Alfie Baines - Journalism and Brand Design

Fashion Branding and communications graduate who has a deep interest in the journalism sectors of the fashion industry. Throughout my life at university of have discovered my skills in journalism and copy writing for fashion. In my second year I had the opportunity to work with “Style Birmingham” where I was tasked with being the content editor, which gave me the role of creating articles for their online platforms, which would later have won the industry competition, which was the sole purpose of this project. During this project I wrote up a trend update for their website that included current fashion trends for the season, this allowed me to use my copy writing skills in order to create industry level content.

My experience in journalism expands into my work experience for UniNews, for which I had to write four articles, one of which touched on the subject of the minimalist movement (Top panel) and how this could be incorporated into a student’s lifestyle. this article included subjects about downsizing your wardrobe and investing in high quality garments that would last a lot longer than any fast fashion items purchased online or on the high Street.

My interests exceed that of journalism and enter a realm of interest that includes brand design and branding concepts. During my second year, I created a brand concept for a sustainable magazine (Right panel) “Hollow” during this project I created a brand report that delved into the ethos, principals and design of the magazine. This project extensively looked into the sustainability aspects of what a magazine could achieve. The idea was that it would be a magazine that was well rounded within the sustainability trend, from articles that covered sustainable topics to the very packaging and materials used to create it.

Although this portfolio showcases two of my interests, I have a wide variety of skills that can be applied to any sector in the fashion industry. My focuses are on journalism and social media. I believe these two go hand in hand with one another and I also believe that social media opens up doors to my skills in styling, branding and Art direction, All of which have been exercised during my time at university.