Project 2 - Genre Analysis
Ever since I can remember, my family has spent our summer vacations in New York City. The countless memories and spectacular experiences I have had there are only a few reasons why it is and will always be my favorite city. The first time I visited New York City I knew it was where I wanted to spend the rest of my life. The fine dining, high fashion, and endless amount of activities are things that I could definitely get used to. Since I am now attending college and will soon have live on my own, I decided to research what New York City lifestyle is really all about. I could not think of a more perfect blog than Egg Canvas to look at for this project. Egg Canvas is the fashion and lifestyle blog of New York City based Digital Art Director and Designer, Erica Choi. As the Art Director for the worlds most luxury retailer, Barneys New York, Erica Choi is literally living my dream. Ever since I was involved with the Academy of Communication Art and Design at my high school, one of my dreams has been to use my creativity to work with graphic design. Unfortunately my parents are not supportive of my art career so I have chosen to go different route. However, in a perfect world I would be doing what Erica Choi does. Researching the luxurious and exciting life of Erica Choi through her blog, Egg Canvas, will give me a glimpse of what could possibly be my future.
To no surprise the blog, Egg Canvas, is laid out beautifully. Erica Choi’s personal style can be seen through the modern, classic and organized structure of her blog. The blog is laid out into different pages. These pages include stories, latest, NYC guide, desires, about and follow. The home page, stories, shows many different blog posts about events in her daily life. For my research I chose to specifically focus on particular blog post under the section on the stories page titled “Life in New York”. Each blog post is accompanied by various amazing images. The way that each image is staged and lighted perfectly adds to the overall aspect and feeling of the blog. The blog post that I chose is titled “Autumn Air.”
When first looking at the “Autumn Air” blog post, I noticed the excessive use of the colors black, white and gray. The background of the page is white, and is greatly exposed due to the roughly two-inch border of white space that surrounds all four sides of the page. The very top of the page has the Egg Canvas logo, which unlike the majority of the text on the blog is in all lower case letters. The title of the page, “Autumn Air,” is typed in all capital letters in a large, skinny, black, modern looking font at the top. This title is strategically aligned to the left of the page to draw your eye to the Egg Canvas logo directly above it. Directly under the title, in noticeably smaller font, is the date that the blog post was uploaded. In this case the date the post was uploaded is October 26, 2016. The date is also typed in black font although it is not in all capital letters. Underneath the date is one large picture followed by many more images of all different sizes below it.
The first images on the “Autumn Air” post show a typical New York City lifestyle. Erica Choi is the focus of most images, being the only part that is not blurred out. She is dressed in mostly black, which is fitting for the color scheme of her blog. She is dressed in a black beanie, black sunglasses, a black dress and even has black nail polish on. All of the black aspects of her outfit draw attention to her brown fur coat. The backgrounds of the images are slightly blurred out to draw attention to Erica herself. The backgrounds of the images capture typical New York City life by showing a few tall buildings, bikers, cars and people. In one picture Erica Choi is standing in front of a building that is most likely her workplace, Barneys New York. The sky looks as if these images were taken early in the day. I believe that these images were taken on her way or right before she went to work.
The next few images on the “Autumn Air” blog post take the viewer inside the famous Barneys New York. One image shows various clothing items laid out on a light brown wooden floor. The first item of clothing is a short, fitting dress in a vibrant blue, black and orange pattern. Behind that dress are three more blue, black and yellow dresses. Each of these four dresses is on a black clothes hanger. An arm with a red sleeve and a hand with black nail polish, which I assume is Erica Choi, is shown holding up the top dress. Next to these four dresses are two more dresses. Unlike the other dresses, these two are folded neatly instead of being on hangers. The top folded dress is a black and white striped pattern and the one underneath it is a blue and orange flower print. I am guessing that this image is showing Erica Choi in the process of laying a clothing display. The next image shows a single black, white and brown sweater hanging on a silver hanger on a doorknob. The background of the image is almost entirely white. The only other colors seen are a small sliver of the light brown wooden floor at the bottom of the image and a few small silver hinges. There appears to be three small white doors in a row on the also white wall. Since I know that Erica Choi works at a store that sells clothing I can infer that these door are most likely dressing rooms. The next image shows again the light brown wooden floor and the white walls. On the floor there are two pairs of shoes. Fitting with the color scheme the shoes are silver, grey, black and white. The first pair of shoes are Jimmy Choo glittery flats and the second pair of shoes are Stella McCartney black sneakers. I am insanely jealous that Eric Choi gets to work with designer clothes and shoes as her job.
The next series of images captures what a nice dinner is like in New York City. The first image is very dark with only a few shining lights shown. There are two large wooden half tables set nicely with black napkins and wine glasses. At the front of the tables are five waiters dressed in white with black aprons. It looks as if Erica is in a private room in the restaurant because there are no people pictured aside from the waiters. The next image is almost the same but it is from a different angle and includes people seated at each table. The next image is from the angle of someone sitting at the table. It shows two of whom I originally thought were waiters but are actually chefs, preparing what looks like some kind of salad and putting it on white plates. The next image is from the same angle except in this one the waiter is handing Erica Choi the plate that he was shown putting food on in the image before. The restaurant in these images is much different than a typical restaurant. It has chefs who cook right in front of you and a very interesting atmosphere with only a few lights.
After analyzing various images on Erica Choi’s New York City blog, Egg Canvas, I have come to the conclusion that her life is either absolutely spectacular or she is great at Photoshop. As portrayed through the images on her blog, Erica Choi’s life is filled with luxurious clothes, insane food and beautiful walks through the city. Seeing different things that she experiences on a typical day in New York City makes me even more certain about wanting to live there. I would kill for the opportunity to design clothing displays for one of the most famous stores, walk to work through the beautiful city every morning and try some of the best food.