Fur or Against @daisyreidfuroragainst - Tumblr Blog

FINAL EVALUATION

For this project we were required to create a campaign using the theme anti-fur. We could create any type of online content to therefore post on social media. We were also required to create a sketchbook with all of our research and ideas recorded in and it was up to us whether we wanted to keep a blog as well. I chose to also keep a blog as I find it easier to complete certain tasks online and post them on my account. I found this project very interesting because before starting my research I didn’t know much about the fur trade myself and I now feel very strongly about informing other people of what I have found out. I also think that my knowledge of the fashion industry has been broadened as this project is very fashion communication orientated and we haven’t done something like this before. I found that I really enjoy this area of fashion and I would really like to do a project or work this way in the future. What I haven’t liked about this project is the research about copyright and social media networks, I now understand why it was important to research about these two topics otherwise our group could have been working against the law and we could have ended up with our target audience not even viewing our campaign. The reason why I disliked this was because personally I am not that interested in all of the social media platforms and the rules that go with them.

Throughout this project I have learnt many new skills and information that helped me produce my final outcome. Through my research I learnt a lot about the fur trade which helped me compose my own view on the subject and what the concept of our video should be. I also learnt a lot of information through creating a survey for our target audience at the beginning of the project and receiving responses from it. We created the survey on survey monkey which was very new to all of us but it was very easy to use and we also created another survey at the end of the project using the same method. The information we received at the start was what helped us decide what we needed to portray in our video and the information we received at the end was what ensured us we had included the correct information all together. Another way of receiving information from our target audience was creating a poll on social media. We created a poll with one question on twitter and facebook to see if the different types of social media made an effect to the responses, we didn’t get that many responses so we decided to take our information from our first survey. To define who our target audience was we took information from our survey and came up with the age range 14+. We then created a target audience board and a statement to show their interests and how familiar they were with the fur trade. To experiment with different ways of creating online content I created a gif using photoshop. I had never used this method before and it was very simple once you understood all of the tools that you need to use but we decided not to use this for our final outcome because it didn’t give that much information about the topic as we would have liked. Another experiment was creating a slogan printed t-shirt using the letter press to include in our online content in some way. We came up with our own slogans and then took pictures of our final t-shirts to convert into online content. We didn’t end up using these because they didn’t really fit with our concept. Through our target audience research we found out that a lot of the trends now have come from the 90s era so we found an app that allowed you to film videos and take pictures using a 90s camcorder style filter which we really liked. The app is called ‘RAD VHS’ and it was very easy to use. After recording our clips using the app we converted them into iMovie. We had never used this software before but it was very self-explanatory and we were really happy with our outcome. The music we chose to put in our video had to be copyright free so we needed to research websites that use only royalty free music and we successfully found a piece of music we felt would attract our target audience. After choosing what methods we wanted to use for our final outcome it became apparent to us that we weren’t breaking any of the copyright rules.

The idea for our concept came from the age of our target audience. We decided to create a video for our final outcome as we could include a lot more visual content and also music which we think would make our target audience want to watch it. As the age we chose is quite young we didn’t want to include any graphic content but we were unsure how we would be able to portray the theme anti-fur this way. Stella Mccartney is one of the designers who is very anti-fur and she created a short video which she posted on social media that was about the fur trade. She didn’t include any graphic images but the message behind the video was very powerful. She also included a statement in the description of the video which we really liked the idea of rather than having somebody talking or lots of text. From seeing this video we wanted to focus on freedom as our concept and find ways of portraying it through nature and then have a short but powerful message to go with the video itself.

The problems we came across in our group was the lack of communication and this affected the time we spent working together as a group. However we all managed to have an input in our final outcome and with the project being mainly online it was easy to share our work with eachother over social media so that if somebody wasn’t able to be there we could still carry on with the project. After we came up with our concept and decided what we wanted our clips to involve we visited one of our group member’s family farm which was very handy to be able to shoot most of our footage at. If I was to do this project again I would make sure that our group’s communication was very clear as communication is the main aspect of working as a group and what holds the group together.

Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.

This is our survey to gain feedback from our final video. This would help us to see if it had reached our target audience and if it did what we wanted it to do which was to inform people of the fur trade.

OUR FINAL VIDEO

A PETA poll showed that 86% of designers at London Fashion Week 2016 didn’t use fur in their collections but that still means that 14% did. This clearly shows that animal abuse is still carried out today. There is no need to be aggressive when trying to inform people of a very serious matter which is why we have chosen to portray the truth of fur farms in a metaphorical way. The whole point of campaigning against fur farms is so that animals have freedom in their natural habitat just the same as we do.

Music by: <a href="http://www.hooksounds.com">Music by HookSounds</a>

RAD VHS

I found an app on my Iphone which is called ‘Rad VHS’, the idea of the app is to be able to create images and videos using a camcorder filter and style. I really like the style of the images and videos the app creates and they give the ‘edgy’ style that is exactly what we wanted. I think that having the date and time on the video adds to the atmosphere of the video because it makes the viewer really aware that someone has filmed it for a specific purpose. I also think this adds a creepy kind of atmosphere to the video as well because the video is about the fur industry which is a very taboo topic to some people because everybody knows that people are killing animals to wear them and the filters and glitches on the app add this creepy atmosphere because we aren’t showing any animals specifically but we are showing things that represent things that happen on fur farms.

CONCEPT

The concept of our video we are creating is freedom. This is because our chosen target audience is around the age 14 so we won’t need to include any graphic images which could be unsuitable for that age. I also think that a successful campaign is something that isn’t going to make people not want to watch as it is very easy to just scroll past a video that is a bit uneasy on the eye. To represent freedom in our video I feel that we should focus on space, light and moving objects. I think we should focus on space because when I think of freedom I think of big empty fields where you would feel free from everything so I feel that the spacial awareness needs to be a big part of our video. I also think that lighting needs to be a focus of our video because when we are representing freedom it needs to be light to have a happy feel to the video clips but we are also trying to make people aware of the fur trade so I think to make the video not graphic but still show the darkness of the industry we need to use visual language to portray this but in a deceiving way to make people picture it as something else. The lighting in these clips needs to have a dark feel to it so using light that is dark or possibly red to represent danger would work well. Finally I think that moving objects represent freedom well, I think that whenever somebody or something needs freedom it must be trapped in some way whether its physically or mentally and the only way to get that is to get away from it. The kinds of moving objects that I think represent freedom well are flowing water, the wind in trees and transport etc. I think the style of our video should have an ‘edgy’ feel to it to catch our target audiences attention as it is different and quirky. In order to do this we will need a camera with a filter on it or film the video and edit it after. I think to represent freedom the music we choose should be quite relaxed but also have some beats in it that will keep our audience engaged with the video throughout.

FURFASHIONFAUX

This is our group’s instagram page that we created to post some of our primary research. Through our survey we found out that instagram was one of the most popular choices of social media from our target audience so we have been posting some images and clips with information about the fur industry. We felt that instagram would be an effective way of informing people of the truth about the fur industry as when you get followers they see all of your posts and continue to see them as you update your page. I also felt that people are more likely to come across our instagram page rather than my blog on tumblr because instagram is a lot more popular. We put a few hashtags in each description of each post because if someone searches that specific hashtag they will come across one of our posts and most likely follow our page.

GO FAUX

Here I have created three different propaganda inspired posters using Photoshop. I feel that these would attract my target audience because of the eye catching colours and also the Gucci sign i used in the middle poster and the phone in the third poster. For the first poster I cut out the pattern pieces and replaced them with pattern pieces of fur and I used the paint tool to make it look like there is blood still coming from the fur. I like this because it is quite sinister so it would therefore shock my target audience. For the second poster I used an image of a fox and I put red crosses on it’s eyes for the obvious reason. I then put the Gucci sign around the fox’s head to make it look trapped and Gucci have used real fur in their collections before. The reason why I chose to use Gucci's logo is because my target audience are interested in designers like Gucci specifically and they most probably weren’t aware that they used fur from fur farms. I chose to use a yellow/orange colour as a background because it is a very bright and bold colour so it is therefore eye catching. For the third poster I wanted to combine vintage with modern so I have used an image of two ladies wearing vintage fur and somebody taking a picture of them but using a modern phone. I came up with this idea because there is some controversy as to whether vintage fur is okay to wear if it is real, but I disagree with this because the animal most probably wasn’t killed or treated any differently to the animals on fur farms today. I then used the paint tool to draw blood onto the image but I didn’t put any inside the phone screen to portray the fact that people think it is okay that to wear real vintage fur.

TARGET AUDIENCE

My campaign is aimed at a target audience comprised of 14 year olds and above who live in towns with shops like Colchester. I have chosen this area because the shops sell up to date clothing with the latest trends and the clothes aren’t too overpriced so would be more in their price budget if they have a part time job or no job at all. My target audience would be a person who is interested in fashion so they would know about designers using real fur but not necessarily who actually uses it. This is so that we can inform them of the fur industry before they possibly think about buying real fur in the future and they will maybe reconsider. I have chosen to target people as young as 14 because from the experience of having a sibling that age and comparing their life to mine when I was 14 I felt that it is a suitable age to inform them of this issue when they start to become familiar with designer brands like Gucci and Canada Goose who use fur from fur farms. I did the survey we created with my sibling so that I could record their response to find out what we need to inform our target audience of and from seeing their answers it became aware to me that our target audience don’t know a lot at all about the fur industry and neither do the majority of the people who completed our survey who range up to the age of about 65. I want to tailor our video to suit younger ages because I feel that it is easier to inform somebody of something so that they consider the information they get given before they make their own opinion but it is harder to change somebody’s opinion that they could have agreed with for a number of years who would possibly be from an older age range. To inform our target audience of our campaign I think that it needs to be visual and not include too much text but enough to ensure they know the most important parts of the issue. By creating something visual it can be posted on all the different types of social media, published in magazines or used as a poster and placed in the towns where our target audience live or places they are likely to visit. We decided to create a video and post it on the type of social media that our target audience mostly use. From our survey we discovered that facebook was the most popular choice of social media so that is where we have decided we will post it. Youtube is a big part of society today and younger teens spend a lot of time watching vloggers and youtubers in general. By watching a couple of popular youtuber’s videos I chose to try and find similar music that would catch the attention of our target audience but use a 90s style to the video itself to make it a bit different and eyecatching. We don’t want to use much text in our video because we don’t think it would attract the age range we want to mainly target but by putting a short and powerful statement with a statistic at the end will bring the whole video together and send out a powerful message. To attract the older age range we want to put together a very factual piece of writing to put with the video in the description box to inform them of what the video is about and this might help change some of their minds.

SHEPARD FAIREY

Shepard Fairey is an American graphic artist and social activist. Part of the Street Art movement along with other artists including Banksy. Fairey blurs the boundary between traditional and commercial art through type and image, communicating his brand of social critique via prints, murals, stickers, and posters in public spaces. 'Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the product or motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with the sticker provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer’s perception and attention to detail. The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker.' - Obey Giant (website). I really like shepard fairey's work because it is bold and it stands out so therefore it catches your eye immediately. I also like the fact that the idea behind the image isn't obvious so it makes you think of your own interpretation. I think this is a powerful idea as you can influence what someone might think of the image but the rest is up to them. I would like to use this style of design when creating a poster against using animal fur because I feel that everyone has their own view on the subject but you can influence a persons opinion with the imagery you choose to show.

MY OWN VIEW

I disagree with the fur trade and how the animals are cruelly kept and killed. Before starting this project I didn’t know that much about the fur industry but I knew enough to not want to buy or wear real fur and I disagreed with those that did. I agree with the fact that everybody is entitled to their own opinion but now that I have more knowledge of the fur trade I want to be able to do what I can to inform more people of what is actually going on and possibly make them change their minds. I don’t think the fur industry would have such a bad name for itself if they used the animals as a bi product and didn’t treat them so badly. This doesn’t mean that I would personally buy or wear real fur but nobody seems to have a problem with the fact that we raise animals like cows to be used for food and leather so why shouldn’t it be the same for the animals we use for fur? I think that one of the only ways we can stop the fur industry is if all of the designers went fur free so that the fur farms wouldn’t have any reason to carry on with the cruel things they are doing. Another way of stopping the fur industry is what we are doing, informing people of the shocking story’s and truth of the fur farms and hopefully people will no longer want to buy or wear it. Even if by campaigning against it doesn’t change anyone’s minds I would like to think that it would at least stop people seeing certain animals differently to others. For example: we keep cats and dogs as pets and would never dream in hurting them or treating them cruelly but it doesn’t even phase people who wear or buy fur that the animal they are wearing is just like their pet.

IT TAKES 40 RABBITS

Here we created an image using photoshop. The idea behind the image is that the rabbits aren't stupid and they know what they are being used for. I made the rabbits bigger than the coat to show that they don't have to be used to make a fur coat as there are other substitutes like faux fur.

POLY ISN'T FAKE

In a print workshop we printed a chosen slogan onto a t-shirt. The slogan I chose is 'Poly isn't fake' the meaning of this is when people buy fur thinking it's fake but it's actually real. The reason I chose the word 'Poly' is because most fake fur is made out of polyester. If I did this again I would either use a different colour ink as the original colour is orange but it came out green or a different colour t-shirt.

ANTI-FUR VIDEO

Myself and my group created this screen recording to raise awareness of the fur industry. We started off by talking about the response to our survey and how surprised we were by how little people know about the fur trade. We then talked about the PETA website which is where we got a lot of our information from which inspired us to create the video. We also show how easy and quick it is to sign the petition to ban fur in great Britain.

To improve our video we want to talk more about what we thought at the start of our project and what shocked us the most.

We have created a survey to find out what our target audience know about the fur industry and what social media platforms would be best for our campaign. Our target audience is people aged 14 and above. We decided this because we feel that we need to educate people of a younger age to make them aware of the fur industry and we could help prevent them buying fur in the future. We also felt that it would be hard to change somebody’s opinion who already agrees with using real fur but it is easier to educate someone about it and they can make their decision based on what they have found out.

GIF

To explore using different methods of portraying a topic I created a gif using photoshop. This was a very easy and simple task to do but I don't want to use this method for my final outcome as I feel that it doesn't portray the whole topic enough to inform our target audience about the fur industry.

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