Week 19

Day One

Today I wanted to focus on using the laser cutter, I had never used the laser cutter so was very eager to experiment with the tool. First U went to Berwick street to find some fabric that I could use, I knew what colours I wanted, as there was a clear theme from my research. I looked at many different fabrics a majority of them were out of my budget especially for a sample as they were silks, however I found suitable replacements that were much cheaper. My fabric was satin Acetate, which I acquired in red, blue and orange. Then once at Ravensbourne I started to create the digital files I needed for the laser cutter. These were based on the initial prints I had made last week. Then I took these to the laser cutter. As I had never used it before I had a brief tutorial and realised that it was simpler than I had expected. I cut out four samples, one set was of a repeated coca cola logo pattern that had been cut out and also engraved and I did the same for a repeated random dragon print. They came out very successful although I had not anticipated for how long this task would take, this was due to my designs being complex in their detail which I learnt was not needed as I reduced the scale of them when I cut them.

Day Two

With the laser cutting samples finished and the deadline tomorrow I began to do some final developed designs that would enable me to progress onto my final designs. For my quick developed designs I focused solely on shape, as I would introduce my samples, prints and fabrics in later. My developed designs allowed me start designing my final line up. So towards the end of the day I had designed my finals, I scanned them in so I could edit them digitally however I started having problems with cutting the shapes on Photoshop, I ended up loosing a lot of time on this. Assessing my problem I decided I would draw them out again but in a thicker black pen as this should allow me to cut around them more successfully on Photoshop. This solution did work for me so before the day ended I was able to edit a majority of my designs, ready to be finished in the morning before my critique.

Day Three

This morning I finished off my line up and added in my colours and fabrications as well as my prints. I had decided to develop my prints when applying them onto my line up as my line up would give me a better idea of which prints would work best. Once again I had difficulty with the colours of my line up as they printed out different colours. The critique went reasonably well, I liked my final line up but looking at all of my work over the three weeks it did not work together well and appeared to jump from one idea to another. I feel that this sums up this project well, as although I didn’t have any blocks I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to carry out, which I di. However these ideas weren’t accomplished to the full which resulted with them being left unfinished.

Week 18

Day One

After exploring the fan shape last week, I wanted to carry on this way of working, as I believed it was working for me. I looked into my trip research and started doing the same exercise I did with the fan shape, however this time I used the shape of two Chinese bottles and also the coke bottle from and Andy Warhol piece in order to combine the two cultures together. So I created hand drawn and digital designs as well as collaging to develop these shapes. I collected a range of interesting structural shapes, which I really liked. Once exhausting the bottle shape I began to take interest in traditional Chinese dress. I chose to focus on the shape of the seams used, so I took the seam shape and placed it on the stand in a multiple of ways. Experimenting to see how it could feature on the body. I then developed off of my stand work and developed straight off of the traditional dress looking at ways I could reinvent it.

Day Two

Recalling my previous research and design developments I chose 4 of my favourite and began to design off of them in order for the shape to be developed to its furthest, I did a series of very quick designs, which I then focused on into developed designs. I did this for the whole day I believe that I worked well but possibly could have worked more efficiently by being faster and thinking less about what I was doing and just focused more on the shape.

Day Three

Yesterday I developed designs thoroughly, so today I wanted to look into the possibility of creating a print or using the laser cutter. For this I fixated on Chinese and postmodern iconography. I looked at the Coca cola bottle and logo, taken from pop art and the Chinese dragon, which I had noticed, had been featured on many Chinese artifacts from my trip research. I mixed the two together, combing the two cultures in a postmodern way. I did this through drawings which I developed into digital files as this allowed me to experiment in a more efficient way. I developed some ideas for initial prints and also possible laser cutting samples.

Week 17

Day One

Today was the beginning of the cultures project, therefore I started thinking about what two cultures I would base my project one. At first I chose imperial China and the Renaissance era. I used the libraries resources, finding many useful research points. Although once I had looked further into both cultures I felt that renaissance had many similarities to imperial china and as I wanted to combine two conflicting cultures I changed from the renaissance era to focusing on a postmodern culture. I chose postmodernism as I had already quite a lot of knowledge on it and I liked how it could be a playful and funny element to collection. For postmodern culture I looked into pop art, primarily focusing on Andy Warhol. I created a concept board after looking through all of my research.

Day Two

Today I wanted to start making developments off of my concept board. I looked into traditional imperial Chinese fans, I looked at their different shapes. This progressed into working on the stand by taking the fan shape I did this for a while collecting different examples. Although once I finished this I felt that it did not make any substantial development to my work, as I did not know how to progress from this, so I decided to look at the fan shape in a different way. I used the fan shape to create four different looks digitally. I felt that this exercise worked better for me as I then used the fan shape for some collages. I thought that these collages were very interesting as the shape was not confined to the body and was more experimental, and it also linked into postmodernism as it was similar to the Jean Paul Goude photography that I featured in my concept board. This lead me onto producing some quick designs that explored the fan shape.

Day Three

Today I went to the British Museum, as I wanted to gather more research on imperial China. I found a very detailed exhibit that had many different artifacts in it. I noticed how a engraved ivory or jade was a common decoration featured heavily. I thought this made for an interesting aesthetic and it made me think that I could recreate something similar using the laser cutters. I carried on around the exhibit looking at Chinese bottles and vases. I gathered all of my research together and sorted through the most interesting pieces I found in order to use in my work.

Week 16

Day One

I started today by looking at my research from day one, I was looking for the types of seams that are featured on sportswear garments. Once I found 3 seams I copied the shape and cut this out on paper I then began to arrange the seam shape on the stand, this helped me experiment by looking at the shapes of seams and where they can be placed on the body. Once I did this several times coming up with different results. I looked at the circular shape of the velodrome cut this out in many different sizes and did the same thing. I found this exercise really effective as it allowed me to look at shape in a different way. I believe that the velodrome shapes were not as successful as the seam shapes as they were not as interesting, so in order to develop from this I manipulated the shape on the stand, and I believe the results to be more successful. As I was going along I made sure to take pictures, then I sorted through my images selecting 8 of my favourite. With these 8 images I then began to develop designs off of them. I did a small series of quick designs that explored the shapes, I found this exercise very beneficial as it allowed my designing to be pushed further and more developed.

 

Day Two

As I had briefly focused on the velodrome I began to look more into this shape and how I could use this on the body. For this I cut out the shape several times and used it to collage off of. I also made some digital collages that used the shape. This development of shape showed me how I could take one simple shape and use in many different ways to create different designs. I later focused on developing my collages through hand drawn rough sketches. This enabled me to clearly see how my final line up may look after development. Once drawing my quick designs I added colour, yet regret the way I chose to add this colour as I believe it weakens the presentation, however I now know for next time to avoid what I did and apply colour in a simpler better looking way.

 

Day Three

After looking back at all of my research and developments I began to design towards my final line up. First I drew out some rough ideas of what my final line up may consist of, always bearing in mind the velodrome shape, and my chosen colours and fabrics. Once I did this I drew out my final 6 looks. I was able to do this efficiently as it did not take too much time. I scanned them in as I prefer to edit them in Photoshop, I feel that by doing this my presentation is much clearer and I also wanted to add prints and the fabric to the designs. This took a lot longer than what I had planned for, so when it came to presenting my work in the group critique my line up was finished however lacked on presentation and also the colours once printed came out different colours. So after the critique I changed the colours which did not take long and then I also adjusted the patterns and the sections where I had added the fabric, this then made the line up look a lot better all together.

 

Overall I really enjoyed this project from my initial concept and how I developed my ideas, I felt that this was the first time that I worked consistently as I didn’t have an issues or hit any blocks along the way. Things that I wish went better would be the way I designed because I feel that I could have exhausted the velodrome idea such as designing separate pieces, where as I feel that I was a bit safe in terms of designing for this project. But looking back I feel that this was quite a strong project for me as I began to design in different processes before which I would like to carry on throughout my next projects.

Week 15

Day One

Today was the first day of the sportswear project. Today I just spent the day gathering primary research this consisted of visiting shops such as lilywhites, Selfridges, Debenhams and Nike. The purpose of this was to gather up many different images that illustrated aspects of sportswear. I discovered the different types of garments for different sports, as well as spotting similar aspects that the garments feature such as fastenings and fabrics. This helped me decide what sport I wanted to focus on throughout the project, after reflecting on my initial research I settled on cycling to be my focus point.

 

Day Two

By choosing cycling to be my main focus point I wanted to create a concept board. For this I went to the library to find relevant resources, initially this task was supposed to be quick and straightforward, however it ended up being longer than I had anticipated as I could not find a substantial amount of relevant research. Therefore after gathering about five images, I started looking at web-based resources, by researching into the 2012 Olympic games and looking at the velodrome cycling and cyclists. I focused on what the athletes wore and was interested in how their apparel makes them streamline. I found 4 images that represented this idea and used this as the starting point to my project. I developed from my concept board my taking each image and representing the aerodynamics streamline idea by painting over them, that would represent the movement of the air over the athlete.  

 

Day Three

Today I gathered the research I conducted on the first day, I looked through this selected the best images, once I had done this I printed it out twice one for my sketchbook another so I could use it to collage from. I created four collages that used the different fabrics, colours and showed off the seams and stitches. This helped me to identify the colours and fabrics I could use for my finals line up. The colours I chose were neon yellow, neon pink and a royal blue. I wanted these colours to come in a neoprene and a sports mesh fabric. I chose these fabrics and colours because they featured heavily in my research and I felt that they related to the sports theme well, as they are traditional sports fabrics and colours. So for the rest of the day I decided to go to Berwick Street to find suitable fabrics. I found the fabrics relatively easy, and by doing this research trip into the fabrics and colours it enabled me to see that there was a huge range of fabrics and colours that I could use. However I decided to stick with my chosen fabrics and colours.

Week 14

Day One

After collating images of my developed stand work I began to design of them, my designs were quick only to experiment with the different ways I could reinvent a garment. After this I started to work towards making a final garment, I decided on using a pair of trousers and making this into a top. I began by placing the garment on the stand upside down and I then cut into the crotch seam to act as the top of the garment so the trouser legs were now the sleeves. I liked how this looked however I thought it wasn’t very creative and lacked in developments form the original garment. So in order to develop the garment further I looked into different ways I could alter its shape, in the end I decided upon having short sleeves. Once the garments alterations were pinned into place I started to think about creating some trousers. For this garment I liked the idea of layering and using the garments inside out so the seams and interfacings were showing. I played around with different ways of showing this in an interesting way. This lead me to the idea of having many different trouser waistbands layered on top of each other.  To create this I got four pairs of trousers and cut them along their waistband seam then I layered one on top of each other. This turn out to be more complex than I had anticipated because trying to match the waistbands up was not quick to do as I had to ensure that the sizing was correct. But after I did this they fitted correctly.  However to make this trouser garment I did not cut the forth garment as in order to leave the trouser legs still on. This meant that the garment had a larger waistband that consisted of 4 waistbands and then a straight trouser leg. Again I liked how this looked but felt it could be pushed further, so after developing different ways it could look I altered the trouser leg by aging in a large dart in order to make the leg a skinny fit. This worked well and gave the effect I wanted. But I still wanted to add something to the trousers, so by gathering the left over fabric from the other trousers I cute out their trouser leg seams, which had both edges overclocked, I liked how this looked and decided to use it as a decoration. By referring back to my collages I incorporated the foil effect onto the seams adding the rose gold foil. I then decided to place these separate seams onto the front of the trouser leg, however after realizing the problems this could cause me such as sewing the seams onto the leg would not be possible I rethought this. I still wanted to add the foil effect and liked the aesthetic of the seams but understood that this was not possible.  

 

Day Two

After considering my issue concerning the trouser leg I had found a solution. Instead of adding the seam onto the trouser leg I added it onto the shoulder of the top garment. Then as I wanted the two garments to relate to one another I added the foil effect straight onto the trouser leg fabric. This solved my problem and allowed my garments to be more cohesive. Yet I still wanted to make a jacket to complete the outfit. For this as I was looking at the insides of the garments highlighting the seams, fastenings and linings, I took the blazer jacket turned it inside out whilst placing it on the stand then I put it on back to front. I thought this made an interesting look, by having the high collar at the front. I then began to alter it, first I cut the sleeves off. This left me toying with what to do with the sleeves I tried different things like placing the sleeves on the back or having them pinned to the back but wrapping round the front. I felt that by reattaching them to the back and having them come round the front made the garment more interesting in terms of texture and visually. Additionally to again reference my collaging I wanted to stitched into the sleeves so the stitching was visible. When I sewed this garment together it was fairly straightforward however my needle did brake due to the thickness of the fabric in some places, but I ended up with a successful final outcome. The constructing of the other garments were also straightforward as I did not face any issues. But by taking the sleeves off of the jacket it left the internal wadding and padding hanging out so I pulled this out further so it stuck out, the raw aesthetic was interesting and I felt it worked with the idea of showing off the elements that make a garment.

 

Day Three

After creating and finishing all my garments I wanted to produce a photo shoot showcasing the garments. For this I asked my friend to model for me, I styled her in a simple way, as I wanted her hair and make up to simple and natural, I only added a dark eye shadow. In terms of location I wanted to have an industrial feel to it, so I walked down the riverbank along the river Thames and came across a Boat club that had high metal fencing and metal chains in the area, I felt that this would be to right location for the shoot. The shoot took about 40 minutes all together. Once I had uploaded my photos onto my laptop I could have a better look at them, I believe that the location was a good choice however many of them did not portray the garments very well in terms of the garments colours and the locations colours. However to solve this I chose the five best from the shoot and edited them in Photoshop. In Photoshop I altered the colours by making the background darker but the colour of the garments richer. I also added a purple hue to the photo in order to make the photos feel more industrial.  

 

Overall looking at this project I like my final outcome but believe that I could have worked faster. Also I feel that for this project I didn’t do enough work in my sketchbook in terms of illustrating designs as most of my work was done on the stand. I think I will bare this in mind for my next project so I can achieve an even mix of work in and out of my sketchbook.

Week 13

Day One

Today was the first day back after Winter break and the beginning of the deconstruct reconstruct project. To begin this project I had prepared by going to charity shops to gather a variety of different garments, this include eveningwear, outerwear, work wear and knitwear. I started off by placing the garments of the stand and experimenting with how they can be worn in different ways. I felt that this exercise went well for me as it gave me a better understanding of how the garments can be worn differently. I proceeded to look at the construction of the garments such as the type of seams and how the fabric was used. I photocopied close ups of the garments, which I used to collage with. When collaging I tried to use a variety shapes, which I later developed by adding a foil effect and stitching into. I enjoyed collaging because it enabled me to look into how different fabrics can be used together. However I found this activity took longer than I would’ve liked as I was spending too much time deciding the shape.

 

Day Two

I started today by looking at my completed collages, I began to develop these taking inspiration from the shape, this then lead to me doing a small selection of quick designs that took similar shape and techniques from the collages. After this I looked back at the garments and began to take them apart in order to understand the ways they were made, by looking at their fastenings, seams and interfacings or linings. I pinned the pattern pieces to the stand and manipulated the fabric so the shape was different from its original. I didn’t find this to be that affected as the shapes were not very interesting, therefore I decided to take the garments and take off some aspects such as sleeves or collars and then placing them on different parts of the body such as making a pair of trousers a jacket by using the trouser legs as sleeves. I found this technique more effective as my results were much more interesting.

 

Day Three

Throughout the morning I carried on with using the modified garments in different ways. For some I took particular aspects from one garment and then mixed it with another garment. Or even take apart a garment and then pining it back together in a different way to create a different garment, I carried on developing these throughout the day. I liked the results I was getting however felt that I could push these ideas further. I could develop them further by incorporating different fabrics or referring back to my collages, I could include the foil technique or even the repeated stitching.