Urban Influences Evaluation

   I feel I’ve put a lot of effort into this collection and in turn it’s made me quite proud of the work I’ve produced. The concept Urban Influences pushed me to develop new and creative ideas as I enjoy looking at the places and people around me. Manchester is such an inspirational city; it’s always buzzing with the great atmosphere and the people and buildings that make up the city. Like any city, some areas are run down, however in some cases that urban run-down look creates a great base to pick up those creative ideas. I think my work reflects the mood and the atmosphere of a place really well through the colours and levels used. Looking at other artists and designers work as well as the city has really helped me push my ideas further. My work was highly based on my inspiration from Mary Katrantzou’s Autumn/Winter 2013 collection. Looking closely at her work and the mood her collection portrayed made me realise the look I was wanting create through my collection.

   The research I’ve collected throughout this term has helped greatly towards my work development; I’ve built up a good body of information, inspirational images, and designers that I will be able to refer to in the future. Additionally going out and collecting my own images through photography has meant I can use the images any way I want within my work; taking different aspects each time and developing a completely different motif or mood. Earlier on in the project, I felt my work was getting a bit repetitive and too similar, but as soon as I collected those photographs, my work turned a corner. My prints started to look more textured, they reflected the mood I wanted and also looked quite professional.

   I have definitely had a more professional approach to the way in which I have worked throughout this project. I have set myself tasks to do within a certain amount of time, evaluated my work as I’ve gone along so my work develops quickly and effectively and I’ve used my time very wisely; sharing my time between workshops, practical work and work experience research, cv development.  Being able to stretch myself, balancing everything at once has proven to me that this is what I truly want to do and I believe I will do it to the best of my abilities. Looking over the selection of work I’ve collected throughout the past couple of months, I’ve been able to see how I’ve developed as a practitioner and also how my work has improved as time has gone on. It’s quite exciting to see how much I’ve improved throughout this project; I’ve learnt so many things about the way I work best and many new techniques.

   Three months ago, if you had asked me if I was a morning person, I would laugh and reject the whole idea that I would ever be a morning person! Nevertheless, I think I actually work better in the mornings. Getting up early and presenting myself in a reasonable manner, travelling into university and arriving to the studio wakes me up greatly and not just that, I feel motivated to produce more work and I get so much done. I’ve pushed myself this term, setting myself goals and achieving them, therefore I’m quite proud of myself. Like I said before, I would never in a million years think I was a morning person, but I’ve motivated myself to strive and produce work at all times throughout the day! It's also become clear to me as to what order I work in. I tend to do research, respond to it and then collect my own images and respond to that. After collecting a range of drawing I then look at the shapes that have been created, and produce a pattern with them. This then goes onto developing my motifs within photoshop and so on. Although I used to think I found it easier to collect all my research when receiving the brief, when in fact I've realised I find it really beneficial continuing to research throughout whole time I'm producing work. Just because you have an idea, doesn't mean you should stop your mind from straying elsewhere, sometimes the best designs are produced through changing your path completely. 

Final exhibition of 'Urban Influences' 

   It was difficult to decide which pieces of work from the final collection I was to display, however in the end I decided to choose the boards that represented my overall collection effectively and my best samples. I'm really pleased with my board as I feel it sums up the project really well and hopefully shows the audience how much work and research has gone into it. I'm pleased I didn't use any hand printing techniques as I feel it wouldn't represent the mood and feel of the collection. I had more control with the digital side of designing as I could experiment with the intensity of colour and transparency so small details within the design could be seen. Nevertheless it doesn't mean I'm never going to go in the print room again, as I feel I have more to learn from those techniques, however for this collection, I'm pleased I stuck with digital design. It was a shame I couldn't use laser-cutting within my work due to time and communication issues, as I feel the collection would have benefited from it, nevertheless, I can always return to that idea and experiment another time.
   Overall, I'm really pleased with my collection; I've learnt a lot about myself and the way I work and also learnt new techniques and met new people. I feel this is what I needed to inspire me and push me even further to succeed in my aim to become a print designer. 

Final Boards

My desired customer for my collection is the working girl, city chic who wears colourful bold prints, on simple yet effective cuts. The garments would be smart, casual therefore the materials would have to be comfortable and the cut easy to work in; I think my prints would work well on simply formed garments as they are very busy just as they are. My collection would appeal to the working woman who isn't scared to wear a bit of colour; who likes to express their personality through what what they where. With these ideas in mind, I have created a series of final boards to portray my collection, the ideas behind it and the desired customer. 

Customer Profile Board

Colour Board

My colour board isn't like a typical colour board; including an inspirational image with colours then picked out from it. Instead I thought it would portray the feel and mood of my colour palette better through displaying a selection of key designs from my collection, that really sum up the colours, the mood and patterns within my work. 

Research/ Concept Board

This research/concept board really summarises how I've developed my collection; it includes my own imagery as well as secondary resources, my own work and design influence. I've included a variety of shapes and styles as this is what's relevant to my work. I don't think my collection would have worked as well as it has without a mixture of styles and techniques, therefore portraying this on my concept board was important. 

Illustration/Context Board

Illustration/Context Board

I'm really pleased with my final illustrations; the styling of the garments and models create a great canvas for my prints. I think the hassle at the beginning has made my illustrations even better as it made me think more thoroughly about all aspects of them instead of leaping into producing pointless, unattractive compositions. 

Fashion Illustrations

Knowing the style in which I wanted my prints to be used within garments, I researched the style of clothing I wanted, the customer I was looking for and the position that would create a good canvas for my prints. With this all in mind, I then started to sketch my illustrations. Initially it didn't go very well (I'm not going to show you these examples). I think I was over thinking the style in which I drew the figure too much; so instead I sketched just the way I would usually and then better illustrations started to form. I like detail within my work, so I decided to include tone and texture within my sketches as it reflects my work effectively. I used pencil to draw my illustrations so when scanning them into the computer to place my prints onto, the lines were very faint. This meant I had to adjust the levels; initially I thought would ruin my work and give it a completely different look, however I think it worked really well as the texture was enhanced and the features and lines looked defined. 

Creating fabric swatches

This has been a very exciting process and to be honest the aspect of the project I've been most looking forward to; getting my designs printed onto fabric. I went into the digital print room knowing the look and feel of the fabric I wanted to print my designs onto, after having a look at the fabric samples that were available, I decided to go with the silk habotai. It’s a lightweight, slightly transparent silk with a light sheen to give my designs a elegant feel. I selected eight designs; using two from each “look” within the collection so when printed, the swatches could really feel like a collection. I’m really pleased with the final outcome; the silk gives the designs a brilliant, soft finish and the colours are deep and intense, just that way I designed them. If I a big supply of money, I would have definitely printed s few more designs onto a heavier fabric to see what the finish would be like, however the silk was a safer option as I knew it was just what I wanted. 

Fabric straight from the printer

Swatches in the process of becoming finished samples.

Blurred

I’m happy with my collection so far, however,  I feel to able to have a completely successful group of work, I need to include some different styled designs. A collection has to feel like it belongs together, but not too much so each design looks the same. I therefore experimented with a mixture of images and motif; using dark colours and zooming in to the overall design. I wanted the designs to look slightly blurred so the image was more abstract and not crisp looking like the others. 

I was really pleased with the outcome; the designs have a urban look and a “spacey” style. It reminded me of a garment I had seen in Urban Outfitters last Autumn on a velvet fabric. I definitely think my collection will work better with a variety of designs; a selection of repeated and some placement prints. It was interesting experimenting with my motifs; blending them with images and then zooming in to capture the texture the shapes producing and also creating a slightly blurred look. 

Borders

Looking back at some of my development prints I realised I wanted to use some aspects of them within my final collection. The finished pieces worked quite well however they weren’t anything special. Therefore I looked through some pieces and picked out what I could develop and use within my final collection. With these motifs and ideas at hand, I then started to experiment with borders within my work. When looking at Art Nouveau, I noticed that a lot of the art included borders to create a frame within the piece.

These designs have many different aspects of my collection: repeat, woven look, sheen finish and underlining darkness with bursts of colour. I think these prints work well as they are very detailed, creating a textured look. The borders are effective as they break up something that could look quite cluttered and also create a layered finish. 

I used a different method within these designs; instead of using motifs within the borders, I used a light transparent fill. This was to create a less layered look but instead create a frame within the print. The borders form a sort of grid so that if I wanted to construct a woven look; when repeated the print would form the appropriate lines.