Weekly Reflection.

Visuals
 As I head into one of the most crucial stages of FMP I am now beginning to start up photoshop to put together some visuals, where that be secondary research or my own designs! Since the last blog I have undertaken a large number of projects and tasks to finish of the research segment of the brief so that I can begin my creating!
 When it came to these blogs I found myself becoming more motivated that I previously was, although the thought of the project coming to an end in just over three weeks most definitely worries you a bit! In a discussion today I was asked whether I'm on track, how I'm feeling, and all the typical questions when a deadline is looming. Although I think i'm slightly overwhelmed by the amount of work I set myself out for I am looking forward to it in a strange way. I'd say at this current point my only real concerns are when producing my digital versions of the products they may look poorly done, perhaps when being assessed they may not take into account the actuality of professional printing cosmetic packaging etc. My thoughts for this (as I've said before) were to still produce some high quality mock-ups of my designs, and to do so I initially requested some samples from two separate businesses quoting to "be more than happy to" wishing 3-5 working days. As I imagined these haven't yet turned up, even though ordered 2 weeks back, so at this point my mock ups may not be my ideal way of presenting my work, but I hope that they take everything into consideration and that my digital versions will override (after all that is what I am aiming to do!)

 So I firstly collected some products of my own, along will going onto YouTube to look at appropriate videos and seeing the types of advertisements come up, the way they do it and for what brands! I have inserted some screenshots of the work I have done however to go into detail it is best going back a few blog posts to read them!

 Products open and products in their packaging, I wanted to investigate if all packaging really reflects the product inside, and what I should take into consideration!

 The next few steps I decided to take were vital for this project, I looked into the advertising portion of the project along with websites that sell makeup and how! This for me was one of the most interesting parts I have completed so far. I was able to physically look at how certain brands want to market themselves, and at what cost.


I wanted to annotate screenshots on YouTube videos and what perhaps effects the adverts I get, and then what the advertisers themselves want to get out of it!

 Many blog posts later, delving into the world of where to buy makeup was almost like opening a can of worms. Ironically I enjoyed this however, it opened my eyes up to all the potential paths I could next take and research into in order to get my brand going and really attract my demographic. So once I had finally wrapped up my research and reflected upon all of it and how that effects the rest of my FMP journey, it was time to produce some actual good quality visuals!
 The experimentation part of this brief is so important, like last year. I vividly remember myself when creating the magazine and producing so many different pages, altering the layout, text, image type, font and more till I found the perfect combination for me. Much like last year I did the same, but with something I little bit more fun and creative. I have inserted some screenshots of the mock ups I initially done, this will be interesting to look back and reflect on once  have finished my project!






 I feel as though this year although the marking scheme has been raised and it is harder to get a good mark, I have raised my own expectation of myself. I think I had so many ideas when it came to this project that I could just keep doing it and advertising it in so many different ways! I have given myself a lot of work in comparison to last year, and even though it's 'quality not quantity' I thought that I would push myself in all areas. I don't want to produce a million things, I wanted to try and produce different things to really show my skills and creativity, to show that I fully understand and comprehend the importance of a target audience. With a website, bus shelter poster and digital advertisement places on youtube (a mock up of course) I think it shows that I have taken into consideration a lot of things such as...

• Website- 30% of my demographic buy all of their makeup online, it shows that I can adapt to my surroundings and try to cater for every individual in the demographic 
• Bus Shelter Poster- The majority of my demographic attend school, college or full time work, traveling to and from their destinations. It is clear to me how many people take public transport, so by subtly placing an advertisement on a bus shelter I think it is better than if I were to just 'stick it in a window at boots/superdrug'
• Digital Advertisement- I have used some primary research I completed last year on LJ Hugs which was all about social media *infographic below*, nearly 100% of my demographic use social media and most importantly YouTube is used and it the most important to 55%. This appropriately links my demographic this time round. They are exposed the YouTube advertisements more so than a TV advertisement, it is effective and appropriate which is why I decided to do it!

Conclusions

 As I head into assignment three further, I have been on a bit of a rollercoaster and battle with time and motivation. I can say however that as I get into the more creative and hands on side to the project my priority currently is to complete these products and get a website ands poster up and running. 

Packaging Designs Questionnaire.

Mock ups
 In the post seen previously I had created some mock up / potential design ideas for my brand. Before continuing with the production of the eye palette and foundation, I decided to create a questionnaire to send out to my demographic to get their opinions on the packaging (colours, images etc). This would allow me to one last time change my packaging so that it can be the most appealing to women ages 18-25. Below I have inserted some screenshots of the types of questions I asked, along with some more examples that I produced.

The reason I decided to produce this questionnaire as opposed to a focus group was that I would be able to gather some more opinions and reach further with a questionnaire rather than a certain group of people who may be influenced by one another. The questions I have asked are also very specific, I didn't want to be too vague with them because I am still going to produce products that look like this, give or take a couple of features. I think when you get too vague people are more inclined to answer with a vague response too, so by specifying the question I hope to get specific & useful responses back too.

 Much like my initial response I will send this off on my Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, aiming to get around the same number of responses as the first one (32) as this will be enough to get my designs perfect, with the heavy influence of the target market. Once I have received all the responses and can present my findings clearly I can then finalise my designs. Whilst waiting for the responses I am still able to produce my other products' packaging, as it is only small things that would be changed on the product (such as the background colour and images) all things that are easily changed in a layer in photoshop. 

Reflection

 Once I have received my results and presented them, I can continue my work with the poster and website. I need to work on my advertisement section next and how I would 'sell' my product if it were a real brand. This will be done through a website and poster as mentioned, however I need to look into things such as how I will lay it out on the website, and what will be on the poster to attract customers to the products. I am of course heavily relying on visuals of the products and having them set up as if they were real. I think a slight disadvantage I didn't expect to come across with this project was the printing of the products. As I reflect on my time scale plans I have allowed time for printing, this was before getting my quotes on the cost of the whole process. I think that if I physically had the products printed with the foils and effects it would look much better and realistic as opposed to a digital image. Despite this I have had to get over that, I will now need to focus on making my digital products as realistic looking as possible in order to make my poster as effective as possible when printed.

Design Experimentation Part 2.

Logo
 In regards to my logo I don't believe I have discussed my ideas for the whole branding situation. When coming up with a brand I don't want that to be the main focus of my project, I thought about names and ideas, however I thought I would just keep it personal to me. So my brand is going be self titled 'McQuaid' (creative, I know). This may seem non-creative or an easy way out, however a lot of makeup brands are names of the designers, and of course not just makeup, clothing and fashion brands are often names around the founders and designers. Wha I can do is use my creativity when it comes to the shades and designing of course. Below I have produced a collage where I have taken images curtsey of Pinterest  and produced what I discussed in my last blog regarding experimentation (clipping masks).
 I have already chosen my font for my logo (Stardust Adventure, DaFont) after much deliberation of having it hand drawn. I initially wanted my logo to be my name hand drawn, however I have produced many attempts using my Wacom tablet and pen, I don't think I would ever be happy enough with it, even if scanned in and done by pen and paper as my handwriting isn't to the standard I would want printed on products!



 Upon reviewing my colour scheme of primarily pastel colours along with the green use of plants and perhaps some foil, I soon realised upon layering them all together it was to much. I might focus some of the colour on my logo, then on the rest of the packaging have some shapes using the foil to keep it minimalistic. In the collage you can see my attempts using clipping masks on images ranging from water, to smoke. I likes the 'inconsistency' of using this method with an image, I think it makes it more 3D and more aesthetically pleasing as opposed to a flat 'pink' colour for example. My favourite ones were the lighter reflective looking ones, these would look really nice with some pastel / rose gold shapes, so I decided to mock up some as seen below.

Step One for the mock up. 

Step Two, inserted some pastel coloured shapes.

Step Three consisted of attempting to incorporate the leaves into the packaging itself. 

Step Four, adding the name of the product and colour in the triangle, this was the last step I decided to do before creating a mock up.

Step Five, creating a rough net to construct when printed.

 I decided that I would stick with the design I tried firstly so that I was able to physically see what worked and what didn't, from this I can then improve my designs, something I think will take a lot of trial and error in order to get the perfect mix of everything! Below you can see my constructed box for the lipstick. 

           

  In regards to measurements, they weren't perfect (as expected). The main reason for this being that when I was producing the mock up on Photoshop I didn't think that would be the one I would trial and print, therefore didn't stick by specific measurements, however it still worked, it was just slightly larger than I would ideally like, of course this is something I will easily rectify in my next design. I then decided to photograph the stages of putting it together, and then photographed my box next to a current lipstick box, you can see the size difference and quality of course differs, however this is all something I can now work to improve for my next deigns.

 Designs

When it comes to my designs I have previously discussed the colour palette and overall aesthetic, in my designs above I quite liked the use of the brush I used, almost watercolour looking (easier to see on the screenshots) along with my logo, however I think if I were to incorporate some holographic into my products it would really make them stand out. 

Here I made a clipping mask of the green leaves I wanted to incorporate, this was I can usr them and they can meet the colour palette better, and it will also look nice when put with the green ones on the poster, I think it will link everything in nicely.

I ensured that I made this mock up for the liquid lipstick to be the correct measurements I want, those being 2cm wide and 9cm tall.

Here I have put together my logo and also inserted the shapes, the use of holographic is nice but I think it's a little too much here.


















 Referring back to my demographic and their priorities when it comes to packaging I decided to try make it more simplistic, by having the packaging a darker colour to allow the holographic text and images stand out, below you can see where I experimented adding noise, thicker markers and more.

 Once I had produced these I made a variety of colours in order to have a large variety to physically see, from this I then decided I would produce a questionnaire in order to get a few opinions on my designs before I go ahead and produce all of the packaging for all three products.

Conclusion
 After producing these mock up designs for the liquid lipsticks it has allowed me to be creative and also test my ability to be constantly changing my ideas to try and adhere to all different opinions and preferences for cosmetic packaging. This process was fun and I found myself constantly finding things I could alter and try and better. When it comes to the time scale of this project I think that producing all the things I want to within the three weeks left will be a push, however most definitely doable, as the above designs took me about an hour or so to produce, that included finding the backgrounds at the perfect size and creating the box to be the correct dimensions.

Things I will apply from this to my final product...

• As I am reaching a state of my FMP where the final products are underway I am of course still applying all of the new information and techniques I pick up along the way. For this particular post I think that the holographic, mixed with the simplicity of shapes and my logo could work really effectively together. I know I will apply these tests to my final product and I am very glad I have produced them as it has only inspired me further!

Screen Printing.

Industry Visit
Today we all went to an industry visit for a screen printing company/ studio just outside of Bath. This could be added to part of my primary research, however I didn't find that the trip was as relevant to my and my project as it would be to others, despite this it was a good way to look into how some companies design and print their work.
 The first section of the trip we looked through some examples of work that Otto had produced himself, ranging from large books with printed, to smaller ones with text, all of which hd interesting concepts. We then looked at how they actually get designs to the screen printing, this was done on photoshop and was a little confusing for someone who has never done it before!

 Later on we were able to use the machines for ourselves and collectively produce some prints in Red, Blue and Green as seen below. This was done using a squeegee and a large machine where the ink would be spread across. The whole process was a very time consuming matter, however everything was of course hand printed, so not every print and design was the exact same which is something I really liked as it makes the individuals books all the more interesting and special to the owner!















 Conclusion
 To conclude, this trip was an overall learning experience and was somewhat hands on. Being able to see the process along with prints they have produced was inspiring for me to begin my creating process, it allowed me to look at potential options if I wasn't creating makeup products and also is fun to learn and do. I think it isn't necessarily something I would just to do again, but like I said I think the behind the scenes of it all was interesting, for example I didn't know photoshop would be used for something like this! I had previously done some screen printing - to a much smaller scale- back in secondary school, however we did that freehand and designed out own prints, so it gave me a bit more motivation, where as I think printing someone else' (very good) prints wasn't as satisfying as at then end of the day I didn't really create it myself!

Research Reflection.

Reflection
 Since beginning my research to now having done all of it (unless more comes along when experimenting!) I have learnt a lot and also been able to expand my knowledge and ideas on where I want to take my FMP.
 I began by doing some initial primary research aimed at my demographic of women ages 18-25, the aim of this was to gather some information on the brands, colour palette and overall aesthetic that my demographic gravitate towards. What followed this was a lot of secondary research that was essential to complete before moving forward with the designs and actual making of my products.

What did I want to find out?
 When setting out on my research I had firstly hoped to find out what colour palette my audience like, then I hoped to find out why those were popular colours, did they have an effect on the product and brand and do certain colours and finishes of a product effect its retail price. I found this out which is one of the most important pieces of research I did as along with this came looking into pricing, websites that sell certain brands etc. In addition to this I also wanted to find out what were the most popular brands in the UK and why. I wanted to be able to compare them and their products as well as their retail prices and ways of advertising.

Types of research I did...
 I conducted both primary and secondary research to gather a large amount of information linking to my fmp. The research I undertook was done through a number of sources, including online articles, books, and submitting a questionnaire directly to my target audience. For me personally I found the secondary research the most useful, both for theoretical reasons as well as inspirational reasons, however on the other hand I also found that primary research was really useful, being able to directly ask my target audience through a survey as well as in person allowed me to hone in on certain brands and areas of a product to focus my work on.

Idea development & new inspiration
 To me this section of the FMP is arguably the most important. By allowing yourself to have the creative freedom to create a brand and range of products is very time consuming, specifically for the research section. For me and my idea development I found all areas of my research good to keep my ideas flowing, I found that as I was creating the research myself I could really specify and hone in on the things in which are important to me and the brand I am creating.
 After producing a large amount of my secondary research I found the site Pinterest to be crucial, it really started my visual and aesthetic ideas flowing, I was able to find the colour schemes and images online that I couldn't specifically get from a google search. For me there wasn't a particular brand or artist that I discovered, however I always had brands from the beginning of my FMP that had influenced me and inspired me to actually do this project, one of which being Anastasia Beverly Hills. I have spoken about their colour palette and products prior to this post but that is the brand I think inspired me to begin this project.

Three most important things...
 The three most important things I was able to gather from my research would have to begin at the questionnaire I produced. The was essentially the first piece of research I did where I washable to reach my demographic and ask the specific questions. From this I found out the price range they are happy with, along with the brands and products they currently use, which influenced the three end products I am deciding to create. In addition to this I was able to find out that colour palette and minimalism is their priority when it comes to purchasing new products.
  I also found that looking at the UK's top 10 brands really helped me in regards to research. By finding this internet article and producing a case study on the brand sit enabled me to look into why they make the list, is it their advertising, products, product packaging, associates etc. This also gave me a nice place to begin with my own research and what I should base my products off.
  Lastly I would have to say that my online advertising blog post and research was another crucial step for me. In this I looked at a number of sources such as different YouTube videos, sponsored Instagram posts etc to examine the brands that are advertised and who they associate themselves with. This was really helpful to me as of course one of the things I really want to do it product an advertisement banner for the site YouTube, along with a larger poster, therefore this helped me look into the analytics of adverts and their success, if this were to be taken to a larger level!

Confidence
Upon having completed all of my research I can say that I am a lot more confident about completing my products now. Using internet articles along with other forms of research I have been able to look at all types of brands and packaging that has influenced me to begin creating my digital visuals and advertisements! I think having completed my research I have changed the way in which I will advertise them. By this I mean the aesthetic and visual way, I think I want to now go for a more smokey, pastel, calm, plant visual type branding rather than the more matte black average branding. I think the way in which I want to produce my brand packaging will still be minimalistic too, just a more colourful version!

Any changes?
 In regards to if there is anything that has changed since completing my research I would say that little things here and there have most definitely changed. Ranging from products I should look to for inspiration (what is most popular nationwide and in my demographic?). I think my idea from the start was very visually strong however seemed a little hard, after completing my research I am more confident and therefore are happy to make the little changes in my work, as all of the changes are inspired by my new research findings. These specific changes can be found in every piece of research & the matching blog!

Designing Experimentation Part 1.

Font, imagery & Layout
 Before I began my actual designs and experimenting with them I wanted to do some research regarding designing my products. Firstly I opened up photoshop and browsed the presets and templates they have to offer, as in a recent project (LJHugs) I was able to find a n iPhone mock up where I could inset my own pictures, making it appear as though it was on the phone! I downloaded the most appropriate template I could find just to do some initial work and just have a bit of fun with.

This image above was under the 'makeup/beauty' search results, I didn't manage to come across any free templates with makeup packaging such as foundation, eye shadow etc so I had a look at the one above in which showcases moisturisers etc. Having the bottles as a base for my own packaging was helpful as it gave me some inspiration, not to mention the subtle leaves behind the products as this is the type of imagery I really like!

 I next experimented slightly with the use of plants and some backgrounds, in my head I was trying to envision what would be on my packaging, so what I created would be what would be on the bottle for example. This was something I didn't intend to even include in my process / blog as I just wanted to experiment myself, however I think it shows my journey of experimentation and creative thoughts pathway.

 This image above was created using the plant from the template and layer underneath it was an image from Pinterest. I am very keen to include some type of marble/ water / water colour effect within my products as I think it reflects me as a person/brand but it is also a really subtle and minimalistic way of adding colour to a product, it is also a very popular pattern at the moment. 

Next I decided to change the leaves into the large ones which you would have seen in my previous collages, mixed with a different type of image. I looked into baby pink marble to use for the base of my logo and the name of the product, this is most definitely something I will have to experiment with because I also don't want the packaging for my products to be too 'blocky'.

 Something I have looked into using for my product background (like the above images) was using colour smoke and taking images of that, either from the internet or using my own, to bass my product around. Below is a screenshot on interest of the type of thing I mean.

 This inspiration not only came form me wanting to use a pastel coloured theme including marble/water, but also from a shoot I didn't this time last year for a friend's amp magazine. We went into the woods with some coloured flares where I photographed her and her boyfriend amongst the smoke, below is two of the images I had taken. 

 However realistically with the time scale and also the practicality of this happening is very slim. I think these types of images work really well for a magazine or perhaps video, but trying to use some in photoshop to put on a product may sound good, however I can see it not turing out how I would want it too. This is something I am going to consider doing a test shoot for however, because it may look good form my advertisement banner rather than using them on the actual product!

How to...

 I stopped experimenting slightly with my layout as I wanted to look into how to use foil lettering on photoshop, as that is a feature I will be using on my products. At first I thought it would be the case of using letters online and the quality may lower, however I came across a tutorial on Vimeo (here) on 'How to create a gold foil effect on photoshop'. This was easier than I thought it would be and is also something I'm very happy I found and now know how to do as this will help me a lot in the next coming weeks for design work. Below I have inserted some screenshots and steps to refer back too.

1. Make foreground a light yellow/ gold colour 
2. Make background a darker yellow / gold colour
3. Make new layer
4. 'Filter' > 'Render' > 'Clouds'
5. 'Filter' > 'Noise' > 'Add noise' > 'monochromatic'
6. 'Filter' > 'Filter gallery' > 'Distort' > 'Glass'
7. New layer
8. Add text
9. Put layer 1 above text in layers panel
10. Select layer 1, 'Layer' > 'Create clipping mask'

 Then I inserted my name to test the theory again without watching the video and added that to my little mock up example as seen above!

 Layout
 I really liked the layout and positioning of the template where it showcases the products with a plain background, but also included some plants. For my poster and banner I will be doing something similar, I will produce it on photoshop/indesign for a studio-like background with my products in the foreground and some greenery or some type of water in the background. i want the products to give off a very calm, nature vibe mixed with style and luxury. As you would notice I haven't discussed anything about the products inside themselves mainly because I am not focusing on them) so although I want to mainly achieve a very natural mixed with luxury brand I am not focussing on, say the ingredients of the makeup inside. When it comes to selling the product in the advert I will need to come up with something that sells it for being luxury/natural, as I don't want to base the whole brand around something such as natural ingredients/animal testing.
 As discussed in my initial sketchbook work about potential ideas for my FMP I talked about collaborating two brands together as well as a charity/ bringing in a new concept for an already existing brand, such as against testing on animals. I was very keen on this idea and liked that it would focus on that, however it isn't something I have much knowledge on and I also find that products specifically advertising 'no animal testing' are very much so about using simple, cost effective colours and materials, which is fantastic, however with what I want to create I would't be able to do so. In addition to this, when looking at my questionnaire results the most popular brands that people use such as MAC and Rimmel test on animals, therefore I personally would't think it would be as appropriate and easy to produce.

 Conclusion

 To conclude, from these beginner experimentations of layout and imagery I am able to see clearly the visual direction I want to take my brand and what I want to incorporate when it comes to my digital advertisements. I will not use as many things as shown above as it looks a little mix-matched however it was a necessary step to take in order to visually see where things can potentially go for the visual of the brand. More experimentation and sketches will follow of my brand and the over all look of my products!

Things I will apply from this to my final product...

• The use of water colour / cloud / smoke effect is most definitely something I will incorporate into my branding as I think it shows off the overall aesthetic I am aiming to achieve. In addition to this I think bringing in a more 'earthy, natural environment' look to a product with perhaps the opposite 'intentions' is an interesting mix too and I think could also work really well if executed fantastically.

Makeup & Beauty On Websites.

Brands
 After receiving all my responses from my questionnaire of where people primarily purchase their makeup, 28% of people said they bought their makeup on the internet so I decided to further investigate the possibilities of where from. There are three main outlets online in which you can purchase makeup, The site itself (for example Benefit.com), a partnering site (for example BeautyBay.com), or thirdly from a website that sells a variety of branded products along side their own. By this I mean missguided.co.uk  and similar sites.

 Firstly I compiled a list of websites that sell branded goods along with their own, as this would allow me to research into sites that want to aim at the audience that are interested in makeup. I looked at clothing website popular in the Uk to compare and contrast what they sell and the variety of what they sell, giving me a wider knowledge of perhaps why they do / do not sell certain brands!

Asos
 1The beauty section for this website was the largest out of all 6 I investigated, giving a total of 2398 items. They had such a large variety of both products and brands which was very interesting to me. ASOS seems to be one of those sites where you can buy anything fashion/beauty related without the need to visit any other sites. The item and brand they sold most of was MAC Cosmetics having 435 products available. Next on the list I saw NYX with 130 items, ranging from lipstick, to eye shadow and lashes. The interesting thing about this was that they sold 5 out of the 10 'Top 10 Beauty Brands in the UK', so in regards to my research prior to this post, ASOS stock 5 of the top 10 products this year. These include Benefit, L'Oreal, MAC, Maybelline and Rimmel London.

Price ranges...
 As one of the things on my research list is to compare and contrast the prices of beauty products against each other, I decided to include it in this segment as it really allows me to look at the largest variety of beauty products and brands, and why their prices have such a large gap.
 So the price range on the ASOS Beauty page is £0-£175. The cheapest products to buy start at £2.99 (excluding sale), this being things such as Barry M nail varnish, lip liners etc. The most expensive thing to purchase on ASOS Beauty (more specifically makeup and skincare) is currently the Elemis Pro Collagen cream retailing at £145.  More specifically the products that have relevance to my project are Liquid Lipsticks, eye shadow palettes and foundation. So I narrowed my searches, the most expensive liquid lipstick they have to offer is Illamasqua Lip Lures retailing at £19.50, than the cheapest they have to offer is Barry M 'Matte Me Up' retailing at £4.99.


In regards to packaging I feel as though the illamasqua product (left) looks more sleek and has a more expensive feel to it, in comparison to the Barry M lip product. Saying this however I don't think the more expensive products always look the best.

TopShop
 2The next brand I wanted to investigate was TopShop. This brand name to mind for me because when entering TopShop I always remember them having a large makeup section of their own branded makeup, encouraging me to investigate their online site to see if they do only sell TopShop branded goods. Much to my surprise they exclusively sold their own branded makeup, with branded things such as EOS lip balm, and Eyelure Eye lashes. When looking more specifically into their products I immediately gravitated towards their Lip Kit. As you can see in the image below it comes in a container, including the lip kit that comes with lip paint and then in addition to that the option to mattify the lip kit. It retails at £18, however coming with three separate products to use on your lips, so you are technically getting more fore you money when you compare it to the high end brand Illamasqua.

£15- TopShop Brand

For this site I didn't see such a large variety in regards to price ranges as there were only 103 results altogether. So I next looked at eye shadow and noticed the only eye shadow palettes they have to offer are quads that are infact limited edition. They are all glitter shadows are it retails at £15, which in my opinion is quite high in regards to price ranged for eye shadow, especially for 4 eye shadows excluding any matte shades. When it comes to eye shadow palettes you will 9 times out of 10 expect 1-3 matte shades in the palette (unless they are all matte, or all shimmer, visa versa) to make it more wearable and also to make it the 'only product you will ever need'. You will be able to see example of this in the collages I produced in a previous blog post here.

Lastly I wanted to look into Foundation as this would be the last product I will be producing myself, unfortunately TopShop don't offer foundation (on their site anyway) so this isn't something I am able to look into. So when it comes to their other products I notice the packaging is very simplistic and highly priced, from personal experience I have only ever bought one beauty related product from there many years ago. I bought a Matte Lipstick and I have decided to insert some images below of what the product looked like and how it was. I think personally it wasn't worth the money, so perhaps in their case people are so hooked on their clothing and accessories they will buy the makeup for the name as opposed to quality of product...





 To my memory I bought this for about £8 around 3/4 years ago, showing that since then they have raised their prices and also completely changed their packaging and image, something to take into consideration, as not all of this brands started off how they are now and that it takes time, development and trends to alter packaging to match a demographic.



Boohoo
 3The next brand I was going to briefly look at was Boohoo, this being that it is a cheap clothing site so I wondered whether they had their own makeup range and if they sold any branded things. What I did discover was that the pricing was intact very cheap and they primarily sold their own branded things, however did intact stock Barry M and Technic. I wanted to mainly look at eye shadow palettes for this brand because I noticed they had more eye shadow compared to TopShop, however at more than half the price and had 35 shades in as opposed to 4! From what I can see the product quality looks poor to me, in the images themselves it looks cheaply made to be cheaply sold, which there is nothing wrong with.

It seemed to me there was a sale on all of their own branded products, as I feel like there always is (on clothing and accessories) to lure customers in to buying things cheap 'before it ends'.









Once I had looked into the available eye shadows I decided to move on to liquid lipsticks, where I found a pack of three liquid matte lipsticks all nude shades, for £4.90 (with their 30% off). The packaging for all of their makeup looks very plain and simple, most likely so that it is easy and cheap to produce, however they are also technically sticking to what is popular and the national / international trends in the makeup world.

It seems as though so far Boohoo have the cheapest own branded makeup, however with no reviews available on their site I do not know if the simplicity and cheapness of their products are worth it! For me keeping a product's packaging simplistic is something I need to do, after all my demographic find that and the colour palette the most important, but for my personal style I don't think this packaging is gravitating me to buy and investigate more into the product, it looks a little too simplistic to me and looks as cheap as it is.

 Urban Outfitters
4
 Next I looked into the clothing/home/accessories brand Urban Outfitters. Online they had 204 beauty products to offer, but this time the brands they had to offer differed from all of the above I had researched. I came across BH Cosmetics and Pixi. What i didn't know prior to this research was that Urban Outfitters do not have their own beauty range, which surprised me because of it's popularity you would have thought they would bring out their own brand of makeup by now. So I looked at what they had available just in the makeup section and it was narrowed down to 28 results, all of which were brushes, makeup bags or lip balms. Meaning that I will not be using Urban Outfitters for inspiration for pricing or packaging as this isn't what I am aiming to produce!




Pretty Little Thing
 The second to last site I wanted to research is Pretty Little Thing which was founded fairly recently (2012) and this waste site that was important for me to research as they are a UK based retailer, with an audience of females aged 16-24, and is intact owned by boohoo.com. Once I had found out it was owned by boohoo my first thought was that it will be a similar site to boohoo, however it is completely different! Their prices are slightly higher than boohoo.com and their layout is more professional, the colours are more enticing and it - to me- looks like a nicer, urban, polished version of boohoo.
 
 Makeup wise they had 744 items to offer having a lot of different brands I had never heard of before, but seeing as I have done enough research and filled this blog with the other brands I decided to focus on the makeup and price/packaging of Pretty Little Thing branded products. Once I had refined my search I was left with 21 products branded by PLT, ranging from contour palettes to eye shadow and highlight. Much to my surprise they don't stock any liquid / any form of lipstick or foundation, they seem to be sticker to powdered goods for the eyes and cheeks! So I could only investigate the packaging and eyeshadow.


When browsing the website I came across another 35 shadow palette, as you can see from the visual above their images and way of advertising are different to boohoo, however this is the exact same price for quantity as boohoo, similar shades and layout. It seems as though everything on this website makeup wise is similar to boohoo, but the packaging is most definitely more enticing along with the supporting images of the products. When you order off of PLT the packaging you receive your goods in is a pink bag with unicorns on, they also seem to go for a holographic vibe, using a lot of highlight in their image son the models, perhaps to aim at the younger females and the 'girly girls' after all that is their demographic. I would say however I would be more inclined to purchase this as opposed to the boohoo palette, the difference in the demographic between the two is boohoo aim "at 16-30 year olds" both genders, but PLT states "16-24 year old females" this is something to take into consideration with my project because my demographic is females ages 18-25, so I need to find a good balance between simplistic and 'boring' (in my opinion) so over the top and too young and girly looking.

Missguided
 Lastly I investigated missguided as when discussing with peers popular online sites for clothing in our area this was a popular contender! For the makeup section there were 46 items found, however all of these were branded makeup and not their own. This was odd for me because when I knew I was going to research into missguided I immediately remembered their makeup collection launch and how I liked their packaging and creativity with products, however it is no longer available on their site for me. Below is a screenshot of the products that first come up when you look into the makeup they have to offer:

As you can see, brands such as Barry M and Models Own are popular on their site, and as mentioned previously I wanted to try and stick to own brands for the second half of this blog post to really investigate packaging, however I didn't realise how little these brands sell. I decided to hunt for some type of image of the product launch I vividly remember and I came across an internet article by Cosmopolitan7 back in October 2016.

 I came across this eye palette that retailed at £10, which almost seems in the middle of pricing such as TopShop, and Pretty Little Thing, giving my a 'higher end, middle and lower'. The packaging for this palette was really aesthetically pleasing to me, the blue and white smoke / water effect looked really effective, giving some nice colours yet keeping it simplistic. Interestingly enough you can see the shadows through the cardboard exterior and the packaging doesn't match and reflect the inside product (as discussed and analysed in the post here)








 Lastly I found a Lip Kit (right) which intrigued me, when I clicked the link on the cosmopolitan article it led me to the site where I can purchase the product, but searching for it independently it didn't exist. despite this fact it sells a gloss inspired lip kit, with two glosses and one lip liner all nude shades. I think the packaging for this product was strange, it looks like it comes in a 'space themed/ like' bag, something I hadn't seen and didn't consider before either. I think the reason this isn't my favourite type of packaging is that there isn't really much too it, having a transparent material showing the products off doest appeal to me personally. This lip kit is only £8 for the three products, a similar kit to what TopShop had to offer, but again a lot cheaper...

Conclusion
 This post wasn't intended to be the length it was however I also didn't anticipate to discover this much about individual sites and brands that are sold on them. I have discovered the huge price range gaps depending on the name of the brand and also that the packaging, in this piece of research, doesn't effect the price. We found the PLT and Boohoo palette that was the exact same retailed for the same price however one had metallic foil and images printed on. I have found this out now meaning that the cheaper the look of the product, doesn't mean the cheaper is to produce and sell, and visa versa.
 In regards to my FMP this has encouraged and inspired me to begin my creations, it was nice to see the price rangers and what you got for your money in a way, it gives me an idea of the price range I will set my products at and also gives me some nice inspiration for potential packaging. As discussed in one of my first FMP blogs I wanted to look into making a website to sell my products on ( a mock up of one...) and if time allows I would still be really interested to produce a little site, I think the website and layout of a website also reflect the products as I have learnt today.

 As I continue to wrap up the last pieces of research I am excited to begin designing, however I know I am going to be face with hurdles when it comes to delivering my end products physically. I know I need to either find a site that I can send my flat designs to and they will print them for me, or I need to start producing nets using illustrate as advised by Steve as opposed to indesign to attempt to print and construct myself. One thing for certain is i want to produce some mock up products and ensure my digital version of my products is outstanding, after all this is a Digital Publishing course and as explained before I don't think a printing issue will mark me down!

Things I will apply from this to my final product...

• When creating my website I want to really take into consideration the layout and use of images to show off the product as visuals is everything when selling products online as of course the 'touch' sense isn't there!

1: http://www.asos.com/women/face-body/make-up/cat/?cid=5020&cr=4&nlid=ww%7Cface%20+%20body%7Cshop%20by%20product
2:http://www.topshop.com/en/tsuk/category/beauty-3326659/face-1906567?cat1=208495&cat2=208568%3Fintcmpid%3DW_HEADER_VIEWALLMAKEUP_UK_FACE
3:http://www.boohoo.com/womens/accessories/beauty
4:https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/en-gb/make-up
5:https://www.prettylittlething.com/plt-caught-your-eye-35-shade-eyeshadow-palette.html
6:https://www.missguided.co.uk/accessories/beauty/make-up#p=2
7: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/beauty-hair/makeup/news/a46434/missguided-online-beauty-range/