Questionnaire

1) What is your business?

You create your own bra.

2) Describe your business in one sentence

Build A Bra was created for women and girls who need to find the perfect bra for their unique shape/size and give them the chance to CREATE their own perfect bra of their liking.

3) Who is your target audience?

Women and girls; young teens, older teens, young adults, middle aged, seniors.
We have variations in design and comfort according to these female groups.

4) Who are your competitors?

Mainly Victoria’s Secret, but also large department stores that sell bras (JCPenney, Sears, Target, Walmart, T.J. Maxx, etc.) at a lower price.

5) What makes them better/worse than your product/service?

Advantages for Victoria’s Secret: They have been around longer (more advertised, well known, made a good name for themselves, etc.)

Disadvantages: I believe the first word that a girl thinks of when she hears Victoria’s Secret is “sexy.” VS’s advertisements are very sexually appealing and their models are always advertised as such, making anyone feel like if they want to be sexy, then come get your bras, underwear or lingerie here. However, there are girls that are not that self-confident in their own skin and don’t believe they can look beautiful just by being who they are. Build A Bra gives complete artistic freedom in design, ranging from the sexiest to the simplistic cuteness as much as you want. We’re about diversity in sizes/shapes in all women and girls and encourage them to embrace it. I believe that gives an upper hand, as well as offering this to be done at a lower price than Victoria’s Secrets does (because they’re very expensive).

JCPenney, Sears also offer quality bras at a lower price, so I would consider them to be my competitors. They would also, along with VS, be located in a mall (most likely), which is where Build A Bra would be located. This makes my advertising, quality product and uniqueness efforts have to be on top.

Walmart, Target, T.J. Maxx, etc. are places that offer bras that are cheaper as well and are alternatives to my company, but they do not offer the artistic/design control my company offers and doesn’t guarantee to fit the exact shape/size of the woman or girl like my company does.

6) Do you currently have an identity? (This is more for companies that are already established and you’re just revamping the logo/corporate identity. If you have a new company or product, skip this question.)

       Not an already established company.

7) (If your answer to #6 is no, skip this question) What do you like about it and what don’t you like about it?

Why is this important? Even if you plan to change the logo entirely, it’s good to keep an inventory about what specifically worked and didn’t work about your previous design in order to inform the new one.

Not an already established company.

8) How do you want your image to be seen in two years?

I want Build A Bra to be a place where every girl knows she is welcome. Whether they’re black or white, fat or skinny, short or tall, or maybe even a breast cancer survivor—every girl with their unique story to who they are is welcome. They can expect very attractive designs of their choice for their bra, quality material for comfort, and know that they have a bra put together by their own hands for their own body.

These following questions might seem silly, but their purpose is to help generate ideas.

9) If your company was an animal, what animal would it be and why?

I would say a dog. Dogs don’t care how you look; they love you anyway. They want to love you, protect you, be there with you in good and bad and be loved and trusted in return. I know this is kind of deep, but I see that relationship with my customers. My company is about caring and being there for the customer and whatever and their needs, wants, expectations, etc. are. My company, like a dog, doesn’t care how you look, but only wants to be your friend and take care of you in whatever way you need—just like Build A Bra.

10) If your company/brand was a person, who would it be and why?

      Jennifer Hudson; she is a successful, award-winning singer and actress. She has had her battles with self-image and weight loss (which is a very large part of her story of discovery as well), but has always been the type that has encouraged women and girls to be comfortable with who they are, not who others tell you to be (which happened to her). She is currently a spokesperson for Weight Watchers, but has made it clear that she genuinely believes in a healthy body and taking care of herself, not being who Hollywood says to be.

      That kind of compassion/care/encouragement for other women and girls who don’t see themselves as beautiful because our society defines beauty as not embracing exactly how you are makes me want her to be my company if it had to be a person. She carries herself with poise, independence, strength, and an understanding that real beauty is just being you exactly the way you are.

11) If your company/brand was an object, what would it be?

A uniquely designed, personally made, comfortable bra. 

 12) If your customer was a cartoon character, who would it be?

The Powerpuff Girls. Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, all sisters, but totally different. You have Blossom, the leader who is organized, wise and in charge. Then Bubbles, the baby who is strong when needed to be, but quiet, sweet and tender. Then, Buttercup, the tomboy who has tougher skin, prefers more action and isn’t afraid to get dirty.

I love the differences between the three of them, and I would expect that my customers would be the same scenario: different girls with different agendas all coming to Build A Bra to get the perfection in a bra that they need.

Project 3: Lyrical Collage

The song I was inspired by was "Nothing" by The Script. They're my favorite band and this song really hit me. I can relate on different levels for what Danny (the main singer) is singing about. Really, check out the song.

My process was looking up various photos I thought fit the mood of the song and colors I thought would flow together well (black and white went well the best). I used the laso tool to bring in the two couples from their separate photos, then used the eraser tool to blur the edges of them so it didn't look so pasted on. 

I wanted it to look as if the guy is remembering the times he had with his love, but the lyrics tell us that they're just memories, since they're not together anymore. So it's a bit ironic, I suppose, since the picture looks like the lyrics would be about them being together, but...it's the opposite. Soo, that's it:) I really enjoyed being able to put a tangible picture together that expressed what I saw whenever I hear this song.

Loved this project!

Update

Just another copy of the picture, except minor changes to my size.

Assignment 4 :)

 So, this assignment was awesome! I must admit the lasso tool took some getting used to (the ALT and Enter that adds and deletes selections). But, I think my picture came out great!

 

Above: I've now officially dove in Japan =P!

 

  Above: Diving in my Caymanian waters:)

Above: The ocean in Japan.

Update of Project 2

Project 2--My Word: Bliss

Vector Illustration

Actual Picture

My word for this photo: bliss. :) For obvious reasons. 

So, I'd like to point out that I have NEVER heard of Illustrator before, ever. So, this is literally my first experience using it. When you take that into account--I'm not that bad, come on.

Also, as I worked hours upon hours on this project (over 20 hours in total), I started to make the details my own thing (like my hair, my blouse, etc.). I know some of the details in the photo aren't in the illustration (Raf's necklace and my hair clip), but I ended up not knowing how to make it show up on my layer I was working on. I made it in a layer, and lost it again and couldn't bring it to the front. And, obviously, me not knowing anything that's going on, wouldn't know how to fix that. 

I do admit that even though this was one of the most tedious and hardest projects I've done, I enjoyed it. I hope Raf likes it. It's his birthday present, haha.

My challenges: EVERYTHING. Nah, I'm kidding. Honestly, the NOSES, the EYES, EYELASHES. I am supposed to have some form of cheek bones and there are none...because I didn't know how..I know how it's SUPPOSED to look, but..yeah. I tried. Also, as I ended up spending more and more time on this, I kept forgetting I was doing different details in different layers, so i ran into problems there when I would go back to one layer and a detail i did previously wouldn't be there.

So, all in all, my process was basically starting out with Raf, I did the skin, the ears, the hat, his shirt, then starting getting into the details of his face. For me, I did my face, and then my hair, then the details of my face and my shirt last.

I hope I can get better at using this program, because I really do want to know how to create things in unique ways using these tools.

Final Logo

So, here is my final logo for my company, Build A Bra. In my logo sketches I had flowers around the ends of my letters, but here I have spirals. Honestly, that was just because it took me a LONG time to draw the two flowers I have here by hand (I drew two flower petals and copied and pasted it around the spirals). I thought the spirals still worked; they're fun and girly--so it still works.

The colors are bright and pretty for obvious reasons--it's attractive to women and girls. My font is my own; I traced over my sketch with the pen tool, so that has a unique quality to it. 

The only problem I find is that I really wanted a symbol to go along with the company (like a bra or something), but I ended up just going with the words and flowers to border it. 

This logo took me literally 3.5 hours to do, but I'm proud of my work, having never used Illustrator before.