New Designers | 2013

Yesterday I went to New Designers at the Business Design Centre in London to see hundreds of Textile students work from Universities all over England. I have been the previous two years and have always enjoyed looking around, asking advice and generally soaking it all up. Going in to my last year of University I really wanted to use the whole day to get as much information and visual inspiration as possible. My aim was to look for various ways in which the students had presented their work, how they had drawn from their inspiration and their style of prints on various fabrics.

My work for the past two years has been really graphic where everything had to be symmetrical and in order. I now want to make the transition to a more free flowing kind of look within my work so I kept my eye out for this kind of style, which ended up being quite popular.
I asked some of the students how they feel I could make that transition and they were all really helpful in reminding me that I just need to relax, have fun and let the ideas come themselves.
A made the (scary) decision at the end of second year to not work in a sketchbook so I am no longer constricted, I noticed that a lot of students had done this which they all said helped them not be too precious (which is a lot of my problem).

I couldn't believe the huge range of talent and how overwhelming it all was, by the end of the day my mind was racing with ideas. If you're in to textiles and want this to be a college or university route I would recommend going to get advice and see what Uni can work with you to your full potential.
My favourite was of course Derby. I am so proud of all the girls that showed how amazing their work is and how talented and down to earth they all are. They have helped me so much this last semester answering putting up with all my questions and giving priceless advice.

Here are the images and notes I took from a few students whose work was incredible ...

UNIVERSITY OF DERBY 


GRACE DORAN | Loughborough University
gracedoran@gmail.com

Grace based her project on dreams by asking people for their dream stories and going to galleries. I asked her how she translated the stories in to her drawings but sadly that question was too tricky. Her mother made the clothes and clutch bags, which were amazing quality.
Her work was screen printed.



ELLYS BEALE | Loughborough University
ellysbeale1@gmail.com
@EllysBeale
ellysbeale.wix.com/portfolio

Ellys was one of the most helpful students I spoke to and gave me so much advice and so me more of her portfolio work which was stunning.
Her theme was based around Alaska and the wild with her imagery coming from Native America. She would then draw by hand to scan and play with on Photoshop. Her eye catching prints were all hand painted. She also recommend a sand wash silk (which I had never heard of before) and silk bureau.co.uk to get work printed.


ROULA KATOUDI | Loughborough University
roula.katoudi@gmail.com

Her theme was based around performance, theatre, masks and the 1920s which was all combined in amazing eye catching detail. Her work was all screen printed and then hand painted and her aim is to work in print for fashion.




KATE GABB | Loughborough University
katherinegabb@gmail.com
http://katherinegabb.tumblr.com/




SARAH BISHOP | Nottingham Trent University
sarahbishop072@gmail.com
www.sarahbishoptextiles.moonfruit.com

Sarah's work was visually beautiful and came together as a collection really well. Her theme was hidden depths and organic. From this she looked at coral, sea weed etc drawing from images she took at the Sea Life Centre. Her work was done by hand which involved devoré (my favourite technique) and a Princess Pleating machine, which I had never heard of before.



LUCY M H SMITH | Nottingham Trent University
lucymhsmith@gmail.com
cargocollective.com/lucymadeleine

I just took some pictures of Lucy's stunning mark making and drawings which inspired me. She told me that she uses the mechanical pencils and watercolours.





AMY GILL | Nottingham Trent University
amyeleanorgill.com
amy_gill_24@hotmai.com

I really liked her presentation skill and her CAD work.



HANNAH WEEDON | Falmouth University
hannah.weedon@gmail.com
@hanweedesign
hanwee123.blogspot.co.uk

I love her delicate scarf fabric and bright yet subtle colours.


LUCY DEARN | Southampton University
www.lucydearndesigns.com
lucy.dearn@live.co.uk

Lucy's work amazed me so much and I couldn't stop staring at it and the fine detail that it involved. Her theme was wallpaper and looking at materials like wools, metal, crumbling walls, rust etc. She got the idea from the Surface Design Show 2013 and started woking with collaged paper, lots of layering of things like tracing paper and mixing techniques.





AISLING DUFFY | Edinburgh University
aislingduffy.com
aisling.duffy@hotmail.com

I was really attracted to her work because it stood out so much, not only because of the way in which she presented it but they style in which she worked. Her theme of childhood memories, personality and portrayal in public was also of interest to me as I want my next project to be about Identity. She explored layering and fabrics or things that you may hide and reveal. Her drawings were lovely and came across childlike in an inspiring way and she also work on writing.



KATY CARSON | Norwich University
kjcarson@hotmail.co.uk
kcarson.tumblr.com

I thought her presentation really stood out with her shirts and the collars being made of sugar paper.


CORAL FOWLEY | Winchester University 
coralfowley@gmail.com
www.coralfowleytextiles.co.uk

I was instantly attracted to Coral's work and her drawings of Bath in the media of fine liner, watercolour and pencils. Her theme was travelling and transport focusing mainly on photos of a trip to Bath. 
What I really admire about her work was the way in which she had taken small shapes and sections of her drawings and layering them in to a repeat print. 






LUCY ROBERTSON | Duncan of Jordanstone University of Dundee
Hello@lucyrobertsondesigns.co.uk
www.lucyrobertsondesigns.co.uk
@DrainSpotting
@Designmeworld

Lucy's work was spell bounding! I cannot believe her designs came from people tweeting her pictures of drains from all over.
She also used a technological fabric called thermo chromic on the shirts which, when touched with warm hands, the blue went white.




GRIZELDA KITCHING | Leeds University
grizelda_k@hotmail.com
grizeldakitching.tumblr.com

Her work was one of my most favourites from the whole day. I couldn't believe how she had taken the popular theme of flowers and made it work so it was very abstract. 
She had taken high resolution scans of flowers and taken pictures using a macro camera. She explored printing with flowers, using black and white photocopies of flowers and printing with oil. She also worked with copper plate printing and on photoshop worked with the rubber took.




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