as a supporting platform for this blog. I’ll have some key pieces of information on there that will give people a sense of my store concept without having to flip through posts. These are just rough storyboards, but they give you a sense of the overall look and feel.
And there you have it, a little peak at what I’ve been up to recently and proof that I’ve been busy!
ps. Happy Halloween! I’m about to go put the finishing touches on my costume, which I’m extremely excited about. I’ll post photos of tomorrow. What’s everyone dressing up as?
As I mentioned in my very first post, one of the reasons why this blog came into being was as part of my final year thesis/independent study. Beyond just using this year to research and construct a store concept and business plan, I’m looking into how I can use social networking and create an online community to spark dialogue, share ideas, and find out what potential future customers want from my store.
Aside from academic research, I’ll be exploring this idea creatively, focusing on different facets of the process and different mediums. Which is why I’ve decided to share my first project, which was a creative proposal for my idea.
What I wanted to do was illustrate the idea of creating a dialogue about the store concept and generating thoughts, ideas and questions. So I built a 3D model to demonstrate, complete with Barbie paper doll clothes, ribbons, clothes pins and cartoons. Don’t laugh.
It essentially turned out as a web, which is what I was going for. Kind of a play on words, web… internet… get it? And though it had a handcrafted look, it suited my idea perfectly, because this is about the process, not the finished product. The pieces of clothing represent the fact that I’m essentially building the concept for a clothing store, and each piece stands for an individual within my network. The pieces are connected with various colours of ribbon, representing different connections that occur. On some of the connections there are little icons representing dialogue, thoughts, and ideas, which it is my goal to inspire and moniter.
It’s proving to be be somewhat difficult to direct people here and get them talking, which I know will take time, but is essential to my idea. I would love to hear what everyone has to say, and how I can get them interested and involved.
I’m also using Twitter and Facebook as tools, so if anyone has any secrets about using them for promotion and whatnot, that would be great as well. That’s going to be one of my areas of research, but unfortunately I haven’t had the time to delve into that yet, due to the craziness that is my life at the moment.
‘Til tomorrow!
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