This week my photoshoot, based on the colour gold, took place. Below are the three images we came out with.
All of the images came out exactly how we wanted them to, so that was a positive. However, I just wish that we could have taken the images in a studio with a good SLR camera instead of my phone. I feel like they also do convey what we set out for them to do (this is explained in the last Stay Gold blog post) I had no idea what we were going to end up doing with these images, which was daunting but also pretty exciting. So when in the lecture we were told that we are going to be turning these into advertisements, albums covers and article pieces, this put me in a pretty happy position since I knew that photoshop would be a huge part of this process. This task for me is ideal as it is what I want to do and develop skill-wise within this course and after I leave university.
For my advertisement I originally wanted to create an ASOS advertisement, however the path in terms of style that I was leading down was more reminiscent of MissGuided and PrettyLittleThing therefore I chose PLL for my brand focus. I chose to create a jewellery ad. Focusing on the quite tacky side that the fake gold can have, and not to 'bash' the brand but it doesn't sell the highest quality of product therefore this focus was more suited to this brand.
The album cover for me was a little tricky to try and start to piece together. I started by focusing on songs that I know have gold in them, but with some meaning at the same time. I looked at artists that I like such as Lana Del Rey and Charli XCX but i found myself with Halsey and her unreleased track Empty Gold- the lyrics portray gold as a sort of empty promise to the world, a facade of hope almost. This was the inspiration for the cover. I wanted to convey that emptiness and confusion of the perception of gold. I distorted the image to create a blur of the golden glitter hand to create a dream effect. I left the background blank to show the emptiness and to focus on the gold.
I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the article headline and sub-line. The main objective was to put my point across in as little words as possible, but in a way that was grammatically correct. I went with the idea that gold in glitter form looks a bit like a drug, and to some actual gold is. Using the gold as a cover up for an actual drug is what some companies have sued before as somewhat a visual euphemism. The point of the article was to touch on the fact that a lot of celebrity lifestyle, and entertainment in general, glamourises the use of drugs when in fact it is the complete opposite. I believe that mainly the youth of society is easily manipulated into thinking that 'drugs are cool' and will make you 'popular' when in fact it will make people fall away from you or you from yourself. I found images of dust piles and a syringe of glitter to enforce the idea of the glamour that facades the reality of many drugs that circle around society. The 'litter' is highlighted in gold to represent that fact that drugs do litter your body and turn it into a filthy wasteland through a misperception of the glamour.
Comments