PROJECT!!!

(MOM, LOOK WHO I FOUND TODAY!!!!) I started work at the Camden store today. I met the shop girl Anna and we started straight away filling in the store. She just received the new men's and some new women's clothes from the fall and winter collection. I changed all of the mannequins; tried to lighten them up a bit, winter colors are always so dark. Rachel called and she asked me to come back to the warehouse after lunch so I could begin working on sending out the fall and winter catalog. She also told me that she and John had a project for me!!! She said that they want me to design a window installation for the store!!! I'd come up with the concept and how it would be implemented and everything!!! And if they like it they will execute it!!! Then they would take pictures for me and send them to me so I could use them for my portfolio!!! I'm so excited!!! It was really nice because she said they wanted to come up with something that would be able to help me in the future with what I want to be doing and its something that they were looking to do for the store as well, so it just fit :) She said we'd talk more when I got back to the warehouse. I hung up the phone and my mind immediately began to race!!! Before I left for the day I took pictures of the entire inside and outside of the store. Then I grabbed lunch and was off to the warehouse!

When I arrived at the warehouse, John and Rachel went over with me what they wanted me to do and the ideas that they had already. John said eventually they would like to and are now in the beginnings of re-branding the Braintree name. On the front of the building it says "Hemp Store" and has Braintree underneath. He said they did that in the beginning because they thought that would grab people's attention, make people come in, interested. But they've realized that people associate it with little knick-knack items and not necessarily clothing. He said eventually he sees the brand being an eco-friendly, sustainable fiber fashion line. The actual windows are a bit complex. There are 3 sets of 3 windows, 2 to be mainly focused on and 1 of those the priority. He said he would really like to see the use of imagery, evoking the eco theme. They both said it needs to be something realistic, easy to install and interchangeable with the season if possible. Right now, there are blinds on the windows that go down when the store closes. There is nothing that attracts people's attention to the building at night (the area has a big pub scene at night). He would like to see images illuminated so they could be seen down the street. Words and products would not work, you wouldn't be able to tell what they were from far away. He said that they could get images printed on the blinds, so if I came up with something for that, they're are interchangeable, seasonal. They seemed to like the blinds idea and I have to agree, for the amount of space they have, the blinds are probably the best way to go. He doesn't want me to rebrand the company, but just to keep in mind that they are planning for that. Rachel said that I can work on this throughout my time here and that I should come up with a plan that I'll share with them several times over the course so we can ensure we're on the same page and going in the right direction. I'm very excited for this!!! I have to do some research on illumination and fabrics, get some ideas. I'm going to make a trip to Ikea, check out some wall hangings, see what they are made of, how light filters through them. And the other great part about this is that even if they do not implement my plan, I can use the plan in my portfolio because its my design!!! So I think it will help my portfolio either way!!!

Tonight, Chelsea and I went to a tapas restaurant. It was pretty good and kind of cheap. It was good to have different food. Then we headed to the pub that's around the corner from our flat so we could use their free Wi-Fi!!! Our roommates met us there. We kept getting pointed and laughed at because there were 5 girls, each sitting on their laptops, not speaking to each other!!! It was pretty funny.

Tomorrow we have our meeting with the professor about the independent study....hope it goes well!!! Then we're free for the rest of the day. Rachel gave me a list of a few shops I should visit to check out their windows and displays so I'll probably end up doing that most of the day, taking pictures and window shopping!!!