Megan Field - BA Graphic and Media Design I am a Graphic and Media Design student at the London College of Communication. For my Self Initiated Project, I have chosen to create items of merchandise such as; t-shirts, bottles and tote bags, for the Sea Life Aquarium gift shop. I am creating these designs for these items using a Cricut Joy machine, which is a vinyl cutter. I am also going to create a social media campaign, that will be based on the advertisement of the merchandise and the Sea Life Trust charity. I decided to do this, as I have a keen interest in sea life animals and how many creatures are becoming endangered due to factors like, poaching, pollution, climate change, vessel strikes, and fishing related incidents. The reason I have chosen to create merchandise and a social media campaign, is because of the experience I have gained working at my internship. I have been fortunate enough to create Facebook Ads, both still images and animations, and I have made social media posts, as well as design merchandise for real clients. The two companies who have inspired me to go into merchandising are, Skinny Dip and Cath Kidston, and I plan to see where they both started out as businesses and their first product drops and compare them to where they are now. ![]() Examples of some illustrations I have made of the five endangered animals. Throughout my research I have investigated the different sea creatures that are endangered. I decided to pick out five different endangered and vulnerable marine creatures to draw and use within the designs of the merchandise I plan to make. The five marine creatures I chose were Sea Turtles, Whale Sharks, Blue Whales, Galapagos Penguins and Great White Sharks. The Sea Life Trust is a charity ran by the Sea Life Aquariums. They work globally to protect the world’s oceans and the marine life. The campaign, I will be utilising social media for, will advertise the merchandise, and the Sea Life Trust, as the funds from the sales of the items will theoretically go towards the charity. Examples of T-Shirt Mock Up Designs I have made. Merchandising has always been a passion of mine, particularly the idea that I can create a piece of art, then put it onto a physical item and share it with others. I think there is no better feeling than sharing your work with others, and them liking it so much that they wear it! The two companies that I have grown up with and whom have inspired me to want to become a merchandise designer are; Paperchase and Skinny Dip. SkinnyDip became a well-known brand back in 2011, when they released their first phone case design. It’s co-founders James Gold, his brother Richard Gold and best friend Lewis Blitz, started Skinnydip shortly after the Apple iPhone launched, quickly realising that fun phone case designs were incredibly limited. They had just the idea that was about to change that forever, and that is when and how the now popular brand was born. Since launching, they have expanded their products from phone cases to accessories, clothing, and lifestyle products . As seen from the picture below left, shows the phone cases they released in 2011, next to the types of phone cases they have released now in 2022. There is a large difference between how modern their cases have become and see how much they have developed overtime. The difference between the two products shows a lot of growth and reflects on the type of graphic designer that I would like to be in the future. In conclusion my Self Initiated Project has given me the opportunity to discover my Newfound Agency. That Newfound Agency is the independence to create my own products and being capable of doing my own thing without having someone tell me what to do. Which is something I never thought I would be able to do successfully. Not only do I think this I think that I have also realised what I want to do in the future for my career and I have learned a lot through this project.
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March 2022
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