Photograhic Moodboard

If Smirnoff Ice and Skittles co-branded moodboard

My Shu Uemura bag packaging Design

My First shoe moment

When I was small I saw the most perfect pair of shiny patant shoes on a little girl on T.V. From that moment I had to have a pair, my mum took me shopping to search for a look alike pair, but we were a=unable to find a single pair that were right I ended up with something like these and never forgave anyone for it.

If Coco Pops and Cadbury co-branded

This is a visual brief set for me by a Fashion Marketing and Branding degree student, for the brands kelloggs coco pops and cadburys to create a co-branded product. heres my outcome.

About Me

My Snowboard design

Duba: the beginnings of the hyperworld

Do recent developments in Dubai represent Hyperreality in today’s world and describe current and future cultural conditions? Is the rest of the world destined to follow suit or will hyper and virtual realities be replaced by the return of authenticity? Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the (UAE), just a century ago was a tranquil town along the Dubai creek. Today gypsum huts have been literally over shadowed by skyscrapers and some of the world’s most audacious architecture. When comparing the diversity of the city and its growing artificial and purpose built attractions to the definition of hyperreality, both parallels and contrasts can be found. In fact the success of hyperreality itself can in some respects be evaluated by the rest of the world’s reactions to the ‘New’ Dubai. A place that can use virtual reality to create physical experiences or hyperworlds appears natural to some and lacks authenticity to others. In the first section of this essay, I will consider the growth of hyperreality and its current existence in Dubai and the rest of the world. The second section of this essay will examine the need for authenticity and the role of hyper realty in the future. Finally, I will understand what Dubai represents relative to the existence of a Hyperworld. Dubai has gone through extensive change. Unlike other developed countries, the street is far from referencing any tradition or heritage. Indications of the past often exist in towns that have eventually become cities, for example London’s historic streets are now home to global brands forced to merge their strategic store environments inside timeless old buildings. This combination of old and new seemingly sets apart the outwardly more artificial places like Dubai or Las Vegas. It seems Dubai has little of this harmony. Being built for a purpose; it brands itself with the biggest and the best, the best, Malls, Hotels, Water parks, the tallest Tower, the largest artificial Snow Dome and even an artificial Island. Together these new attractions offer a wide range of experiences in one place. Not only can visitors experience Virtual reality in Dubai’s arcades and simulators, they can physically experience things like snow in the middle of the dessert or an artificial Island. In their strife to offer everything consumer society could desire, Dubai looses the option to present ‘the natural’. Its attempt to offer every real physical experience requires the use of virtual technology, creating hyperreality. ‘This blurs the line between what is “real” and what is “virtual” and makes it appear “natural.”(hyperreality 2009). This in itself demonstrates how Dubai has grown to become a hyperworld. In "My Vision," a book written by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, the Dubai ruler discussed his dream that Dubai, always searching for new innovation, would soon develop into a world economic centre. Although Dubai has clearly transformed itself into a financial and tourist centre, with the facilities to accommodate both to the highest standards, the massive investment is yet to show substantial evidence of success, especially with the recent global economic crisis. The fast rate in which the city grew is alleged to have put the tiny Emirate in over eighty billion US Dollars worth of debt, if this is the case the city will need to be a huge hit amongst tourists and also with business workers from all over the world. These tourists will need to love the city enough to return and the workers must choose to live there. After visiting Dubai, which given its vast range of tourist activities was far from crowded, It is in doubt as to how long or how loyal people will remain to the city. At first the facilities and impact of the city is absolutely fascinating and there is so much and such a wide variety of things to do, but after the biggest and best of everything had been tried or seen, there was a common feeling of little, what can only be described as emotional or personal attachment to the place. The feeling was that although there was a fantastic time to be had, the city failed to build an emotional bond with its visitors, everything was so perfectly planned or purposively designed that there were missing imperfections, which could have given character or personality to the city. Without more personality it is difficult to accept the image of Dubai, if others feel the same the cities success won’t only be under threat due to the recession and bankruptcy rumours. With the rest of the world being able to create a place with the same technology and more personality, what’s to stop consumers going elsewhere? Drawn by this obtainable luxury, plenty of people have been drawn to Dubai. When no need for Culture or anything ‘natural’, just boiling hot conditions, hotels like the sale shaped Burj and attractions of all sorts, it isn’t surprising. There is however only so much loyalty you can have to all this as it can be recreated anywhere. Also there is scepticism about how much of this hyperworld people desire, before they think, actually I want to board down a real Mountain or visit an Island that isn’t perfectly palm shaped. There is no doubt that people will enjoy technology and cities like Dubai, those that specialise in hyperreality, but there is a sense that human nature requires something more than that, and as ‘culture’ has been a part of our development for as long as forever it is unusual to imagine its complete absence. Tourists travel across the world to see Stone Hedge, mysterious stones that have been placed in such way and nobody knows for sure why. These stones are just stones, they can been seen in photographs and are not as exciting as the attractions in Dubai, but something they have that Dubai doesn’t draws people to them. This history, mark of ‘culture’ or real authenticity can’t be recreated. The reach for new technology and desire for the original or historic is even more complex than saying, this is a hyperworld and this not it is ‘real’. Hyperreality does not exist only in obvious places like Dubai, Disney Land or Las Vegas, it is in so much of our everyday lives. So much so that it is difficult to determine what is truly natural or authentic. The varied combination of the virtual and real creates opportunities for us to interact in Hyperreality through anything as simple as a telephone call, to artificial beaches. Hyperreality can be clearly separated from virtual reality, virtual realities exist in technology that may indulge the senses like a computer game or watching a movie, but it doesn’t pretend to be real. Hyperreality is more confusing it exists on the streets of London and Dubai, in Media images, within the existence of wax celebrities, in Madam Tussaud’s, in Man Made Lakes, shop windows and attractions, to a degree it exists in all these places. It can also refer to a replica of something that never existed, or an image that is more real than the thing it’s supposed to represent. It is the current state of a large part global culture and exists in more aspects of society than we realise. As hyperreality has become indented into consumer society, question has turned to what this means in terms of Hyperworlds for our future. To answer this understanding consumer needs before hyperreality may help define the decisions for its existence in the future. Hyperealities place in society is representative of the general consumer society allowing it to be there, there would be no dry ski slopes if they had no customers. Nevertheless technology persists to develop and expand allowing more artificial or alternative opportunities to become available to more people, as long as the consumer carries on buying into these new forms of hyperreality the further it will continue to grow. At some point people desired something that was exclusive to someone with maybe more money or who lived in a certain climate, that desire was never obtainable. New technology made an element of that experience available to those who before would never have had the opportunity. The inside heated leisure pool gave people in chilly Scotland the chance to swim in the warmth something originally only available to those in countries with a warmer climate. The important point is the people of Scotland were not experiencing the same experience as swimming outside with the sun heating the pool, but their desire to experience something close to this allowed the existence of hyperreality. “The American imagination demands the real thing and, to attain it, must fabricate the absolute fake” (Eco 8). Meaning the more that we search for the chance to experience everything for ourselves and in the process gain an authentic view point, the more we call upon new technology and virtual assistance to make these opportunities possible. Decision to experience new things through hyperreality in the future and the choice to experience the natural, with its faults over the hyperreal will determine its presence with in society for the future. As we acknowledge hyperrealities presence, we are allowing it to be a part of consumer industry. For example Disney Land is the fictional world built for children to indulge fantasy and imagination. It brings these ideas to life in its parks and can be described as a popular hyperworld, its ultimate purpose is to play a fictional role, with perfect made-up streets and worlds. Disney is advertised as just that, what is less obvious is that in the same way aspects of New York City have been created to indulge the shoppers Fantasies and desires. Purpose built straight blocks and selling a branded message of the city at every opportunity, New York paints areas of fiction as fact and uses technology to create real experiences , like ice skating in the manmade ice rink in Hyde Park. The streets built in straight blocks and numbered Avenues are now mimicked in parts of Dubai. The original streets of New York portray elements of hyperreality and Dubai’s recreation of the down town blocks further blurs the lines of real and hyperreal, making it hard to see if either is authentic. However New York is a well known and visited city, so either part of society is happy with the level of hyperreality and technologically enhanced experiences or they are unaware of it. ‘Consumers are so eager to posses and experience the authentic, even when that authenticity has been painstakingly manufactured.’ (Lewis, D. & Bridger, D. 2001) In turn we settle for a hyperreal experience making it difficult to define where real or fake begins and so hard to consider how much of our life holds any authenticity. ‘The very definition of the real has become: that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction. . . The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced: that is the hyperreal. . . which is entirely in simulation’(Jean Baudrillard) The lack of the authenticity is not necessarily a bad thing and it is extremely unlikely that most would give up much of the convenience technology of the modern world in search for the organic or authentic. In spite of this it does seem that there is a sense of required authenticity that differs from one individual to the next, but at whatever level a person perceives something to be considered authentic there seems to be an instinctive mind set to pursue it. ‘The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic. If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to a brand.’ (Lewis, D. & Bridger, D. 2001) If this is the case and we are searching for honest brands that understand us with real people behind them, real mountains with real snow, real food and real experiences, over the technically enhanced substitutes, there will always be a place for the authentic. Its place doesn’t jeopardise the existence of hyperreality as it is a convenient part of daily life, however certain aspects of the hyperreal will always be considered second best to the real thing. This indicates that the future of hyperreality is one that exists alongside the original, natural reality. Courchevel Mountains media-cdn.tripadvisor If no other reason than that there are only so many people who can visit undisturbed natural rainforests before they become a part of the expanding tourist industry, a lot of natural and authentic experiences will always remain exclusive to an elite few. This in turn means these authentic experiences are even more appealing. The more desirable aspects of the ‘real’ become the less desired hyperworlds seem; instead they become representatives of the normal conveniences cities ‘should’ provide. As other places begin to offer aspects of the artificial ‘real’, which Dubai already has, its significance will need to call on new technology to remain a leading innovator. ‘In their quest for authentic, the new consumer are really seeking to discover themselves’ (Lewis, D. & Bridger, D. 2001) This demonstrates the emotion behind the personal choices consumers make when selecting their own definition of authenticity. Each individual has their own opinion on what makes an authentic brand or experience; likewise they require the authentic in different aspects of their hyperreality orientated lives. For instance it’s interesting to find that Organic food has become a trend, what is more remarkable is the type of people involved in the trend. Surrounded by busy streets and bombarded with media imagery and signs of new technology, Organic food seems to have become something of a must have amongst young professionals working in London and some other cities too. These are some of the very people who can be considered to benefit from hyperreality, yet they are showing signs of demanding something authentic, something as simple as food.It may be acceptable to presume that the more we indulge in the hyperreal, the more we crave a certain authenticity from other areas of our lives. This also points towards the constant readjusting balance between the real and hyperreal.

my Skrap book