Cecilia Fortunato

Fashion Media and Promotion student, powering through her last year at uni and looking for inspiration for her Final Major Project

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YOUR magalogue 10

A seasonal combination of an in-store made magazine and a catalogue, printed on a conventional newspaper. Available on 20.000 copies in a premium selection of hotspots in and around Antwerp, Belgium.

This is probably the best example of magalogues that I've found, created by a premium multi-brand store in Antwerp, Belgium.

I will definitely keep referring back to these magalogues if I decide to create one, because they have the right balance between imagery, editorials, products, promotions, etc. 

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What are magalogues? I think it's fair to say that they're are a "revamped" version of catalogues, but with a magazine element. Basically, it's a combination of a magazine and a catalogue that brands create in order to create brand loyalty, inform and persuade people to buy the brand's products without them realising it. 

Some brands that do this that I've seen are: M&S, Next, Office, Boots, Superdrug, etc. 

I think this would be a very good idea for my final major project, because I could inform people about latest lingerie trends via a lingerie magazine (which doesn't exist in Argentina) as well as exposing my business and creating brand awareness/loyalty and increasing chances of selling. I think this would be a great idea since I've been thinking of creating a magazine, but a whole magazine would take a very long time, but creating a "magalogue" would allow me to focus on this as well as the rest of my project. 

I would probably include a couple of features on lingerie trends, the brands that I'll be selling in my shop, a couple of photoshoots and then pages "selling" the look of the images, just like a catalogue. 

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Last night, I got a reply from Julie, one of my tutors, in which she responded and clarified my doubts in terms of what direction to take for the second part of the Final Major Project.

She advised me to look at "magalogues" for my concept, which would be less extensive, more realistic and cheaper to produce for my Final Major Project. 

I will start looking into "manalogues" and try to find out how brands use them in order to decide whether I want to do this or not. 

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Click on images to see captions/annotations.

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General Inspiration:

These are some Visual Merchandising images I've taken in the past: The first image is a jewellery shop's window in Milan: I really like the installation and the feminine colours. On the other hand, the rest of the images were taken in a small independent boutique in Brighton called Lavender Room.

I've taken photos of their lingerie section. I really like the lo-key yet warm feel of the shop, and how it's been decorated with vintage furniture. 

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General Inspiration: 

These are some photos I took last summer at Keukenhof, the world's largest flower garden situated in Lisse, the Netherlands. When I went to the exhibition I was expecting it to be just flowers, but the curators of the exhibition has gone the extra mile to incorporate flowers//nature to other aspects, like fashion (as seen in the images above).

I really like the idea of decorating the mannequins with flowers, I think it's a really innovative and original idea, which probably wouldn't work for my pop-up shop, not just because flowers are expensive and don't last long, but also because I'd be selling lingerie. However, I could just take these images as inspiration and decorate mannequins with fabrics and embellishment for example. 

As of for the last image, I really like the bold colours used for the installations. 

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General Inspiration:

I thought it'd be a good idea to include as part of my primary research, some images I've taken of different things that have "inspired me" in different cities in the world.

I am a person that really enjoys travelling, and I strongly believe that travelling opens anyone's eyes and minds. Therefore, I thought it'd be interesting to include this collection of images with interesting compositions, colours, patterns, textures, etc. to inspire me for my Final Major Project. 

Click on images to see captions.

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Doing research online, I came across a website called The Ware House Gallery, in which they're promoting a series of events called "The Naked & The Nude" that are taking place in Brighton from the 15th February to 8th March.

On the 5th March, they're hosting a workshop called "Nude Photography Methodology", led by Stan Keetley, where they teach techniques for photographing nude models.

Since I'm potentially going to be shooting lots of images of models in very little clothes (in their lingerie) for my Final Major Project, I think this could be a very helpful workshop to attend. 

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I decided to start looking for images that will inspire me if I was to do photoshoots for my Final Major Project. These are all images that I had pinned on my FMP-Photography board on Pinterest. Click here to see my Pinterest profile. 

I created a quick moodboard on Padlet. Click here to see the board. 

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Following Jade Golding's e-mail, I decided to look into other social media sites that I hadn't previously considered, but seem to be quite popular in the fashion industry.

I feel like all this sites would allow me to understand more about my target demographic, what things they like and want, and perhaps even keep track of the things that I've sold in my shop. 

I like the fact that We Heart It can not only be accessed on the web, but it also offers smart phone apps. I know for a fact, that We Heart It is quite popular in Argentina at the moment, but I know that it is mainly used by younger audiences. 

If I had to pick a couple of social media platforms from this list it would probably be We Heart It for the reasons outlined above or Wanelo because it works in a similar way as We Heart It but they also have a special membership plan for store owners, for free. 

Click on images to see captions. 

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I decided to e-mail my tutors in order to get feedback on my ideas and next steps for my Final Major Project. 

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After researching and thinking so much about my Final Major Project I've come up with a new idea. Instead of focusing so much on creating a book that showcases/displays all the elements involved in the creation of my pop-up shop, I could focus a little bit less on that, and focus on creating a lingerie magazine, which would be sponsored by my brand and would showcase lingerie trends, designers, brands, international trends, etc. 

It's all a bit too "up in the air" now, and I'm feeling a bit confused to which direction to take, therefore I decided that I need to talk to my tutors to get their advise. 

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Thought: I’ve realised that in Argentina they don’t have any Lingerie blogs or magazines. Perhaps I could create a lingerie blog or magazine with industry news, international trends, etc. as part of my Final Major Project?

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This is the second vlog I created, where I discuss ideas for my Final Major Project and what my next steps will be.

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Brainstorming & Planning Final Major Project. 

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Today I’ve been doing some research on the most influential fashion bloggers in Argentina, who I could potentially target (send freebies, giveaways, discounts and press packs) and created a brainstorming board on www.padlet.com.

Click here to see the board.

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Burlesque ~ Miss Miranda - The Girls Of Bustout Burlesque

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I just found this gif of Miranda Kerr dancing in her underwear. I really like the idea of creating something like this, or a stop motion short clip for the website/social media sites of my brand.