Week 5

First day back in after the October holidays and I am back a year older. It's strange how when you have your birthday you always reflect on what we have done with our lives so far. I always seem to question all my life decisions and what I have done so far. Its strange to think that I am where I am and how I got here. I always compare myself to others and what milestones they have reached but I haven't. I have had to tell myself that everyone is on a different timeline and that I just need to do everything at my own pace and not worry about anyone else. This week we have been looking at doing more of a defined plan of what we want to do and what is creative thinking. I had a 1 to 1 meeting with my tutors and discussed my idea with them and what I was wanting to do. They seemed happy with everything I was saying and what I am planning to do for my project. I was glad to have the feedback and know what I was on the right track with everything. I'm really looking forward to doing everything and getting into the nitty-gritty. I have done a more detailed plan and what is creative thinking but I have this on a separate page from my blog so I can keep things a bit more organised.

Week 4

So, this week we are still looking at what we are wanting to do for our creative project. I know have a very clear vision of what I want to do and create as my business prototype. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that I know what I have to do. Beforehand I was really struggling with this class and understanding what they were asking us to do. I was honestly asking myself if this was the course for me and I wanted to continue. After speaking with my tutors and other classmates I have been reassured that I am on the right path with my course work so far. This class in particular is to me a lot like my graded units that I have done before but in this as I get to choose the brief and what I want to do as a creative. I have been working of this task’s for this week and really looking back at my own work and reflecting upon it. I shall put the task and answers down below.

Task 1 – reflecting on my portfolio of work from week one (insert the video)

The feedback forms the class when they seen my portfolio was that they loved the more abstract looks, but I seem to have a mix and mash of a bit of everything, and I need to home in on one speciality. My work so far is very varied I would say as I through college we have had to learn about all styles of makeup and not just the one so when we go out into the workplace, we have more job opportunities. I do seem to love the more creative look, but this is because you can be messy with it, and it still looks arty and intentional. What I need to work more on is doing the day to day glam looks as these take a bit more precision.

Task 2 – Group discussion on Feck Perfuction by James Victore, Do/Disrupt and Change the Status Quo by Mark Shayler

• Do/Disrupt and Change the Status Quo is a workbook that helps you to develop a business idea by the end of the book. It really helps you to identify your unique set of skills. It looks at your own personal goals and dreams and helps you to develop these into a business idea. It always goes into detail about how big corporations got to where they are today. You must stand out and create a unique idea that will then help you focus in on who your audience/cliental is and how to grab their attention.

• Feck Perfunction – it's quite literally in the title what this book is about. It really helps you to open your mind, its cutthroat and to the point. “To the bone” is how one of my classmates described it. It tells us to accept every weird apart of ourselves as they are the parts of us that make us unique. Throw social standards out the window and feck perfunction.

Task 3 – Questions

So how as a small business do you/we deal with large corporations such as Amazon?

• We as small business need to think outside the box and always be innovate. Find a niche as a business and go with it. Observe what customers/clients as liking and consuming and homing in what is working for you and them.

Do you create a new market?

• The short answer is no. My idea is something that has been done before but what makes it different is me. My skills and personality are what I bring to my business.

Who is your market? Who do you see as your clients?

• My target audience are people that love makeup, people that like YouTube tutorials, that like podcasts and love to hear interesting stories from interesting people. I see a majority of my audience being people ages 18 to 35 that have an interest in one of the above listed groups.

Are you selling a lifestyle, in your portfolio?....... or just a number of products to be made?

• This is a yes and a no. One part is selling a lifestyle through telling these stories through the interviews I will conduct. But also, I will be selling products as I will doing the guests makeup and letting people know where they can get the products, I used to create the look.

Week 3

PPP Blog week 3 This week we are looking at what our brief/idea is going to be. Last week I did come up with an idea to create makeup tutorials. For the past week though I have been thinking of maybe doing something else as this idea has already been done before and I thought maybe I just want to do something that’s different, but I really love this idea of creating videos and sharing my skills and knowledge. Its honestly all rather overwhelming right now. I have created a brief the now but this might change. Last year when I created my graded video, I really enjoyed the entire process of making that video and working with a cinematographer and a model and creating this fantasy look that really showed off all my skills and knowledge. Right now, though I haven't done any makeup in ages and my skills are rather rusty. So now I know I have to start doing more practical work such as doing makeup on family and friends and on myself. I use to do makeup everyday and I loved to sit and create and be bold in my look that I was creating. I feel though that when doing college and studying makeup, I lost a lot of my passion for it as we where always following briefes and even though we had some creative control. We didn't have full creative control and this at times was really frustrating as I was being constricted. Now when doing this course, I hope to find my passion for makeup again and have the chance to be creative and think outside the box.

My brief - For my final product I want to create makeup tutorials that I will then post on social media and on YouTube. I want to share with my skills and knowledge with others in the hope to inspire others to get into makeup and be creative. By doing this I also hope to create a community in which people feel safe to be themselves and to be creative with makeup.

What is the purpose of this project?

• To help me develop my skills as an artist and also share my my skills and knowledge with others to help them or even to inspire them to do makeup and be creative.

What are the main deliverables? -tutorials - developing my skills - sharing skills and knowledge

What will the timeline be? Including deadlines?

• Blog/report 7th May

• Presentation 23rd April

Task – Produce a reflective plan of areas to investigate My strengths

• I am a makeup artist

• I am passionate about makeup

• I have a lot of products

• I have a good understanding of how to use products

• I am trained in special effects

My weaknesses

• Editing videos

• Getting video recording equipment

• Using technology

• Being confident in myself

• Overthinking

A plan on how to explore

• Watch videos on how to edit videos

• Do workshops

• Research the makeup industry

• Create my own niche

• Making draft videos

• Get feedback on my draft videos

• Practice the looks I want to do

Task – SWOT Analysis Strengths

• Organisation - I love to organise. Always having a plan and a To Do List. In the past I have organised fundraisers, events, and festivals.

• Time keeping - Being on time is something that is important to me. I always make sure to plan and make sure I get there at least 10 minutes before a lot of times, so I am never running late. If I am taking a bus or another form of transportation, I always make sure to get there 30 minutes before.

• Make up - I am confident in my makeup skills as I have been studying for the past four years and have gained a lot of knowledge and skills throughout these years.

• Dedicated - Whenever I am given a task or job, I devote a lot of my time on energy towards that task or job. I always make sure 100% into whatever I am doing so that I know that I have done the best that I can.

• Creativity - I have always been a creative person and have always taken inspiration from the world around me and applied that to my makeup and to my work.

• Multitasking - A great example of my multitasking is me being at college and doing several classes at once and working and making sure I get everything done on time.

Weaknesses

• Patience - As someone who likes to be on time and organised, I do not usually have patience for people that run late or if I am running late or something changes my plans. I really dislike that and that is not a good thing sometimes, and it is something I need to improve on.

• Overthinking - I tend to overthink, are locked. Even the smallest details. Sometimes it makes me doubt myself and my work and not have that much confidence.

• Styling hair - Styling hair is not something I have a lot of confidence in. It is something that I can do but not as well as doing my makeup or my written work or my research. It is something that I am always working on and must improve.

• Typing skills - Typing has never been something that has come easy to me. It takes me a long time to type, and it is very difficult for me to do. It does usually take me around 30 minutes to even just type 300 words.

• Self-criticism - I second guess myself a lot. When I am doing my work, I also just do not sometimes have the confidence in myself to do the work that I am doing even though I am more than capable. This leads me to self-doubt and undermine my work and myself.

Opportunities

• I want to do some online makeup workshops to help develop my skills even further in some areas.

• I am planning to do some more theatre shows so expand my experience

• I want to work on my editing skills when it comes to videos, so I was going to watch some “how to” videos and an online course.

• Doing my BA in Creative Enteprises

Threats

• My own self doubt

• Having a fixed mindset

• Not keeping to my schedule

• My workplace – not getting time off that I need

Task – Loose Plan I am going to start off by doing all my research and looking into the makeup industries, beauty influencers, marketing trends and what's looks I want to create. I use photos and mood board in my research as I like visual learning as well as written work. I will also look into how to edit videos and how people do that. After doing this I plan to move on to planning everything and this will include what's looks I will be doing, design plans, what products I will be using, practicing and creating a budget and who will be filming the video. For the developing I will work on developing my editing skills and making draft videos and then looking at them and see where I can improve and what I can change. This is my loose plan for the now, but this is susceptible to change.