Unit X- Research

This week was the launch of Unit X. For my Unit X project this year I have chosen to do a project called Whitworth Limited Editions. For this project we have been invited to develop proposals, samples and prototypes for products to be sold in the Whitworth’s retail outlet. Within the timeframe of the project I will not necessarily be able to produce a finished product; therefore it is important to consider throughout how my ideas are communicated to an audience. After the project launch presentation we were asked to bring a wide range of creative materials and sets of multiples. From these multiples and materials we created new design ideas to create innovative products. Here are some images from the making session.

Also we had to do a task called 'speed dating' for this we were asked to prepare a small 2-minute speech and bring an example of our work. Then we worked our way round the room talking to as many people as we could to describe our work in 2 minuets. I found this task very useful to see other peoples work and find people who I would be interested in collaborating with. I also found the task quite enjoyable and fast pace. I was lucky enough to be asked by 3 girls if I would like to collaborate with them on this project, not creating 1 outcome but just to meet up and share our ideas, as we all have similar thoughts about this project. The girls I am working with are all from 3D design, which is a subject I am very interested in. I am especially keen to learn about the way they work and how they interpret this project from another discipline's point of view.

Today we went on an organized visit to the Whitworth art gallery. Although I have already visited the gallery independently a few times in the past, it was much more helpful and interesting getting a tour. I started the day by being shown textile examples from the Whitworth archive here are some photographs of the ones I found most interesting as they relate to my own practice as i am very inspired by all of the colours and the detailing that these items have on them. I feel older textiles from the archives are more interesting than modern textiles because i feel they have some sort of story behind them and thats why they are still so interesting and engaging to look at. 

I found all the parts of the Whitworth interesting but I found the gift shop talk from the commercial team was the most engaging and informative to me. Looking at the products and being given information about the products it was very clear to see the key concepts of the Whitworth being; Playful, Personal and intelligent within the products that they already sell. I was able to get a clear feeling and understanding of the audiences that i could design for. This understanding was vital in helping me think of my own ideas to be sold in the shop as i realise how important it is that my product would fit within the shop. Here are some of the image I took which I found most inspirational. I found them inspirational because of the wide variety of objects the shop sold. I was inspired that i could let my imagination go of and think about all the possibilities i could think of whilst designing. The colours of the images in the gift shop were particularly inspirational as they were all quite different but at the same time they all sat very well together to create a very consistent look and feel throughout the store. 

After the tour of the park I am thinking about using the idea of reclaimed wood from Whitworth Park itself as a key concept in my design ideas. I think that this would fit in well with the words that characterise the Whitworth’s approach; Playful, Intelligent and Personal. I am thinking that my proposal could use any one of these words at this point to describe itself. Also by using reclaimed wood that has already fallen from the trees in the park, that this will be made with an ethical consideration. If I do not use the idea of reclaimed wood in some way or another, then I think the best thing to do would be to design for interiors as this is what i am most interested in. I intend to explore working with reclaimed wood as this is something i have never done before, however as it is not my area of practice working with these materials i am unsure as to how successful it will be. Therefor the idea i will choose to take forward will probably explore an area more close to my own practice and focus on interiors aimed at children. 

I attended the Alex Russell workshop because I am interested in trend forecasting and I thought this would be the most relevant to my work. I have always been interested in trend forecasting and I think it is a vital part when trying to design products, as no one is going to want to buy a product that is outdated, especially as the production time for some products can take years. I really enjoyed the lecture and I felt that I learned quite a lot about the subject, although I wasn’t expecting to learn as much as I did by completing the tasks in the workshop. In the workshop session I collaborated with Rachel Convery, and together we chose to look at environmental issues as our topic. We used post it notes to list a plethora of environmental issues and then chose 2 issues to focus on.

After gathering images to illustrate our 2 issues we then created 2 boards from these. We then presented these boards to the rest of the class.

This week i met up with my group and discuss my 3 ideas. This helped me a lot to see other people’s opinions. I found it very helpful as we are all looking at the same theme of nature and bringing the outside inside. We have all been very interested in the park and the idea of reusing wood. I initially wanted to use reclaimed wood as the main focus of my project but i have changed my idea after discussing with my group. I am going to use reclaimed wood and sticks as drawing tools to create the drawings and images for my designs. Here are my 3 ideas. The idea that i will be taking forward will be idea number 2. I have chosen to design for an interior setting and i feel that this project will work particularly well for children's interiors.

Locating- Project Evaluation

For this project I was asked to create and develop my own self initiated brief. I knew it was important to manage my time because not only would I be working on my self-initiated brief I will also be responding to at least one of the live briefs. To help me stay on track and manage my own workload I created a timetable at the start of the project so I could see exactly what I had to do in weekly sections. I am really glad that I did this because I feel that I would have fallen behind on my work had I not set myself realistic weekly goals. Because I broke my work down into manageable chunks I felt that I kept on top of everything well. I feel that I managed my time well because I also factored in when I would be away in Paris to go to the Masion et Object trade fair. If I had not written this into my plan and worked more the week before I went to Paris I feel like this would have had a detrimental affect on my work. By putting up a printed copy of this timetable on my bedroom wall I could clearly see what my goals were for that week and week about doing this accordingly. I set my time aside for doing my live project brief so that it wouldn’t overlap with my self-initiated brief and I would not get confused. I think that my time management skills have improved since starting this project and I am definitely going to use these skills in my next project. Especially creating an initial weekly timetable.

Whilst I was in Paris, as well as being incredibly inspired by the work I saw and the people I interacted with, I also collected a lot of business cards and leaflets of designers. I had the amazing opportunity to speak to current designers in the business and learn tips from them about where I may want to take my own work in the future. I also signed up for the website patternbank.com so that I can keep up to date with the upcoming trends and give myself a larger insight into the textile design world. As well as networking, I followed lots of different artists and designers on Instagram and Pinterest that I found whilst researching. I think that this has helped me a lot because it’s a very visual and creative outlet that I can easily see wherever I am on mobile devices. It’s also a good way of seeing contextual research and easily saving images that are inspiring or relevant to my own work. I aim to continue to use this technique to further my future development.

Throughout my project I feel that my work developed quite dramatically from my initial drawings and ideas. I initially wanted to look at wildlife and animals but after doing more research I felt I was more inspired by the landscapes that I was looking at as apposed to the animals directly. From this I started to create more drawings of mountain ranges, trying to capture the remote sense that I was seeing in my research. When I started designing I knew I wanted to keep a very grey and neutral, earthy feel. But after I created some Brusho paintings I knew immediately I wanted to include these within my designs. The contrasting colours and the grey tones gave my work an arctic and outdoor feeling which is what I wanted to achieve. When I was designing for the Bradford textiles competition I knew the sort of interior range I wanted to create, but whilst doing this I read the fashion entry of the competition. This is where I got the idea to start to develop my existing designs to fit a fashion context. I did lots of contextual research into fashion and decided that I wanted to take my work down the route of ski and snowboard wear. I think that this worked very well and I was pleased that I decided to go ahead with this theme. I also think that my work developed hugely after I took my digitally printed fabric into the print room. I think it can be hard sometimes to visualize how a design on a computer screen is going to look when it is printed out. I was pleased with my prints but I felt that some of them needed to be developed by hand printing elements such as flock and foil. I carefully planned out what I wanted to create with my prints before I went into the print room, and I was generally pleased with the outcomes. However one of them did not come out the way that I had wanted it to because the lines on my motif screen were too thin. I have learned from this and will ensure my motifs on my screen are suitable for printing.

I feel like from doing this project I now have a much clearer sense of where I see my work going in the future. I have looked at a lot of artists and designers and gathered a large body of contextual research that is relevant to my own work. I now see myself working towards designing my own interior products, either independently or working for a larger design company. After creating my designs I used Photoshop to put my own designs into situ. I feel like I chose suitable and relevant locations for this like modern apartments and ski chalets. These are the places were I can see my work being displayed. I created a consumer board to clearly show the type of person who would buy my designs and this showed how I could see contextual links between a type of person choosing a type of design for their home. Hopefully I have chosen this well as I feel that my own work is quite contemporary and would be purchased by a quite successful person with a distinct style.

Overall, by doing this project I feel like I have learned a lot, and my work has certainly developed. Having Rianna as a tutor again for this project really helped me because I feel that she understands my work and always gives me clear and consistent advice on how I can improve. Going to the group tutorials and receiving feedback on my work has also really helped me improve. As someone who is quite unconfident about showing my work I initially was very nervous about going to my tutorials. But I have realised that I have become much more confident in my work and within myself by talking and presenting my work to others. Because I have had the support of my tutor and my peers throughout this project I was able to clearly see my strengths and weaknesses within my own work and I feel that this has helped me develop. Not only am I pleased with the work that I have created for this project, but I feel that my work for this has been much more relevant to the type of thing that I would like to after I graduate. I am glad that I tried designing for interiors instead of fashion because I really enjoyed it and I can see my work more in that context. I feel that since starting the project I am much more driven to create work to the best of my ability because I am starting to see my own work in a contextual and professional way.

Locating- Week 8

After creating my sample and design board for the combined processes part of the Bradford textiles competition, I started altering my designs for a fashion outcome. I thought that my designs would be more suitable for an alternative sports brand, fitting the market for ski and snowboard wear. I started to gather design flats of the garments I wanted to create and edited my designs on Photoshop to visualize what my designs would look like on the fashion garments. I created a whole range of ski/snowboard wear and accessories and I was actually really pleased with how these looked. I will be sending a main board with a sample and one fashion visualization on and another board with my whole range on to show my collection. I think that this worked really well because after doing a lot of contextual research on ski and snowboard wear that is currently on the market, I feel that my designs relate well to the common themes of neutral tones and contrasting bright colours with daring patterns. I feel that my work also portrays these elements. Here are some images showing my fashion visualisation boards that i will be sending away to the Bradford competition.

Locating- Week 7

I was quite pleased overall with the samples that I created in the print room this week. They all turned out quite well although one of them that I added iridescent foil to did not come out as well as I had hoped. I think this was because the lines I used for my motif were not as thick as they should have been. Next time I get a screen developed I will ensure that my motifs are thick enough. My favourite sample that I created was a one that I added white flock to. I have decided to enter this sample into the combined processes section of the Bradford textiles competition. For this I have created a board including my main sample and an image of my design in situ. Here are some images from the print room and of my Bradford combined process sample.

Locating- Week 6

This week I had my digital designs printed onto the fabric cotton canvas because I thought this was the most appropriate fabric to use for interior outcomes such as cushions. I was very pleased with the way they turned out as the colours came out really bright against the grey tones. I have also booked time in the print room for next week to develop my prints by hand. I want to add a couple of other processes to my prints such as flock and foil to give them subtle hints of texture. I think that when designing for items such as cushions that sometimes texture can be quite important, hopefully after my hand printing in the print room I will be pleased with the outcome. I have already had my motifs developed onto a screen that I will use on my fabric so I can plan ahead exactly what I will be printing whilst in the print room. Hopefully this will ensure that my printing is effective and efficient.

Here are some images of my digitally printed fabric