Final project

A little preview

So here are some of our photos from over the weekend and what I've been working on. It's been a long ride and I'm down two fingers so I apologize for not having updated sooner!!!

So the first photo is of our sign for MAC. We decided that it woud look cute and fitting to have the sign peak out from under the curtains. Not ruining the personal feel at all andstill keeping the vibe intimate without shoving our product in your face.

The next is the model of our store. We're going to have steps leading up to the store adding to the bed feel. Both our display case and the mirror for the vanity will be built into the walls and on the outside there will be some dcorative woodwork to keep it interesting.

Since I had two minor emergencies I've yet to upload the photos of how are model is coming along and our display case, but i promise they'll be up tonight!!! I've been painting on our color scheme (blue, gold, very light pink and of course brown for the wood) and everything is really looking good :) See for yourself!

These are the bases to our poofs for the vanities. They will all be covered with fabric so they'll look more authentic.

Our checkout counter. This will be stationed so that the person behind the register will be able to great customers from all three doorways and turn around to help out customers at the vanities.

This is the very basic outer structure. of what our store will look like

and just incase you need a reference, this is our floor plan!

Our poor Dome

At first, it seemed like a really good idea. A dome is a regal shape. Simply elegant and something that Jackie O probably would've loved. But when making it, we just couldn't get it to sit right. and as was discussed with the professors it just didn't fit in the space. So now we're back to the drawing board with only these simple ideas we surely know

1) this is a personal space, a place where Jackie O would've sat every morning to put on her makeup

2) we want it to remain a personal space. Therefore we've chosen our vanity to be our shining star in the studio

3) we definitely need to focus on it being more of a bedroom feel, seeing things like cabinets, drawers and beds that would be in a bedroom

so we'll see where we can move on from there...all I can say is stay tuned!

completely random

But found this on another blog site: http://dailydesigndiscoveries.com/

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2010/9/30/vintage-packaging-french-chocolate-box.html

It's a vintage chocolate packaging from france. I really love the patterns on it and the colors. I think its classic style might be something we could use for Jackie O?

Just a thought...we'll see what comes out of tomorrow! :)

sketchs and branding

Here's some sketches and branding for our upcoming project. The photos we thought would be a really nice edge to the classic Jackie O style and showcase the lip colors with a more modern flair.

This is the basic floor plan for the store. We're still fooling around with wheather we want one counter or two in the store.

Since we seem to be suffering from "in the box" issues with our project, we've been playing aorund with many ideas. Obviously we started with stripping the walls completely, then fooling around with ways we could suspend a chandalier from the center or doing just a floor and ceiling. We had come up with a birdcage idea, which although very beautiful, we still had to admit that even we were calling it a bird cage and who would want to shop in there?

More recently we've been playing back with our circulr shapes again and we've added back two walls. The two walls, for us, still maintain that comfy and personal feel that we'd like the shop to have. Yet the idea of an arch or dome is still very elegant within Jackie O's simple yet poignant style choices and personality.

Last but not least we of course have the vanites (there will be two in the store). We wanted these to also have those personal feelings, as if you were sitting in her bedroom. We we're realy insipired by the picture below the sketch to do a scalloped design along the edges. This style is again simply elegant just like Jackie O

Jackie O my gosh!

So for our group project we've decided to do a special collection of Jackie O inspired lipsticks. Since the space is so small we wanted to focus solely on  this collection and the experience. We wanted it to be a very personal space so that all our customers would feel like the store was just for them!

It also helped us capture the closeness that Jackie O felt as a wife and mother, she was quoted by saying that she was "a mother first, a wife second, and the first lady last." She was a very subtlely glamourous person. Her style was simle, chic and safe but yet she always had great textiles and tastes (when redecorating the white house) and especially her infamous sunglasses!

For our space, it really centers arround our two countertops (above). We created a semi-circular shape very reminisant of the hats that Jackie O always wore. We had originally played around with the idea of doing a circular space but it was far to close to the oval office and we didn't want any politics, only style. Th tops of each countertop withh be glass shadowboxes and filled with pearls (another siniture of hers) and the lipsticks in our collection

There will be two vanites in the corner of the room. Each vanity will be complete with a circular seat to sit on and a three-fold mirror. The drawers on the side will be filled with the lipsticks in the collection so that the customer can pick them up and go straight to the register. On the vanity will be all four lipsticks in the collection so that they can be tested. There will also be a small glass canister for cotton balls and another for make up remover. We also would like to have a pair of sunglasses, maybe gloves, and a "how to" makeup book including personal pictures of Jackie O to better reinforce that yo are her...at least in our store.

Our display cases are fairly simple. A semi-circular shape, with shelves that will gradually ascend. We decided that simple would be best for our space and for customers who would simply like to pick up a package and run to their other errands.

Final Project

I really loved my final project, despite some minor set backs. I had really wished I'd played around with the repositionable spray glue beforehand, especially when my lace fell mid-spray paint and botched a few of my sides. I still felt my design really encompassed my "glamour for all" idea and would definitely stand out in any setting and sell my product

Display Case Part 2!!

So after talking about it with my instructor, I began making my final model out of chipboard. Since my original idea was to display only one lipstick per tier, I had to revamp my layers a bit to add for 3 more (thats 4 total) per tier of my "lipstick cake"

Somehow in my measurements, I went a little wrong. My display case turned out a bit topsey-turvier then planned but that was a mistake I was proud to make. In the end, I felt it really made the lipsticks jut out more and highlighted them on each tier. My scale was a bit off...still not sure when that happened but maybe somewhere between chipboard and plaster...

I plastered useing sheets of fabric with plaster on them (like a guaze) that I carefully dipped in water and wrapped my chipboard model in. Of course we're never as carefull as we first seem and a lot of sanding went into trying to get my edges nice a smooth!!



I then painted the whole model my gunmetal blue color, to stick with my color scheme and add a pop to the model.

I really went back and forth between doing the red top. Part of me thought it looked super chic and the other half thought it was just a little too barbie. I'm glad I stuck with it though because especially after the lace detailing on the sides, it really brought the whole design and concept together and reminded my customer what we were selling.

I used a new (and beautiful) lace pattern that was very similar to my case as a stencil to spray paint the lilac lace design through.

Lipstick Display!

Originally I started off with a maze like idea, inspired by the above picture. My original model was done with foam core. Unfortunately, thanks to some rain and a shuttle ride...it didn't make it. But i'm not too heartbroken about that one. The model was very bulky and confusing (kinda like a maze...should've guessed that one). In the end, I thought it was more distracting then artisitc. Instead of framing my lipsticks, it seemed to really take away from the product I was selling.


So I began thinking again, I was reminded by a conversation I had had on the phone with my mother the previous day. She was telling me how not to get so caught up in an alice and wonderland theme and not too go all out and start making everything "topsy turvey"....and I thought "what a great idea, a topsey turvey model" Literally in a minute I had this sketch drawn and was immediately obsessed with the idea.

Then of course came the oh so obvious question of how to design this and with what. I already knew that I wanted a ledge all the way around each tier of my model, so when you came to the sharp edge on the high side, I could make a small pocket for my lipstick to sit in. Originally, I thought about using foam but since I'd had no previous experience usin foam or sculpting of any kind, I decided to instead make a wire model and paper mache.

At the time, this sounded like a really awesome idea, I'd have a light model and it was still relatively sturdy. That is of  course until I was reminded that I hadn't paper mached since I was 8 and for good reason. My model was very delicate...too delicate and the wire mesh model didn't allow for the clean edges I had really wanted. And of course half of it collapsed by the time it actually dried (i'm really hoping this is not a pattern)

Any way, I'm convinced that chipboard is the way to go and yes I'm doing it cake style. Treating each tier as its own seperate piece and then I'll be able to stack them all up. Since I still want a smooth surface, which I obviosuly won't get with curved chipboard. I'm going to experiment with plaster of paris or heavier paper (maybe oaktag) or something similar

A Box is a Box...but why?!?

So I spent this past week catching up on some thinking and really getting a good grip on where I wanted my box to be and what I wanted to become. After some digging into my subconscious, I returned to the question "Why lace?"...simple yet there was something aparent that I was missing and it was frankly driving my crazy. While on yet another visit to the fabric store, the gentlemen who owns the shop asked me if I sew and that's why I have such an eye for fabric. Well of course that was it, not only did I sew but both of my grandmothers and most importantly my great grandmother made lace.

Now, without going into my whole family history since it's completely unnecessary, I'll cut right to the chase. My great grandmothers lace is treated like the Holy Grail...in fact if my mother or grandmother found the holy grail I don't think they'd give it up for that lace. There is not too many pieces left, but what they have they covet and if i could show you, you'd see why. The attention to detail is unimaginable. How one woman could have the paitence and talent to create something like that I might never understand. But there is one thing i know, it's that attention to detail that I want for my lipstick.

It's that detail I would want a customer to feel while walking from the store. Not just that they had bought a great lipstick but that they'd walked away with something just for them. After all the goal is "Glamour for All"! And what better way to inforce you're own inner beauty then the package that it comes home in.

My first idea had been to spray paint on plastic...yes the design was transferred and it was beautiful but still not the box I wanted to give away my lipstick in

 My second idea was to glue the lace drectly to the plastic box which turned out to be even more gorgeous but for some reason still wasn't sitting well with me. So I began thinking but why a box, when boxes are used for so many other things, I have to make it more personal



So then came my first satchel (for lack of a better word) I'd kept the top and bottom still hard with disguised plastic but the design just didn't flow like I wanted it too and the closure was definitely an issue.

So I reverted back to my old ways, merging the two by making a wooden box with the spray paint lace overlay. Painting the inside crimson (like my lips from the advertisement) and having matching lace spill out into a draw string. I loved this box but somehow the two elements seemed to be competeing with one another.

 And so my final model was born. One beautiful drawstring pouch that allowed for my product to peak out from underneath. The lace (dyed my gunmetal blue with acrylic ink) didn't compete with the case, instead It simply allowed the product to stannd for itself. The lace only a small reminder of the beauy in "Glamour for All"



The label came from a makeup deisgn I'd seen in my research of MAC cosmetics. I liked the edgier feel of the label and felt it to be in true character of what MAC would have done. But that's not all...

On the back, I simply could stop myself from adding this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson "Though we travel the world to find beauty, we must carry it with us or we find it not"....If this didn't singlehandly describe "Glamour for All" Then I don't know what would. This is the exact thought I want every woman who enters my store to leave with because glamour should extend far beyond the bounds of a makeup studio. I see the glamour in what some women would describe as their "ordinary" features. My hope is only that they leave knowing that makeup only enhances the beauty they already have and I'd like for their little lace case to be a constant reminder of their inner glamour girl

Project 3...Part 1

So, my idea for project 3 stems partially from my advertisement. I decided to stick with the gunmetal blue color since I feel that it has an edge that MAC would most definitely choose for any of their cosmetic lines, but I also decided to add a liliac-pink (to soften up the project and add that romantic feel) and crimson obviously for the lips. I also decided to stick with the lace idea. For me, although I wasn't too huge of a fan of how the lace turned out on the second project, the idea of lace is very soft and feminine and to me very glamourous.

My first model (above, I apologize for the orientataion, but of course it won't let me change it)  has the gunmetal background and the MAC logo written in liliac. I decided to glue the lace directly to the box and although it looks nice, after speaking with professor Leshinsky, I did agree that the lace competed with my colors and ideas a little. So we agreed to try using my colors and either painting or spray painting through.

Model 2 (i've also included a picture of the lace I used) was my attempt at painting through the lace. Originally, I was not a fan, then it kinda grew on me a little, and I thought "maybe I can make this work." But then I folded it, and it lost all its cute, patterned messiness and just looked like a mess...which is not exactly the plan I was going for.

So on to Plan B....