Unit X Evaluation

I chose to complete a project that is very different to projects I have done previously for Unit X. My usual method of working beings with visual research which then leads to print designs and basic fashion illustrations, demonstrating how they would be used. For this project I decided to do a continuation of my Practice Unit prints, by creating digital images to be used in a lookbook that represent how my prints would be worn, used and marketed. This has been very beneficial to me in terms of understanding my context as I have had to thoroughly research high street garments and promotional imagery. As a result I have a much more detailed understanding of the customer my work will be targeting in the future, and I hope that this has become evident in my portfolio.

Although the images I have created are perhaps more artistic and less photographic than the ones currently used in advertising, I did find evidence of more obvious editing appearing in high street promotional campaigns. I believe that this will only increase in the future and images like mine could be more widely used commercially. Regardless, the imagery I have created could also have many other contexts rather than just advertising for a high street market. The artistic nature of my images enables them to be used individually for either artistic images/illustrations or in fact prints for fashion themselves.

The work I have produced this unit has benefitted me greatly as it has progressed my drawing and CAD skills massively from where I believe they were before this project. I trust that these two key abilities are transferable back into print designing and my work will be able to show that I have a high level of skill in both of these areas. My hope is that my lookbook images will enhance my portfolio and help me to stand out during an interview process.

The creation of the lookbook itself not only gained me experience in another digital software – InDesign – but also made me challenge myself when it came to spatial awareness within a piece of work. I tired to consider layout and cohesion when creating the document, in order to  make it appear as a legitimate publication. Although I am happy with the outcome, I do believe that I could make positive changes and developments had I had more time. I also struggled with wanting to incorporate my original theme of distortion contrasting with appealing to the intended context of a high street market.

In conclusion I am happy with the direction I chose to go in for Unix X. The goal was to challenge myself and I believe that I have achieved this. I am content with the fact I have tried something new in my last project at university, while I know I can still do so.

Practice Unit Evaluation

The Practice Unit for me has been very eye opening in terms of what I aim to achieve. Since the start of second year I began focusing on digital print and really forgot how much I love screen printing. Half way through this unit I decided to create a whole screen print collection from imagery I was already developing. Although this was a challenge for me I really wanted to do it and I believe this is why it was successful. I made the most of my time in the print room by prepping everything before hand; pigments, stencils, fabrics etc. This allowed me to have more time to experiment and create effective prints. In the future I won't be as quick to jump straight to digital printing, and I would really love to try the combination of both again and make it work.

I feel as though I came to quite a few stand stills with this project, and had to try a few things before finding a way forward including changing colours, deciding to incorporate screen print and developing drawings and photographs. Although not all of these took me forward each time, I definitely see this as a learning curve because I can now recognize what works for me and what might not. I also contemplated changing my concept or starting completely new drawings at a few points, however I kept reworking what I already had and trying new things. I am now happy with my outcomes and I am glad that I stuck to it and didn't disregard the work I had.

I would have liked to have done some more contextual research during this unit. I have taken inspiration from artists and while designing and from designers while shaping garments, however I feel I may have focused too much on particular inspirations rather than broadening what I am looking at. In past units I have definitely had more influences to back up my decisions which makes me regret not doing more research this time. Regardless of this, I don't think my time has been wasted but has more been occupied doing other things which hopefully will have benefited me in other ways.

One thing I wish I had done during this unit is to be more outward facing. Although I did the Braford and Michael Kidner brief's, I wish I had gone and sourced my own to participate in. I have carried on networking through my textile instagram account and also made decisions based on enhancing my portfolio, however I haven't contacted any companies or applied for internships. One of my goals for Unit X is to really get myself out there and apply for placements and enter competitions. I now feel like I am ready to do this with the back up of my second and third year work.

I haven't yet made a concrete decision on what I would like to do in Unit X, I may take elements of the Practice Unit and develop them, for example I could develop my screen prints and use them to make basic garments. Overall I believe that the Practice Unit has benefitted me in more ways than one, and although not everything has gone right or to plan the lesson in this has been finding a way around an issue.

Final Digital Collection and Garments

Although I have experimented with my digital print collection quite a bit I finally decided to keep it completely digital. I also altered the colours again to make them more vibrant, like my inspiration Clover Canyon. Prabal Gurung was the inspiration behind bringing back solid lines and grids to contrast with my distorted imagery. I really like how this looks against the more detailed watercolour images, and I even brought it into my screen print collection too.

I also developed my garment shapes to go with my digital collection. Julie's Fashion workshops helped me to look into shape and drape. After more research I found a company called SaboSkirt. They do a lot of relaxed beachwear for higher end high street, but also have a luxe range which is where I found a lot of garment shape inspiration. I particularly like their waistbands and the way some of their garments cross over.

I used images like these and also my stand work/drawings to draw up some designs for garments. I was quite happy with how these turned out, although the only thing I would have liked to try would be attempting a toile to photograph. Due to time restrictions I've had to put my time towards other things, however this might be something I try during Unit X. 

I haven't had my prints digitally printed this unit as some of the fabrics I wanted cant be printed on in our facilities. I am submitting mounted paper prints with fabric swatches to explain my thoughts. 

Screen Printed Collection

After some very busy days in the print room I managed to create a completely screen printed collection. I am very happy with what I have produced as it isn't very similar to something I have done before. I believe these prints would fit in well with a high end market similar to Holly Fulton, and helped me work in a limited number of colours like I hoped it would.

I have made use of foiling and stenciling within this collection, both of which I haven't had much experience of myself. I will definitely be using both of these methods in future work. I also made the decision to add diamonds into some of the designs. This is because while research Art Deco I found there to be a lot of diamond and triangle shapes present. I think this really added to my prints and contrasted nicely with the distorted motifs.

In terms of garment shape and context, I looked at higher end collections and found a lot of boxy and structured shapes. My favourites were Holly Fulton's dress shapes and Prada spring 2011. 

This is why I collaged with squares and then went onto choose a T-Shirt dress as a final garment. For this collection I only wanted to give visualizations of what my prints could look like, so I chose a basic garment to experiment on based on Prada and Holly Fulton. I think this worked really well and the prints work best on a basic garment. 

I found doing this screen print collection really interesting, especially because it changed my context. It really made me think about print placement and the use of colours together, as I had to actively choose the colour before I printed it. If I decide to continue this project through Unit X, I think I would try and take my screen prints further and maybe turn them into actual garments for a lookbook. 

Michael Kidner Live Brief

For my live brief I chose to do the Michael Kidner Brief. 

I chose this because his work is very bold, colourful and geometric which is similar to the work I have been developing in my Self Initiated Brief.
I began by looking at his work for inspiration on colour and shape. A few of his works only make use of primary colours. I wanted to take this into my work as my self initiated brief projects are made up of a larger number of colours, I wanted to limit myself to just the three. The print I have created is made up of shapes inspired by Michael Kidner's works which I have lifted and placed onto grid lined paper, in order to keep structure.

Collage was my main process during this brief. I felt the need to do this physically rather than on photoshop so that I could keep a textural feel to my work, which I think was successful in the end.
The brief said to consider scale, which is something I don't always do. This is why I printed my design on the wide format printer so that I could see it on a larger scale. This was very useful when it came to making my scarf visualisations.

 As my work is usually intended for fashion, I can see my design being used on a silk scarf in particular. Overall I am happy with the work I have produced in response to the Michael Kidner brief, in particular the use of bright primary colours together.

Second Collection

I started to research geometric prints and garments for my second collection when I came across Holly Fulton. I have loved her as a designer for a long time and her prints are very bold and geometric. Furthermore they sometimes consist of only one or two colours, which is one of the skills I wanted to challenge myself with during this unit. She is a designer for a high end audience, and as I am taking inspiration from her my designs could end up for a high end market too. I normally aim for a high street audience so this could be an exciting change for me and encourage me to think differently about my context.

Holly Fulton draws the designs herself and then digitally manipulates them into patterns that mimic Art Deco inspirations. I want to take inspiration from this as I haven't worked on such a strong, geometric shaped print theme before. I am going to use the same visual research as my digital collection in order to keep my work related to my digital designs.

With Holly Fulton designs as inspiration, I drew up some simple black and white geometric designs from my distortion visual research. Although there are similarities with my digital collection I feel these drawings are different enough to produce a very different outcome. The thicker and bolder lines will hopefully help me imitate Fulton's theme. Furthermore, I am excited to make use of different techniques such as foiling which digital printing cannot do for me.

Change Of Plan

Over the holidays I have been working on my prints and trying to enable them to incorporate both screen and digital print techniques.

I really wanted this idea to work and I tried many different ways of putting imagery together where part could be screen printed and part could be digitally printed. However this hasn't gone as well as I would have liked it to. Although I received positive feedback from my peers I myself am not happy with the outcomes, some of which are below.

I feel that the imagery doesn't work well together and it doesn't portray my distortion theme as well as I would like. I have spent a lot of my time trying to get this to work with (in my opinion) not enough success. Unfortunately because of this I have decided to alter my plans for the unit.
In one of my last tutorials we discussed creating an all new collection from more simple and geometric imagery, taken from the visual research I have already collected. This gave me the idea of creating one digital collection and one screen collection that take my visual research into different directions. This way I can still show skills in both processes, just in two collections instead of one.

I now plan to do some market and designer research for my second collection and begin drawing for screen. For my CP3 Extended Essay I researched the differences between screen and digital printing and the ways in which we can design for both. I am planning on using this research to aid my designing for the two different printing methods.