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.