drift

 (Source: here)

week #4 entry #1 02/21 - 02/28: academic journal

I learned a ton this week and made some major strides in my project.  All the confusion of "What should I name my brand?" and "What am I doing?" is starting to come together.  However, I think my proposal is backwards.  I have way too many questions and some of which don't even matter. "What logo is most appealing to my audience?" should be deleted.  I thinking doing surveys is a waste of time Conducting surveys is going to take up too much time, time where I should be designing shirts, researching, and contacting my mentors.  Additionally, I am the best judge of what emotions I want my brand to evoke and how to create a cohesive message to my audience.  This observation is true of my question: “What product is most appealing to my audience?”  I don’t think I’ll be answering this with surveys.  I may ask around school to my friends what designs they like best, but no surveys.  I think I’ll be answering this by researching what’s popular and worn by DE students.  I think a whole new set of questions is necessary.  I need fewer questions too.

 (source: here)

Thursday, I also conducted an interview with Aliza, an expert in marketing and branding.  She gave me her brief history, which is full of incredible achievements, some of which are working with Spike Lee and working for Saachi & Saachi.  She is currently working on her own business where she is creating her own line of environmentally friendly cleaning products and yoga products.  After giving me her impressive bio, she gave me a ton of great ideas and a structure to creating a brand.  Most importantly, she gave me a structure in the creation of a brand.  This is so incredibly important because before that I had been “winging it.”  I will use this structure this coming week.  I have already started putting some of it together.

Some points and ideas she gave me:

• I need to look at existing trends and make my own spin off of them.
• Give consumers an opportunity to be a part of my brand.
• Maybe partner with the art department
• Do my own fashion show for the presentation. (!!!!)
• Ideas for a basic structure for my presentation
• Creation of a brand video
• Inspiration board (which I have already started)
• Understand why my brand is important.

She gave me some wonderful ideas for my secret ad campaign, which you will see more of in the coming weeks.  I couldn’t just let her go, I asked her to be one of my mentors and she agreed.  Oh, yes, I have decided on a name: drift.  I have gotten the opinions of Aliza, Ms. Diaz, and my friends and family.

Plans for this week:

• Create Brand Outline
• Think about presentation
• Work on Inspiration Board
• Read more Why We Buy
• Talk to Chris! (that didn’t happen this week)
• Edit Proposal
• Send Aliza my proposal and ask for advice about questions and how to edit them. 

I made my first self-imposed deadlines of finishing Handmade Nation and creating a name.

It’s amazing how my project just kind of develops.  For example, I have decided that interviews aren’t completely necessary for my project.  A lot of the things I’m learning are best with the guidance of experts in the field and my research.