Capstone Project Proposal Draft

Name of student: __Keira McLean_________________________ Date: _02/23/24______

Teacher: _Mr. Harvalias________ Block: ______D_______

The Capstone strand I have chosen is __Entreprenuership_________________________

Proposed title for my Project Proposal: (write the proposed title for your Capstone Project in one clear
sentence): __Bracelets for Gaby by Keira________________________________________________

What is your inquiry question that interests you for further research? It should be a question that connects with
a purpose, passion or personalized area of interest for you. This is a question that you cannot just google an
answer for. Please see examples from your Capstone booklet.
My inquiry question is:

How can I use my hobby of making friendship bracelets to give back as much as possible to a foundation
that helped my brother and my family?

Rationale/context: Detail your reasons for choosing this inquiry question. Explain WHY you are choosing to
investigate this topic as a major area of focus. How does this area of inquiry connect to your passion(s),
purpose? Why is it of personal interest to you?

I chose this question because I want to be able to help a foundation that helped my family when we were
struggling financially while my brother had been sick, and I want to make the foundation more known. We
know about the bc cancer research foundation, we know about children’s hospital and make a wish, we
know about the Ronald McDonald house, and we know about children’s hospices like Canuck place; the
one foundation that I had never heard of before and my friends and peers that I’ve talked to and never
heard of before, was the Gaby Davis foundation. My hope is to create something that can not only
contribute to the foundation but make it more known because it really helped my family especially when
Ronald McDonald house refused to.

Background: What background knowledge/connections/prior learning do you have in this area of inquiry?

I’ve been making bracelets for years and I not only know tons of different patterns, but I have all the
materials for them and can make them pretty quickly. I know a bit, not a lot, about the foundation itself so
I’m hoping to educate myself more through this by talking with someone through the foundation and share
this knowledge with others.

Career connections: What is your intended career area at this point in time? What connections does this
inquiry question have to your life, academic and/ or career goals?

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 My intended Career is to teach math at a high school level, maybe university, this doesn’t connect too
much to my future career or academic goals however it does connect with my life. As I’ve said before this
foundation helped my brother, and because we’ve had a long history of cancer in my family, knowing how
to donate and being able to help other families like mine is something id like to be able to do for the rest of
my life. I plan to continue running the shop after my capstone as long as all goes well and will continue to
donate the profit to the Gaby Davis Foundation.

Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections: What subject areas and core competencies will
be connected with your project? Outline and explain the connections.

I will be able to utilize my strengths of being able to set achievable goals, keeping cool in difficult or
frustrating situations, being mindful of everyone in my audience, creating diverse products accounting for
multiple audiences, being able to overcome bumps in the road and working around obstacles, and being
able to share what I value or believe is super important with others; I can use all of this to my advantage
when doing my capstone specifically when running the shop. I can develop my abilities in areas like
communicating with others and explaining my motives by talking to consumers when selling bracelets in
person, like the lower gallery, and through my online shop. I have to communicate with others about what
designs they’d prefer, and I have to communicate with people apart of the Gaby Davis Foundation to
understand how the donating process works. I can develop my skills in evaluating and reflect on my
learning and being able to critique my mistakes and reflect on them when I’m presenting my capstone.
Finally, I can develop my skills on figuring out how I can use what I’m good at to help my community, which
is the main focus of my capstone.

Capstone Presentation medium: select one or more project mediums you wish to use to present your
project. Outline and give details about how you will present your project once completed. You may use a
combination of mediums.
o Electronic portfolio: Prezi or PPT
o Physical portfolio
o Website
o imovie presentation
o YouTube channel

 Physical portfolio: I can bring in products to show my work and what designs I came up with.
 Electronic portfolio; PPT:
o Discuss what it is I did
o Explain my research
o I can summarize problems I experienced and how I overcame them
o I will discuss how well the shop ended up going
o What worked better (ie. Online vs offline shop)
 Website: I will explain my steps and results.

Description of my Capstone project. Specific Project Details of the Capstone Project: what will you
research, create, study, produce, solve, investigate? What product will be produced at the end of this

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project for evaluation. Write a one-page description outlining your proposal.

First I needed to figure out what I wanted to sell, bracelets, and now I need to figure out what
patterns I’m going to do and how I will price them (complex pattern>simple pattern) and if I’ll be taking
custom orders.Then I have to come up with a shop name (KeiraKnotsALot or BraceletsForGaby) and a
logo and I need to watch videos and do research about running a shop on Etsy. Then I need to set a
budget for myself, I’ve thought $150-$200 is good for materials, and Etsy’s price for being able to sell each
item, in order to run the shop, and I’ve already come up with a materials list.

I conducted some research, on Etsy, for the pricing of handcrafted bracelets and also the way they
size them (most do adjustable) and I’ve seen the typical pricing for simple bracelets is around $7-$10 and
typical pricing for complex bracelets can range from $14-$22. Pricing for my bracelets would probably
range from $6-$20 and $20 is specifically for Custom Complex patterns. I need to figure out if I’m making
the custom bracelets simply pick your own colors or pick your own patterns as well, I think I’m going to
make it custom colors and add a complex, simple, and custom option that has a personalization box where
you can add what pattern you’d like if you want a different pattern, as much as that seems more difficult I’d
prefer to give people the option if they’ve seen a bracelet pattern they’d like, plus I always find it fun to try
new patterns.

Possible Pricing:
 Simple Pattern
o 1 = $6
o 2 = $10
 1 Complex and 1 Simple Pattern = $15
 Complex Pattern
o 1 = $12
o 2 = $16
 Custom Colors
o Simple = $8
o Complex =$14
 Custom Pattern = $18-$20
I need to do a bit more research on what colors evoke what emotions for advertising and plan to
print the posters at the school, simply because I don’t have anywhere else I can print in color, which means
I am limited to how many posters I can make however, I never print at the school let alone in color, so I
have I believe a full $5.00 for printing in color. I also have to create a thank you card and a business card
to print onto the card stock and cut out for the products, this shouldn’t be too difficult, but it may be slightly
time consuming.

My biggest worry right now is running the shop, and being able to break more than even, and I’m
slightly concerned about running out of parcel stickers (because it’s kind of expensive, only slightly).

At the end of this project, I should be able to demonstrate my learning for running a shop on Etsy
and should be able to show my logo, business name, business cards, products, and possibly shipping set
up. I should be able to explain what I learned and where I grew, and I want to be able to proudly show how
much I was able to donate in the end.

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Resources/ Technology/Skills: Make an assessment of the resources, technology and skills you will
need to be able to complete this project. What is your plan to be able to access/learn all of the resources
necessary to achieve completion of this project? Detail your plans.

I will need to be able to create patterns for the bracelets I’m selling, which is a skill I’ve already learned so
that will be easy and quick so stock issues shouldn’t be a problem, my main worry is starting a business
and running it successful, I have absolutely no experience in running a shop so I will be using Etsy
because its supposed to be very beginner friendly and easy to work. I’ve been doing research on
advertising and products design and any questions I have about running a shop on Etsy I will ask my
mentor, who runs a small business on Etsy selling stickers and art pieces.

Mentors/Community Connections: What types of mentor(s)/community connections will you need to

help you complete your capstone project? How will your mentor(s) help you? What is your plan to access
the mentorship/community connections necessary for this project?

My original mentor was going to be someone working with the Gaby Davis foundation but that would’ve
only helped with the donation process and learning more about the foundation, which is a big part of my
capstone, but I preferred help with a shop on Etsy. My mentor who, like I said before, runs her own shop
and will be helping me navigate using Etsy and what are the do’s and do not’s that she has learned. I am
able to contact her online through instagram and if need be, I can email her and can ask for direct
messaging.

Project limitations: What are some project limitations and potential obstacles that you foresee that might
affect progress with your Capstone Project?

Some issues I may run into would be pricing my bracelets either too high or too low, if it was too low its
not the biggest issue it just means I may not be making as much as id like at first and need to raise the
price slightly, if its too high that could cost me consumers because people may check it out, see
ridiculous prices and then spread the word to other interested consumers that they are way too high.
Another potential obstacle I could run into would be not many customers or issues keeping up with stock,
if I get too many customers at first I may have issues keeping up with stock or the needs of my buyers,
and if my advertisements around the school isn’t gaining attention I may not gain as many customers as
id hope or any at first which could also be because of poor designs. This leads me into the next issue
which is poor designs, if the designs I chose or color combinations I picked don’t appeal to my target
audience this may just lower the customers I get, not because they don’t want bracelets, but because
they can’t find anything they’d actually wear. One big issue is sizing the bracelets, this is usually done by
measuring the wrist of the person who will be wearing it before making the bracelet, obviously this cant
be done, so I need to know how to create an adjustable knot on my bracelets and create an accurate ‘one
size fits all’ measurement for the strings of my bracelets, this will take a lot of testing as each bracelet will
require a different amount of string in order to make them fit on size.

Other considerations: List and detail any other related information/ considerations about your project
that you feel should be included in your project proposal.

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 I would like to state that although I will be purchasing more string for the shop I’d prefer not to take the
cost out of my budget because I would have been purchasing these strings for my own personal use
anyway and will most likely still using them for personal use while running the shop so I don’t see it as a
business purchase that I should take from the donation to the foundation. I also would like to say that
even if this doesn’t work out how I hope, I still plan on running this shop after I graduate and ideally, I will
continue to donate every 3-4 months. I would also like to remind myself that this is just a plan, and things
can go way off course, and I need to understand I won’t be prepared for everything, all I can do is follow it
to the best of my ability and work around obstacles, and if I need help to do so that’s okay.

References: Provide a literature review of 5-10 PEER REVIEWED ACADEMIC references: research,
videos, etc. that offer some preliminary research you have done for your project that shows you are able
to access the key information that you will need to be able to complete this project/work. Your list should
be written using correct APA formatting.

References

Bloch, P. H. (1995). Seeking the Ideal Form: Product Design and Consumer Response. Journal of

Marketing, 59(3), 16–29. https://doi.org/10.2307/1252116. This journal researched and

discussed how to create the ideal form of a product. It explains that although there isn’t an

exact concrete way to reach the ideal form, there are certain steps that would benefit your

chances of creating the best version of your product and not only reaching but appealing to

the target audience. According to his research Bloch states that you must create your

product with an idea of what response you want to evoke from the audience, it must be the

best possible quality you can make it, it needs to evoke positive emotions, and you should

make it appeal to the tastes, and compliment the consumer, in my case, fashionably. I
learned that I need to decide who my target audience is and what aesthetic they have and

cater to their wants and needs.

Deng, X., Hui, S. K., & Hutchinson, J. W. (2010). Consumer preferences for color combinations:

An empirical analysis of similarity-based color relationships. Journal of Consumer

Psychology, 20(4), 476–484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2010.07.005. This journal

researched the effect of color combinations on consumer behavior, specifically in fashion

products. It explained that more people preferred colors that were different shades of the

same hue than to those that were the same shade but different hues. The authors also state

that less colors were preferred in designs, so the more simplistic the more appealing the

product was. Looking through the research I noticed that more people had preferred an
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 accent color that had little to no saturation. They also speculated that although more people

preferred colors that were the same hue, the people who chose more saturated/bold colors

that were different hues may have chosen this because they wanted that product to stand

out from the rest. Although this is semi-outdated because fashion trends have changed this

is still relevantly helpful as most of their finds is still true (ie. less colors are better, or

accents are typically unsaturated). I also now know that if I want or believe my target

audience wants either themselves or my bracelet to stand out I need to use more saturated

and bright contrasting colors; if i don’t or believe my target audience doesn’t want

it/themselves to stand out than the colors should be less saturated and should be of the

same/similar hues.

Dinner, I. M., Van Heerde, H. J., & Neslin, S. A. (2014). Driving Online and Offline Sales: The

Cross-Channel Effects of Traditional, Online Display, and Paid Search

Advertising. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(5), 527–545.

https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.11.0466. This journal wasn’t as helpful as previous one about

product design but instead helped me figure out advertising and marketing tactics. It deeply

goes into the cross effects of online and offline advertising and concludes that online

advertising can benefit my shop offline. For instance, if a student saw a post about my

bracelets or shop on instagram and then walks by and sees I’m selling them in our gallery

during lunch, they are more likely to buy a bracelet because of the online influence than a

kid who just sees me selling them in the gallery with no outside information.

Gorn, G. J., Chattopadhyay, A., Yi, T., & Dahl, D. W. (1997). Effects of Color as an Executional

Cue in Advertising: They’re in the Shade. Management Science, 43(10), 1387–1400.

https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.43.10.1387. The article talks about the colors of advertising

and goes more in depth as to which colors evoke which emotions and what chroma, or

saturation, is more beneficial when advertising. It states that colors with higher saturation

elicit more excitement and increase the audience's chance of liking your

advertisement/product. It also found that red makes the audience more excited while blue

makes the audience feel more relaxed, this could be because we associate red with

emergencies and panic while we associate blue with the ocean or the sky. This helps me
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 understand colors effect on emotions and tells me a bit about what colors I need to use

when advertising.

Madden, T. J., Hewett, K., & Roth, M. S. (2000). Managing Images in Different Cultures: A

Cross-National Study of Color Meanings and Preferences. Journal of International

Marketing, 8(4), 90–107. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25048831. This article in brief,

discusses the different meanings behind colors and how advertisements with specific colors

may evoke unwanted emotions from the consumers based on their meaning and emotional

associations with that color. It also discusses how specific color combinations may remind

them of another business and whatever emotions they have towards that business may

sway their opinions on your product. This helps me understand that the colors of my

advertisements and products need to fit with their preferences and account for the emotions

it may evoke. It also tells me I should do a bit more research on what color may mean what

to my audience.

Venkatesh, A., Joy, A., Sherry Jr., J. F., & Deschenes, J. (2010). The aesthetics of luxury fashion,

body and identify formation. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20(4), 459–470.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2010.06.011. The final article talks about fashion and what

roles it may play in the consumers life. It talks about how it provides identity to and

projects the identity of the consumer, they explain its typically seen as wearable art and it

can make the consumer feel more or less confident. This tells me just how much

responsibility is on the bracelet and how I need to make my product not only appeal to the

audience but make it represent who they are and their emotions.

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