Our Sense of Smell

Behind the scent

How do we smell scent? Well the smell of something goes up our nose, it transformed into nerve signals and sent up to our brain for a response.

The olefactory system.
How does it work?
First, the substance particles travel up the nasal cantry to the olefactory neurons. These are then transformed into the olefactory bub and into the limbic system of the brain.

Many of our perceptions of scent, for example of an apple come from the synthetic idea or concepts.

Forget Heroin Chic, it's all about Exhausted luxe

Yesterday, I went to go see 'The place beyond the pines' (if you're thinking of going to see it- it is good but I warn you it is long)
Anyway, Ryan Gosling (playing luke) supports the 'exhausted luxe' look as seen on many of the catwalks.
Ripped clothes, t-shirts inside out and worn out clothing- he pulls it off very well.

See phillip french's review here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/14/place-beyond-the-pines-review

Anna Lomax

Her work is just great. It is bright, colourful and screams pop culture, very fitting with David Bowie. Might be quite a good collaboration with pretty polly too- that would be interesting!
http://www.annalomax.com/#

Art and science

In today's society the different sectors of art and science and technology all merge together to create new, innovative pieces.
The firewall is an interactive wall, creating sound through the use of movement. It is made by Mike Allison and Aaron Sherwood, I find it stunning.
Take a look:

Kid President

Went to an LSN global event today and they showed a little bit of the kid president, who make me smile, it gives hope and shows how intelligent Generation I are, soon the youth will control all.
This boy is a heart warmer!http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=SPzvRx_johoA-YabI6FWcU-jL6nKA1Um-t&feature=player_detailpage&v=TssZ9Uma1-w

Dove

In life, people get carried away with what they look like and how other may perceive them, instead of looking upon what they have been given and hoe lucky they are compared to others.
This video is great... Dove has done a good job with this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=trueview-instream&v=XpaOjMXyJGk

Pretty Polly

Through uni, pretty polly offered a brief  making tights sell in the summer. Sounds odd but if you think about how English weather is, tights seem highly appropriate.
For this, I worked with a friend.
Together, we came up for the concept of 'reality exceeding expectation.' Basically, the weather might be horrendous, but, we expect it, we make it fun.

These were the results:

After this, the images were edited to create a summery hue. We also worked with a graduate illustrator to add elements of fun such as this:

After re-touching up they looked pretty great and our work was highly commended, great! :D

Colour Theory

Just a little exploration into colour theory and tones of imagery.

Karen Gilbert- The fragrance expert.

http://www.karengilbert.co.uk/

What is a fragrance? “it is a way of communicating without words”
Karen discussed the history of scent and the science behind it.

The history of scent- A brief Summary of the history:

1920’s
The women began to steer from floral scents into aldehydes as the emancipation of women began

1930’s and 1940’s
These eras were all about the Hollywood glamour. This acted as an escape and a way of exhibiting the economy.

1950’s to the 1970’s
The was establishing the mass market, having industrial fragrances. The start of bath oil and having an easy way to smell good began.

1980’s
This was the decade of showing money and power- the era of power dressing.
Very strong, powerful scents were created.

1990’s
The reverse of the previous decade. A time of Zen and spirituality. It was all about mininmalism.

2000’s
The celebrity cult- the birth of mass celebrity fragrances. And, the repelling movement of high end luxury and niche fragrances

London

Visiting London for a research trip proved very successful. Talking to experts help you to gather information. It was also a good to get ideas for the visuals of brands and colour schemes as well as new ways of marketing products.

Consumer Behaviour

Brands...Brands...Brands...

We are all addicted to a brand or five... but why?
Well there are many factors but that main one is the relationship that we build with them.
In post 16th Century, there was no distinction between the culture, the economy and there was no individualism
From the 1600's to the 1800's the culture and economy became separate as the turn of industrialisation began
Post modern has now changed where culture and the economy are intrinsically linked.

"Buying behaviour is not only a function of the product: it is also, and in some cases perhaps more so, a function of the consumer, his social environment and that of other consumers, the competing products in the marketplace, and the brand marketing strategy." Thorsten Veblen wrote about conspicuous consumption in “the theory of the leisure class” in 1899

By brands building a friendship, customers will return again and again. They get to understand the brand, it's language and WHAT it communicates.
Coming into that is the comfort of the brands semiotics, its packaging and store layouts etc.

"Unattractive packages change activities in areas associated with uncertainty, disgust and risk" (Stoll et. Al 2008)  

 It seems we do judge books by their covers after all...

Dr Morgain Gaye

An expert in marketing, branding and behind the taste and smell of things.
In her lecture, Morgain discussed the consumers relationship with scent and how this deferrers within cultures and consumer groups.
We are able to identify over 10,000 different smells within our mind and within this is our likes, dislikes and our perceived idea of what smells good and bad.  This is also linked to the different cultures. For example, some cultures believe the smell of cow’s excretion is a godly scent- gross!
us British people tend to link scent with a psychological response- we base it on our experience in life and the scents we feel smell nice often acts as comforts e.g your mum’s homemade apple pie. Americans, however like their scents clean, fresh; scent is linked to cleanliness and bad smells are linked to dirtiness.
And the French often link scent to a psychological object, scent and the smell of a person is often a sexual relationship.

Morgain also described the relationship between colours and personalities that exhibit our taste and likes. She got us to select a colour flower and the idea was that the different groups that selected the different flowers would have the same taste and smell opinions. It was very interesting and every different group have some distinct likes and dislikes within this groups. You can find her website here: http://www.morgainegaye.com/academic/

Diana Vreeland

She was one of the first female publishers and had a great enthusiasm with what she did.
Her career started off as a columnist for Harper’s Bazaar  writing her articles on “why don’t you ?” Later on, she worked her way to become the editor of the magazine. After that her route in fashion took her to Vogue and later to work with the Metropolitan Museeum of Art in New York.

Oscar De La Renta explains how Vreeland “made beauty then she made wealth”
As a widely travelled woman, Vreeland knew so much and helped to revolutionise fashion in many different ways. There is a film made about her, her history and life and everything that happened around her. It is called  “The Eye Has to Travel.” The website for it is here: http://www.dianavreeland-film.com/

To me, she is very inspirational in her attitude towards life and her wisdom. The film is agreat one to watch if you’re lacking that oompf in life.

Logos!

Logo's come into a brand's attributes- the ability to communicate with the consumer with the use of 'denotation' and 'connotation'- The different messages is sends via different aspects



These logos are applied to 4 P's of promotion:

• Product( to show who made it)
• Promotion(how it can be applied/ the things it is applied to)
• People(Recognizable as it is part of brands identity)
• Place(how is it placed)

 As you can see, Nike applies its logo to many different products, from sponsorship to product and advertising, that tick is enough to know it is a product of Nike.
The Nike tick just goes to show that sometimes its the simplest logos that are the most effective. Another example of this is the Chanel logo, it has been around for over 90 years and it is still recognizable and relevant in today's society.

Here are some attributes to make a successful logo:

1. Visibility
2. Application
3. Distinctiveness
4. Simplicity/ Universality
5. Retention
6. Colour
7. Descriptiveness
8. Timelessness/ Modularity
9. Equality

Keeping up to date is key

A great website to keep up to date on the current fashion news.http://www.businessoffashion.com/

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Released in 1989, the cook, the thief is a satirical drama with lots of violence and much more strangeness. When first released, it was an X rating.
Despite its oddness, the costumes and costume changes make it worthwhile.
Throughout the film, the costumes change depending on the room.
Red in the dining room, green in the kitchen, white in the toilets and black elsewhere creating an artificial atmosphere.
I personally think the film is about sex (due to the affair),food/ gluttony (it is mainly based around the eating of food)and murder/ revenge (through the violence and various acts.)
You can watch the trailer here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cook_the_thief_his_wife_and_her_lover/