Industry Insider

 When I first started blogging a few years ago one of the first things I aimed to do was scour the internet for fellow bloggers to take inspiration/learn from. Sometimes this process can be a hit or a miss but every now and again you find a blogger who blows you away with their design, creativity and content. 

Jemma from Dorkface is one of those bloggers. 

When I decided to reboot the Industry Insider section of this blog and cater it more towards the blogging community as well as those out there in the creative industry Jemma was number one on my list of people to interview. 

Below Jemma gives us an insight into her day-to-day life in terms of her blog as well as some sound advice about what it takes to progress your blog and ensure you provide a quality experience to your reader. 

1. First of all what inspired you to get into blogging? 

I've always loved writing, it's my passion. And after Uni I really wanted a new way to be creative everyday :)

2. Did you take any particular classes or courses growing up that lead to your choice to start blogging? 

I studied Fine Art for years at college and then university; and always wanted to share my creativity. 

3. Can you tell us a little bit about a typical day blogging for you?

I wake up each day and make a to do list for the day. Usually I have a couple of illustration clients, and I try to get them done in the first few hours of the day. Then I'll take a bunch of photographs for upcoming blog posts for a few hours. Then the evenings will be when I write up all my blog posts and finish up any illustration work for the day. My days are busy, but I love them :)

4. How do you manage your time to run your blog efficiently and consistently? 

I stick to a rigid schedule, and I always plan ahead! 

5. Where do you look for inspiration when the writers block hits? 

I usually find painting really helps me, and ideas come to me naturally if I take time to relax. Music and reading really help too.

6. What inspired you to start the #girlgang and the subsequent podcast for your followers? 

The girl gang began because I loved the idea of spreading positivity in the bloggosphere, and reminding people that it's good to spread a little love. The podcast is simply a fun project my boyfriend and I had wanted to try for the longest time, and I'm so glad we did.

7. As I'm a reader of your blog, what do you hope I take away when I read your posts?

I hope you feel inspired and motivated more than anything!

8. Are there certain topics/genres you stick to when you write your blog posts or do you like to write whatever comes naturally at the time? 

Oh no way, my blog is my happy place to share anything I'm inspired by! :) I'm always happy to write about new things.

9. Has having your blog opened any doors or provided you with any opportunities that you wouldn't have had otherwise?

Oh definitely! I now work for myself because of the opportunities I'm so lucky to get now. Writing and illustration have always been a dream of mine and now I get to do each every day :) I also have a whole range of wonderful new friends thanks to blogging.

10. What direction do you see your blog going in now that you've expanded into podcasts and gained quite a large following? 

I've no idea! Haha. I'd love people to feel like they can get to know me more, and so through podcasting I feel like thats a little more possible. I just hope to keep enjoying it like I am now and hopefully it'll grow. As for my blog and everything else though? Who knows! I like to go with the flow :)

11. What advice would you give to someone starting their own blog? 

Try to do the best you can with everything. You'll improve naturally over time, but the most important thing is to let your personality shine through! :) Be yourself and write about what interests you most. 

12. What in your opinion makes a successful blog? 

Something that inspires you, and others.

13. Are there any bloggers you admire or try to emulate?

A good one that comes to mind is Mandy from A Girl Obsessed. She's a great inspiration.

14. As a fan I personally love your blogs layout and especially its bright colour scheme, it gives me the idea that you have this really fun, bubbly personality. Do you feel it best represents your personality and is this something you take into consideration when you look at other peoples blogs? 

Thank you!! Thats EXACTLY what I was going for :) I love a nice clean layout, but IRL I am quite a colourful, loud and bubbly person. I'm obsessed with bright colours and cute prints, so I try to inject that into my blog as much as possible. No matter what Im taking photographs of, I'll always try to get a pop of colour in there :) I do think this is an important thing for bloggers to do. It makes you, your blog and your photos build up a recognisable brand.

15. What apps/purchases really helped you with your blog? Do you have any programmes or items that you use that really help step up the quality of your blogs appearence/content? 

My photography lights FOR SURE. Such a great improvement. I can now take my photos at night even, yay! I got them from Ebay for about £40 and they are amazing. I also love my blog layout, which I bought for a great price on Etsy.

16. How do you balance blogging with the other aspects of your life such as family/work etc? I'm always in awe of people who spend hours replying to people on twitter and wonder how they balance staying in such close contact with followers with everything else thats going on in their lives.

Honestly, it's HARD. It really is. But its a case of planning :) I plan everything as far ahead of time as possible, and it really helps. Plus I'm just pretty much obsessed with social media haha.

17. Finally, if you had one piece of golden advice to give someone with a struggling blog following, what would it be? 

Be as active as possible, and share your personality as much as possible. Your blog, promotions, posts, etc - will only get you so far. People want to see your life, your work, what you do in your spare time, and just you being your true self.

 I would like to end this post by thanking Jemma for taking the time to do this interview and I would also like to say that you can find Jemmas Dorkface blog by visiting

www.dorkface.co.uk

Visual Merchandising - Model Store

I'm finally back with another post focusing in a bit more detail about the job of a visual merchandiser, it's been a while since I posted any photos of our displays and hard work in store so this is the perfect opportunity to share with you what I've been up to!

So my job these last few weeks has become increasingly hectic due to Model Store judging. 

Model Store for me and my job is when we as a visual team work tirelessly to make our store look the best it possibly can for customers, staff and the like and after many weeks of prep someone from high up within the company comes out and judges us on several criteria.

My job as a visual merchandiser involves presenting well thought out mannequins that were pinned well, dressed appropriately to the stock on the mat, create various hotspots throughout the store at key sightlines to promote stock within the store and change over our windows to designer stock which would encourage customers to come into store. We were also doing general maintenance such as cleaning, painting and touching up mannequins to make them look pristine in condition. 

Aspects such as colour flow, power of three, trends and layout were all key in the process to ensure the customer journey was carried out consistently through the store and looked chic. 

Last year one of our big criticisms was that we went over the top with our displays and as a result they were too busy and detracted more from the stock within the store rather than enhance it. 

Below I have a whole bunch of photos to share with you all, showing you the standard we set this year and I'll describe underneath what we were trying to achieve to explain to you all in better detail because it can sound a little confusing. 

So here you go! My stores model store displays for S/S15! If we've done our job properly you should look at these and immediately think "oooh wheres that stock?!"

Our main Safari tend catwalk 

Priority One window, the blues and stripes trend 

70s hotspot 

Swimwear mannis, note that the blue and red colours flow up to the handbags at the far end of the walkway (colour flow) 

Our Wedding Gifts hotspot. Lots of power of three 

A home hotspot, again lots of power of three and repetition, good colour flow between the products 

A hotspot at out luggage department to promote sales 

One of our bed displays 

Another bed display 

Collection formal first catwalk 

Collection formal second catwalk 

One of the lingerie hotspots 

Ted Baker 

Lingerie pillar with a display on the top 

Another angle of the Safari trend catwalk (notice how the floral print is continued throughout the mannis) 

Rocha manni display, good colour flow through mannis to match back wall merchandising and the height difference creates interest 

A shoe hotspot 

BDL mannis

Blues and stripes hotspot at the top of the escalator (this continues the story from our front window into the store) 

Jasper hotspot (notice all the blue?)

Behind the hotspot at the top of the escalator (rails have been added to the clothes can be shopped immediately after seeing the mannis) 

Toddler boy hotspot

Girls hotspot at height to draw attention 

Swimwear hotspot, good symmetry here 

Young fashion, mannis placed beside each fixture wearing the clothes to promote sales 

Same again 

Same principle but beside a graphic rather than a fixture 

Tropical hotspot 

Henry mannis, situated at various heights to create interest, good colour flow 

Mother day hotspot in the lift area, lots of power of 3 

Hotspot at the bottom of the escalator with shoppable rails 

Side view of the hospot, notice the detail on the catwalk continues up the wall 

Mens catwalk, maroon and blue colour flow 

Mens suits catwalk using staggered height to create interest 

Purple catwalk 

Pale blue young fashion mens display at height 

Mens shoppable hotspot at the back of the escalator for our mac trend 

So you may have realised that a lot of blue was projected around our store this year, Dark blues in womenswear, teals in home and the brighter blues in our young fashion areas. This helps carry a shopper through the store and is pleasing to look at. There was a lot of good merchandising in the store using these colours to enhance the journey as well but I have no photos of them.

If there's a certain display you like or want to comment on leave your thoughts down below!! 

Payday Pickings!

Ah Payday!

As a typical 22 year old female I am guilty of living payday like a queen and spending the following 30 days in complete squalor but I think everybody my age feels that when the wages come in they really deserve a little splurge on themselves and as of late I have not splurged. 

So last payday I was going through to Hamilton for a night out and was with my friend Melissa when she decided to go to Superdrug and get her eyebrows tinted for the occasion. 

Naturally whilst she was doing that I ended up browsing and came back laden down with a whole load of stuff but for this post I'm going to focus predominantly on what I got from Make Up Revolution.  

Personally I love Make Up Revolution, I know there's a lot of debate about the number of products they produce that are similar to those by other brands, for example they have their own version of the too faced chocolate palette, but for the price I really like the quality of what you're getting.

I know there are many people out there who seem to almost...frown upon really cheap make up but I see no reason why I cant spend £19 on a high end concealer and then £8 on a whole palette of concealers as long as they do the job and I feel great about myself wearing them.

So I got a few things for myself, some MUA, some Rimmel but the Make Up Revolution products definitely made up the bulk of my purchase so lets concentrate on that. 

I got the blush palette seen in the photo above at Christmas time but had to get another, both of these palettes were £8 in total and I'll admit right away that I freaking LOVE the packaging. It's very sleek and thin which is what I want from my products really because I like to store them all upright and this makes it so much easier. 

The concealer palette is creamy and quite thick, my only gripe is that I wish the colour range was a tad more diverse, I like to have a darker colour to aid in cream contouring but overall for £8 this is an awesome product. 

Same goes for the blush palette, I love that it has some matte shades and some more shinier shades along with a highlight colour. Again for the price you pay it's £1 a blush/concealer which is awesome, I can't complain. 

I also picked up the Benefit Roller Lash Mascara which debuted in my store the day before Payday, it felt good to be one of the early birds buying a new product for once. The review of this product is also in my MARCH posts so go and check that out. This mascara was my biggest purchase of the day and is a great product. 

Now I am a huge eye product fan. In my make up stand the mascara and eyeliner box is the second most jam packed after lipstick and recently I had been loving this Maybeline felt tip liner that could draw really thin lines and then be dragged to make thicker and this liner is similar. 

At either end is a thick felt tip and a thin felt tip and oh my gosh it's my new go-to! Don't be fooled, the eyeliner is very durable and also pigmented. It also goes on like an absolute dream and from now on it will probably be one of my staples. One advantage this has over the Maybeline is that the felt tips are finer whereas the other had a very boxy shape. 

Highlighters weren't products I reached for very often but this one is so pretty. 

Being a girl with a greasy complexion I like most of my face products to be in powder form if possible to help fight shininess and so this is a fantastic product. 

It's very pigmented and very highlighting. My Urban Decay highlighters are probably just a little bit more reflective but again for the price it is a fantastic product.

Finally the matte bronzer, You can't tell from the picture but this is quite a big product which is brilliant for getting your bronzing brush into (I hate it with Hoola when you try and get the brush in and it's bending off the side because the packaging is tiny.) 

Again, this product is a powder and so is great for my skin and I have no complaints about it. If applied properly you get this stunning glow, it's more brown in tone instead of some of the horrible orange bronzers you can come across from the cheaper drug store brands. 

I don't know if I'll stay loyal to the bronzer from this brand purely because with things like bronzers/finishing powders they're so cheap and there's so many you can have access to that I like to have loads of different ones but for now this is what I'm applying in the morning and I really like the bronze glow it gives me. 

After trying all of these products I was starting to wonder why people weren't going mental for the brand. The packaging isn't what I would refer to as cheap or anything either and the only products I would really not buy as the eyeshadow palettes because I don't like the colour combinations and love my Urban Decay Naked palettes. 

I'm not sure if it is because people are so loyal to the higher end brands that they avoid these because they are at some points blatantly copying other brands but I see no reason why they can't try to create more affordable dupes that are more accessible to the mass market.

Judging purely off what I bought this day I will 100% be buying from this brand again, especially the bronzers and blushes it has to offer. I also haven't tried any lip products or mascaras from the brand so next time these will be at the top of my list. 

Debenhams Press Show - Day 1 Prep

One of the benefits of being a visual merchandiser for Debenhams is that there is plenty of opportunities open to you and I was lucky enough to get a chance to participate in the setting up of the North Regions Press Show for SS 15.

Now what our Press Show is is an opportunity to showcase all of our designers and core collections for this season and we invite store managers, bloggers and some head office staff, press etc to come along and have a look at what the stores across the UK will be offering over the coming season. 

So this year the North Region Press Show was held in Glasgows Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) and it was stunning!! I had to get up super early to get from Livingston through to Glasgow but the journey is only just under an hour and Glasgow is one of those places I get a buzz from visiting because it's so rare for me to end up through there, especially on a weekday. 

The photo above is the scene I walked into when I arrived at GOMA, it's one of those venues where you spend the first hour just admiring the ceiling and then you eventually crash back to reality when you have to start actually working and unloading the vans. If you ever get the chance, pay a visit to it because the space and height is pretty amazing as well as the architecture itself. 

The start of the day was like any occasion where you're out with new people, really quiet and people were unsure where everyone was from. I was also 10 minutes late to the gallery after being betrayed by my Google maps compas on my phone so everyone was sat in the corner waiting on the lighting guys arriving and i was the late person but once we got started and everyone was working together I met some fantastic people from the Scottish stores and by the end of the two days I had some nice new friends!

Day one of prepping for the show was just sorting out the layout and unwrapping everything that had been delivered from stores across the region and assembling our designer rails, lots of heavy listing and whatnot really for the first few hours, at least until we had everything out of the rain and into the building. 

Our team for day one was made up mostly of visual supervisors and assistants so it was great to work with others in the company who do the same daily role as myself. I've been with the visual team for 10 months now and it's great when you get to go out and spend time meeting some of the others in the country, I think with visual as well there's a real sense of comradery when we all get together. 

I was lucky enough to be paired with the lovely Kayleigh who is the Dundee visual supervisor and we got to set up and dress the designer rail area and we also got to dress two accessories areas that you won't see in this post but will be in a later one when I discuss part 2 of the event. 

We actually done a huge amount of work during the first day of prep and managed to get all of our mannequins into position and started to dress them for the show the following evening before going home for the day.

Below are a few photos of the day and I'll try to explain where everything is placed so you get an idea of how the layout is and the sheer size of the room.

So if you were walking into the venue the photo above is of the left hand side wall where we wee building out designer rails for people to browse and at the end is a mannequin wearing a selection of clothing from those rails. Each rail is set up for each of the designer/core brands we were showcasing. 

A view of the designer walls after they were built and layout was finalised, you can see the graphics up on the wall representing each collection. 

Behind that white wall is the entrance to the venue so the rails are to the right in this photo. What you can see here is the bottom of the runway for our catwalk show and that faces this substantial mannequin army here that will be dressed in occasion wear. 

This is the same white wall you see in the above photo but the opposite side so this is what you see when you first enter the venue. This was later flanked by two occasion wear graphics on either side. 

Dressed occasion wear mannequins (this was altered slightly the following day) 

Occasion wear mannequins at the venue entrance. 

Occasion wear with the two flanking graphics 

Our designers rails and mannequins after dressing, these were altered slightly the following day and some more stock was added to the rails. 

The view of the catwalk when you walk around the wall into the venue 

Another view of the occasion wear mannequins after dressing 

The goody bags that were gifted to visitors of the press show.

I should point out at this point that the stuff in the goody bags was actually amazing, I was really quite jealous of everyone who got one!! 

So that was the end of the day one prep, once you see the photos you can get an idea of how the room started to come together and all the hard work that went into making the room looking really premium and easy to walk around and look at. 

Later this week I'll post day 2 of the press show prep which really stepped up in the 5 or so hours we had left to spend on it and I will also be writing about being able to attend the event and what went down so stay tuned for that one!