Cultural Clash Evaluation

I'm really pleased with the collection I have produced this term; I feel it is professional looking and truly represents a more industrial fashion collection, rather than a university project. I loved the theme I had chosen from the beginning as it was more of a challenge for me to clash two cultures rather than playing it safe with just one. At the beginning of the project, I was worried about the colour palette I would choose nevertheless I'm pleased I didn't tie myself to one as it has meant I've been able to build a more professional collection. I feel I have learnt from my mistakes from the last unit; last time I kept with the same style, repeated many of my prints and also used the same sort of drawing style. However this time, I have come more out of my comfort zone; experimenting with a variety of drawing medias has allowed me to come across materials I had forgotten I enjoyed working with. 

The work experience I completed has definitely made me more decisive; which is something I have never really been good at. This has given me confidence in how I work; showing me I can make decisions and the right ones when needed. Additionally the experience has made me even more efficient when working, so I produce more work, alongside research. I feel that my research has also been a lot stronger this unit, I haven't just collected a variety of research at the beginning and then put it to the side, but I've kept looking back at in and also gathering more throughout the development. Although I have  felt very much out of my comfort zone throughout the project, I really think it has helped me as a designer, as it has pushed me to keep trying new techniques and I've realised, I shouldn't shy away from something outside of the box. The Cultural Clash brief has enabled me to mix themes and experiment with a variety of styles; I think a challenge is something I need to make sure I set myself at the beginning of a unit, as I thrive more and produce a collection with my own stamp on it. 

Concept Board

I feel I need to work on my fashion illustrations. I've noticed that the illustrations I've created for this project, are very similar to the other perviously. It would help me greatly if I researched existing styles of illustrations to inspire and help me create a new style of drawing. I would really like my designs to look as good as they can, therefore to see them in context in a new and exciting way, would give my designs even more of a label. 

Overall I feel this project has been successful. Completing the work experience has especially been exciting and has pushed me even further in my time management, drive to do well and enthusiasm to achieve my future goals. I feel, since coming back to university this september, I have realised how badly I want be part of the designing industry, and I will do whatever I can to make it a reality. 

The Customer

My work is designed for women’s wear as I feel I have a better eye for the composition of print for women than men. I think I’ve always wanted to design for women as I’ve loved the idea of wearing my own prints! In the past however, this has restricted my design ideas as I’ve mainly been making my decisions based on what I would prefer. Nevertheless, over the past year, I’ve realised that this is unrealistic, as my prints won’t sell if I’m not designing for an audience.  I feel I’ve come out of my own bubble as I see more what’s around me in the fashion and textiles industry. This has helped my designing as I’ve focused more on research and trend forecasting, which has then pushed my ideas further. I can imagine my prints of the cut of a women’s wear; I design my prints with the style of garment in mind and the material used.

The Cultural Clash collection is for the woman who dares to be bold, has an eye for colour and cut of a garment and also feels confident in bold, exciting prints. Seeing my designs on a potential garment pushes me to make it a reality. Fashion is a key part of the majority of peoples lives; it can express personalities or even hide someone as they feel they need to be portrayed a certain way, therefore wear certain garments. I want to be part of that; I want my designs to be worn to express someone or help to give confidence in everyday life.

Customer Profile Board

Mixed Bouquet

Etro have designed amazing pieces based on the theme Mixed Bouquet. The spring/summer 2014 collection includes bold prints with delicate appliqué and embroidery. The pieces range from simpler dramatic placement prints to busy all-over prints against textured backgrounds. Some prints are more pop themed; using block motifs, on the other hand, some designs are more painterly and detailed. This collection has inspired me throughout this unit, as it truly shows how clashes of motifs, themes and patterns can work so well within one collection. 

Final Collections

Working to produce designs for the National Trust has definitely pushed me. It’s helped me to be more decisive within my work; I don’t have the time to keep experimenting on one technique when designing a print, as realistically you don’t in the world of work. It’s made me push myself to decide which aspects of my work are working effectively and which aren’t and how I’m going to move forward. When coming across a junction within my work this project, I have been able to overcome them quickly as I can make the right decisions more quickly and effectively. 

I'm really pleased with the collection I have produced. The three aspects of the collection add character and flexibility to this 'Cultural Clash'.

Three colour ways- Three collections

After developing a selection of prints that each had a similar feel to them; they all clearly fit into one collection, I realised I wanted to produce a collection built up of three colour palettes. I laid out all of my finalised prints and matched up the colours and saw potential in three mini collections within in one. This was quite an exciting idea as it's something new for me and also it looks more professional as there would be more options if the were ever put forward to a client. Three colour palettes means it addresses a bigger audience and therefore could be more successful. 

Moody Florals

When developing my prints, I always had the initial trend research in the back of my mind. the trends drove me to choose the theme I did therefore I made sure I stuck to them, however giving them my own twist.

Valentino Autumn/Winter 2014

Roberto Cavalli Autumn/Winter 2014

Experimenting with Texture

Texture is a major part of my work; even though my work is based on flat digital, I always make sure it is full of texture and in this case, I've developed the texture using both watercolour and oil pastels. Each media have a completely different look and feel to them; I haven't used oil pastels in years, and I actually really enjoyed working with them.

After working with different medias, I realised I wanted to produce a collection built up of three; each with a different colour palette, so the textures could be portrayed differently but all connected with the same theme.

Commission

It's been quite exciting this week! Someone came to me asking if I could create a scarf for his wife using one of my designs. After seeing all my prints from the previous unit, a favourite design was chosen and everything was on the go! It was really exciting to see my design on a large scale and be able to be part of the whole process, including hemming the scarf and also designing the packaging in which it was sent off. It was such a thrilling feeling to be able to say I had produced every part of the package; the print, the scarf, the packaging, the wrapping paper and then I was able to send it off completed. I'm definitely going to be doing it again! In fact, a close friend has asked me to do the same for a relative of hers...very exciting!

Dare to be bold!

Using aspects of drawings I did over Christmas, I developed a rose. This was interesting to create, as it was made up of different parts of initial drawings, this meant it produced quite a quirky looking rose. I then put it into repeat. I know I told myself I wasn't going to work too much with repeat, however this was just to get myself to another stage of development.

Using the rose motif, I started playing around with bold colours, overlaying the repeated print against placement prints, to see how it would work. I felt the placement of the motifs didn't quite work, however the texture of the overlapped layers did.

This design made me realise that I was producing prints that could actually be used on garments. Up to this point, I had felt slightly lost in my work; nothing really stood out to me, however this piece did! My project took a turn from here!

Work Experience

I have had such an amazing time on work placement. Claudia has opened my eyes to the world of work within a small textiles business. Claudia’s business ‘The Textillery’ is based at the birthplace of Thomas Bewick. Cherryburn is a National Trust sight based in Mickely in Northumberland; it’s a very small sight but with beautiful surroundings. Thomas Bewick was a print designer who created etched prints of farm animals, birds, new and exciting animals that people hadn’t seen or heard of at the time. He had his own studio within his birthplace which is still there today in pristine condition with a beautiful hint of authenticity. Claudia works at Cherryburn, surrounded by beautiful landscapes, animals and little dainty houses. She has the print room to herself so she can produce her own work and also work for the National Trust. Her and the National Trust have a deal; if Claudia can design and produce work for the National Trust, as well as other things, she can have full access to Cherryburn and Bewick’s print room. ‘The Textillery’ is an innovative and creative Textile Design Studio, she is able to identify, create and deliver exciting, new and commercial work with a British Heritage signature in mind. Her work focuses on designs that evoke the English countryside and heritage in a contemporary way. 


The first week working with Claudia was amazing! It was a case of sink or swim! I had known about the first brief before meeting Claudia, so I had collected some research; mood boards, colour trends for spring/summer 2014 and also price ranges. The brief was to create contemporary and traditional print designs using a selection of Thomas Bewick’s prints that could then be transferred onto silk scarves and sold within the National Trust shops. So obviously, I was excited! I met Claudia outside of Cherryburn and she greeted me with a smile and a soft hand shake; instantly I knew we were going to have a good working relationship. I had brought my research and a selection of work from my last project so she could see how I worked in depth. She was really happy and also grateful for the research I had collected as it meant we could get going straight away. Additionally she loved my style of work. To have someone who works within the textiles industry compliment my work the way she did was incredible. After deciding which colour palette and images we thought would be best for the scarf collection, I went away and produced around 20 designs. The day after Claudia and I were able to sit down and decide which designs were working best and could be developed further. The feeling meeting Claudia that afternoon was incredible; she was really impressed with the work I had produced and said that in the future she would love to work with me as she connects with my style. This was such a boost! The process of being given a brief, and images to work with was something I have never done before as I usually work with my own images or drawings, however it was quite exciting as I could interpret the images in a more contemporary way. For Claudia to appreciate the way I used the tools given and see potential in the designs as The National Trust would take to them, was unbelievable.  The first week was a bit of a blur; I had produced designs for silk scarves, presented these to others, designed the packaging for the scarfs and also created a worksheet.  I didn’t think I’d be doing so much in the three-week experience let alone the first week. 

Made by 'The Textillery', Cherryburn, National Trust

Made by 'The Textillery', Cherryburn, National Trust

The second week was a children’s wear brief; something I had never looked at before.  The National Trust had again, given us images of Thomas Bewicks work they wanted us to use. Initially they said it would be a t-shirt range with a simple animal placement design, nevertheless this developed into a baby range also. They told Claudia they wanted the texture around and in the animal to be removed, so the outline just remained. Underneath the outline of the animal, would be the name of the animal in blocked capitals. So with this brief in mind, I set to and started designing. The only problem was that the idea sounded fine, however when producing the design, it looked awful. Thomas Bewicks prints are so detailed, therefore to take all of this away from the design took everything away from it. That night, I was so worried, I didn’t know what to do because what The National Trust had asked for us to do, just wasn’t working; but how could I do something different when this was the brief they had given? Therefore I did exactly what they asked, but also produced one design that was slightly different, and what I thought looked slightly better! At least I could show Claudia something that didn’t look horrendous. So, the next day, I was really worried as to what Claudia might think; I didn’t want her faith in me to fade. Nevertheless I felt a lot better after she agreed with everything I said and actually liked the design I had created instead. I found this brief a little difficult as I hadn’t experienced designing for children, however it gave me the experience of having to produce work that someone had set me, that I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with. Nevertheless as the week went on, I got more into it as I started to design repeat prints with cute animal motifs and put the designs into context, so I could imagine them being quite successful on children’s garments. 

Made by 'The Textillery', Cherryburn, National Trust

The final week was quite experimental. Claudia had a member of the National Trust get in touch with her about a range of accessories. After having a think about items such as phone covers, laptop cases etc, I had an idea about kindle covers. I put this idea forward to Claudia and she really liked it; we discussed themes and stores that inspired us and came to the conclusion of producing a couple of designs based on ‘Wuthering Heights’. This is my favourite book so when it came to sourcing images from Claudia’s collection and experimenting with layout, I was in my element. In a meeting with Claudia, she realised that the theme Wuthering Heights may make the production more difficult as we would have to get copyright approved. Therefore we took inspiration from local stories and places, for example, there is a castle within a National Trust spot called ‘The Strawberry Castle’ and also a garden named ‘The Ice Garden’. Straight away when faced with these names, images come to mind; therefore producing kindle covers based on a series of stories like these, was quite enjoyable. What topped the whole experience off, was the final Friday, when Claudia and I were having a coffee just before a meeting and suddenly Claudia had the idea of using a couple of kindle designs as girls dresses! Just like that, and within half an hour we had produced four dress flats each with a different design! This is what makes me love Photoshop and the skill of design; Photoshop makes it easier for you to produce simple designs within minutes, nevertheless you have to have the idea first! To be able to sit with Claudia and have the control over the designing, but for both of us to decide what works best, made us realise, we both have a very similar eye for design.

Made by ' The Textillery', Cherryburn, The National Trust

Made by 'The Textillery', Cherryburn, The National Trust

Working to produce designs for the National Trust has definitely pushed me. I’ve always been a hard working person and never left work to the last minute, however experiencing this side of work has pushed me even further. We were given a brief and designs would have to be produced within two working days; this sounds terrifying at first but it can be done. It’s helped me to be more decisive within my work and think more about how the design could work professionally. Working with Claudia has opened my eyes to the world of work, and I’m so excited to get out there.