2018 Calendar Project - StraleyPhotography

Overall project Information

I am looking for Grenadian Fashion Designers or Grenadian Model / Designer teams to be a part of my 2018 calendar project.  This project is planned to make money which will be donated to a charity - The Queen Elizabeth Home here in Grenada.  More importantly perhaps, it is focused entirely on actively promoting the work of Grenadian Designers, Grenadian Models, and showing off Grenada’s lovely locations.  The goal is to actively promote the Designers so that they make money and gain customers from this project.  I do not expect to take any personal financial benefits from this project.

I am hoping to print and sell about 1,000 calendars – last year we were only able to print about 300 calendars which limited sales because of printing problems in Grenada so this year we will print more someplace and ship them in.  Each calendar will have individual pages for each month – if we can afford it I will have 2 pages per month.  I am investigating an electronic version as well that would be available primarily for the US and UK markets to deal with the shipping and distribution logistics most easily.

I plan to bear the costs of shoot transportation, makeup and the initial cash outlay for the production of the calendar (I will be reimbursed for the printing). The plan is to place these calendars mostly in stores and resort locations where people with money will visit and purchase them.  I also have interest from places such as drug stores and the like who regularly sell tickets and am exploring several other outlets as well.  I will gratefully accept any help or useful ideas!  Here is what the pages from 2017 looked like.

Designers

I am looking for highly motivated, focused Designers who are actually working in the field – to qualify you must be producing clothing.  Your work will be featured exclusively in one of the months of the calendar – there will be 5 – 8 images and you must have a minimum of 3 complete outfits.  You can be your own model, you can specify a model (as long as they meet the minimum requirements below) or I will provide one for you.  You will be responsible for coordinating efforts, fittings, etc. with the model in any event.  

You must live in Grenada full time.

Your contact information will be featured on that month’s calendar page along with a short write-up on you and your focus.  I am only interested in featuring commercially saleable products – nothing so weird, no matter how wonderful, that no one would purchase – we can feature links for other items you design and produce if you’d like.  

You are welcome to bring in other Designers to enhance the designs in your shoot – for instance you might want to bring in someone to provide jewelry, handbags, shoes, or other accessories – if so they would be featured as well.  You will coordinate with them once we agree on them.

There is no cost to you for this other than producing the designs if you design for a single model.  If you require multiple models we’ll share the costs of professional makeup and that would be all you would pay.   I expect you to participate in planning and be present at the shoot of your designs and I would like to ask you to provide one of your designs to the model as a thank you.  We will permit you to sell the calendars for a profit just like a store would if you’d like to but we are not requiring that.

I would like you to have an actual platform to sell the items once the calendar is out - whether that is FB, Etsy, a web site, or something else – it is up to you.  You will be permitted to use the images we produce on this platform or on social media for your commercial use as long as you do not need to modify them, or make composites (they will have my logo on them) and as long as you provide credits to the model, photographer and other persons involved in the shoot.  Again, the images will be provided to you for your marketing purposes without cost to you. 

It is very possible that I may take the best of the designs to one of the Fashion magazines such as I-Fashion Magazine in NYC.  I have had other people’s work published in there already along this line and the magazine editors have asked me for more submissions.  I will also post a number of the images on my FB page and would expect to post all of the edited images on my web site – they’ll be there for you to view, share, download and use at any time - again at no cost to you.

I will expect interesting designs, high quality workmanship, lovely materials, and a great fit.  Your clothing can be anything from swimsuits to gowns and anything functional in between as long as it is something someone would actually purchase and wear.  So no flashing light bulbs, tissue paper, etc.

If you have questions on this please get in touch right away and we’ll work it out together.

 

Models

This project should provide a significant amount of exposure for the serious model in Grenada and also in the US and UK if it is successful.  It is designed to provide exposure to serious models who are looking for a platform to help them gain success and get noticed.

This is not a paying assignment – you may receive the gift of one of the designs from the Designer you are assigned to work with but that is on them, optional and not guaranteed.

Unless you are the Designer and want to model your own collection, I strongly prefer to work with models who are actually working in the industry or who are expressing a strong desire to be. Although working with a beginner or a friend/relative of the Designer may be fun for them, if they are not already committed to long term Fashion work I would work with someone who is.  One of the very clear goals throughout this project is to provide visibility and publicity to the Designer and the Model.

As a model your job will be to pose to sell the clothes – rather than just to sell yourself.  If we cannot make images that actually create the desire to buy in the consumer we have failed in this project.  I am hoping your poses in whatever you are assigned to wear will do that and I will work with you as necessary to help you be successful in that. 

Once you have expressed interest and are accepted in this project you will be assigned to a Designer and you and they will work together to get fitted and to make sure everything looks and works properly on your body.  In some cases the Designer will be making the garment(s) just for you so it should be a good thing – they are required to provide a minimum of three complete outfits to qualify for the calendar. In many cases you will wear all of the pieces they design.

Your shoot will take just a few hours once makeup is applied and we get to the location.  I will use professional makeup artists – so unless you are one and want to do your own, makeup will be provided to you at no cost.  You will receive the right to use and share the images on social media for personal use once they are published.  For clarity, you will not be permitted to make or use BTS images taken during or following the shoot.

With a few exceptions I am not planning for the Model to work with more than one Designer.  There are enough people available in Grenada who want to do this to spread the work around.  It is possible that there may be an exception to this for the cover image of the calendar which will consist of 3 or 4 people who are already in the calendar and possibly for people with certain body types.

Once the project is complete and the calendars are printed, you will have the option of making some money selling them if you would like to but this is not a requirement – I am looking for fantastic models not sales people but the option is there if you chose it.

MUA Info

 

Requirements

You must be 18 or older to participate in this project – I cannot imagine making any exceptions – maybe you have some reason why I should make one for you if you are under 18? You will be required to sign a model release  - click if you’d like to see it.  You must have and maintain a working phone or WhatsApp account and you absolutely must be able to get to the makeup artist’s location on time.

I am going to accept Models for this project in the following priority:

1 – Models that participated in the Calendar Project Charity for Jewls 2017 last year if they commit by a certain date – I will contact them individually with the offer

2 – Models that have worked with me before or Models who have participated in a major event that I have shot such as GNTM or FOG or the National Queen pageant

3 – Experienced Models with professionally taken images with another photographer within the last year – if this is you I need to see the work asap

4 – Enthusiastic models or a model want-to-be who have expressed a long term interest in Fashion

If you are not accepted into this project there are always other opportunities – stay in touch, be in communication and let me know you are interested.  I have a model list get on it, propose your own great ideas!  I regularly ask for people to let me know they would like to work on a project with me.