Prince's Trust - Tomorrow

Monday 14th May saw the launch of the Prince's Trust new national campaign called 'Tomorrow'. Tomorrow embodies the vision at the very heart of The Prince’s Trust, that they believe every young person should have the chance to succeed. The campaign is championing the young talent of Britain and pairing 6 individuals with a mentor.

I am really lucky to have been selected for the campaign, and I have been chosen by Interior Designer Kelly Hoppen MBE to design some products together to help raise funds for the Prince's Trust which we will sell exclusively through the QVC shopping channel.

The Sunday Times Style Magazine first featured the campaign on 13th May.

Sunday Times Style Magazine - Sunday 13th May 2012

Here you can learn more about Kelly and her award-winning design business. Kelly is also an Ambassador for the Prince's Trust.

What caught your eye about Fay? What’s special about her?

KH "She has a great talent and is very creative. I also like the fact that she is humble, which is a great quality to have in creativity."

How do you plan to help her? What are you aiming to produce together?

KH "I plan on passing some of my entrepreneurial knowledge on to Fay, I hope it will help her own business to grow. We are going to work together with QVC to produce a fabric related product. I’m also hoping to be mentoring Fay on the importance of visual merchandising in interiors."

Kelly and I first met at the photo shoot for the campaign, at the Rankin studio in London. Rankin is a renowned photographer, founder of Dazed & Confused magazine, and has photographed the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Queen and Madonna.

Here is my feedback from the day of the photo shoot.

The Tomorrow campaign has highlighted how awful things had become for me a few years ago and how I felt as another young person in the queue at the job centre. The recent youth unemployment figures do make me feel angry and empathetic to those in that place now. Here are my thoughts on what the Tomorrow campaign is aiming to achieve, and by working with Kelly and demonstrating how I can transfer my skills, I hope to inspire other young people into creative businesses.

I am really excited about working with Kelly, as she is someone who also has a really distinct style. Kelly has spent years developing her unique and recognisable brand, something which I am always striving to achieve. I know that I have a lot to learn from Kelly and her business, and I am really looking forward to our design and production meetings and our involvement with QVC.

The campaign has really engaged the media, here is the article featured on the Female First website.
The Prince's Trust have created posters which will be displayed nationally.

Watch this space, as I have so much to reveal as things develop...

Harrods!

So, the exciting day finally arrived, and I am still in a spin from the day. I have lots of photos to share with you from my trip to Harrods.

On Monday evening Mum and I travelled first class down to London where we were then taxied to the Millenium Hotel on Sloane Street for our stay. The view from our room was great as we could spot the lights of Harrods nearby, and this all added to the anticipation.

Our 6am start on the Tuesday morning was beautiful, but the nice weather didn't last long. We were met at 7.30am at the hotel by Honor from Harrods, just as it started to rain. Honor had a huge Harrods umbrella so we all kept reasonably dry. By this point I had had 3 hours sleep due to my nervous excitement.

Down came the rain

There were lots of hints in the windows along the way

We were soon met by Sarah the Head of the Visual Team at Harrods, the lady I had spoken to several times about what I wanted for the window. I had been really involved in the whole process from choosing the dress in the window to the design of the back wall, which I submitted after winning the competition.

My initial sketch of the window.

The four of us walked towards my window, but I was blindfolded so that the Harrods camera crew could capture my response to the window.

I was so overwhelmed by the finished window, it was just how I had envisioned it!

My window just next to Knightsbridge tube station.

My company logo was proudly displayed on the table along with some of my greeting cards.

The finest of details had been included.

I have added all of the photos from the day to a new Pinterest board and my Facebook group as there are lots of them, and there are so many details to see in the display.


Here is the video that Harrods produced of the unveiling and an interview with Sarah and I at the press breakfast later that morning.

Mum and I enjoying a photo booth and props provided at the press breakfast.

Launch of new British products at the Harrods press breakfast.

A private exhibition of bespoke ballgowns part of the Jubilee celebrations.

Mum and I were also treated to lunch at The Georgian restaurant in Harrods. We couldn't have asked for more on the day.

The window will be in place until 15th June, so there is plenty of time to go and see it. We had such a wonderful day, and it was so good to meet all of the visual team behind the making of the window. This really was a dream come true for me, and I will treasure this day forever!

Sneaky peek!

Ok, so it would be a bit mean to keep completely hush hush until the unveiling of the Jubilee window, and so @HarrodsofLondon have tweeted a snippet of my design concept.

A very rough sketch, but the visual team are working really hard to develop the ideas, and bring them to life.

Street Party Window

As you've read in recent posts I am the winner of the Harrods Street Party Window competition, and the launch day is really close now.

I hadn't realised how wide spread the competition had been, with lots of the fashion magazines featuring it online, lots of bloggers writing about it, alongside Harrods themselves tweeting and promoting it on their Facebook page.

Since being announced the winner, I have had lots of contact with Harrods visual team, and I've been able to have even more input into the design by submitting a drawing of how I would like the window to look. The merchandisers have gone to every length to achieve my vision for the window, and I know it is going to look amazing!

Not only will my design inspirations be used to create the display, but I have also been invited to include my greeting cards on the party table, which featured on my Pinboard. My company name and website will also be getting a mention, so this has become an even more exciting event for my young business.

You will be able to visit my window from Tuesday 15th May until 15th June, all of the other windows sounds fantastic too and will be very different to mine. There are also some beautiful ballgowns on display to coincide with the V&A's exhibitions, so there is a lot to see on your visit.

Both myself and my plus one (Mum) will be heading to London on the 14th and then will be attending a press breakfast on the Tuesday morning. This opportunity has overwhelmed me a little and the launch isn't even here yet.
I know Mum will have a lovely day too, and she deserves it after all of the help she has given over the past few years.

I look forward to blogging again soon about the day itself, and sharing all of the photos with you.

And the winner is...

Once again, a big thank you to all of you who voted! I was overwhelmed by the volume of votes I actually received on twitter and facebook. I have written a huge list of your names this morning and cut them into strips, seeing as there were so many votes I am going to do an Olympic giveaway and have three prizes instead.

The winner will receive the whole set of 'Sweet Treats' cards, the second drawn can choose 5 from the range, and the third drawn can choose 3. Good luck!

1st prize goes to....
@SkinBlisterBlog

2nd prize goes to...
@CHceramics

3rd prize goes to...
@LittleMischiefs

Well done to all three! Please let me know your postal addresses and I can send you your prizes.
Email (mail@faysstudio.com) or DM me on twitter @FaysStudio or Fay's Studio on Facebook.

x Fay