Monster Munch!

So we had to create an animation to advertise Monster Much to students recently for uni...And as animation is not my thing, I kept it simple! Most of my time was spent in photoshop creating the monsters new looks and outfits. Anyway, I thought I would share my silly little video :0)
(Press the play button and then the full video screen will appear)

Trapped Inside Your Own Body

Trapped Inside Your Own Body: This is M.E

I would like to make people more aware of what M.E is. Very few people really understand the illness which is quite sad. It affects a handful of people I know and many sufferers of the illness are misunderstood and feel like they have no-where to turn. I would like to share my friends blog with you so that you and others can read 1st had what it means, learn more about it and hopefully, you will feel inspired just like I was.

A lot came off my chest. Trying to raise awareness.

I am not one for talking publicly about things very close and personal to me, but after seeing the Daily Mail's poll today, getting people to actually take a vote on whether M.E. is a genuine illness or not, I feel so angry and moved to get so much off my chest.

To have to live your life with this highly debilitating illness, for years on end, day in day out with no actual proper treatment available is bad enough. To lose your physical ability, is bad enough. To lose your mental ability is bad enough. To lose your work life, your school life, your social life, your hobbies, everything it is that makes you happy and makes you YOU, is an unbelievably difficult thing to deal with. All this, whilst feeling very ill, is hard enough. But to have people actually doubt whether this is real or not, and have trained medical professionals even brush you off, is the biggest kick in the teeth.

When you are ill, you go to the doctor and get medicine to make you better.
That is how it's supposed to work. You are not supposed to be told "It's probably M.E." and then pushed off into this unknown world and left to research for yourself what the hell it actually is and how the hell it is going to affect your whole life.

It drives me to tears some nights just thinking about how every single day, for the last 7 years, I have had at least one symptom. I have felt ill at some point, on every day for the last 7 years. How unbelievably frightening a reality is that.

I can't even get out properly what I'm trying to write because my brain doesn't work straight anymore.

I found this video - and I'm not usually one for these sorts of videos, and I try to avoid anything M.E.ey really - because the whole M.E. thing makes my skin crawl with embarrassment
(wonderful how the world has made me feel about my own illness) - but this is good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOflARSgNnE

I lost my friend Jessie last year, a horrifically severe sufferer. Her mum is now due on trial for her murder over the next few days. Unbelievably serious shit going on. How on earth can there still be doubt in people's minds over this illnes.

People will say that I am so much better these days, and I am, it is terrific. But I still live with it every day. I still live a limited life, I still cannot run, I still cannot walk very far or do other normal stuff. But I have pushed through it all and I try to do the best I can, because M.E. has taught me how you need to live your life to the full, as much as you possibly can.
How on earth can people think M.E. sufferers are lazy people who are just trying to get out of working? I would absolutely LOVE to work, I hate the fact I am unable to, I want to earn my own way in life I want a goal in life to work for. People for some reason, do not understand this. They do not understand, that every M.E. patient I've had the privilege of meeting, is the most determined and brave and ambitious people.... who push on through this horrific pain every single day .... because we are NOT lazy....we are not going to just sit around moaning..... but try our hardest to live as best a life we physically can.

I am going on and on, I know. My brain is complete mush now and I'm sorry I can't get it across very well, but I'm so fired up and unbelievably sick of feeling ashamed and embarassed about this awful awful illness that if it were any other illness everybody would just accept.

The reason it gets me so fired up, is because, I know how bad it can be. I spent a year virtually bedbound, my mother had to wash my hair for 2 years because I was too weak to do so, I had to hav every single meal brought up to me in my bed because going down the stairs was so intensely exhausting and painful, I could not stand or walk so I had to use a wheelchair. I spent my Sweet Sixteenth in bed, my eighteenth I collapsed in bed after some friends came round for an hour. I had to drop out of college.

I would be in a professional dance company by now, living my dream, if it were not for M.E.

Make 2010 the best year ever!

I would like to talk briefly about EFT. It is something that I do to help heal my neck and my back and the emotional issues surrounding it, but it is used for so many more things than that.

It is based on Eastern philosophy. It works by tapping on Meridian points around the body. It is a little bit like acupuncture but without the needles. The various techniques used release blocked energy, which means it can help to heal physical and emotional issues.

The lady who does my EFT sessions will be stating EFT sessions for small groups in Brighton. This makes it more affordable and the energy you channel is increased because there are more of you in the room.

There will probably be a general group but Linda will also running groups for specific things, such as Relationships, prosperity, health, anxiety/confidence, cravings and a peak performance group .


Price will be £10 for an hour.

Will start in January in Brighton/Hove. Small groups, no more than 4.


Read more about Linda and get in touch with her here: http://www.lindathaper.com/

Final Designs!

Below are the final collaborations between myself and Matt which we are handing in as our final pieces. Please click on each individual image to see them large.

Here is a selection of some of my final designs for my body shop project.
Please click on each individual image to see them large.

Design Ideas - Bodyshop Projection Shoot

Ok, so this week, Matt came up with the design below. It is intended to stand out and put a message across. I liked the idea, but I felt that it didn't look finished (sorry Matt!) So despite my teacher also loving it, I decided to add to it and create my version of the design...

THERE IS A HUGE AMOUNT OF BLACK BACKGROUNDS GOING ON IN THIS POST WHICH DOES NOT WORK WELL WITH MY BLOG DESIGN. PLEASE CLICK ON EACH IMAGE TO SEE EACH IMAGE AT IT'S FINEST!

So the first thing I did was add one of my projection images to Matts design. Which I liked but I didn't love. This got me thinking and playing around with tag lines and colors...

Which eventually lead to these designs below...

So here are the large versions of the designs I have come up with so far from my projection photo shoot. Aimed for both men and women, unlike most ad campaigns that target either one or the other. Any thoughts and critique are welcome :)
p.s. Click on them to see large and with a white border!

Body Paint Photo Shoot - What really went on!

This shoot was incredibly challenging for me. I managed to get a talented body paint artist to work for free for me and I got a model at last minute to pose almost naked, outdoors in November for free! I did have another model arranged who has a lot of previous modelling experience but she had to cancel due to illness. The model I used had little experience in front of a camera. However she was willing, open minded and enthusiastic so what more could I ask for! She also had a lovely figure and a natural look which was a must for this particular shoot.

We were really working against the clock with this shoot as there was a tight deadline for the project so we had to shoot before the model started work at 1:30pm. We began painting the model at 8am and headed off to the forest at 11am. We only had an hour to shoot which was incredibly difficult because it didn't give much time to find which parts of the forest worked best for the location. The lighting played havoc and I was forever changing my manual settings to suit the current lighting situation. The other issue was that I had to make sure my model was kept warm so every 5 minutes we would stop and wrap her up in a big coat. She was so incredibly brave to do her first proper photo shoot nude, outdoors on a cold Novembers day! I have a huge amount of respect for her!

Behind the scenes of our body painting shoot!

The body paint artist assisted me on the shoot by keeping watch out for dog walkers and keeping close by with the models coat at the ready! When our time was up we rushed back to the models house so she could get to work. I then began editing the best images for the next 2 days. The hardest thing was cloning out her underwear! She wore a nudge coloured thong, but the paint did not take well on the material so I had to do a huge amount of painting on Photoshop to make it look more artistic and like she was actually nude.

I'm now going to pass the edited images onto Matt who is pretty much in charge of turning the images into an ad campaign with his genius skills on illustrator and Photoshop. Fingers crossed they turn out good and it was worth the hard work and effort I put into the shoot!

Here are a couple of the photos from my body painting shoot... they will all be up on flickr soon http://www.flickr.com/photos/foreverinspired/

Fashion Photo Shoots for Body Shop Project

Matt and I did two 2 studio shoots this week for uni. Both for our Body Shop project for the D&AD awards. We came across a lot of obstacles, such as models canceling just before the shoots to name but a few! But despite everything that happened we got through and came out the other end with some really cool images! Here is a sneak peak of some of the photos from the shoot :)

This model is called Naomi. She was wonderful and stepped in at the very last minute! I am so grateful! Please click on the image to view it much larger!

Below was our rose themed shoot. Our model canceled very last minute and there was no way of getting another model in...but we had the studio booked so I modeled and Matt did the photography. Then I edited the images afterward. I'm still working on a bunch of them!

Please click on the image to view it much larger!

All images are copyrighted to Emy Lou and Matt Nottage. Please respect copyright.