Party Time

Hello everyone,

Following the presentation on Wednesday, Enliven have WON!!!! This means we are moving on to sending our proposal through to River Island in the hopes that it is something they wish to fund... Obviously there is going to be some hard graft involved as we are competing nationally... For now, we will continue to update our blog with our progress; apologies for the lack of posts recently as we have been working hard on our preparation for Wednesday!

Enliven

Presentation on Wednesday

We have been working day and night to perfect our proposal and presentation for Wednesday in the hopes that we can impress our tutors enough to win, in which case our proposal would be submitted to River Island! We've checked out our chosen venue, become definite fans and everything is slowly coming together. Following much delegation, we have finalised our chosen 'creative talent' and are very much excited by the event that could be!

Keep following, later on today we will be posting some of our ideas and decisions to give you a feel for what an immense project this could turn out to be...

Phill Blake

Phill Blake is a Nottingham based graphic designer. The brilliant Regenerate graphics and logo are this man's works of art. Phill is fast becoming a well-known name around the midlands and his style is sexy punk, grunge with floral and textured backgrounds.

He draws inspiration from street art, hip hop and comics and has taken on every kind of challenge from live art to workshops and is work knows no boundaries. Our kind of man.

We are currently in the process of contacting Phill and hope that he might be willing to work with us at some point along the way as we are big fans of his work, especially in terms of the work he has produced for May Cortazzi and her brand Regenerate.

So hopefully, we will be posting more on him and his work as we progress towards the final event.

source: http://regenerateclothing.com/blog/posts.php?id=68

The Shop

Next, we went to explore The Shop on Alfreton Road. What we found was an interesting array of items of furniture strategically placed in a room only visible from the outside through the window. The windows were complimented by distinctive graphics promoting May Cortazzi's 'Regenerate' clothing line.

Nottingham Town

We ventured into town today hoping to chat to May Cortazzi as mentioned below. Turns out we were eager beavers and her kiosk kiosk wasn't open at 10am. But it opened at 12 and we managed to have a really good chat with May. She was a great help and knew more than we even thought she would! She gave us the names of some great artists and local musicians and we had a look around her really little kiosk which was brilliant. Quirky and relevant yet ethically produced. That's what we like to see.

Future profits will be green. “ECO-BOUNTY refers to the numerous opportunities, both short and long term, for brands that participate in the epic quest for a sustainable society. Some of these opportunities exist despite the current recession, others are fueled by it, not in the least because of new rules and regulations. Downturn-obsessed brands who lose their eco-focus will find themselves left out in the cold when the global economy starts recovering."

According to trendwatching.com, there are 12 so-called sub-trends which have surfaced as a results of this movement towards ethical behaviour. This involves everything from solar panelled yachts to iconic fashion recycling to the unmissable electric car. Not to mention the eco-rewards systems soon coming to a superstore near you.

Contrary to what some might think, the eco trend has far from blown over and in line with the ethos of May Cortazzi's work, there is much more to this than you might have previously thought. Ethical behaviour is for life, not just for Christmas. That is, if as a whole we truly wish to have any impact on our planet and the issues resulting from the way in which we treat it. The eco-trend is not going anywhere anytime soon and is the one to watch for the next ten years at the very least. Watch this space.

Regenerate

From researching Kioskiosk we came across May Cortazzi, founder of Regenerate, which will be featuring in the Kiosk from the 10th - 12th of November. We decided to research further into this Nottingham based company.

Regenerate was launched in February 2008 with one aim in mind: to enable people to dress well, in ethically produced, organic clothing. So far the brand has established a strong celebrity fan base, including the likes of The Holloways, Ighlu and Hartley and The Teenagers as well as many online followers.

The success of Regenerate has been achieved by utter absorption within the music industry, historical archives and world culture. The brand is clear in its aims: to maintain honesty and ethics within all of their products. It is fair to say that May Cortazzi has created a unique brand, in that it highlights 'green' issues within the fashion industry and brings ethics and organic to the forefront of peoples minds. Whilst doing this Cortazzi also provides consumers with an 'underground', urban style - proving you can look good and be good.

www.regenerateclothing.com

Kioskiosk

This week we have been exploring Nottingham and what it has to offer. Upon our journey we came across a new concept: Kioskiosk. For those of you that have not heard of this, it is a concept designed by Wayne Hemingway which provides free rental of solar powered retail kiosks for new creative talent.

As part of Nottingham's Creative October campaign, Kioskiosk will be featuring from October through to December, showcasing Nottingham's up and coming creative talent - giving the city the recognition it deserves.

Nottingham is the first city to host Kioskiosk outside of London where the idea was launched. An ideal opportunity which helps to celebrate the innovative and creative talent that Nottingham generates. It is great to see designers such as Hemingway invest in ways to present a true reflection on the real Nottingham, rather than the negative but headline grabbing violence and gun crime center of the UK.

Keep your eyes open for some truly inspirational talent in the coming weeks!

River Island Rocks

Our names are Charlie, Harriet and Anna and together we are Enliven. Our first project together involves co-hosting a graduate fashion week event with River Island. This blog will be used to document our research and progress throughout our journey from beginning to end.

The project will involve showcasing local talent covering all fields from music to fashion to art and incorporating such talent in a way which is in line with the River Island brand and reaches out to the target audience.

We are three final year students from Nottingham Trent University undertaking this challenge as our final project. We are hoping to grow personally and professionally in order to enable us to continue Enliven's work up to graduation as well as thereafter.