Spring/Summer 2012 trends...

                                                    Images from ELLE magazine March 2012

Been flicking through this months issue of ELLE magazine and fell in love with the many prints and colours gracing the catwalks and shops in this colourful season! Everthing from clashing digital prints (Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto) and patterns to poppy pastels and floaty pleats; it seems S/S 12 is alive in colour and fun! Everything is immersed in detailed patterning and print and so different to each piece. I especially like a dress by Mary Katrantzou which she designed for Topshop, (see the first image at the top) made from Polyester and digitally printed. Jonathan Saunders also had some similarly bright cocktail colours with more intricate and folklore style patterns.

I think with my scarf designs I will aim to explore a few different colour palettes when I start printing, as there are an array of colours on the catwalk this season. It will also be interesting how changing the colour palette could change the mood/style of the print too.

http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/designers_catwalk.aspx?designerid=160&seasonid=26

Work experience...

Last week I did two days work experience interning at a luxury organic cotton fashion brand. I have never had any experience in the design or fashion industry before so it was brilliant to have the chance to experience what goes on.
My first day involved meta tagging for the website, which meant entering a brief product description, the website page and typing in key words that people may type into a search engine, when looking for a particular product.
Another task I had to do for updating the website was selecting three other garments or accesories to match the product being described. For instance adding a scarf, clutch bag, white t shirt to match a boyfriend jacket, which would then show these images at the bottom of the page to encourage shoppers to pick something as well as the jacket.
In the afternoon I had to alter photographs of a couple of products on Adobe Photoshop (which I was not use to at first as it was different to using Photoshop on a mac!) this I felt happy with where my skills and knowledge of Photoshop could come into play. However, I found it fairly tricky remembering how to type in the quantity of stock, type of colours available and sizes available.
I enjoyed my time working at a fashion company and will consider this area as a possible job after graduating, though unfortunately as it was based quite far away and hard to travel to I could not carry on with interning. Travel and travel expenses will also impact where I will look for work too so I have enough time to get there and it is not too costly .

Pattern designs...

After speaking to Jane Bews who suggested I look into fashion, I started to produce pattern designs that could be used in fashion. I used watercolours to capture translucent and flowing effects of silk, which is the fabric I want to use when I produce my final outcomes. I decided to use the beautiful iridescent colours of peacocks and also thought they had a sense of elegance and beauty which I could reflect in my designs. I've started off with a few dress designs but hope to upload a few scarf designs too so will keep you posted!

Portfolio Visit - Jane Bews

For my second portfolio visit I spoke to Jane Bews B' Ed Hons Design & Technology. Jane is a local freelance designer and works full time as a teacher at an independent primary school. I wanted to speak to Jane who is from a different design background having studied Design and Technology, so I could see from a different designers perspective.
I collated a couple of sketchbooks together from my negotiated brief as I thought some of the pages were a Graphic design style which might interest Jane. Also in my portfolio, (as well as current sheets from Final Major Project) were a few design development sheets with portfolio bedding designs, which Jane commented on saying, "I really liked the bedding designs and would happily buy it should it go into production!" Which was very flattering feed back!
Jane thought my sketchbook from the Negotiated Brief was especially interesting and full of experimental media and colour ranges, which is important to explore when going through the design thought process. Jane also said, "A lot of time, thought and effort has gone into this portfolio so far." Improvements however, Jane thought maybe investing in a larger A1 portfolio and dividing different design sheets from each other to make my portfolio more professional and better presented. Another suggestion from Jane was to look into fashion prints as she thought my designs had a colourful and playful style. This I will hope to push forward with my Final Major Project, although I intend to look at scarf designs I will look into the possibility of fabric prints for fashion garment i.e dresses.