Paul Hartnett Tutorial

This week guest lecturer, Paul Hartnett visited. This was really insightful as it meant we were able to have a professional from the fashion business discuss his work and also put an opinion on ours.
On the Friday we were able to have tutorials with Paul and I found this to be very beneficial.
I was originally worried about his feedback as he said that at Graduate Fashion Week time and time again he saw projects based on the theme of themselves and their childhood and in particular fairy tales. This confused me as it is everything I had been looking at.
However, he did bring up some good points to reflect upon.
I therefore took on his advice of simplifying everything as he said you need something to be very key in focus and not to overwhelm the viewer. I decided to apply this to this months Vogue UK from advertisements to actual spreads.
The above Dior ad really relates to everything Paul was saying. It has been simplified down to convey its message, rather then use a real horse the idea of the horse is enough with everything else. I think its these factors which show the meaning behind the shoot and clearly identifies what they are selling but with less going on.
This next ad for Dior also uses a simplified message clearly. It is clearly identifying the perfume it is selling and surprisingly not in a 'sex sells' way. The large bottle and packages go together well against the pale background and the plain coat which makes the title and the perfume stand out more.
I think this Mulberry ad is on the verge of too much going on but the positioning of the items it is selling (in particular the bags) are the main focus which is what the ad is about. I think the cakes and the location give a good story as to the lives behind the characters being photographed.
I think these ad's for Juicy Couture are a perfect example on when there is too much going on. Yes its colourful and eye popping but there is no real focus to look at, it has become rather overwhelming. I think this ad would probably work well as a giant billboard as then there will be a bigger space for the whole picture to look at. However, in a magazine I think the scale is too small for the magnitude of everything that it trying to see too much.
I think these images from one of the fashion spreads really identifies well on the simplification of imagery, enough to give the feel of the shoot and convey a story but not so much that it is overwhelming.
I think the poses of the model work particularly well in making them stand out and also by the plain background in the 1st image and a black and white image for the 2nd.
This image has also been taken from the same spread and it shows enough of the clothing to sell it without needing to show the whole figure. The idea of warmth is greatly displayed in this picture. I think this composition of just part of the body would do well for my photo's in simplifying them down.