Taking Advice

After the tutorial on monday I took on board everything that had been suggested to me. So I started to put my prints onto existing designs rather than onto illustrations as I still want to spend a lot of time developing my illustration skills and also experiment with the context of my illustrations.

Something Alex also asked me to think about was my target market. When he asked me who it was I could not give him an answer. We looked at the different types of inspiration I had gathered and decided that I was interested in a more high end market, which I agree with. Also another thing we were asked to think about was what was our final outcome going to be? I have decided that I want to create a collection of prints, presented through illustrations and fabric swatches. I want to use natural, sheer fabrics with an expensive quality to appeal to my target market.

Group Tutorial

This weeks tutorial was probably the best one so far. It had the most attendees and personally I felt it was a lot more constructive than any of the other tutorials that I have had this term. Alex said that he really liked the colour palette I had been using and said that I need to be more decisive with my work as I had told him I was still unsure with the colours I had chosen. However after leaving the tutorial I am fully decided on this colour story.

Other areas of my work that we touched upon where the actual prints that I had put together. Alex said that I need to experiment more with scale, and think more about how the design could be communicated into a garment. Which I agree with, so I am going to start putting my prints into garment flats and illustrations using Photoshop, this will be to experiment with scale, composition and to work on the styling of my work, which is another thing that Alex touched upon.

I showed the group an illustration I had put together just before the tutorial, which was a very basic drawing to help visualise my work. The group all thought that I should make my illustrations more abstract and detailed, adding things like hair or collage to the illustrations to make them more aesthetically pleasing.

Scanned Work

Developing Designs

After creating my mood boards I began to scan in my current drawings onto my computer. When creating prints I prefer to work digitally so went straight into Photoshop with my drawings. I had also created some backgrounds as I did not want to have just a flat plain background, something I want to highlight within this project is texture within the design.

Firstly I began with making my drawings into brush tools on Photoshop. I also took some of my designs into Illustrator to make them more graphic as some of the pencil lines were quite sketchy which was not the aesthetic that I wanted with those particular designs.

Currently I am just in the experimentation phase of the project. Both of these designs were to see how the colours I had chosen were going to work together and the proportions of these colours. My favourite between the two is the one on the right. It is not perfect, and I have tried to stay away from repeated prints however what I do like about the print is that even though it is a sketch of scaffolding links, it looks like barbed wire where it has been put together and looks rather abstract.

After looking over these two designs and analysing them I have came to the conclusion that I would like to steer towards less repetitive prints with a low opacity within the brush tools. I would also like to explore placement prints.

Mood Boards

I have been trying to create some inspiration for myself using the images that I have collected over the past week. I have put these images into a few mood/ colour boards to help me decide what colours I want to use throughout this project and what style of design and customer I am aiming towards.

Between the two mood/ colour boards I think the first one is my favourite and demonstrates the style of designs I want to create. The colours within the second board are a bit all over the place on reflection. I really like the combination of the orange and green however I feel that the rose and pink do not fit in. I still want to include some more muted tones of grey, adding gradients into the backgrounds possibly.

My next step throughout the project will be to scan all of my drawings into Photoshop and Illustrator and start to play around with different brushes and colour palettes to try figure out a much more defined path to follow. This is the part of the process I love, so hopefully I will have a larger quantity of work very soon. However with this in mind, I will still carry on drawing to improve my drawing skills and to keep up with the momentum of inspiration.

Contents - At Home

Today's lecture was  about the exploration and ideologies of home. We talked about the class system in the 50's and the ideas about class within the home. This is the scale we where presented with:

• Being seen by others to do/ have.
• Being identified by others as doing/ having.
• Being considered better than others who cannot do/ have.

I was quite interested in the way decorating our homes has evolved over the years. In Victorian times we use to display our belongings and it was seen as a sign of wealth and class, but now we are constantly wanting storage to hide away our possessions. Ikea are a great example of companies promoting storage to hie the 'clutter' within our homes. We discussed how our need for more storage reflects the fact that we must have more possessions which is a reflection of the mass increase of consumerism. We also discussed how our homes are a 'keep sake' for our memories and that we use our homes to store these.

In the seminar we delved further into the idea of memories within the home, how we can hoard items and does 'Tidy home' mean a 'Tidy mind'. Also is 'clutter' just things that are out of place?

I am really enjoying these sessions as they are allowing me to think more conceptually about day to day things that I would not usually think about.

Secondary Research

To reinforce my primary research that I have collected this week I have began to search through a number of blogs and look into a range of artists that have work relating to my brief. After collecting my primary research I have decided to look into much more industrialised urban surroundings, rather than the architecture within my urban surroundings. My reasons for doing this is to support my research and further my understanding of designs within the industry, as I am in the process of deciding who my target market is.

The reason I have chosen these four images is not solely for the print design. I quite like the idea of having a print on a transparent fabric, whether it be on a mesh based fabric or silk based as seen in the two right hand images. The opposite images are quite that, opposite, the bottom left image is in the same colour tones as I plan to use, and the placement of the print is something I have not thought about before as I tend to stick to an all over print in my own designs. The final design in the top left corner is a more literal design influenced by architecture by Mary Katrantzou. However the image I feel most reflects the type of design and styling I will be going for in this brief is the bottom right hand image due to the contrasting colours, type of fabric and the over all styling of the garment.

Urban Safari #2

So today I wanted to recreate something that I learnt from Unit X last year, and go on an Urban Safari! Which is basically going around Manchester and using my camera to log everything that I saw that inspired me or interested me. Today I really wanted to concentrate on colour as this was something that was highlighted in my tutorial, so to end the day with a colour theme would be an achievement. Here are a few of the images that I have taken throughout the day.

I tried to take on board what Alex had said to me about ornate architecture, but when I was out I felt drawn to the more industrial side of the city rather than the ornate. The colours int he images are great as well I think that I could create some great drawings and eventually a great collection using this selection of colours.

Group Tutorial

This week I attended my first group tutorial, although there were only three of us who turned up to the tutorial it worked to our advantage as we had a little more time for Alex to advise us. I was a bit hesitant to go to the tutorial as I feel like the amount of work that I have done is not sufficient.  However we did discus the work that I had done so far and Alex thought it would be a good idea to start looking into more ornate structures within architecture. He also said it would be best if I started looking into more colours. Although I will start looking deeper into ornate architecture I must make sure there is a strong element of originality and a contemporary feel still within the work.

Personally I am still feeling very uninspired by the project and the work I have done. However whenever I am feeling uninspired I feel that the best thing for me to do is to do a bit more research! So for the past 2 hours I have been sat in the library looking for a book that Alex suggested 'The Grammar of Ornament', unfortunately I was unable to find this book but still took time to look through other books around the same subject on the shelves where it should have been.

So the main points that I have taken from this tutorial are:

• Research further
• Add more colour
• Experiment more with drawing
• DO MORE WORK
• Make a detailed plan for the week ahead and stick to it

Space, Design and Architecture

Last year I felt that all of the lectures were quite boring and lacked direction and I tended to avoid them along side the seminars which I admit was a very silly thing to do and I do regret that from last year. So this year I attended my first lecture which was based around my chosen subject of 'Space, Design and Architecture'. I was surprised when I really enjoyed the lecture. We discussed the concept of 'The Place of Home', and 'Place and Space in Modern Domestic Environment'. We also went into a deeper feminist approach to the word home and what it represents, discussing the idea that men were more involved in the design of the home, were as women were more involved in what the space was designed for in the 1950's.

The reading we had to prepare for the lecture was a piece named 'Pram Town' which made for some interesting reading. I am intrigued in the subject and when we got to discuss this in our seminar it made me look at 'home' as more of a concept as apposed to a place. I feel that this lecture gave me a much more conceptual view of space, and I will look closer into this along side my Urban Influences brief for a more conceptual and contemporary outcome rather than a literal 'urban' fashion based collection.

Tutorial with Alex

This year I wanted to focus on Textiles Design for Fashion, however on my return to uni, the outlay of the course has changed slightly. This is now not offered as a pathway to follow and is instead more integrated within each other pathway that is available to study. Therefore I have been put into a Print orientated group. However I feel that this is a positive thing as it allows me to explore other areas of textiles and gives me some freedom within the course. So this year my tutor is Alex. Today I had my first one on one tutorial with him about the work that I had done over the summer, he seems really nice and he has gave me some great advice from the tutorial. He agrees that I should look into the Urban Influences brief and has suggested joining the Urban Sketchers Group to help me get out sketching in the city and seeing the other styles of the other artists that go out and draw also.

As I visited Egypt over the summer I have used this as my main focus in my sketchbook so far and I love the colours that I have captured here. The images bring out a sense of warmth and truly reflect the research too. Something I have learnt from this brief is to not dive straight into digital work. I need to develop my drawings further first and explore where these can take me. I have a bad habit of just repeating a motif and being satisfied, but this year I need to push myself as far as possible and really create something that I can be proud of.

PE Lecture

In todays lecture we were given our Professionalism and Employability brief, which has really scared me! Although our hand in is far away it is important for me to start to think about the outcome of this already. I have learnt from my mistakes from last year by leaving everything till last minute. My hopes this year are to carry on with the project along side my other projects in the year. I want the outcome of the PE brief to be similar to a zine. As I want to enter the fashion world I am trying to focus all of my work towards a fashion outcome.

The emphasis on the lecture was also to start taking more chances and take risks within our work. This lecture has motivated me to start 'thinking outside the box' although I hate that saying it is true that in my second year I need to push things to another level. My work needs to be of a better quality and needs to be my main focus. Throughout the year I am going to revert back to the notes that I made in this lecture and remind myself to TAKE RISKS!

Back to Uni

So it has been the first week back to uni and it is all systems go. We have been given five different briefs to choose from - Mobile Habitats, Visions of Sound, Future Past, Tomorrow Culture and Urban Influences. I have read through all of the briefs and have narrowed it down to two. Mobile Habitats and Urban Influences. I feel that out of them all the Urban Influences brief would be best suited to me as it would link well with the imagery and research I have gathered over the summer, also the CP2 choice that I chose before summer intergrates well into this subject also as I chose 'Space, Design and Architecture'.

I feel that the Urban Influences brief is definitely more suited to my style of work and I will now begin to go out into Manchester and collect primary research. I will use this research to begin my initial drawings.

Roma!

For my 21st birthday I was surprised with a trip to Rome wish I thought would be a great opportunity to get some last minute sources of inspiration for the upcoming term. The architecture in the city is stunning and I turned into quite the tourist snapping photographs left, right and centre as it was all so beautiful!

These images are going to be some of the lead inspirations throughout my next project. The ornate structures within the architecture will take focus as I add a contemporary twist.

Summer Brief

Over the summer we were given a brief to keep a record of any cultural activity we were involved in, and to also keep track of different artists who influence us or work in the same way to ourselves. These artists did not have to be specifically textiles artists as we have been encouraged to explore all creative paths to seek inspiration.

My main focus this summer has been collecting visual information and inspiration. I have visited Sharm El Sheik in Egypt and Rome over the summer and have mainly sourced imagery from these places. The architecture in these cities have inspired me throughout the summer and I have enjoyed working from these images and developing the research further to show in my first tutorial back to uni.

Egypt was such an exciting bustling place to be and there was constantly something going on. The amount of design and print that I saw was amazing and really got me excited to start my second year at uni. What I loved most was the use of colour here, which I usually tend to stay away from, however this has allowed me to gain knowledge in how exciting colour can be and that I should jump straight in!

The images that I have chosen to upload here are examples of the mood I would like to create within my upcoming work with the new project at uni. I feel that they warm and exotic with a fun feel to them with the use of colour.