Alan Holmes Talk:

Director of Studies in Design, Alan Holmes, gave a talk on the creative processes a designer takes to design fashion. It was quite an inspiring talk, delving in to the ideas of using resources, UP-cycling as opposed to RE-cycling, turning facts from the past in to future fiction, new ways of buying, sharing and borrowing clothes i.e clothes libraries, internet shopping, Oxfam & WasteSaver partnership and Amy Twigger Holroyd's "Keep & Share".

Holmes also talked about marketing, a subject which I'm interested in myself. He spoke about how shops are like clothing museums, you go to be inspired. The retailing as similar to a museum with window displays and displays within the shop. Labels, Branding, Advertising and Retailing all MAKE A DIFFERENCE, a lot of the time, can be more important then the garment itself. 

Adam Dant:

Adam Dant talk:

Adam Dant gave an hours talk on the first day of the unit.

He is an illustrator whose most famous work is the "Donald Parsnips Daily Journal". His detailed ink and brush drawings are satirical and often look at modern day life, and political issues.

I really liked his style of thinking and working, using humour to discuss maybe more serious things in a more fun and understandable way.

Visit to Liverpool's Art Galleries:
Thursday 23rd February.

WALKER ART GALLERY:

I was excited to visit Liverpool's collection of galleries, as well as the beautiful city itself which is full of cultural sites and history. First, I visited the Walker Art Gallery, held in a beautiful 19th Century building are classical pieces from the 17th century onwards, as well as a range of modern art, selected by John Moore University. The first room I went in was the Sculpture gallery, followed by the victorian and 18th century art rooms. I sensed very much a theme of stories: each sculpture and painting portrayed a story of someone I had heard of, be it from Fairytales, The Bible, Literature or Greek Mythology. My favourite Sculpture was "Puck" by Harriet Hosmer, based on the Mischievous Sprite from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream":

I then went on to the Victorian Gallery, which housed some beautiful paintings, again, based on famous names and stories I was familiar with:

"The Expulsion of Adam and Eve"

"The Sleeping Knights from Sleeping Beauty"

"Perseus and Andromeda"

"Isabella and Lorenzo"

"Echo and Narcissus"
This was my favourite painting in this area. I am very intrigued with the Greek Myth of Narcissus and am interested in artists' perception of the story, be it oil paintings to reflect clearly what is going on like Waterhouse's work here, or surrealist work, such as "The metamorphosis of Narcissus" by Dali:

I think the reason I enjoyed these sculptures and paintings was that on one hand, they are beautiful, careful works of art which one rarely sees being executed in today's rushed lifestyle. Some of these will have taken years to paint, and use colour and light delicately, in a way rarely used today. I am interested in stories such as the ones portrayed in these pieces, and often use them to inspire my own work, however I, like many other artists of this age, use a lot more lateral way of thinking.

In comparison to the beautifully delicate way these artists use colour, I came to view the Modern Art gallery. These pieces use bold colour, and concepts quite different and controversial from the stories used in the Victorian gallery, and many are influenced by other cultures, such as japanese:

I was inspired by these modern art pieces. I loved the Victorian styles, however admire the bold, arrogant way that colour and shapes are highlighted in many of these examples. The last one, "Oriental Garden, Kyoto" by Bruce McLean, reminded me of a mark making exercise we did during our last project. I thoroughly enjoyed making our own painting tools, and created some interesting patterns, here, it looks like McLean uses different techniques to get the forms he desires, or even improvises with them to see the outcome.

*Henri Matisse*

BLUECOAT DISPLAY CENTRE:
I was looking forward to seeing this gallery, it is a very beautiful old schoolhouse, however as a gallery I found it difficult to comprehend and find my way around. The only display I saw was "Colin McPherson: The Proof Principle".

This installation was complicated, and hard to get your head around for a while, but the use of photography, film and textile installation was interesting. It was a good response to McPerson's task, to demonstrate the power and the certainty of photography as a means to communicate proof. The way it was displayed, in a clever simple, clean layout contrasted the complicated task McPherson was demonstrating.

Sampling unit:
Ordered Opposites: Rural/Urban: Hard/Soft
Evaluation of Project 2:

In past projects, I have found a weakness in not carrying out appropriate and on-going research. In this project I feel I have embraced my own challenge of conducting thorough research using myriad techniques and materials. I have made relevant connections between my research and practice, for example:

I took this photograph of a building in Spinningfields, Manchester and looked solely at the structure of the building:

After investigating the structure of the building in my sketchbook, I created this piece of development to begin thinking of how I could use my materials to re-create the forms.

I am happy with this as my first 3D Construction sample, as I felt I carried out good research, development of ideas and then the final idea, using quite literal thinking, to create a hard & soft themed garment.

I always make sure I use context in my work, to give my samples a meaning beyond aesthetics. A good example of this is my “Filing Cabinet” piece. On my walk through Manchester, in which I set out to find form and structure in the city, I discovered the “Filing Cabinet” building:

This image inspired me straight away with the shapes and I started thinking of different ways to present my ideas:

I wanted to come up with a more lateral design compared to my last sample, so played with my ideas, leading to this garment design:

In an effort to maintain my Hard & Soft theme, I created the body of the garment to have a soft, sleek bottom seam, to contrast the square shapes. This leads to my next design, and quite an important self- discovery- my mark making techniques. During tutorials my tutor has pointed out that my work is very similar to that of a print students, a workshop I didn’t think to do as I thought I was a more constructive designer. However, in our Drawing Day task, we created our own brushes and mark makers. I used visual images from my sketchbook and experimented using my mark makers, oil paints, acrylic paints and charcoal. This task really inspired me and lead to me developing my marks in to 3D samples. Here is one example:

I took this photo during a walk through Blanchland in Northumberland during the Christmas Holidays, using this image, I created this mark making during the workshop:

I then went on to create a 3D sample using the "Filing Cabinet" idea:

I feel that this work further proves my lateral thinking ability, as I have taken a visual source and developed it in a non-conventional way. This is also my risk-taking piece, because instead of creating a sample using calico and chicken wire to enable structure, I used advice from tutorials, as well as advice from the Drawing Day, and created my own print, to apply to my development from “The Filing Cabinet” piece.

Throughout this project, I believe I have used my time efficiently. During the knit workshop I was still a little weary about making connections between my research and practice, because I carried out a lot of visual and contextual research over weekends and the christmas holidays, so I found it difficult to narrow down ideas.

Although I created plenty of samples with developed colour themes, I didn’t feel any of them were very final to the point of being able to imagine them as a garment, however enjoyed making the sample boards- which could eventually lead to more developed samples if I went back to them.

This allowed me to do my research a little differently in the 2nd part of the project, because I was doing 3D Construction I knew that I should just begin my looking at form and structure. I believe the last month of the project went quite well, as I had planned to create 2 or 3 quality samples, with well developed connections between my research, my hard & soft theme, my materials, workshops and practice.

Sampling unit:
Ordered Opposites: Rural/Urban
Evaluation of Project 1:

When we were given the brief for this project, I was a little confused by the idea that it would be split in to two projects, however initially I thought the theme of “Ordered Opposites” was quite thought-provoking. I chose the Knit workshop, as although I quite enjoy surface design, I am more of a constructive designer, and have been interested in knit for a while, and thought that I would be able to link it well with my theme in terms of colour, texture and pattern. After finishing my last project and receiving clear feedback, I knew that my weakness was carrying out various research methods, so I decided to just plunge straight in to the research and decided on the theme of “Rural:Urban”. To help me develop some research for this idea, I made a brain storm in my sketchbook:

This helped me to think of things to look up, find, and sketch, but also sets the theme for my sketchbook. Because “Rural:Urban” is a very broad theme, I decided to include some sub-sections which I can work towards and eventually pick one to develop samples for, once I feel I have appropriate research. These sub-sections are, “Order:Chaos”, “Hard:Soft” and “Coincidence:Deliberate”. I feel that what I have improved up on is my research. I did some internet research to begin, just to get in to the mood and kick-start my theme. I then visited the Museum of Manchester, where I read about the industrial revolution of Manchester and Liverpool, which spurred me to visit the Museum of Science and Industry.

I used the visual imagery I collected from these visits to include in my sketchbook, and to work with colour palettes. I also used the time I had over Christmas to visit Liverpool, and also Newcastle and Hartlepool, where I used different techniques to collect research. On my train journey to Hartlepool, I took photographs of the rural areas to then draw from, but also the disused “Steetley Magnesite” industrial site, which provides fantastic history and imagery:

Hartlepool is a small town, but during World War II, was the only source of Magnesite in Britain. I also took photos of the farms, beaches and some movement photos:

I thought this was quite a valuable image as it links a rural settings with an urban theme (the train) speeding through. It also provides a good, tonal colour palette, as I have used in the sample. I also used my time in Hartlepool, a quite rural place, and my time in Newcastle, a larger, more urban setting, to create mark making:

I think this was a good idea because it provided me with direct imagery of how i felt walking through these places to then project in to my knit samples. By this point, and as i begin to get more comfortable in the knit workshop, I have decided upon the sub-section of “Hard:Soft”, a theme which has ran throughout my sketchbook and samples in my used of yarns, colours and drawing techniques.
Another aspect I believe I have improved upon is linking my samples and drawings, throughout my researching, I have continued to do sampling alongside it, whilst also learning more techniques each week. To present my samples, I will include some in my sketchbook, but have also created lots of sample stories to present them, which I have made print outs of:

To create the sample stories, I looked for my used of colour, theme and connections with my sketchbook. In the first part of this project, I believe I have achieved a successful body of research and clear samples, which link to my visual research. I have also found that you can never have enough research or sketches, and that samples are a very important part of a project, I look forward to developing my samples using mainly my colour palette that I have chosen from a postcard I collect at the Museum of Science and Industry:

As well as this colour work, I believe that my next workshop, 3D Construction, will provide a more challenging second part of the project.

Sampling unit:
Ordered Opposites: Rural/Urban
Contextual Research: SANDRA BACKLUND

To help inspire my knitting workshops, I have researched Knitwear designer Sandra Backlund. My personal style of designing, and the theme I am working with involves quite structural techniques.
Backlunds work with Knitwear is all about structure, be it quite robust, or soft.

These garments remind me of building structures and are very patterned within the textures, especially with the symmetry of the right hand side piece, with what looks like chains decorating the front and on the arms. These pieces also remind me of my sub-section theme of "Order and Chaos".

In contrast to this Urban themed style, I found this garment by Backlund, which I feel represents a more Rural theme:

This garment has gorgeous neutral tones, and the texture is quite fragile and a bit disorganised compared to the Urban style pieces. From the knit tutorials, we have learnt "hook ups" and how to create more 3D texture and holes in the knitting, which I feel I can link to this piece.

Another piece of Backlund's work which caught my eye was this quite futuristic garment:

In-keeping with my sub-section theme of "Coincidence and Deliberate", I like the structure of the arm pieces, but also the way the yarn hangs from the shoulder pieces. It also inspires the idea that using different materials to create 3D structure can be done.

Sampling unit:
Ordered Opposites: Rural/Urban

I have chosen my project title to be "Rural/Urban". I have made up my own Ordered Opposites as I feel there is a lot i could research, and there are lots of visuals I can collect.

I am hoping to eventually find enough evidence to narrow down my theme to either: "Order/Chaos", "Hard/Soft" or "Coincidence/Deliberate".

After my decision I did some internet research to get myself in to the mind set straight away:

Here, I looked at stereotypical Rural/ Urban scenes. I also did some colour wraps to assist me in my knit workshop, which we began shortly after. I used the techniques we learnt, and began to use my internet visual research to inspire the colours and details in my samples:

This unit is all about sampling. With my theme I will look at the colour palette i will eventually come up with, as well as looking at texture and shapes in my drawings/paintings/mark making and will put the techniques I will learn in to practice. My next step is to do more research by visiting museums and sites to inspire my work.