Augmented Perfection; covering the skin

After looking at Karla Black's beautiful sculptural, tactile work, I was inspired to develop ideas and thoughts and think of some inspirational and unusually interesting photographs to transform my ideas from words into visuals.

I wanted to then develop my visual imagery into a resource that I (or other design teams) could use for initial influential trend indication. This will take the form of a trend book that will be usefully available to understand the tone and mood of the body of work.

I reflected on my list of words and verbs, which was something that I found useful as it meant that I could generate visual imagery that was not immediately (and obviously) associated with the theme of surgical modification and enhancement. I decided to start to consider ways that the skin could be covered, altered and modified with something that is obviously artificial and synthetic. I opted for using the hand as the subject and used a series of hyper-intense paints to cover the skin, using fluid and free moving liquid.

The natural movement of the fluid is juxtaposed with the super-bright artificiality of the paint. The turquoise blues, lime greens and cool greys contrast well against the more soft flesh tones of the skin.

 Working with these beautifully intense colours is something that I will carry throughout the project, which is taking a step outside of my comfort zone of neutrals, greys and accent tones.

Karla Black: Materials

After exploring the theme of idealism/perfection through a series of spider diagrams and bullet points, I felt that it would be useful to look at some artist reference points. When exploring perfectionism in terms of our appearance, I thought that it would be interesting to look at cosmetic products and how I could use these as a way of drawing/painting. I intend to use make-up products alongside other materials that could be associated with beautification in an unconventional method.

2011 Turner Prize nominee, Karla Black, also explores using these materials to create other-worldly sculptural forms, primarily focusing on materials. In YouTube interview "Karla Black: Structure and Materials" she explains that she is "not using toiletries for their connotations". I, however hope to explore the connotations of these materials in order to translate my theme from language to visual imagery (which can be a challenge at this early stage in a project).

Black's piece "At Fault" (above) showcases an entire range of materials including bath bombs, plaster and paint powder, petroleum jelly and make-up. The blend and combination of materials is deliciously tactile and almost dares you to touch it. The range of ice cream colours are not intended to be feminine, however the association with the colours exude a girly childishness. 

The soft nature of the colours are beautiful and I feel that some of the pastel shades may apply to my work but my colour palette will be established once my own visuals start to take shape. Additionally, I want to be bold and brave with my colour choices and perhaps clash a series of unexpected colours.

I also love the dynamic 'movement' to the sculptural forms. The torn edges of paper, the scattering of powders and liquids and crushing of bath bombs give life to the work. I would also like to retain a sense of life to my work and could use the actions of what make-up is intended for when creating my paintings and drawings eg; to cover, to enhance, to colour, to decorate, to layer

Final Major Project; ideas

Deciding on a theme for my Final Major project has been horrid. It seems like a very important thing and I have felt that it is imperative to get it right. I wanted to approach my project in the same way that I had loved when creating my trend book with Beth in last year's Unit X. 

We identified a problem or issue that could affect the design world, listed the issues surrounding it and then began to translate it into visuals that formed the basis of our trend book. I intend to then push the visual imagery that I generate further and use these as a springboard towards creating final outcomes towards the end of the project.

After much frustrating deliberation, I had identified that as a society, we are very much fixated on our appearance and aesthetic. We are obsessed with body image. Make up, diet and even surgery are all avenues that are explored in an attempt to be what is now deemed to be "perfect".

After brainstorming a huge collection of ideas, I wanted to make it clear to myself that it was possible to make these ideas visual before carrying it any further, so I decided to make a 'verb list' that I could then use to explore with materials.

I firstly considered what make-up is used for;

To conceal

To resurface/smooth/cover

To enhance

To colour

To alter

To decorate

To layer

To add shine/mattify

I was satisfied that this would give me lots of avenues to explore and with a selection of materials this would mean that the outcomes could be varied dramatically.

I also looked at cosmetic surgery;

To reconstruct

To enhance

To cut

To remove

To make bigger/smaller

To tighten

To pull

To fill/inject/smooth

I then considered the materials that could be associated with cosmetics and cosmetic surgery. I immediately thought of using the products themselves (make up etc) and silicone, plastics and synthetic materials.

Manchester School of Art: Degree show, 2014

Towards the end of the year, the usual buzz of the studio space had begun to patter out and eventually, the space that was usually a hive of creative activity and colour became a sterile, white area. Upon my return to university to visit the degree show, the usual explosion of presence and colour had returned and the final year work was displayed throughout the space.

As I will be entering my final year of the course at the end of the summer break, I wanted to look at as much of the work of fellow students from my course as possible. I wanted to see the standard of which I must strive to be at and I wanted to know what was expected of me in order to stand out from fellow students in our degree show next year. 

Looking around the show also provided me with an opportunity to look at the ways that students had decided to present their work. Some had used conventional techniques that allowed the work to speak for itself. Others opted for more complex methods, suspending, hanging and draping their work and fabric and a select few had used objects such as light-boxes and wooden display boxes for the work to sit on top of.

Jessica Beardmore's degree show work was one that stood out for me. Her clean, minimalistic style looked crisp and professional and it was clear that she had an eye for presentation and layout. In addition to the work looking professional, there was a substantial body of work that was relevant to her audience. She had created a webpage (that was presented on an iPad) and a lookbook to sit alongside her printed clutch bags and accessories.

Beardmore's development of a brand identity was another aspect of her work that stood out. Her label, Intangible Notion works incredibly well and is suitable for her intended audience. Knowing which context your work sits within is paramount and she has identified where she sits in the fashion market.

Her simple, yet considerate approach to presentation means that the Intangible Notion lookbook is a beautiful document that links perfectly with not only the products, but the brand as a whole. As part of my own practice next year, I'd also like to develop a strong visual aesthetic that my entire project will follow, from my initial research, sketchbooks and photography, right through to the presentation of my samples and garments.

As a knit specialist, I wanted to look at the work of the knitters in the year above for inspiration. All students had created a range of knit samples but some had further developed these samples further and created garments. I feel that this is the path that I will want to take next year so I was interested to see the types of garments that some of the students had created.

I was particularly drawn to Rosie Brett's collection of samples and final garment. There appeared to be a strong visual link that ensured her samples looked like a collection, drawing on tribal-esque fringing techniques in a select colour palette of greys that are accented with blues and flashes of yellow.

I also like the ways in which Brett has used matte yarns such as lycra/elastic with fluffier, more natural looking fibers in the fringing. I also think that the use of a charcoal/grey and black colour palette with accents of rich blue and yellow keeps the collection looking refined and fresh.

Rosie Brett's final garment draws on several techniques that can be found in some of her samples. The heavily fringed sleeves and torso section of the jumper gives the garment movement and the individual strands of yarn create a piece that feels alive.

The intricacy of the fringing must have been rather painstaking and taken many hours of care and effort. the finish is professional and well executed. Finish is something that is very important in order for the work to look professional. I did notice that some of the knit samples from other students had not used the correct tension on their first row, resulting in a slack and sloppy edge.


The dip-dyed effect of the bottom portion of the garment is also done well and compliments the blue individual strands found in the fringed sleeves.

One of the only disappointments I have with Brett's final collection is that I wish there had been more garments. I think the garment that she had made was finished beautifully and works really well but I would have loved to have seen more from her.

Whilst looking at the Degree show work, I also wanted to identify some designers that work in a different way to myself. I wanted to use this opportunity to broaden my horizons and look at a range of work that challenges the way that I work. 

I am usually quite reserved with my use of colour and I feel like I should use my forthcoming final major project to challenge myself and be much braver with my colour palette. With this in mind, I was intrigued by Josie Satchell's playfully tactile printed fabrics.

Satchell not only applies colour bravely and freely to her designs, but she also uses a range of skills and techniques to enhance the tactility of the fashion fabrics. She combines both screen and digital print techniques with embroidery and laser cutting aspects that add depth and dimension to the fabrics. She also touches upon using foils and small beads that are integrated into the designs.

This is something that I have touched upon in previous projects but I feel that it is something that I want to explore further in my final major projects. I'd like to use my developed knitting skills along with foiling, embroidery and laser cutting techniques to my work, in the hope of creating fabrics (and hopefully garments) that are exciting to look at and to touch.

Additionally, Satchell has created a professional website to showcase her work that has been beautifully documented and photographed. This is similar to how Jessica Beardmore has presented her work and seems to be a natural progression when moving into the working world of employment/freelance design work.

Looking at the work of final year students has made me feel a strange blend of fear and excitement. I know that the year ahead will be challenging and difficult but I'm so excited to develop my own skills and build a collection of work that will see me progress into employment.

Evaluation of Unit X.

At the beginning of the unit, we formed larger groups to learn how to identify forthcoming trends. During this initial period, talks from Trend Boutique's Sally Denton, presentations from university staff Alex and Laura and our own research helped us to become hyper-aware of the world around us, identifying key issues that could affect design in the future.

Exploring social, economic and political factors showed us that it is important to look at other issues, giving a project more body and meaning and ensuring that you are resolving a larger problem through design. However, developing this understanding was difficult, it was like training your mind to think in a completely different way.

Our presentation looked at several issues, however when the groups were condensed down, me and Beth felt that the most important and interesting issue that we wanted to explore was the shift of people shoppping online as opposed to in store. We decided that higher-end designers might want to combat this and reverse the effect that technology appears to be having on the store.

We thought that it would be both interesting and challenging and it has proven to be both. Initially, the mock-ups below were a way of visualising our concept. The idea of developing fabrics that could not be photographed became a key idea that our entire trend revolved around.

After establishing the ideas that we wanted to explore further, it was important to us that we kept our selected audience in mind. We both wanted to aim for a high-end client. I felt like this audience could be reached through presentation: Using presentation that is considered, high quality and a finish that reflects this (eg size and format of the book).

Beginning to transform our ideas from an abstract concept to a tangible, visual reality was extremely difficult. We developed many, many ideas to try and personify our concept but it became quite frustrating having nothing but words and we needed to try and shift into visual territory.
We began to explore the concept of over-packaging products, concealing them in an attractive but temporary covering. Other designers already used this method (see Zara, left)to build a sense of anticipation to pull away the layers to reveal the product inside.

Our ideas had to be visually collated and then arranged beautifully and developed into a trend book. This was a particularly daunting prospect, considering we were yet to produce any visual work of our own.

 

 

Myself and Beth decided to take the concept of over packaging to an extreme and developed a series of photographs to visually represent our ideas. The box series of photographs appeared to work beautifully, presenting a selection of materials including frosted plastics against a stark white background, creating a sleek and clean aesthetic.

Working in a pair seems to work really well for both me and Beth. We feed from each other's ideas, encourage one and other when we seem to hit a wall. Also, we share an eye for presentation and attention to detail. This ensured that we could both present ideas and imagery creatively and beautifully and keeping to a style that we both enjoy working in.

Our partnership helped to create lots of interesting ideas that grew and evolved into a range of visuals, representing ideas such as overpackaging, encasing (in ice) and changing state, meaning that something could never be captured in its true form.

 

Both of us also found the importance of planning and arranging our images paramount, in order to present them well enough to speak for themselves. Organisation ensured that we knew exactly how we wanted to lay our images out.

Varying our layout and using some photographs as whole page spreads will hopefully look visually exciting and will help to showcase some of the best images. I'm still very intrigued as to what the book will look like as a finished product as Reprographics (where the book is being produced) are apparently leaving producing our book to the very last minute.

 Progressing through the book has been particularly difficult. Due to time limits, we had to produce a large amount of pages for our book in a week, with only our own judgement to go by. However, this was one of the benefits of having a partner to work with. It meant that we could alter and change any aspects we were unsure of and pull each other back from insanity when we found the work tough.

I feel like the finished layout of the book appeals to our intended, high end designer clientele and this can be seen in the ways in which we have chosed to package our book.
We have decided that we would like to continue our concept through our presentation of our book. We have created several boxes that fit inside one and other (in a similar way to our photographs), exploring our over-packaged and encased concept further.

Overall, I feel that I have worked really well as a team with Beth. We have created and developed a large body of work with finesse in quite a short amount of time. We have powered through obstacles such as time limitations to allow for printing and production, juggled a live brief alongside the main body of our work and have managed to excecute both well. 
 

Pitching ideas to curate lookbook for Rianna Phillips

Throughout the unit, as well as developing our own body of personal work, we have undertaken a live brief, in the hope to win the opportunity to curate accessories designer Rianna Phillips' lookbook for her forthcoming collection.

It has been quite difficult to balance the time between the two projects, however throughout the year, we have had a number of tasks to juggle at any one time and it does appear to be getting slightly easier over time.

The pitch came round quickly and meant that we developed a large body of work in quite a short space of time. Beth and I felt that it would be best to organise our work into boards and present this in a slideshow. These could then be printed and handed in for our assessment and marked accordingly.

Our boards have covered everything from our initial influences and inspirations, through to a consumer profile, competitor research, boards of our test shoot images and mock ups of our images being used for an ecommerce campaign and other specially designed square images(to avoid cropping) to be used on Instagram, an important marketing tool used by Rianna.

I feel like producing such work could give us the edge against our fellow students. It considers important factors and visually represents how our work could potentially look, if we are chosen to go any further. Overall, the pitch appeared to go well. Me and Beth spoke confidently about our ideas and answered any questions that the client had.

The importance of social media (particularly Instagram) in self promotion for designers and makers is on the increase. Rianna Phillips has acquired both customers and stockists through Instagram, providing free business promotion that has a wide reach to many.


This was especially exciting for me and Beth when Rianna included snipets of our work on her Instagram account. It made us feel positively about the ideas that we had produced and meant that the client felt confidently enough about our ideas to post them to her customers, stockists and fellow designers.

It is now a waiting game, to see who Rianna will decide she would like to work with in creating her lookbook. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Beth on an exciting brief that could potentially lead to some valuable experience.

Detail and execution.

After the tutorial today, we were given a chance to scrutinise the details, layout and other factors of our book with the help of tutors with fresh eyes. They were yet to see our progress so this was of great help.

We looked at important aspects such as font point size and took on board some suggestions of increasing the size of our key, pivotal words, decreasing our page number font size and making some small adjustments to some pages in terms of layout. Mainly, our layouts worked really well and were received positively which can only be a good thing as our time on this project is reaching its close.

Our deadline for completion of the book has been drawn in and cut short to allow time for printing which means the pressure is beginning to mount. In this time we must also consider making and designing a cover for our book and research into creative methods of storing our trend book, drawing on our concepts and ideas.