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.

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.  

Colour Palette and Screen Print

Throughout the project I have mainly stuck to the pink and blue colour palette in my prints, however I think this has become a bit tired and overpowering. I looked for new colour palettes to experiment with by taking colours from my own summer photography and also colour palettes I found online. I definitely feel like this colour change is important for me because this could be one of the reasons I am stuck with my prints. I really want to experiment with a wide range of colour in this project as I have been inspired by Clover Canyon and Prabal Gurung.

Another reason why I decided to alter my colours was because I had a colour workshop with Alex. During the workshop I also found out that it is best to have both screen and digital printing in your portfolio for third year. I mainly see myself as a digital printer, however I also really enjoy screen printing and don't do it as much as I would like. I had only set myself the goal of producing digital prints this unit, however I have now changed my mind and would like to achieve more if possible.

One idea I have been playing with is engineer designs to incorporate both processes onto one fabric. My dissertation research lead me to a designer called Emamoke Ukeleghe, who uses both screen and digital on one print purposefully. I find the idea of having a digital element in a screen print really interesting, especially when it has been engineered to do so.

I am now going to design my prints with the intention of screen printing certain elements. I want to be able to show that I can also work with a limited colour palette, as well as having skills in both screen and digital printing. This will provide myself with a challenge for my final project as well as enhancing the portfolio I take with me when I graduate.

Projection and Garment Research

As I have been very stuck with my designing this Unit, I decided to do some projection onto stand work. This process has really helped me in the past and I felt that it would benefit me this time too.

Rather than aim for actual garments I decided to just create as much drape as I could, so that I could see what draping might do to my prints.

Even though the stand work I did wouldn't be practical for a high street garment, I believe I can still take inspiration from them in order to draw up some more realistic ideas.

I used my projection photographs to play around with illustrations and placement on the body and

I realized I need to look at length, as well as researching what garments I actually want to design. 

Although I roughly dragged and dropped these images, I think they have helped me to decide what kind of shapes I want. I plan on looking further into this and also using these images to help develop my print designs. As I want to make a high street collection I need to make the garments more wearable.



Print Designs and Bradford Textile Association

I took the drawings I created last week into Photoshop and tried to generate some motifs to design with. These were really easy to put together and blended how I intended successfully. I am happy with how the black and white line drawings look in contrast to the colourful mark making, and I think they give a similar feel to the Clover Canyon garments I looked at previously.

I found it difficult to keep in mind my fashion context when designing prints, and I felt that some of my designs weren't suited to be used on clothing. I am also concerned with my colour palette as I think the bright pinks and blues are becoming too over powering. Many of the designs I made are repeat prints, I feel I need to explore more print placement designs instead to hopefully help me develop further.

I attempted some fashion collage illustrations with my prints in order to try and inspire myself to create print placement designs, and also to try and get an idea of what shape I am going for. I have been conducting market research during Julie's fashion workshops, and in particular I am drawn to garments that have drape. I like the idea of my prints being distorted even after the print itself has been created.

For the Bradford Textile Association live brief I decided to take one of the prints from my self initiated project and adapt it to a live brief. I wanted to submit something more traditional and elegant for this brief, which is why I reduced the colours to black and white. I found it interesting to see how changing the colours of a print can alter its whole vibe.

I decided to put the black one forward for Bradford because I like the proportion of black to white. I haven't often done this with my work and I feel like it really works well with this print.

Drawing Continued

I took inspiration from various artists while I was drawing from my photographs. Tracie Cheng remained an important inspiration to me for line drawings and backgrounds. I also came across Satsuki Shibuya, who paints very delicate looking artwork with watercolours. I have taken a liking to her work and the mark making she does.

I chose to use watercolours for some of my drawings as a response to Satsuki Shibuya's paintings. Although I am yet to decide on a colour palette, as I was drawing there became a strong presence of blues and pinks. I am happy to make use of these colours for now as I can edit colouring in Photoshop later if I wish to do so.

My favourite aspect of these drawings is the very hand drawn presence. The way the lines fade and the mark making really gives each drawing some texture. I want to keep some texture in my work as I am conscious of losing it during digital steps of designing. 

Drawing and Contextual Research

This week I started drawing from the photographs I collected over summer. I like how the drawings have turned out however I want to create a larger library of work that I can keep developing all the way through. 

Below are two images that originally are separate drawings, however I then took them into Photoshop to edit them together. I have found that taking my drawings into photoshop allows me to enhance them without losing the textural quality they have.

I personally like the contrast of the messy distorted drawing with the clean and precise lines of the black and white image. Pairing these together relates to my concept as before something is distorted by glass it appears clear and detailed.
I have always liked collaging as a creative direction and I love experimenting with placement and layering of images. I took to Pinterest to find some more inspiration from artists, but also from designers so that I can get a sense of where these types of prints might fit contextually.

I am very fond of the work of Tracie Cheng. She places thin and detailed line drawings on top of rustic painterly backgrounds, which I think works perfectly. I want to experiment with layering in this way with my drawings.
I also found these garments from Clover Canyon. The reason I like these is because the black and white lines and geometric shapes are placed with much more graphic and colourful images. Again I want to experiment with this in my work and also play around with colour.
In terms of contextual direction, I aim to design garments for High Street consumption. I'd like to design for this market because I like the idea of creating something that can be worn in everyday lives and isn't over expensive.

Unit X | Starting to Design

This week we started to take our ideas and turn them into actual designs. Me and Pipp are used to just sampling fabrics and materials, so this is another step further for us. I have previously experimented with placing prints onto very plain and basic garments however I haven't yet designed my own in such detail.

I really enjoyed designing different outfits. I started by drawing templates in order to put in different prints in different places and experiment with placement and tones. During our tutorial with Louise, she told us about range plans and showed us Prada 14 as an example. The collection followed a certain set of trends or elements and injected them into various different garments. For example, they repeatedly used large faces on their designs, imitations of bra shapes on the chest and sports trims. 

I tried to keep this in mind when creating my own designs. I wanted to keep our concept of martial arts in mind at the same time, so I decided to repeat these elements; cross over v-neck, cinching at the waist, culottes, various fabrics wrapped around the body and sheer fabrics. I chose each of these based on martial arts uniforms such as karate jackets and kickboxing shorts.

Unit X | Designer Research

During our tutorial last week Louise suggested that my drawings would work best as a strong placement print. I did some research on designers and placement prints to collect ideas on where and how they might be placed, before I start experimenting with my own designs.

I took a liking to three collections in particular; Tom Ford SS14, Holly Fulton Spring 11 and KENZO SS14.

I like these three collections in particular because of the shapes and drapes of the fabrics. Also, Tom Ford and Kenzo are largely black and white in colour, which makes them really relatable to our work.
Tom ford's collection in particular relates well to my concept of bandages with the lines incorporated in the print. I love the drape in the fabrics Holly Fulton used and the structure of the garments in the KENZO collection.

Unit X | Concept and Colour Palette

Although I missed the first week of Unit X due to being on a study trip in New York, myself and Pipp came back and got stuck in straight away. Our group had already chosen the concept of Martial Arts, which I am really excited about as I've never considered it before. I feel that it will be fun to experiment with. We have also chosen to do womenswear. James Long is primarily menswear although they have had womenswear collections in the past which we have all taken a liking to.

From researching James Long, we discovered that he largely uses a darker colour palette and regularly uses Navy. He keeps an edgy look to his collections throughout, and doesn't go overboard with colour. As our concept is martial arts, we aim to use a lot of light, free flowing fabrics and those that have a lot of drape, similar to fabrics used in the uniforms.
James Long's SS13 collection was a little more feminine than his others, with more girlish structure and drapes.

His SS14 collection was a lot more boxy and square, but had a lot of references to sportswear. We decided our aim is to try and create a balance between the two different approaches, and see if we can incorporate both into one collection.

Our group presented the brief ideas to Tom from James Long on monday, and he also seems to like the concept. We had already prepared a dark toned colour scheme with flashes of neon, however he restricted us to a completely grey scale colour palette. At first I thought this might make things easy as choosing colours and dying fabrics is made simpler. Actually, getting a completely grey, black, and white colour scheme to work successfully in fashion is easier said than done. Nevertheless who doesn't like a challenge...
We took our colour scheme from two martial arts images we found while researching.

Live Brief | Bradford Textiles Development

Another live brief I decided to have a go at is the Bradford Textile design competitions. I am submitting a design for the 'P2 Prestigious Textiles Award' which requires a printed textile design for interiors. I want to attempt an entry for this award in particular as I have never experimented with interiors, I have only ever focused on fashion. This is a good opportunity to have a try as in Unit X I have chosen to continue with a fashion-focused option.

I'm going to make use of the prints I already have from my self-initiated brief and alter them to fit the live brief, meaning I needed to put them into repeat. I was sceptical about how they would look in repeat however when I created them I really liked the results. I like them that much that I chose to include them in my self-initiated brief as well.

After putting the prints into repeat I started to place them onto curtains and cushions to see if they look like a realistic interior print. They turned out quite successful, however I don't think the curtains work as well as the cushions. I particularly like the cushions because I can see them being part of a collection of cushions in the middle of an otherwise plain bead spread, or something in that ball park.

 

The brief for the Prestigious Textiles award says that embroidery can be used. I took embroidery for a unit last year and have thought about mixing the two specialisms before but I have never physically done it. I have felt really experimental this unit as I want to really push myself and find out what I can do before L6. Because of this I thought why not try out some embroidery on top of the print? The idea I have in my head is to create a statement cushion that would be used for decorative purposes.

I wanted to try embellishing/beading on top of my prints, because I don't think just a stitch would stand out enough against the busy backgrounds. As I've never used embroidery and print together I've never had to find the supplies before. I researched fabric and haberdasheries around Manchester to make a go-to list; Fred Aldous, Abakhan, Affleck's Palace, Hobbycraft were a few. I visited Affleck's Palace before heading to Abakhan where I found exactly the beads I was after. Due to the amount of colour in my prints already I felt the need to keep the beads more toned down and neutral. I went for Clear, Gold and Navy beads.

 I am really happy with the development samples, the beading looks better than I hoped it would. In particular, the use of the long bugle beads was really effective and went well with my prints. For the final boards which I will submit with my application, I am going to digitally print a 30cm x 30cm square of fabric and embellish it to give the appearence of the final cushion.

Locating | Fashion Illustrations

Part of my self initiated brief for this Unit stated that I wanted to develop my fashion illustrations and make them more outgoing and playful. Because of the colourful and lively nature of my prints I feel like this is the perfect opportunity to create crazy illustrations to go with them.

I began with photographs of my friend's faces and altered them in an app to give perfect complexion and increase the size of their eyes, overall making them look strange. I found an artist on Pinterest called Niky Roehreke, who's collage work inspired me to collage peculiar hair onto my faces using marbling photocopies. I loved the results because of how ridiculous they look.

After showing these in my weekly tutorial it was suggested that I also add block colour features like eyebrows and lips to make them even more bizarre. At first when I did this I wasn't sure if I liked them or not because they really were strange, however I have definitely warmed to them and think they go perfectly with my print designs. They are particularly suitable for my high-end print collection.

I then experimented with poses to see if they looked better. However, with the addition of the heads the weirder seemed a little but too much and looked way over the top. Because of this I decided to go back to the original basic standing position with arms by the sides. I feel like this works better because it doesn't take attention away from the faces and also shows the garment well.

 There is a more cartoony-like feel to my illustrations this time, which definitely goes well with the print collection as it is very colourful and reminiscent of pop art.

Locating | Editing in Photoshop

I have finally taken my drawings into photoshop and started to work with them. So far they have turned out quite well.

I want to work with contrasting colours through this unit as it is something I personally haven't done before, I normally stick to a well thought through and structured colour scheme. Because of the way I am, I would stuggle to choose the right colours to contrast with eachother as I am too inclined to choose colours that 'match' or go together, which isn't what I want for my designs right now.
As a result of this, I am repeatedly using the 'Hue/Saturation' tool in Photoshop to edit the colours for me.
So far I really like the effects it is giving me. It makes my designs colourful, weird and a little bit crazy. The vast colour story reflects those used by my inspirations Basso & Brooke, Clover Canyon and Piafries. Although my colour story doesnt match the literal colour of an iris, I feel the designs somehow still look anatomical, keeping in theme with the concept. This is something I said wanted to achieve if possible in my brief, so I'm glad that is starting to look possible.

For a while after my first set of designs I became stuck, as for some reason the colours weren't changing correctly when I altered the hue/saturation. Eventually I realised that it was my projector photos and the vast change of colour in them that was creating the results I wanted, meaning I needed to find a way of working those into each design.
However, I didn't want to disregard the shapes and cut-outs in my collages, so I used different layer effects in order to work them together. Here I experimented with hard light, soft light, divide and overlay. The colours show through nicely and worked perfectly when the hue was altered.

Locating | Clover Canyon and Basso & Brooke

I recently perchased 'The Print Revolution' by Tamasin Doe, and I absolutely love it. It has really reminded me just how much I love digital print. Although I had heard of a lot of the designers there were a few new names. Two of which are Clover Canyon and Basso & Brooke.

I have fallen in love with all of their collections, and they produce the exact type of designs I want to create for this Unit. They are so energetic and full of colour, and are beautiful to look at. In my brief I stated that I want to be more experimental with colour and not stick to a strict palette this time. Taking inpiraton from these colourful collections should help me fullfil this. I will be taking inspiraton from both designers when it comes to editing my own designs in photoshop.

As I am creating a High Street and a High End collection, I believe prints like these could be adapted to both easily and effectively. The prints are so enthusiatic and vibrant on their own, so positioning on the garment will be crucial.

In particular I really like the mirror effect on many of Clover Canyon's Garments. This effect is done a lot in the fashion industry, so if I choose to made use of this I will also have to try and make it my own.

Intentions | Colour Palette

This week I got stuck in a rut with my drawings. I hated everything I was creating and nothing looked right. I tried doing more research and I couldn't get going. 

I decided I was using way too much colour. I was stubborn to change as I liked the large range of colours but it is just too much to work with. I decided to go back to my original drawings in order to pick out a colour scheme. I painted colours from a couple of images and decided on a photo with a black, grey and turqoise colour palette.

Once I decided on a more refined colour palette I found it so much easier to get into drawing. I've learned that too many colours throws me off and that deciding on a palette needs to be the first thing I do in order for my drawings to be successful. Now that my drawings are working I can begin to experiment and take risks before taking my images into photoshop to work with.

 

 

Intentions| Visual Research

I came to a decision on the direction I want to go in for the Intentions Unit. My summer work left off going in the direction of Geometric and futuristic prints which I find really interesting and want to continue. Keeping this in mind, I was drawn to look into the idea of windows - their shape, structure and the idea of reflections. As I used a lot of mirroring in my summer work I think this will link perfectly.

Because my theme for the Unit is Urban Influences I took pictures in the city centre, and have been editing them a little because the originals are dull and in some cases too dark. I have been struggling to come up with a colour palette I like. I have experimented with a few but the colours are random and all over the place, they don't particularly compliment eachother. I feel like once I have chosen a colour palette my drawings will be a lot more successful.

 

 

From my photos I have been using the mirroring app like I did over summer. I have fallen in love with the images that can be recreated through symmetry. I want to base my drawings on the edits rather than the original photos so that they will be more abstract and not so literal. I want to do some line drawings rather than drawings with more depth, I think it will be nice to just have the image in black and white and to keep the structure the main focal point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Summer Inspirations | Part 2

The brief for this summer was to document things such as what you did and where you went, however my summer was rather normal and uninspiring. If I wasn’t at work I was out with my friends, I wish I could have done more activities revolved around Textiles but I just never had the time. I would have loved to go on an inspiring trip abroad however I went to Sunny Beach Bulgaria, and to be brutally honest culture and design was the last thing on my mind. Because of this I chose to focus on my weak points, such as knowledge of various artists and designers. I also wanted to look into pattern and colour because this is a huge part of print design which is the area I intend to specialise in. I feel I have used this summer to successfully broaden my knowledge and pathways and focus in on where I may want to go with my work.

Mary Katrantzou

I found Mary Katrantzou on Pinterest by happy accident and I’m really glad I did. She is a Greek fashion designer and her prints couldn’t be more suited to my interests and the direction I want to go in. They automatically caught my eye and not just the one, after researching her further there isn’t a design of hers I don’t love and wouldn’t wear myself – her SS11 collection is my favourite to date. She even collaborated with Topshop which is really wearable for the general public. Her use of colour fascinates me and I am infatuated with the way she creates prints using different components. She makes use of landscapes and buildings in some of her designs which I have never really been fond of myself but I have begun to see in a changed way. I am much more open and interested in looking at architecture and landscapes now I have seen how it can be changed. I will definitely be using Mary Katrantzou as inspiration many times in the future as I have fallen in love with her work.

I took inspiration from Mary Katrantzou and her SS11 collection by trying the mirror images trend. Over the summer I fell in love with ‘futuristic fashion’ prints, mirrored patterns and repeated images. I have seen this trend all through summer this year, and have purchased clothing myself that follows it. I didn’t have access to Photoshop at home and couldn’t do as much digital work as I would have liked to, however I found an app called ‘Mirrorgram’ which I played on a lot! I managed to come up with some pretty interesting designs using it. My favourites came from edited screenshots of my ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ for ALS. Although I feel I didn’t document my summer properly I’ve realised I have included some aspects of it, even just through trends I have followed and copied.

Summer Inspirations | Part 1

Agnes Cecile & Cate Parr

Over the summer I really got into watercolour painting. I built up a collection of images I liked over summer and many seemed to include a water colour element. I really like the way colours can be blended together using watercolours, and that they can give the effect of water movement on the page. My two favourite artists that I came across are Agnes Cecile and Cate Parr.

Cate Parr is an amazing artist, she creates portraits of people using watercolours but completely changes the colour palette. Instead of the conventional colours in reality she uses colourful pastels that compliment eachother perfectly. She uses a lot of pinks and purples which I am surprised I love so much as I usually am put off by overuse of these colours, however the shades she uses are really appealing. The way she puts the colour on the page is really natural and hand drawn, there is a lack of detail in some of her work but that is what makes the piece so effective, like her painting of Kate Moss. Her messy technique is what appeals to me as sometimes I feel too neat and want to branch out a little more.

Agnes Cecile also uses watercolour in an inspiring way. She is similar to Cate Parr in the sense that she doesn’t use conventional colours, however she is more detailed particularly when she paints facial features. I love her use of dripping paint in conjunction with her images and I think her style of painting is fascinating. During my summer work I tried to take inspiration from both of these watercolour artists in my painting of Beyonce. I chose Beyonce because at the time she was in the news over her marriage with Jay-Z and also because of her involvement in the VMAs. She also has amazing facial structure which I thought would be interesting to paint.

My watercolour painting inspired by Agnes Cecile and Cate Parr

Burberry AW14 collection

Continuing on the topic of watercolours, I researched into designers that use watercolour prints in their collection as fashion is the direction I think I want to go in, so I am trying to build up knowledge of different fashion designers. This is when I came across Burberry’s AW14 collection. I absolutely love the watercolour effect of the print used on their scarves and coats. There is a clear hand-painted feel that is very rough but planned and the colour use is remarkable because it contains so many colours yet looks so chosen and put together. I really love the layered structure of the collection, which lead me to look into collaging and composition in my project.