My digital artefact consists of a fictional sustainable and ethical clothing brand, which features quite a casual aesthetic, composed of mostly relaxed, skate/street style clothing articles.
I developed this clothing brand and supporting social platform as a way of raising awareness about the harsh reality of the clothing industry and fast fashion. My goal was to show my audience that there were in fact more sustainable options regarding apparel manufacture.
After researching my topic and target audience, I decided the best way to establish this project would be to curate an Instagram page, where I could feature this fictional clothing brand, which is produced in an ethical and sustainable manner. Social platforms and product development are a great way of interacting and engaging with an audience to share a specific message, as these projects grow through audience participation and growth.
The way in which I will present my media and grow an audience around it follows Marshall McLuhan’s theory of the ‘medium is the message’. McLuhan stated that “personal and social consequences of any medium – that is, of any extension of ourselves – result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”
I feel as though this would be an engaging and useful way to explore the other options of sustainable clothing, whilst growing awareness of issues related to the fashion industry and how articles of clothing are produced in a manner that holds harmful effects on the environment.
When it come to the actual development of this project, I decided that I would curate custom designs for apparel, and then develop mock-ups of the apparel which I could then feature on an Instagram page, established solely for the purpose of this project, which would later go on to be; Shore_Thing_Apparel.
Initially, I developed only posts rather than stories, which featured apparel and other bits and pieces surrounding the brand, however, it wasn’t sparking as much of the attention I had hoped for. Most feedback received was about the general aesthetic and design of the clothing itself, rather than the ethical meaning behind it.
In the early days, the record number of likes on a post would sit around the 3-5 mark, the occasional one reaching about 8 likes, with the occasional comment. The account also received some private messages after the first few images were posted, with people linking accounts to share and follow for product promotion.
I used several hashtags which linked to the topic of sustainable fashion and ethical choices, however many of the comments referred to the actual design of the product itself, rather than the message of sustainability I was trying to portray. With this becoming a reoccurring theme, I began wondering how I could further promote the message of sustainable fashion.
With this goal in mind, I began directing the captions of my post to the sustainability factor of my project, which definitely seemed to gauge a different response in the comments. Many comments now praised or at least recognised the topic of sustainability, even having some other companies who follow ethical practices respond.
Each post varied in difficulty and time to curate, some were very short and quick whilst others took some time to develop both the design, product mock-up and post itself. This was something I had to consider throughout my project, in order to allocate the time to do so.
Following on from posts, I began posting stories to my DA’s Instagram page, making use of the poll and Q&A feature, as a more engaging way of spreading knowledge and awareness of the negative impact the fashion industry can have on our environment.
Once again touching on the notion of the medium being the message, allowing users to engage with content in a more personal and hands-on way influences the way the message is received.
WHAT AM I DOING? 