Showing posts with label designing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label designing. Show all posts

New Theme | Dark Flora

(Sources 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5)

First of all, how on earth is it September already? This time last year I had only a couple of weeks left in my first placement and this year I have just started my new job it really is unreal how much can change or happen in a year. Speaking of which, due to the fact I've moved back home, worked constantly, working on my new blog and spent time catching up with friends this blog has been neglected slightly and there has been no weekly content. I am trying to figure out where I want to take this blog as I have had the same structure for about two years now and want to push it more when I start my own projects. It will take time so stick with me whilst I sort it all out. But I am back to freelancing and working on designs ready for Premiere Vision which I am hoping will bring some success for my designs. You really never know how PV is going to go and there is a lot of competition but all it takes is that one meeting and that one design for someone to pick it up.

So the new theme is Dark Flora which is a theme I have wanted to do for months. Of course it is me, I love florals and so is a great them for me. As with any new project that I haven't really had the chance to do before it comes with is challenges, so the best thing to do at the beginning is to breathe, turn on the music and design away. It will need a lot of working in to and patience to get the layout, colours and florals right. I have this imagined in my head like I do at the beginning of every theme but it is all just about making it fun and enjoying the process of working in to the designs, layering, varying scales and using filters. I've found that during my research I didn't want to look to much in to what other designers have done as I would feel like I had to replicate that rather than take my on approach on it. Some designs can be oversized, smaller, darker, brighter, blurred, layered or mirrored. It really is all about experimenting and if it is not right then just try again or ask for some help. I really enjoyed creating this mood board for it after being inspired on Pinterest for the layout. It really helps to have a mood board for each project and it never has to be a final cut before you start the project as your inspiration can change. Like the name suggest, it just has to replicate the mood or feel of the theme and to pick out little parts from each image.

What do you think of the theme?

Editorial Inspiration




My current freelance work is taking a lot of inspiration from the Valentino Spring Summer 2015 collection (see previous post) which is quite exciting now I've got my head around the drawing and technical issues I had creating the collection. The colours are gorgeous with dark blues, greens, reds and mustards. Primary colours in a more attractive manner.
The motifs are quite folky which means searching Pinterest for inspiration and then losing three hours due to how addictive it the site can be (of course I go of route to cute other things). I sometimes find that searching for editorials from the runway collection I am working on helps bring the mood together and I have come across the visually stunning and well put together editorial for the Valentino SS15 collection my Michal Pudelka. The clothes speak so loudly in the photos, nothing "fancy" needs to be done to make the garments stand out. It helps to see how the different repeat or placement patterns stand together and the contrast between them blend well together. I'm always pinning but to check out what all things folky I am looking at, follow me on Pinterest.

See the full editorial here.

New Theme | Freelancing


(Source: Vogue UK)

After a little break from freelancing it's time to get back in to it and create as many design groups as I can before Premiere Vision. My last collection was a William Morris inspired one and this new collection is also based around the idea of his work, but more inspired by the Valentino Spring Summer 2015 runway collection. I achieved a good outcome with the last group and I'm very excited about this new theme. Of course, I'm a little wary and scared as I always feel about taking on a theme I haven't experimented with before. I have a constant look in my head of how I want the designs to look and try not to feel disappointed when the outcomes don't match the ideal look in my head. But, overall, it's about experimenting and testing myself and my design skills. There is always something to learn from designing a collection and to use those for future themes. 
So, lets get designing... 

Book Haul


Having just gone on a recent trip home it was the perfect opportunity to go and route through my big box of fashion and textile books. I always forget how many I actually have. Some (like the career ones) won't come in handy like they did in college. But some of the books I own (like the designer, picture and printing books) I know I will go to again and again to build up my knowledge. Three of the books that I have used throughout University, and mainly for my dissertation, I wanted to share and point out what they include and what's good about them. All three combined together have a wealth of know,edge within the pages and have helped me so much along the way and still continue to. Just this weekend reading through them I picked up things I forgot about, like hoe this or that dye works and what this process does to fabric.

So, which is what and what do they do? 

1. The Complete Guide to Designing and Printing - by Laurie Wisbrun 
Includes: 
- Interviews with professionals
- How to develop collections 
- Developing your market plan ~ your vision
                                               ~ your objectives. 
                                               ~ your brand personality
                                               ~ what are you selling and who to
- Trade shows ~ developing your budget
                       ~ what shows to go to and general advice 
- How to build moodboards 
- Various different patterns 
- Building colour palettes 
- Legal considerations 
- Explains Photoshop filters 
- How to create block, half drop and straight repeatson Photoshop and Illustrstor
- Explains textile dyes and inks 
- Small amount of detail on types of fabrics 
- Explains dying fabric ~ resist and vat dying 
- Hand printing ~ block and stencil 
- Screen and digital printing process 

2. Printed Textile Design - by Amanda Briggs-Goode 
Includes: 
- How to understand a design brief and how answer that brief alongside how to brainstorm
- How to categorise prints from geometric to floral etc 
- Explains the variety of printing methods ~ resist printing 
                                                                ~ woodblock printing
                                                                ~ copperplate printing 
                                                                ~ engraved roller printing 
                                                                ~ screen printing 
                                                                ~ heat transfer printing 
                                                                ~ digital inkjet printing 
- Understanding the textile market 
- Trend predictions and trade shows 
- Design fundamentals like ~ drawing 
                                          ~ colour theory 
                                          ~ the various repeats from half drop to mirror 
- Creating a motif block repeat in Photoshop 
- Block repeat using offet filter 
- Creating half drop repeats
- Developing your drawings through composition, scale and filters 
- Discusses stencil printing, paper stencils, photographic stencils, relief printing, transfer printing, direct and indirect transfer printing, collagraph printing, digital printing, mono printing, reactive mono printing, direct and indirect mono printing
- Surface manipulation and visualisation  
- Colour seperations for screen printing    
- Manufacturing methods and materials 
- Talks of fabrics like ~ silk
                                ~ wool 
                                ~ cotton 
                                ~ linen
                                ~ synthetic and man made 
- Dyes and pigments 
- Discusses digital printing and screen printing
- Sustainability 
- Discusses freelancing, design studios, textile manufacturers, textile converters, garment suppliers, contract furnishings 
- Designer case studies 
- Becoming a printed textile designer ~ having a website
                                                          ~ digital portfolio 
                                                          - how to present your CV 
                                                          - Selling designs 

3. Digital Textile Printing - by Melanie Bowles and Ceri Isaac 
Includes: 
- Discusses digital, inkjet, sublimation and other styles of printing 
- Advantages and disadvantages of digital printing 
- Digital printing technology 
- Discusses drawing, using a graphic tablet and photography 
- Tutorials in using Photoshop filters, creating complex colour blends, building floral motifs, engineered prints, photomontage, sequin effect, building a brush palette, creating a colour palette
- Repeat tutorials in Photoshop and Illustrstor from basic block(with offset filter), half drop and half drop motif
- Creating gingham, stripes and plaid patterns 
- Pen mapping tool 
- Line drawing 
- Creating graphic silhouettes
- Discusses Devore, foiling, flocking
- Designer case studies  

Competition | Bohemia

"Inspired by the catwalk shows of Etro, Valentino and Burberry, "A Travellers Dance" captures the Boho style. A colourful and unique print designed by hand that layers a fee-flwing repeat with a visually eye-catching boarder".

I recently entered the latest Textile Federation competition entitled "Bohemia" which I somehow manage to squeeze in to my busy schedule. I was quite excited by the project so wanted to give it a go and use this as a base to test my graphic tablet skills. I designed the print using various internet found paisley and indian woodblock designs which I then changed slightly using different brush marks that had a sketchy and relaxed edge to it. I then use copyright free designs for the boarder (which were slightly modified) that fit in with the half drop design of the main print. I was really inspired by the way Burberry had simple straight block repeats in a two colour way in their A/W 2015 collection (bottom right) and wanted this for the boarder rather than Etros dip-dye hem from their S/S 2015 garment (bottom left). This print, however, gave the the idea for the main repeat of my design which I decided to make slightly more busy and use warmer colours as well as the purples and blues. There is so much inspiration for the Boho style print and pattern so I could have spent a lot longer design this print in real depth, but competition deadlines call and submission is a must! I am quite pleased with the overall look which still carries my handwriting. Every project definitely teaches you something and this one taught me to not be afraid so much of an open brief. And yes the mood board is a great reference, but what it does and should do is in the name and allow that mood to be felt but not have to follow whats on the board so tightly and restrict design freedom.


Lesson learnt! Next project please!

See the design over at Textile Federation.







Floral Inspiration


1 | 2 | 3 | 4

I love florals. I love interior print designs. So, clearly, I am in total admiration for the floral prints at John Lewis this season. With a vast collection of colours from soft blues, creams, yellows and pinks my mind goes in to colour overdrive.
The overall inspiration for me is the loose hand drawn, water colour look and feel that translates so easily from bedding to cushions and to curtains. You can really brighten up your bedroom with these prints by picking out accessories that match the many colours in the prints.
For my next project, I am creating some hand drawn interior prints and feel really inspired by the prints at John Lewis at the moment. So, it's time to get the watercolours and paper out!

Inspiration | Marc Jacobs A/W 15


I am a big fan of William Morris designs and so I was thrilled when I discovered my latest freelance print theme was designing all over Morris prints.
I had a brief research in to this trend that took the runway by storm and was instantly inspired my the Marc by Marc Jacobs Autumn / Winter 2015 collection.
The colours range from browns, green, blues and reds creating an exiting colour palette for me to work from. The prints are so bold and stand out on the jackets, trousers and skirts that Katie Hillier and Luella Bartley placed them on.
I am just hoping my designs come out as great as these.

Interior Inspiration

 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

As a print designer, I find it really important to not always be so focused on one area on the textile industry. The textile interior industry is an area of design I have always dived in and out off over the years. For my graduate collection, the beginning drawing process drew a lot of inspiration from the beautifully crafted prints by Bluebellgray. Fi Douglas, the creator behind the brand, established Bluebellgray in 2009 after graduating from Glasgow School of Art. Just like myself, Fi has a "love for colour and all things floral" which result in these gorgeously painted pieces which give your home a unique touch. 

The design philosophy behind the brand adheres to the ‘eclectic mix’ school of thought, encouraging the designs to sit beside vintage finds and modern design alike.

Each design is painted by hand in the Glasgow studio before being printed on natural cottons and linens. 

The printing methods used enable every brushstroke and colour to be captured, enhancing the feel of the hand-painted design.

The prints are colourful, eye catching and, overall, aesthetically pleasing. I would love to have one of her cushions on my sofa or bedsheets on my bed. I am really drawn in to this style of interior design, it is a style of designing that I love and miss the most. The prints have an essence of freedom with the running inks, loose florals and scratchy marks that are in elegant repeats. 

Head over to the website for more collections.

Project | Intimates Print

Another project under my belt this week was researching and creating a Spring / Summer 2016 print trend for underwear and nightwear. And so, I came up with the theme Elegance. A theme composed of a soft base colour, bright core colours and a dark accent colour that all compliment one another. The prints range from being very busy to spaced out and half drop, straight or all over repeats. It was a very quick project but if I had more time I would wanted to expand on the number of prints I created and combine elements a lot more.

Below are the florals and leaves I hand painted with inks and watercolours that were then indexed in Photoshop. Indexing, for those who are a bit unsure what I mean by that, is where I have made the drawings around only 5-6 colours so I could easily select and fill the different shades of my florals and leaves. These were then made in to three simple prints that were inspired by the prints on my mood board.





As I stated in my previous project post, I love to put together design mood boards that show my prints to their full potential. I placed the prints on the best underwear / nightwear garments suitable from WGSN. I love seeing my prints on simple working flats and presented nicely, it makes the print feel to me much more successful and professional.
Designing the prints was something I got stuck in to and went in to frantic design mode. It was a lot of fun creating prints that I hand drew and brought to life in Photoshop just like I used to at University. 



Project | Kidswear Print

I've been doing a couple of short projects this week. The first being this kidswear print, based on the theme of Scandinavian Forest. 


I hand drew the little fox and triangles but digitally working in to them on Photoshop and Illustrator. The pantone colours are all on trend as according to WGSN kidswear. I decided to place the print on working flats. As illustrated there are two tops (one has a grey marl fabric base) with the print on and a rusty pink neckband. And a cute little summer dress with a rusty pink frill around the waist.
It was quite fun doing kidswear and creating something different to add to my portfolio. I love putting together design presentation mood boards like the one below, which feature all the pantones used and the measurements of the half drop repeat.
One kid print down ... maybe time to do some more?

WGSN GARMENTS

Letter Project



I recently got brought this beautiful book ENCHANTED FOREST by Johanna Basford. With page after page full of forest animals, insects, flora and fauna. magical castles, dragons and treasure this book is the perfect gift for someone creative or your little kiddo to colour in. 

I'm too in love with the book to even put a pen near it so I have been inspired by the book to use it for a special birthday project. Using inspiration from the pages that have animals drawn using various leaves and florals I decided to do the same ... but with a letter. 


ORIGINAL DRAWING

I think it would look minimalistic in a gorgeous frame leaving the black doodles to standout, as emphasises in the image below. It can work for kids rooms or your studio or bedroom and could be the perfect gift for someone special. I am printing this one A4 and wouldn't expect it to look as attractive on a bigger scale. Letter postcards could be my next project ... watch this space!

Source

Woop! Yeah! Moment



It's always quite exciting when you reach the end of a design that has been challenging and taken you days and days to complete. It's even more of a Woop! Yeah! moment when it sells ... and it sells in New York. My first freelance design recently sold on a sales trip in New York and it couldn't have made the start of my freelancing career chapter better. I was excited to learn that my first collection, based around fragmented florals, who going to New York but I became ecstatic when I learnt I had sold a design that couldn't have been more painful to finalise.

Freelancing so far has been a great challenge. Yes, it has been a bit scary at times because you have to guide yourself a lot more and make your life fit in around designing for hours on end. But, the themes and ideas are endless excitement that only gets better when your work is greatly received.

So, here is to more of them Woop! Yeah! Moments. I hope there are more to come.

Hello March

TUMBLR

Pinch, punch, it is the first of the month!

I cannot believe March has arrived already, where is the time going? It has been a crazy time for me recently, so please excuse the lack of blogging. I try to keep up to date with my blog as much as possible, as I enjoy writing down (mostly for my own benefit) how life and work is going. I think a lot of the time I want to blog about a lot of things, but have a confidence crash and believe no one will actually want to hear about my goings on or what I find inspirational. But, I love blogging and writing, so why stop huh? 

My I currently in the process of chaining my blog to make it more "me". I am creating a logo for myself (not easy when you have no idea about branding) and making my blog much more updated with a new layout. So, keep your eye peeled for that!

This year, as I promised myself, was the year of doing more and staying positive. So that means more blogging and staying positive about something I have built up slowly since the good old days of University. I am being more creative, but can't quite share any of that right now and I would certainly like to do more but spare time is spare for a reason. 

With the new season of Spring now upon us with more sightings of the sun and the spring showers about to begin, work is getting very busy with lots of request from all the stores we design for. It has been quite challenging recently, more for myself a designer and testing my boundaries than anything. I love (yes, I did say love) the routine that I have to put in 9-6 every day and the satisfaction of knowing I've worked my hardest when faced with all kinds of challenges. But, as much as I want to be more creative, I need to learn that it is ok to not be busy all the time. If I need a moment of doing nothing then thats what I need. I'm writing this with a cold because I have pretty much run my body down and its a tad tired now. Just remember, slow and steady always wins the race and sometimes instead of going slow you just need to stop and let yourself prepare for the next stage of the race.

It is still quite a scary time for me. Having just graduated a couple of months ago I am still working out what kind of designer I am, what I can now and what I will be able to do with more practice, patience and positivity. (The three P's is something I need to remember). I am someone who is slightly afraid of the unknown and not knowing what way my career will go is scary. But it can also be exciting as there are endless possibilities out there if I look hard enough and be brave to take the leap. Over the next month I will take another step forward in my career with as much determination as when I started it last year. 

So, HELLO MARCH! Lets see what you have in store shall we!?

Pre- Fall 2015

With the stores getting ready for the Spring/Summer fashion season it is time at work to start designing from the Pre-Fall collections.

It is quite excitement to get my teeth in to doing some in depth print designing from these amazing shows for a very well known high street store. There were so many key trends to not miss out on from retro florals, oversized florals, paisley, geometrics, print mixing and more. I've been working from Erdem and Carolina Herrera this past week.
Carolina's mix of filtered and hand drawn florals was definitely an exciting challenge for me, alongside Erdem's one floral flowing repeat. But, with successful outcomes, it has made me pretty excited to design some new prints next week and explore what other methods of design (from hand drawn to digital manipulation) that I can try.



Textile Federation | Competition Entry




Please go and vote for my design over at - http://www.textilefederation.com/design/marble-motion/

Let me start by saying that this project was certainly not an easy one. Over the course of two days I designed this one off print for the Textile Federation Activewear Competition. I had never attempted active wear before, which is surprising as I am a bit of a gym lover. I tend to just through any old thing on, but since printed gym wear is everywhere at the moment one challenge of mine was to come up with an original idea that not only I would want to wear but others would too.

As described, the creation of the print started with various marble textures which I cut and pasted together on Photoshop using filters, the clone tool and feathering to blend the textures together. The colours came at me like a brick wall and became a big challenge when the initial repeat block print was designed. Were they too bright? No, active wear is very bright! Did the colours work well together? Did certain colours look too pixelated? Was there too much colour in one area? Was there just too much colour? No, lets read the brief again!
On the first day of starting the design I doubted my ability as to whether I could produce a competition and activewear worthy design. But, with fresher eyes on the second day, I woke up early and powered on through to the likes of Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding and Cheryl on Spotify. Before I knew it I was creating something quite different to anything I had designed before and something that could have potential if I played it right.
Creating the print just was not enough. I wanted to give it a bit more of an edge and make it more eye catching, so I decided to individually place the print inside triangles with some being more zoomed in than others. It gave it more definition and it made me feel as though I had made a real breakthrough in just designing a print. It made me question - what else can I do with this? Suddenly now I have grown a slight addiction to all things triangles. 

Thank you to everyone who has already voted for my print. Whether I win or not I am proud of this little design and the development skills it brought me as a designer with no support ... other than a good song to inspire me and lots of tea making. 

Designing Slogans for the High Street

New Look Top

Since my first week at work slogans has been a major part of the work I do for hughstreet stores including Topshop, New Look and Tesco. This type of designing I had never approached before now, I wouldn't have even thought about teaching myself how to design slogans like I did a lot of other designs I have done. When you think of slogans for t-shirts, it sounds like an easy task but, I can assure you, it doesn't always come easy to some. I am one of those.
The font, layout, placement and scale are factors you have to consider and this is the tricky part of making a slogan look right on a t-shirt. The easy part is coming up with an original slogan or changing one that has already been done.

If you're a textile print student and thinking of going in to high street designing, I strongly recommend just attempting to try out designing some slogans, even if it is just a 3-4 to add to your portfolio. It is worth looking around the high street to see what is popular (French words are very popular) and what styles different stores offer. Pinterest is a great place for slogan inspiration with textile designers across the world adding new ones each day. I am lucky that my Head of Department guides me when I need it on how to create the perfect slogans, but Pinterest also offer a lot of help in how to achieve the right style. There a lots of tips on which fonts work well together and you can download a few to work with.  
For some, it does take time to get an understanding of the right fonts and the right layout for a certain slogan and for some it doesn't. The main thing to remember is have patience and it will work out eventually. It is better to have one or two great slogan tees rather than a large quantity that are not that marketable. 

Topshop & New Look

Mamas & Papas Competition

I was recently invited by Arts Thread to take part in the "Style a Stoller" competition for Mamas & Papas, in which I had to design a cute baby/toddler print for their Armadillo Pram collection. The print could be anything theme I could imagine would suit but was for the S/S 16 season so a bright and colour approach was necessary.
My theme outcome was woodland trees, leaves, flowers and animals with a traditional stripe of colour to make it a little unique. I wanted to make the print as unisex as possible, which became quite difficult at the drawing stage of the project where my mind went to flowing leaves and flowers with a girl aesthetic.

Go and check out my print on the pram and a little snippet about the project on my Arts Thread profile.



George @ ASDA Placement



After two very hectic and hard weeks, I have completed my George placement. It was an amazing experience and opened my eyes to the world of high street fashion and what it takes to work as team to create a range of garments suitable for a certain theme and customer.

There is a lot more to print design for the high street than just sitting and drawing on the computer all day. You have to research thouroghly for key trends and inspiration before creating a mood board for the story you are working on, which then leads on to the start of creating the prints. The print designers at George had to work quickly to meet the demand of the ladies wear team and on a variety of themes at one given time for seasonal trends next year.

I worked across the board on the jersey ladies wear department by supporting design, trend and strategy meetings, creating fabric trend books, selecting images for and producing key trend moodboards, attending fit meetings with buyers and fabric technicians and participating in sale meetings. Each day was different to the next and the hours were full of new things to learn and information to take it. At the end of most days I sat on the train scribbling down notes of what I had learned so I could always reference in the future.

The building itself was quite overwhelming due to the size of the building and the amount of people that worked there. It was an incredible chance to have the complete opposite experience of what my first placement offered me. And, as I have said to a lot of people, I am very lucky to have two placements that have offered me different positions, learning opportunties, skills, and knowledge for the industry I am keen to work in. The team were nothing but friendly and always at hand to answer any questions I had about the goings on of the industry.

I hope my next placement or experience, wherever that may be, is as rewarding and useful as this one.



Whilst I was at George I was given a short project to create a range of prints for a strong Summer 2015 trend. I decide to focus my attention on the 60's trend, as seen at Henry Holland and Orla Keily, with funky, cute florals and spots being my main detail. It was interesting how the print team created their prints, with new skills being learnt on how to design for rotary screen printing and recognising the difference between rotary and digital printing more now than what I did. 

I had the chance to make my collection look very professional with the use of garment cad and moodbaord headers. Moodboards are always something I have worked on, but the style and use of the George mood boards opened my eyes as to what to look for when creating them in the future. The don't have to be jammed packed full of images and have thousands of colours. Simple but effective is key. 

For all the prints I created at George, visit my online portfolio here

Experimenting Designing Cards




Placement | Week 8


This week is my final week of placement and I still cannot believe how quickly it has gone by. I was so worried about how it was all going to go back in July, but I could not be happier with everything I have learnt and the two months I have spent in an incredible studio with some very talented and hard working people. 
From asking a lot of questions, watching, being patient and getting the chance this week to design myself has made me realise how much I love to design and want to work hard to make it my career. The last two days of designing have been mind blowing in terms of what I have learnt and things I wish I had known how to do back at the beginning of my third year of University. 

It's a very fast paced way of designing, as it is for the high street, and normally it would take me days to design the work I have in just a few hours. I've learnt that I just need to be less precious and throw caution to the wind to get results and outcomes that meet the industry I am aiming to work for. I need to be more strict with myself on making decisions on placement, techniques, colours etc and, if worst comes to worst, I can start from scratch if I truly need to.

I cannot recommend doing a placement in a fast-paced creative studio enough, especially if you are between second and third year of University because the skills you gain will definitely aid you work in your final collection. 

At the end of the week I will have produce an animal print group and made garment fronts out of them to go on sales appointments after I am gone and it has really got me excited for what is ahead on my next placement and in any future placements I take on.

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