Humble Beginnings: The Blissfully Ignorant Origin Story
Blissfully ignorant all began as my final project for photography a level, a study on identity, looking at my friends identities. On 16th of January, after completing the zine I created for my final piece, is where the idea of blissfully ignorant really began (from this point on I stoped doing any of the work assigned by my photography teachers and just started creating stuff I wanted to create). I just began creating more pages from new and old photos of mine. Because of my love of music I decided to add a song to each page to replicate the feeling I got when I looked at my pictures. Honestly I made so many mistake during the making of the first and second issue. I only intended on creating on zine in the first place but I ended up having so much extra content that I wanted to include and decided at that moment to separate the work into two issues, hence issue 1 and 2 being released at the same time. At this point I didn’t have any expectations for blissfully ignorant and it was simply a pastime or something I enjoyed doing. On the 26th of March my friend Paolo asked whether I wanted to be a photographer for an event he was planning called ‘Apocalypse’, obviously I agreed. As preparations for Apocalypse began I started creating branding/marketing for Paolo and coming up with ideas for his event and we decided I would come onto the project as a collaborator and organiser. At this point I had begun printing my magazines. I had previously made zines, one for Lotties birthday present and another as my final piece for photography. I began printing at school and then binding each zine individually by sewing them together but quickly released that this process was too time consuming and not the best quality wise. There were also a few errors I had made to do with formatting so I eventually fixed those and found an affordable printing service. Mixam is the printing service I used and I heavily recommend it for any of you interested in creating your own work. It’s affordable, super fast production and shipping and incredible quality!!!!! Sooooo eventually I had my zines printed and was ready to go. This is when things got serious, at around April or May. I began creating more and more work, whether it be marketing for apocalypse, my new and established brand ‘Blissfully Ignorant’ or just taking more photos. I began my instagram account on the 20th of January and began dedicating it mainly to my brand and work that goes towards my zines on 8th April. In addition to my zines I also create prints and stickers which I print and cut out by hand, its A LOTTTTTT of work ;/
One of my biggest struggles with Blissfully Ignorant is that I a the sole employee. Every inch of my work is done by me, I edit my zines, I take the photos for my zines, I put my money into creating the zines, I spend majority of my time designing branding and marketing for my zines, I create every video and post on social media of my zines. It’s as I said before a lot of work. As someone who struggles daily with my mental health it can be really hard to be consistent with my work since there are days when I am truly not motivated at all. Since I was a child I have always had multiple hobbies I just have a talent of picking things up super easily; because of this growing up I had about two clubs every single day, including Saturday and Sunday. Since I’m also very competitive, from a very young age I have had the need to be the best, to perfectly excel at whatever hobby I pick up and I will hyper fixate to the expense of my physical and mental health if it meant being the best. This pressure makes me extremely devoted to my work and can make it seem as though I’m so organised, productive and perfect, especially online. But I honestly get very agitated and ashamed when I see others doing better than me at what I do. And this translates over to my brand and my creative work, I feel a competitive need to be ahead of the crowd and be better, more noticed, working harder. This isn’t how I want to approach my work. Often I do this because I love it but there are times where my insecurities and competitiveness overshadow all the hard work I do and makes me feel like everything I do is worthless. Im sure that whoever is reading this may have also felt like this before so I wanted to open up about my struggles when it came to creating these zines:(
On a happier note creating this zine has also allowed me to collaborate with so many of my friends and fellow creatives. To feel comradery and hope that my friends and I get to create work that is seen and appreciated has opened so many opportunities into my life, like creating blissfully ignorant and being able to co host Apocalypse. Oli is a prime example of someone I hold so highly in my heart. A lot of the photoshoots I produce are styled by Oli and she is often the creative director to our editorial shoots/makeup artist/stylist. She inspires me so much with not only her work ethic but also her own brand Clover . Oli also models for me so we are just such a perfect team when it comes to creating. To be able to create all the work I produce I could never have done it alone and really owe it to all of my friends who all pitch in by assisting, styling, makeup, hair or modelling. To be able to begin creating you have to have a group of people on the same trajectory as you which I’m so lucky to have found. So if you wanna start creating just like these zines or maybe film or really creating anything, first find people you want to create with.
I began my work on my third project on 26 May. Before this I had began planning a completely different project which I then side lined for this project your reading right now, don’t worry I will get round to that project eventually ;p It first started doing a photoshoot/sleepover with my friends after taking a little break. This photoshoot made my
creativity just explode and I began hastily working on ideas for this very book in your hands right now. By today, 29th July I have created 170 landscape pages of work and by the time this book is printed and in your hand I will have completed this project. Thank you so so so much for purchasing, it means everything to me as a small business owner and artist. To have people support and appreciate my work will forever be what inspires me to create more and more and more.
Love Aurora xx