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.

Unit X | Final Collection

Our presentation to Tom went well last week, and the main point to improve on was the presentation of the samples, and to provide pictures of the knits as they are too complicated to draw. We were really happy with the feedback we got from him and the other groups.

Now that the group work is done we had a week to focus on our individual projects. We have continued to work together in the studio to help each other out until the deadline. Me and Pipp have been taking advice from Nicole on things we haven't had to do before, like garment flats, breakdowns of each design and other things we need to create a final collection file. I'm glad we have had this unit to learn things that are needed to design for the fashion industry, such as technical drawings and range plans. I feel like learning these skills is going to benefit me in future units.

I finally put together my final collection. I made decisions based on people's opinions and I also tried to incorporate as many of my best samples as I could. I wanted to make use of both my print and embroidery samples so that there was a mix of texture through my collection. 

I am happy with the way my collections looks, however if I could go back and change one thing it would be to be less safe with my designs. As this is the first fashion unit I have done I was focused on the new processes we had to do. In the future, I would like to me more experimental and out-going with my final collections. 

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 | Print Room Experimentation

This week me and Nicole went into the print room to start creating samples. Overall it went really well and we have come out with some really good samples. I plan on embroidering into the ones that didn't work as well or cutting them up to stitch together or pin tuck. 

Before I started printing I did some plain embroidered pieces with the intention of printing on them. The inspiration for this came from Eleanor's workshop on the french technique entre deux. They helped to create a different texture which looks really nice in certain places. Also, the pigment changed colour very slightly on the varied fabrics I had stitched together, I think this is quite interesting.

In order to tie our work together and experiment with the specialisms, Pipp made us some plain and pleated knits to print on. These also created a really nice texture as the pigment was only applied on the highest points of the knit. I think the mix of the two specialisms was really successful and created some great samples.

The rest of my samples were on plain previously dyed fabrics. I experimented with different weights and thickness such as Suede, Chiffon, Voile and Organza. I tried to vary the amount of print on each fabric, the colours used and the process used. I also tried various techniques such as foiling and puff binding and pigment printing. Overall I am really happy with the two days we spent printing and I am pleased with the motifs I chose to use, as they were very flexible and easy to manipulate.

Unit X | Fashion Collage and Muse

We've had several workshops since Easter with Sarah, which have been focused on fashion illustrations and collages. The first thing we had to do was pick a muse to aim towards and take inspiration. The muse we chose is the lead character of the film 'Stick It'. She is a boyish personality with a lot of attitude and opinion, but also has feminine features and is pretty. This is the mix that we have been trying to achieve in our collection. 

I started by sketching different images of her facial expressions to work and collage from.

 The next step was to collage together some illustrations, trying to locate where different textures might be on a garment or what different pieces might be made of. I particularly tried to work on print placement and scale, using the photographs from the projector work really helped with shape too. I think these went quite successfully considering I've never done them before and felt a bit lost to start with. I realized the trick was to not think about it too much.

Unit X | Stand Work and Design Development

To start off the design process, we decided to look at the structure of martial arts garments that already exist. Nicole purchased a karate uniform online so that we could do some stand work, and pin it in different formations. One of the things we specifically tried to do was see if we could make the bulky/spacious garment look more feminine.
This helped us to picture what kind of garments we might have in our collection.

In our tutorial with Louise she suggested that we test print placement with a projector. After we had our screens sent off we took our chosen motifs to the projector to experiment. Unfortunately because of the projector the edges were blurred, however we could still get a jist of what the print looked like. We might have to try the process again with smaller images on the acetate to see if we can get a well-focused image with better positioning.

Unit X | Fabric Sourcing and Emboridery

This week we sourced our fabrics in order to prepare them for sampling. We decided to stay experimental with our fabrics and give ourselves a lot to work with. I went for a range of cottons and silks, both light and heavy weight.
We attempted to source outside of the universities resources and visited Bennett Silks. A few fabrics took our interest but the prices were around £23-£28 a metre, which on a student budget isn't very economical. In the end most of our fabrics came from the MMU fabric store, with the exception of a few online buys and some sourced from fabric shops in the city centre.
We dyed the fabrics different grey shades to keep with our colour palette.

Me and Nicole also sorted out our screens for the print room and booked some space. Unfortunately the print room can get very busy and is often fully booked, so to prevent people being left with no time there is a new rule for this unit where you can only book two days per week. Because of this, I will need some other form of sampling to experiment with as my time printing will be really limited.

Another specialism I have been mixing with print is embroidery. I thought I could develop the embroidery skills I already have in both machine and hand. I started by pin tucking different fabrics with different needle sizes, and also layering fabrics together to see what texture was created. I think they turned out well and they relate to the bandage drawings I have chosen to screen print. I plan to incorporate the two mediums together and possibly pin-tuck a screen print or print on top of some embroidery. 

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 | Digital Editing

Although we aren't supposed to produce digital prints for this Unit, I still want to be able to play to my strengths. Which is why I am choosing to digitally edit my designs before putting them onto a screen to be screen printed.
I'm not sure whether my drawings would be best as repeat prints or placement prints, so I decided to experiment with both so that I can see the designs full potential before putting it onto a screen.

Reducing to one colour edit

Quick Repeat edit

Experimentation - placing drawings together as placement print

Overall I am happy with the experimentation and development that I have created by taking a digital route. After showing my work to Louise she really took a liking to the design above, which is simply an edit of my original drawings. This would definitely be a strong and effective placement print. Next, I plan on experimenting with ways of engineering prints, possibly through using a projector or pinning paper copies to a mannequin.

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.

Locating | Unit Evaluation

The Locating Unit is the first in which we were required to produce both a Self-Initiated Brief and a Live Brief. Producing two sets of work along side each other has been really beneficial for me, and I feel I have produced better work because of it. I thought that I would become stressed and find it difficult, however if anything I have been more relaxed.

 I often get frustrated with my work because of seeing it too much or getting temporarily stuck. Sometimes I need to take a break from it or a step back in order to overcome the issues. Having another project to work on at the same time has meant that I haven't had to stop working to take a breather. When one project came to a stand still, I would work on the other until I was ready to resume both. I also think I made less mistakes because I wasn't doing things for the sake of doing something, I had more time to think about what I wanted to do. My time management has always been one of my strongest points, however I feel like having two projects has helped me improve it massively.

One of the things I feel I could have done more of is new techniques. I have developed my skills in Photoshop which is what I stated I wanted to do when I wrote my brief;  the Mirror-effect, Offset Repeat and Image Editing are a few of the things I have experimented with. However, in a way I wish I could have pushed the boundaries a little more and tried something completely new. I will definitely be pushing myself to do this is Unit X.

Nevertheless, when it comes to processes I have greatly benefited from experimenting with stand work. I find it way too easy to just copy and paste a print onto a garment in photoshop. The stand work made me really consider where the print was going and how it would look on a finalised garment. The anatomical feel to the final collection was largely due to the placements of the prints as a result of using a mannequin. I will definitely be repeating this development process in future units.

One of the learning objectives in this unit was to build networks and contacts as a career development resource. I took part in a Threadless competition and also adapted my self initiated work to fit a Bradford Textiles Association brief. As I said above I felt this was beneficial to me in terms of time management and work load.

In addition to the live briefs, I also decided to create profiles on popular social medias to get my work seen by the outside world. This has certainly been a productive and valuable process for me, as the responses have helped me gain confidence in my work. The positive feedback has enabled me to overcome the fear that people won't like my work and that it isn't good enough, as well as giving me the confidence to send my work to companies or designers.

Additionally, the career development objective pushed me to write and design a creative CV that I can send to companies or use to apply for internships and placements online. My aim is to use this to arrange some placements over summer.

Overall during this unit I think I have come out feeling like I know where I belong in the Textile Industry. Through briefly dabbling in interiors I know that fashion is the right direction for me, and I have also cemented the fact that digital printing is where my strengths lie. The self-initiated brief shows me that I am capable of setting myself useful goals and achieving them. Positive feedback from social media and also from Louise Whitaker makes me think I am ready to connect fully with the outside world and start experiencing it myself through internships and placements.

   

Live Brief | Bradford Textiles Final Boards

I created development samples for the Bradford Textiles Association brief in order to see which print with which beading I should print as the final design. There was a clear favourite between me and several other people who saw the boards which made the decision very easy.

Here is the final main sample with the two boards I will be submitting with my application. I am pleased with what I have produced for this brief as it isn't what I normally create. I've never designed for interior or used embellishment on any samples before, however I think it has been successful. I do think this would make a nice cushion for a sofa or bedding arrangement. The 9mm Silver beads don't stand out too much but look really lovely when they catch the light. Overall I am happy with the outcome of this project.

Locating | Louise Whitaker Advice

 The Locating unit is the perfect opportunity to branch out to people in the outside world. Previously I didn't feel confident enough to do this as I didn't have any applicable work worth showing. However, now that I have two completed Units of print design I feel I can be more assertive.

I came across Louise Whitaker's website and read that she graduated recently from MMU. Her work is really lovely and she has a long list of work experience and placements, and also works as part of a company now. I personally see myself going in a similar direction and working with a company, which is why I thought it might be useful to ask for some advice.
I thought I'd email Louise and see if she could offer any tips on life after Uni or anything I could be doing now to benefit myself in the future, as well as sending her links to my Pinterest incase she could give me any personal guidance.

 I was hoping to recieve a reply with maybe a few pointers or tips, but Louise's reply was more than I could have asked for. She gave such helpful and detailed advice that is not only useful for me but for anyone studying textiles in any specialism. I recommend anyone take the time out to read her tips in this email.

I was very lucky to recieve such a thorough response and for Louise to take such time out of her day. We have corresponded a few more times after this email and I feel confident that I would email her in future to ask for more advice if I ever become stuck in a project. She is so lovely and more than welcome to help me which I am very grateful for.

One of the points Louise made was to contact companies about placements and internships. I really want to put my foot in the door by doing work experience, however the fact I didn't have a creative CV was keeping me back. I decided not to avoid it any longer and to finally get it out of the way.
 Now I have a CV I can start sending it off to companies, finally!

Locating | Final Collections

This week I made the finishing touches to both my high end and high street collections.

I'm really happy with how they both turned out. My main fear was that the garments wouldn't be appropriate for the audience intended, as in the Intentions unit I aimed my collection at high street and although it was still high street in the end, the collection was more suited to high end high street, which was technically a different consumer.
Overall I am happy with the final garments and the prints themselves. This week I will be attending to finishing touches such as presentation of samples, consumer boards and finalising my submission for the Bradford Textiles project.

 

 As my final collections are finished I had to choose fabrics for each print to be printed on. This process is very limited for me as I don't have the budget to buy my own fabric rolls, which means I have to use the ones available to me in the studio. I have experienced these fabrics from the previous unit so I already have knowledge of which ones will or won't work for this units prints.

Luckily, most of the fabrics weren't too different to what I imagined the garment to be in which was a plus. After choosing the most suitable fabrics for each print, I had three different materials being printed on; Habotai, Cotton Optic and Cotton Satin. I am really looking forward to seeing how these turn out this week.

 The only major change I would have liked would be the sweatshirt and tshirt in the high street collection, I would have preferred those to be in a more stretchy Jersey material.

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 | Engineering Prints

This is the first Unit in which I have experimented with Stand Work, as it was suggested I should experiment with it in my tutorial last week. I pinned Fabric and Paper prints onto a mannequin in order to get a sense of where the prints could be placed on a garment. I feel this process was incredibly successful and I will definitely be repeating in the future.
The only mistake I made was not photographing infront of a white background. The placement can still be seen however it would have been much more clear infront of a clean white backdrop. I will remember this for next time however for now I will just be editing out the background in photoshop.

I sketched over the top of my photographs so that I could really see how the prints would work on certain garments. The sketches were easily dropped onto my illustrations and turned into a design idea. While I was pinning the prints, I was trying to keep an anatomical connection with my concept by placing certain parts of the print over a particular part of the body to imitate it, whether it be inside or out. For example, the first black and white design below is placed so that it imitates a ribcage. Similarly the circular designs on the t-shirt are placed specifically to represent a woman's chest.
Even if the placement doesn't represent a specific body part, the actual print design itself looks like muscle, bone or cells.

I used these images to create some final design ideas for each garment, which was made really easy by the stand work process. I have realised the actual 3D visualisation of the print is extremely useful and can creat designs that I wouldn't have come up with by just working on photoshop. The only thing I would chang if I could afford it is I would use fabric rather than paper prints, as the paper didn't give any drape and often had to be ripped in order to pin it where I wanted to.



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.