Author: Maria Eduarda Albonico Wiedmaier

For this SDS, I was required to create a 400 word Project Proposal, to present the concept and idea of my magazine.

On this project proposal I tried to write everything that was required as: my zine’s creative direction, my zine’s message, my zine’s audience, how I will create the content for my zine, my term 3 management plan, my BA direction and what do I think I should improve from term 2 on this new project and term. After writing all of this, and also after starting some projects for my zine, I created some new ideas for my magazine, who are now written on the new format of my project proposal.

I hope that my magazine in the end turn out as good as I expected on this proposal.

Project Proposal below:

For this task, I was required to do a photoshoot, in which I should create a story in a naturalistic way through my pictures.

As I want fashion photography as my BA, I took a lot of time to think about a story for this photoshoot. The theme of my zine is Self-Knowledge, so there were many ways to approach my theme through images, even though It can be a complex theme to work with as well. So, after a lot of research and brainstorming of ideas, I decided that wanted to use an object to help me create my story and also that I wanted to build a narrative with my images.

Thinking about my theme, I decided to show a little of bit of the feeling and of the energy of how is like to live life. Daily I think about a lot of how my life is going by so fast and that I’m just existing and not doing half of the things that I like to do. So based on that, I started to think about something that a friend of mine told me once. She told me that flowers represent life, so based on that I wanted to tell the story of a girl who receives a bouquet of flowers and how she sees one of the flowers life go by so fast and she is just there, not doing nothing.

As I was in my country (Brazil) for my easter break, I decided to take an advantage of the beautiful locations of my city (Rio de Janeiro). For this photoshoot I went to the beach with my friend who was being the model and my mom who was being the assistant. The pictures ended up coming out really nice and I was able to create very interesting layouts with it.

I did really enjoyed this task, but I think I’m still able to create more conceptual images in the other works that I create for my zine.

Research and Final Work:

For this SDS, I was required to make a fashion styling photoshoot by myself, but without anyone taking the picture for me, I’ve had to find a creative solution to take the pictures myself. Besides that, I was required to create more than one look for this photoshoot.

Before I started anything, I decided to think about the concept of this photoshoot. As my magazine is following the direction of “self-knowledge”, I wanted my pictures and outfits to show an idea of confusion. So, to do that, I did some research for inspiration. I looked for some images that showed exactly the style of looks and pictures that I wanted to create. For this photoshoot, I decided to create four looks. For the first look, I decided to wear the dress that I wore at my 15-year-old party. Besides that, I decided to cut the dress diagonally and to wear a pair of jeans and my Dr. Martens with them. In addition, on my shoulders, I wore a pantyhose that I also cut. The final look, looked exactly the way I wanted it to look. It showed confusion between two styles which I loved. For my second look, I decided to combine something that I would wear on a daily basis with something that I like but I wouldn’t usually wear. So I picked a shirt with a pair of cargo pants and I added a vest to it and a pair of clogs, which It gave me the idea of confusion that I wanted as well. For the third look Imixed things that I would wear on a daily basis with things that are definitely not my style. So I picked a shirt from my dad’s closet, a ACDC shirt from my mom’s closet, a skirt, a pantyhose and a pair of boots. I also did a little change on my hair, so I could do a ballerina bun. And finally for the fourth look, I went with something more simple but also uncommon. I picked a dress from my mom’s closet, a pair of jeans and a pair of gold sandals from my mom’s closet. All the looks ended up looking just how I wanted. In addition I feel like the pass the vibe of confusion of styles, which is something that in my opinion, is part of the journey of finding who you are. For the pictures, I decided to take them with the timer of my camera. So for every picture I settled up a 5 second timer to take the pictures of my self. Even without being able to hold my camera I tried to explore as much as possible, with positions and atmosphere as well. In addition, every look was shooted in two different places from my house, to also show this idea of diversity and confusion that I showed with the outfits. My main inspiration for my photography is Corinne Day, and she definitely was my inspiration for this photoshoot as well. After taking all of my pictures, I edited them and I organized them in layout for my zine.

Even though this SDS was a challenge, it was very fun to see what I was able to create by myself. I really loved this experience and I would like to do it again in the future.

Research & Final Work:

For this SDS we were required to create a target audience board for our zine.

For this target audience board I decided to select 3 persons, which one of them is me. In this board I wrote my name, a little be about me and my main interests as: reading, music (my favorite artists as well), posting on social media, photography (my favorite photographer as well), art fashion an my favorite brand. Then I chose to add one of my my best friends: Yazz. I wrote some facts about her, and also that she likes photography and styling, that she loves reading magazines, that she loves the street style of the 90’s and also that she likes to post on social media. Then, I added my other best friend: Let. I wrote also some facts about her and also that she is interested in makeup, styling, music and that she also likes to post on social media. I decided to choose these 3 persons because I think they have a lot in common and also because I think they can bring exactly the style that I want for my magazine.

I really enjoyed creating this target audience board, and I think I can create a lot of content based on this people.

For this SDS, we were required to brainstorm the concepts of self, and to think about what this word means to us. This is to help me find what the concept and direction of my magazine will be.

Based on that, I started writing all the words with “self-“ that I think about when I think about “self”. Immediately I wrote “Self-Knowledge”. I wrote self-knowledge, because it is something that means a lot to me. Most of the times when I am asked about the things that I like and that I don’t like, I don’t have an answer. This is something that I have been working and dealing with on a daily basis, so I though it would be an interesting direction to take and work with on my magazine. Besides that, I started working with this concept on my lasts works on term 2, so it might be interesting to keep working with it on this term as well. Then I wrote “Self-Sufficient”. When someone is self-sufficient it means they are emotionally and intellectually independent, which is something very interesting in my opinion. So maybe if I followed this concept I could maybe question throughout my works if we can actually be sel-sufficients. Then I wrote “Self-Love”, which I think its meaning is very self-explanatory. I think self-love is something that should be talked about more in our society, so it is another option for the concept of my zine. In addition, I wrote “Self-Esteem”, which I also think its meaning is very self-explanatory. Maybe with this one I could work on the meanings of high and low self-esteem, and perhaps also with self-love and “Self-Acceptance” (I also wrote this one and it means being ok with who you are), that in my opinion is something important for a low or high self-esteem. Furthermore, I wrote “Self-Centered” which means being worried with oneself and one’s affair. Besides that, I wrote “Self-Control”, which means being able to control yourself. And finally, I wrote “Self-Directed”, which means being able to take your own decisions and choices without anyone’s help.

It was very interesting to go trough all the meanings of this words with “Self-“, and I can’t wait to work with it during term 3.