Welcome Week

During welcome week we were presented with a brown paper bag each and asked to turn them into masks to represent who we want to be in five years time. To do this we used the information from our mood boards and ideas from discussions we had about our dreams for the future. We then had to take photographs both inside the studio and outside of the university. This is my mask:

At first taking the photographs outside seemed a little embarrassing, however it was worth it to see the confused looks of people’s faces as they walked passed groups of students with paper bags on their heads- some of the look were priceless. After we completed this task I saw an article in a magazine about a new form of dating which involved people making and wearing similar masks so that people weren't  influenced by looks and they could focus more on each others personality. I found it interesting that in both cases the masks were being used to show what people wanted others to know about them or about their hopes for the future. In both cases the designer and the person under the masks were in control of what information people knew about them.

From Look Magazine 29th September 2014 Edition

An orientation task was also set in welcome week and involved us finding make-up brands in Southampton, finding out what their best selling or hero products are and taking photographs of ourselves at the brands counters. We also went to a few places that might be useful to visit during our course. They were The West Quay Shopping Centre, The Mayflower Theatre and Southampton City Art Gallery.

I completed this task with my friend Natalie Elesa and the make-up counters were quite straight forward to find as we went to John Lewis and Boots and asked the staff about their company's best selling or hero products.

Benefit- They’re Real Mascara

Mac- Ruby Woo Lipstick and Studio Fix Fluid Foundation

Laura Mercier- Secret Camouflage Concelear

Bobbi Brown- Long Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink

Smash Box- Photofinish Primer

The West Quay Shopping Centre we also found easily as we had both been there before. However the theatre and art gallery were a bit more difficult to find and involved a lot of help from Google Maps. I thought this task was useful as we are now aware of where these places are and we will be able to find them more easily when we go in the future.

During Welcome week we also had talks from Illamasqua and Charles Fox.  During the Charles Fox talk we were informed about lots of the different products that are sold by Charles Fox and Kryolan who are the company that own Charles Fox. We learnt about the different ranges of products from every day make-up to gory special effects make-up and theatre stage make-up. We also had the opportunity to purchase products at a discounted price to add to our make-up kits.

During the Illamasqua talk we were shown how to create a catwalk look and were told about the Illamasqua Distinction In Make-up Artistry Awards which would be great to enter into in the future. In the afternoon we took part in a workshop where we had to work in groups to create a character and make-up look. There was a limited amount of products available to use, recreating a scenario that can happen on location where not all of the make-up turns up and the make-up artist has to improvise. Also we had a time limit of 35 minutes so we could practice inventing themes and looks quickly and when under pressure. I worked with AJ, Daniela and Nicole and we created a theme based on the idea of how everyone's life is fast paced and people often move on leaving people who once were very important to them behind. We decided to make our model Nicole into a Doll that had been thrown on the floor, broken and not cared for anymore which often happens as children grow up they discard toys they were once inseparable from. We thought this was a good way to represent our idea of people being forgotten about. We decided to style Nicole’s hair as well as make-up which meant we had to work very quickly to complete both the make-up and hair in the time, but we decided to do this as we felt it completed the look.

We also had to create a description of our look which we presented to the other groups to explain the meaning behind our look, this was: “Everyone grows up, games get more serious, once a best friend now a forgotten feature of a dusty corner, thrown to the side, frozen in time: A Broken Doll.” Although we didn't win the competition between the groups, I thought we worked well as a team and we created a strong look that we were pleased with.