So week two is over already! Bloomin’ scary!
What have I been up to?! :O Well seeing as no one is asking! I’ll tell ya anyway! 😊(aren’t I kind)
Using Amsterdam as lifestyle influences
To best benefit Studio Cosima, I conducted my own primary research to look at how the “typical” customer would live their lifestyle.
I had so much fun going to the flower market with my absolutely adorable tote bag from Larissa! (admittingly also buying another small plant friend Bambi for my cactus Prickles [yes, they’re named don’t judge]). I just wandered around and got some great aesthetic influence from a coffee shop/ Shop called Pluk. They specialise in healthy (but cheeky) cupcakes and drinks and I had to try to resist the urge to buy everything! With Studio Cosima not wanting the standardised Amsterdam canals houses, I had to look at the smallest details of the city to get some interesting images.
Another thing I learnt from biking into the centre (yes, I said biking!) was to watch out for mopeds and other cyclists…they ride so close to you it’s actually petrifying, and they will not be happy if you don’t even check you what I call “biker blind spot” was that even a thing?! Well here it is! I found that out the hard way!
The joys of stalking Instagramers
With Studio Cosima wanting to develop more, I have to keep in mind their target customer when looking at key influencers and bloggers. Getting deeper and deeper into Instagram, it’s very easy to get lost as you dig into Instagram and sometimes get distracted by the blogger’s company website or collaboration (Guilty!).
I like to look at how their website is structured and if any ideas and influences come to mind when I look at their blog not only for my own benefit but also for the benefit of Cosima. Using influencers is much more different than simply being inspired by something to design. Fashion influencers hold a large amount of social media power over your brand and one wrong word could spell the end of the brand. So, using them to kind if promote for free or collaborate with the brand is much more interesting to research than thinking in a design mind, so this exercise was great to get me thinking outside the box.
Pinterest is a deep hole of how to’s and inspirational images your creative thirst will think ‘I can do that easy!’ then find out you can’t then think ‘screw it’. It’s just another rabbit hole of doom! Just as I thought Instagram was enough, after being taught from Uni to not use Pinterest due to the unhelpful references; Cosima suggested it in a way of sparking up ideas for the website and what we can post on what days.