EMILY HAMBLYN

As a key member of the team I was involved from concept to execution. I put myself forward for a role and was assigned to keep the team organised, Head of Logistics.  I could be relied on to ensure the team were hitting deadlines and thus selected to head all meetings. Taking on this role, I was responsible for assigning tasks to other team members and act as a point of contact between the team and our lecturers. 

Within the concept and making stage we had a small budget but a lot of creative ideas. As soon-to-be graduates we wanted our work to be seen, utilising our strengths as communication graduates. The theme became ‘high visibility’, evolving into the show title: Hi-Vis.

The art direction was an amalgamation of high-impact colour, construction materials and communication tools. We wanted to lift the lid on communication and promotion, revealing our final projects in the most impactful way possible.  

As experienced content creators, we wanted to generate a marketing campaign that would disrupt and engage. We knew this image would feature on flyers, posters and online so understood the need to communicate key information and storytelling through minimal text and a strong image. 

The final piece, although I feel it could have been stronger if we had more time, did successfully illustrate communication tools in an interesting and artistic way. The added elements of sketchbooks and a student’s hand symbolised the talented individuals whose work would feature in the show. 

To the left is a screen shot of our initial Instagram feed. The content we chose to promote was based on the overarching themes of high impact colour and raw construction narratives. In the weeks running up to the show we began to release content that featured students work and the students themselves, we wanted to create a buzz surrounding the work and give our fellow course mates the opportunity to repost across social platforms.

Marketing the show to the correct people was another key part to our success. We discussed influential and important people we would like to attend as well as family and friends. Email invitation and flyers is how we invited the majority of guests, however, we worked hard to capitalise on our course mates. 

The goal was to activate the 100 or so students and utilise their pre-existing social platforms. Each individual member of a Fashion Communication and Promotion course was guaranteed to have strong social accounts with at the very least, a couple hundred followers, and at the most (some student's had very successful blogs) 60k+.  

The show space itself was in our university building, three large rooms and what we described as our ‘impact space’ (the large central area that guests would see first). 

The ‘impact space’ introduced the exhibition with a three-dimensional sculpture that mimicked our marketing campaign. It also included an impressively large Perspex ‘HI-VIS’ sign in aluminous orange and the many faces of the students that contributed to the class of 2018.

The first adjoining room displayed our Live Project work. We showcased the work created whilst working with professional clients on Live Briefs. Some of the Clients included; Anya Hindmarch, Boots, Stack Magazine and Levi. To see my project collaborating with Anya Hindmarch please click here. As this project’s outcome took the form on a presentation, we

displayed the work on monitors. This was the presentations could be played on repeat as guests walked the room.

The second room amassed the course sketch books. An essential explorative tool to every project and every student. As such an essential part of our research, decision making, creative context, art direction and visual outcomes, they needed a space that reflected that. A key aspect to this room was incorporating seating so guests could digest and absorb students work. 

The last room was the biggest room with metal gridding throughout so students could display their creative outcomes and printed dissertations. The racking used was effective in creating individual space for each student and forming a walkway through the space.