Following the successful sewing workshops in Barcelona, the ARCA Project continued its mission to democratize sustainable fashion knowledge with an intensive Marketing & Digital Communication course in Bologna. The 40-hour training program brought together seven participants ranging from 22 to 55 years old, predominantly women, representing diverse professional backgrounds: four individuals who were unemployed or seeking growth opportunities for their personal projects, two students with part-time jobs in fashion and communication, and one full-time employee pursuing professional development. The team worked together to develop a professional-level communication strategy and marketing campaign under the guidance of experienced professionals and educators from a leading Italian design academy.
The workshop took place at baumhaus, ARCA Project's leading partner, in their Bologna office. Participants were welcomed by the project team alongside Adaobim Ezeoke, one of the three emerging designers who co-created OURCELIUM, the circular, non-binary and open source fashion collection developed in the project’s initial phase.
Over six intensive days, participants explored modern fashion marketing and communication, from brand strategy development to photography production, using OURCELIUM as a real-world case study. The program culminated in the creation of communication materials and a complete photoshoot of all garments, featuring models who represent diverse approaches to gender expression and identity.
Open-Source Educational Impact
The collection will not be out for sale. Instead, its PDF presentation is already available to be downloaded and an associated open source tutorial will be available soon. The content delivered in this course will become the third chapter of the tutorial, structured as follows:
- Introduction to circular and sustainable fashion
- Sewing tutorials and patterns to recreate, modify, and improve the OURCELIUM collection
- Creating a Marketing and Communication Strategy for inclusive, circular fashion projects (based on the Bologna training materials)
- Business Modeling for Emerging Creatives (based on another workshop in Bologna)
Foundations in inclusive communication
The program opened with a session on inclusive and non-binary communication, led by Andrea Ruggieri of Gruppo Trans (Italy), an associated partner of the ARCA Project. This session established the ethical framework for subsequent marketing work, covering non-binary communities and their cultural representation, civil and social rights for gender minorities through case studies, and the collaborative development of inclusive vocabulary focused on gender identity and respectful language.
The session concluded with a practical exercise: participants first created a deliberately problematic campaign that reproduced common stereotypes, then reworked the concept into an inclusive and respectful approach. This exercise identified potential communication pitfalls while defining the appropriate vocabulary for OURCELIUM's strategy.
Strategic Brand Development
Under the guidance of fashion marketing teacher Valentina Pederiva, participants explored brand identity fundamentals through key questions: Who are we? What does OURCELIUM communicate?
Through collaborative workshops and hands-on methodology, the group established:
- Core identity: mission, vision, and values aligned with the designers' work using professional frameworks
- Key messages: narratives emphasizing the collection's circular, non-binary, inclusive, collaborative, and open-source characteristics
- Brand positioning: strategic placement within the fashion landscape as an open, free, accessible initiative
- SWOT Analysis: comprehensive assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
The complexity of OURCELIUM's multi-layered identity - simultaneously circular, inclusive, collaborative, and open-source - required careful integration of different narrative, ethical, and visual elements while maintaining communication coherence and strategic effectiveness.
Professional Styling and Visual Direction
Fashion experts Fabio Mercurio and Claudia Vanti led the next stage, focusing on professional styling for capsule collections and photoshoots. Topics covered the stylist's role in the fashion industry, from moodboards as visual coherence tools to the importance of lookbooks, editorial spreads, and commercial formats. Participants learned about pre-production planning, styling kits, and professional relationship management.
The group then gained practical experience in garment coordination, location selection, and matching models with outfits. This phase prepared participants for photographing OURCELIUM garments, manufactured by the original designers and Barcelona workshop participants.
Photography Production and Digital Strategy
Professional photographer Daniela Guccini led the program's most hands-on component, working with the OURCELIUM garments and three models: Lorenza Maretto, Bianca Bonzagni and Federico Vega. The team executed two distinct shooting sessions:
First, a product photography shooting: a structured session creating catalog-ready images of all OURCELIUM pieces on neutral backgrounds with uniform lighting—essential materials for e-commerce and digital campaigns.
Next, an editorial shooting: initially planned outdoors, weather conditions required adaptation. The team transformed this constraint into opportunity, using new indoor locations at baumhaus to create editorial images that captured OURCELIUM's DIY and urban aesthetic, transforming limitations into distinctive visual storytelling.
Participants rotated through all production roles—photography, lighting, model direction, wardrobe coordination, and set management—gaining comprehensive understanding of professional fashion photography workflows.
The final phase, guided by Valentina Pederiva, translated previous work into actionable digital strategy. Based on OURCELIUM's unique characteristics, the team developed comprehensive brand identity materials and marketing strategy with effectiveness monitoring tools.
Democratizing Fashion Knowledge
With strategic tools and photography complete, OURCELIUM is ready for global presentation. However, it will not be commercially available—instead, it will be freely accessible to anyone interested in learning from the project's experience and recreating the collection.
The learnings from this course and the strategies envisioned by the participants will serve as a basis for the third chapter of ARCA's open-source tutorial. This comprehensive resource transforms all project outcomes—the OURCELIUM collection, patterns and recreation tutorials, marketing and communication teaching materials, and business modeling guidance—into accessible educational tools, extending ARCA's democratizing mission beyond the original participants.
Special thanks to the workshop participants: Madalina, Eddi, Gaia, Cecilia, Stefania, Kathleen, Sirio.