PRINT PROJECT-ALCATRAZ BEACH CLUB

For this project we had to create a small magazine/zine/lookbook for instore or online purposes. I chose the brand Alcatraz Beach Club, a small clothing company with a simple aesthetic with a lot meaning behind it. For my zine I looked a old punk magazines such as SNIFFIN GLUE and LOADED to get inspiration for layouts and graphics. My aim was to include pictures of the clothing but not make it about the clothes, more so about the image and brand I was attempting to portray.

These were my moodboards for the project, I was looking at making it very grungy and punky whilst still maintaining the companys clean cut ideas. To do this i thought of contrasting the punk graphics that had a xerography feel with the clean cut skyscrapers of the city. I got in contact with Adam who owns the brand and he gave me the green light to create it. Below are all the pages of the zine, due to the difficulty of laying out photos on blogger (which i think is an awful platform to be using for this course!) you can't clearly see each double page spread, but theres 16 images, 8 double page spreads that would make up a zine if you go to http://www.flipsnack.com/OlieThomas/abc.html you can view the virtual booklet. bye

TREND PROJECT- PIRATE RADIO

For this project we had to create a trend based on a subculture, we visited the 'all about the boy' exhibition in LCF to see what subcultures have been referenced in fashion in the past, we saw gosha rubchinskiy referencing UFO culture and skate culture in the film KIDS by Larry Clark. I started to think of subcultures I have found interesting and came across Liam Hodges' SS16 campaign that was based around the idea of pirate radio. So i went along with this idea and started to watch documentaries on early 2000s pirate radio with stations like uckerz badderz, KISS FM and Rinse FM. Below are some research images on the culture including one of Liam Hodges' looks from SS16.

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I then started to look at how pirate radio has evolved from breaking into flats and sticking antennas on the roofs onto the internet, i tried illegally hosting my own show and was able to do it in minutes. My article, along with the gritty DIY graphics, delves into this matter and questions whether pirate radio is still in fact alive.

We had to chose a magazine for our article to feature in, I researched in the library and ended up choosing BEAT magazine because it has the most ziney feel and is based around music. I also produced a song based off of old pirate radio recordings and put Hector Aponymus' spoken word project over the top, this would be used along with the article. Listen below:

CHRISTOPHER SHANNON FILM PROJECT

for this project we got into groups and had to pick a brand to make a short promotional video for, me ruby and toye picked christopher shannon because we liked the concepts behind his work. For example the 'thanks for nothing' knitwear commenting on consumerist culture and the constant use of plastic bags over models' heads on the runway, we thought this was a concept we could run with. we created a moodboard but due to technical difficulties i cannot upload it however will show it on demand. It consisted of lots of coloured pastels and people with bags on their head. We took inspiration from the film Eraserhead for the sound, we used Folie audio, which is recording all sound off set to give it an artificial feel. Our whole concept was this dystopian consumerist reality where these people are blindly consuming and following capitalist culture. After thinking about locations we decided on three: an american style diner, a barber shop and a laundromat, with street and travel scenes in between. The footage originally seemed quite comical; a woman shoving a burger into her plastic bag face and pouring milkshake down her face. However after producing an eery bassline soundtrack and adding the amplified and fake noises it became awfully creepy and unnerving. We ran with this and edited the footage in a discerning manner. We used a slider for a few of the most iconic shots of the film to make it seem as if the viewer is being drawn into this culture.

CHRISTOPHER SHANNON from Olie Thomas on Vimeo.

VETEMENTS- INDUSTRY PROJECT

For this project the promotion class got together with the design/textiles class, we picked our preferred brand and then were put into groups, mostly design and a couple of promotion. We started off by making a huge physical concept board out of two purple walls from floor 6. After researching Vetememnts we discovered that for their campaigns and shows they dont really follow any pattern, eg one show was in a chinese restaurant, an other in a sex club. Out of the quotes we were given we chose the one that reminded us of a soviet era. We went off of this and i started looking at soviet censorship and brutalist architecture. I then went on a location check on some car parks around town because they have that brutalist look that we were going for and I found one in hackney that was relatively quiet and wouldnt need permission to shoot in.

The design team got designing their Vetements inspired garments and the shoot went ahead, the lighting in the car park was a bit of an issue at first but the files were saved as RAW files so they could easily be edited nicely afterwards. I also shot my film in the car park, Adeola the other promotion student in our group shot the photos and Jennifer a design student shot all the polaroid ones. We decided to use polaroids to get across the old and instaneous feel of the soviet era.

These were the final campaigns/posters/editorials, I was in charge of all the editing, I found a font that resembled some old soviet propaganda typeface, it was called MOLOTOW, i downloaded it and used it as the logo on all the images, the fact that vetements dont have a one strong logo helped this seem more legitimate.

VTMNTS from Olie Thomas on Vimeo.
This was the video I shot and edited myself. I used a prime lens without using any image stabilization tools to give the shaky effect i saw on old soviet propaganda videos that i researched. I also turned the saturation down to get the communist dull vibe in there. I also researched post soviet music like techno and produced the soundtrack to this video, i like the gritty vibe it gives to the film. I once again used the picture in picture effect to create a messy aesthetic to contrast the brutalist environment.

LOCK TAVERN- PROMOTION PROJECT

For this project we had to capture a mood or vibe of a made up unknown brand, the task was to get a message across without using any fashion as a tool. In my group we decided to try to capture one of our regular nights out; drinks at a bar/club then the dark journey home in the early hours of the morning. I started to look at locations and loved the look of club toilets that have been tagged and graffited all over. We got our models together and had them just drinking and chatting, pretending they weren't on a shoot, we shot on film to get across that in the moment vibe; the picture is taken and it won't be seen til later, you can't make perfect it. We also shot a video which was the main piece of the promotional campaign.

These were 2 concept boards i put together for the locations, you can see a clear grungy vibe in the inside sets and a cold depressing, poorly lit mood in the second set of locations:  the journey home. We did some looking around in clubs and toilets and found the Lock Tavern in Camden who we had to ask permission to film in, but it was approved.

These were our three final shots for the campaign, the picture in picture technique i used in post was to capture that subtle chaos of the night.

This was the final video, I chose a soundtrack that wasnt too dancy or upbeat, just something that would capture the layed back feel of our nights. Once again, to mimic the photo campaign I used picture in picture in post, I used background footage to create this chaos around the main frame, it distracts the viewer, giving them an experience of not being sure where to look, adding to this sense of chaos.

MOUNT STREET: CHALAYAN

we started off by going on location research taking a look in all the mount street stores, I popped into stores like Dior and Balenciaga but didnt really get excited by any of it, I turned the corner and went into the Hussein Chalayan store, which is technically not on mount street but it is still part of the Mount Street Collective. I was fascinated by the geometrical going ons in the store and the very clean cut look of everything. After returning I started researching Chalayan and found out that he draws a lot of his inspiration for his work form his background in architecture. I started to put some moodboards together:

 this was a screenshot of my proposed colour palette taken from an image involving a human face being contorted and sliced by mirrors, i loved this concept and started chopping up and adding to images of Chalayan's previous menswear collections, focussing on harsh geometric shapes.

I made these by selecting a triangular area of the photo on photoshop and calculating the average colour inside that space, essentially what pixelation does, but this way i could have my own shapes, i love the way it covers information but still adds to the photos.

Next came the idea for invitations for the store launch; due to his fascination in architecture I thought of sending out nets for dohexahedrons that, when built, would reveal the details of the event, however I scrapped this idea because it was too fiddly to build and I thought clients would not even bother to build them. I next went back to my earlier look at mirrors, and quite liked the idea of having a shard of a broken mirror, i liked the way they looked however this would be a health and safety issue so I ended up going for just a simple square mirror that would be mailed to the clients with the details printed on the mirror. I liked the idea of the recipients being able to see themselves whilst reading the invite.

 Next came my design for the shop window, I wanted to keep in tune with the whole mirror thing and due to Chalayans scientific clothing (dissolving dresses) I thought of having this shiny heat proof coat slowly rotating in the window, meanwhile in the background theres all these mirrors in triangles pointing in different directions so the jacket and the people looking in would be fragmented all over the wall, going off the idea of the broken mirror.

I also made a film that would play on a loop on  a projector at the launch, without access to Chalayans clothes I decided to make it a concept film: one that captures the mood, image and aesthetic of the brand without showing any of their clothing. The film looks at reflections, shapes and colour.

concept002 from Olie Thomas on Vimeo.

FASHION PRESENTATION: CULT OF THOMAS

after my cult gloria project I really wanted to expand on the whole cult idea, this time i created my own cult, the project aim was to design a presentation and the promotional material to go along with it for example the invite. 

because I am not a fashion design student I didnt design any clothes so i just went off the black cloak idea as a cult uniform. Theres something about the hidden face that I really like, maybe its an anonymous cult. After this I started looking designs for flyers, i looked at old religious posters and the xerography techniques they used, I used a picture from the last project as the graphic, of the model looking very angry.

after this i started looking at how smokers are in a way a cult in the way they all gather in these designated smoking areas at various hours during the day and partake in what is often muttered small talk that resembles a cult chant.

I started looking at typefaces that would mimic the marlboro look and i found one and created a quick graphic (above) however I wanted to take this a step further and create a digital model of a cigarette packet with the Cult of Thomas logo on it instead of the smoking warning signs. I ended up making a hard copy of this as well and used it as the event invitation with the details for the event in the back smoking warning area.

This was my original design for my presentation, a huge warehouse space would be used, the only light source would be a synthetic moon hanging above the 'cult members' so all the attention would be on them, they would be on a podium in a circle all smoking and muttering to themselves.

However I took this idea further and made it a scene in the woods, i would get huge fir trees and scatter them across the space, I would implement fog machines all over the space so the visitors would have to actually make their way through this dimly lit forest to see the presentation where the cult members are, creating an overall more immersive experience for the viewer.