Sketchbook

Last Tuesday was my presentation. This consisted of all the work that I had done throughout semester 2, both jumpsuit and prints. I had to show my work about talk about what I had done and liked about it. 

   To start off this project, we went to Firstsite and the Minories and had a look at the surrounding buildings. Each building was from a different time and w could pick one that we wanted to look at. I chose the old shoe zone building that was apparently from the 60s. I originality thought the building looked very boring and I didn’t know what to do with it, but as I started to print pictures off I saw the brickwork. I thought that it looked quite nice and thought I could experiment with it in different ways. 

  After I found out that the building is from the 60s, I decided to experiment with some 60s colours and prints, with the brickwork in mind. I really liked this pattern and I’m kind of hoping to use it later on in my print collection. 

 To start off my 60s theme, I decided to do a mood board of any picture that I liked. I was mostly interested in the fashion and beauty side but I also got some of food, toys and social aspects. My favourite pictures are the ones of the coloured tights because that is something that I bring into my own I fashion.
 It was a big time for simple floral patterns. I had found quite a few of them in y research and was interested in it. I had a go at making some of my own, also using some of the bright colours found in the prints. I found that these flowers were very similar to the flower on thMary Quant logo and thought that it could be someone that I can look into. 

  

For some research I thought I could talk to my mum, being that she is a true 60s kid. We both went to my nan’s house and looked through a few boxes with photos of my mum and her brothers and sister when they were children. One interesting thing a found through looking at pictures is that I looked very much like my mum when I was younger and I thought that was very sweet. I also asked my mum a few questions about what it was like in the 60s. Mainly clothing, TV shows, holidays, housing. I found it interesting to see how different it was then compared to now.

  
 Mary Quant was know for creating the most iconic fashions of the 60s, that meant that she had to make an appearance in my research at some point. She was most likely the one that popularised the miniskirt and the hot pants. 

   
  

  

 After we were looking at the buildings early on, we also went to Firstsite. While we were there we had to look at a slideshow with about the construction and design of the building. It was interesting to see the sketches by the designers, some were quite scratchy and layered up. After that, we had a look round Firstsite, mainly at the structure and design that went into it. We each had to spread out and use whatever we could to observe anything we saw. I really liked the sharp lines that were seen on both the outside and inside. I used pleating as a form of observation. I really liked that and tried it on different materials to see what would it would look like. I was really hoping to use it in my final designs for my jumpsuit. 

   

 

After that, I tried out some patterns that had been taken from my earlier concepts. You can see some of the patterns from the earlier work, I tried to keep them fairly close and tried not to draw away too much. My favourite is the lines so I tried to change then each a little bit to see east I preferred. I think that bring the old and new together was a really great idea so I wanted to experiment more. 

  These were my final ideas. Again, you can see the line work being very prominent. My favourite is the first one on the page. The scalloped edges very my favourite design from the 60s so it had to come out in my final piece. I thought that I should have some sort of idea from Firstsite so the sunburst idea came from that. Putting them together worked really well to me. 

After I had designed my our, we were then put together with a partner and our jumpsuits were merged whatever way worked. Me and Becca were split top and bottom because we both had a kind of skirt used. We went through quite a few photocopies, drawing over each one to see what we liked and wanted to change. The top half of it changed quite a lot, turning into curved stripes that corresponded with the bottom stripes. The final idea actually came when we were designing the pattern for the jumpsuit. We decided to have a gold peplum on the top, rather than a dress/skirt. 

 After the finishing of the jumpsuits, we moved onto the print collection. To start it off, I looked at some 60s patterns that I found on Pinterest. Th example ones that I chose are called Swedish prints. I thought they were really pretty and I loved the colours that were used. I wanted them to be used in my own work.
We had to have 50 print ideas when we came back to college. To start mine off I created come borders. I knew how to create these from my studio module. These borders all used the scallops that I founder in my early 60s research. They were always my favourite and I always wanted to bring them into whatever I did. 

  
After that I looked at flowers. I didn’t really want to do the simple, Mary Quant flowers so experimented with my own flowers. I di lots of different scale and numbers so I lots I could work with. 

  
After the 60s theme I looked at the Firstsite ideas I had. I wanted to do lots of lines because I thought it would contrast with the flowers and rounded edges of the last few pages. Some are quite dark and some are thin, iwwnged to get a large range to play with again. 

After that I went looking at patterns I could recreate. I found this one on Pinterest somewhere but it didn’t actually tel who made it. I loved the bright colours and the different lines and thought it would make a great background to any patten I make. 

 
Again, there were also some patterns that I could recreate, I took some motifs that I looks and painted some of my own. I liked the free flowing of the edges and they were really fun to create. 

 I started with some handmade prints before I had a go at photoshop. I thought they could be more for brainstorming ideas. I didn’t really know where to start so I tried the lines from before and layered them up with flowers to create a contrast. These did give me some ideas and you can see it in some of my photoshop patterns. 
  The prints were the last thing to show. The main idea behind my prints is to use both the 60s and Firstsite pattern to create a contrasting juxtaposition. I wante them to be seen right next to each other, even fighting each other. This is shown in the print with the flowers in the brickwork, it makes the flowers of the 60s look trapped in the brickwork of now. I will be continuing this idea for my print collection until it is finished and I have my 20 prints. I really think the colour palette works together well too, it is very daring and outgoing, very much like the fashions of the 60s.