The initial idea behind my
project was to focus on the element of fitness within pole dancing after in
depth research into its history, where it originates from and investigating what
people think of it now. I wanted to produce an outcome that challenged the
typical stereotypes that are associated with pole dancing, changing the current
perception and remove the more negative suggestions it’s known for. I looked at
pole dancing in its true form, as a type of artistic physical body movement
with its relation to fashion and other modern day references, as well as books
that research more in depth into its advantages rather than its known negatives
because of its sexual reputation with strippers and exotic dancers.
My proposal focused on the positives of pole
dancing fitness and what it can bring to women which is the idea I wanted to
reflect. Poleception is the business I have created which combines this new fun
method of exercising, a Pole fitness gym and studio for women alongside a
professional beauty salon. This idea shows pole fitness in a positive and
exciting way involving the interests of beauty. Pole fitness embraces a sense
of female empowerment and community which is what this business encourages. The
idea is to help women to exercise with a sense of fun and achievement, yet
still being faced with a challenge and have all there beauty needs at hand with
a ‘one stop shop’ facility. Market research helped me to identify that there is
in fact a demand for this type of exercise and the combination of a beauty
salon makes it completely unique with only one other competitor located in
Wales. Establishing my target audience down to the smallest details meant I
could manipulate potential customers in my final outcome as the website and
brochure’s purpose was to entice and intrigue the audience to an extent that
they too would want to experience Poleception themselves. Although it is aimed
at women of all ages and body types it is important I considered exactly what
type of person this would appeal to, taking into account their background,
interests and hobbies.
Building my own website from
scratch was one of my biggest concerns and caused potential threat to the
success of my project. I had very basic to little knowledge about where to
start or how to produce a website, certainly setting myself a challenge.
However overcoming this fear made it satisfying when I finally understood how
to put it all together and I actually enjoyed the process. Although it was
frustrating at times as relying on technology can be problematic. This meant I
would have to focus on the design of the website almost immediately once some
of my shoots were complete and ensure to use the IT sessions for support. I
used a programme called Muse and I tried to keep it simple and informative. The
main focus however was to make a brand. I had to establish my logo ‘Poleception’
and look at other fitness brands to see how they advertise themselves and
decide how I wanted to go about this. I had a lot of technical support and
learnt a huge amount throughout this part of my project and can now say I feel
confident in web design which is a huge positive for myself now going into the
industry.
The pitching style brochure with
the particular layout I wanted from the beginning proved to cause a lot of
problems. I visited a number of printing companies whom quoted me as much as
£700 for one copy of the brochure and gave me no other suggestions. After many
attempts I was under the impression I would have to change my whole layout plan
for the brochure and this would have taken up a lot of time but with
persistence the problem was resolved when I eventually visited a company called
Imagewise who gave me more options about how I could print it for a more
reasonable price. However the final layout was not printed how I had planned,
another issue in which I encountered. The brochure was meant to evenly divide
the fitness and beauty sections with informative inserts about each in the
middle.
I had a couple of unsuccessful
shoots in the beginning but this was mostly down to photographers and lighting.
Although they took up valuable time I would always know what I wanted to do
different the following time. The first sportswear style shoot helped me to test
out what poses would work well on my website and brochure, also considering the
Instagram page. Collaborating with other photographers was enjoyable and has
given me more confidence with my hair and makeup skills, making useful connections
along the way. However another threatening problem I faced was the pole dancing
shoot. I couldn’t gain permission to shoot in the university studios because of
health and safety reasons. This meant going to a location that was a convenient
space for the pole equipment, this was another threat to the project that I was
facing. It was important that these images were strong and successfully
depicted Pole fitness how I wanted. The shoot proved to be a challenge as
lighting was mostly natural and not in our control but with repeated attempts
to get it right the images were a success and they were used in the final
outcome. I would have liked to have done another pole dancing style shoot but unreliable
models and the location was once again a problem. One way I solved this was by
using my Photoshop skills to create many different compositions from the images
I had making diverse use of them. It was
important that the makeup and hair I was undertaking was appropriate to my
business, especially as it is a direct reflection of the beauty salons
reputation. Using baby oil in the sportswear shoot to give a sweaty glow gave a
good dramatic fitness affect which was successful in the final images.
My time management was both
successful and unsuccessful. I needed to establish a balance between all the
areas of my project. I struggled to stick with my initial production schedule
as I wasn’t aware of how long designing a website and a brochure would actually
take and this is where most of my time went. This also meant my communication
with my tutors would suffer as I was focused on receiving more technical advice
within IT. However I feel that this project helped me to be very independent in
making my own decisions based on what I’ve learnt and researched.
Overall I feel that Poleception
as a brand reflects what I wanted to demonstrate, and that is that Pole dancing
can be seen in a positive way with many fitness benefits. The project also
helped me to understand how to assess target markets and break them down using
key information to influence the design of my outcomes. I also learnt a great
deal about the business aspect of my work, I researched the process of starting
up business’s and how to be successful, taking into account the realistic sums
that would support it. I have gained confidence in the skills I have learnt
throughout the project not only for hair and makeup but other aspects too.
There are further improvements and
developments which can be made to Poleception as stated in the business plan
such as eventually having facilities that look after children, targeting
mothers effectively. There is also the idea to add a spa line to the beauty
salon as another further development but overall the business could develop all
over the country if successful. The website and Instagram page could both be
developed further once the business is going.
