Starting module 201 - Extended Visual Communication

I always thought this was going to be a difficult project for me, I find group work difficult when it comes to designing as everyone has different tastes, whereas in other modules where group prjects consists of just research and presentations it's much easier to gel and produce a consistent piece of work ,but when it comes to designing and this project it's a struggle to be consistent as no one wants to compromise. But so far, we are doing okay.

My group is looking at the artist Mari Simmulson and focusing on A/W 16/17 trend, Offbeat. The colours are really cool and we have become really interested at looking into optical illusions as a key feature in our garments and the colours will work particularly well for this trend. I am really intereted in using the flowing, curving shapes to create silhouettes and using the lines and shapes within the work to create surface patterns, so far our ideas consist of knit and creating our own pattern to do so, and laser cutting into leather. We have decided on Autumn/Winter as we wanted to use this module to create a collection where we can really layer up the outfits

Walk-On Review

Walk-On is an interesting exhibition to attend, myself, I find exhibitions uninspiring and it's rare for me to become completely and utterly interested in something in a gallery. I end up wandering around aimlessly with no motivation to stand and want to divulge into the depths of the artwork. Yet I found myself actually having an opinion of this exhibit.
Usually exhibits are big open spaces, in large rooms with no clutter. This exhibition, although minimalist and clean cut, was a lot smaller than I previously anticipated of an exhibition, it wasn't an open space but almost a maze with a lot of filled corners. I surprised myself being intrigued from the beginning, not reading the summary outside I went in having no idea of what to expect, I found myself looking at a pile of plaster and then quickly moving into a dim lit room with a film rolling, the film was of a man, with fabric bound over his eyes, walking a tightrope between some extremely block flats. In a way it was a statement, I watched the whole film, but to me, this isn't art, more of a reach for attention, a statement to say 'Look what I can do' an event that could have gained a lot more publicity and occured for a good cause e.g Raising money for charity, so i came out feeling a little confused and irritated. I agree that the setting was correct, rolling a film in a dark room that is, it dramatizes what you are viewing, I just don't agree this is a piece of artwork.
So continuing around the room I see various things, none of which interest me, an image over a large light box making it seem 3-dimensional and not a flat image. I stumbled across a stand with an open book and a set of headphones. This piece also left me in a state of confusion, being told to go to a certain page and then a voice reading something that isn't on this page, I didn't understand what I was meant to be taking from this. So I moved on.
I was left walking through a maze-like walkway into a small dead-end space. the walkway was printed with images of a wood or forest, the images were very pixelated which made my eyes feel blurry and again confused. I read the information on this piece, the aim was for the man to try and walk in a straight line for 8 hours. That was all the information you received. And the man in the film didn't walk in a straight line, I took the aim of this as walking in a straight line, when coming to an obstruction, move around it and continue along the same line but he kept changing direction, even if ever so slightly, I didn't get the point in this video, it left me with questions like Where is he going? why is he walking? Why in a straight line? Why just for 8 hours, that''s a very specific time? What will he do when he gets there? And how does he think this is a piece of art?
Then I got stopped back by the pile of plaster, there was a projection onto it that looked like a man climbing it, I thought this was pretty cool. But I don't think it's art.
I don't think the space was correct for this exhibition, although there were two dark cornered off rooms almost, there is a large window as a whole wall, and I think the whole exhibition needed to be darker due to the feeling of confusion and intriguing interests, it wasn't anything that had a light airy feel too it, this window either needed to be blacked out or the exhibition needed to be in a different space.
I think personally I have a very narrow view on what I see as art, I see it as a permanent non-moving thing, like a painting, an image or a sculpture, not a video or a book with headphones. Although the artists achieved what they wanted, a reaction. My reaction was a feeling of irritation, confusion and almost anger. But that's just my interpretation.

Thanks for reading, 

Charlotte Davis. 

Robert Tarasek

A former Plymouth College of Art Fashion student, previously studying ICT, came back to the College to talk about his experiences in the Fashion industry, his struggles with starting to learn about Fashion and then about his struggles and highlights in the industry itself.

After staying in Plymouth for a year after his graduation, working on his own collection, Robert moved up to London to work for a designer.

He found sketchbooks very had to manage, and college was quite limited, he prefers to use his sketchbook randomly sticking in all inspiration, not just specifics, tearing out pages that arent working, or tearing them out and rearranging them to form new links.

Tarasek has gained a lot of inspiration from the ever so famous Diana Vreeland over his years of being interested in fashion, 'They eye has to travel' is one of his favourite quotes, showing that you need to keep your eye open to everything and anything, inspiration can come from even the most remote of places.
His first ever collection was named 'Dunes' inspired by sand and Couture rather than specific designers. He prefers Couture as it is more technical than Haute Couture, as only 20 seams can be sewn using a machine and the rest has to be created by hand. He has this vision of bringing back all the old crafts such as hand embroidery etc. that the world has been losing and forgetting over the years. For example, after the old lace maker of Chanel died, he taught his craft to no one, so this wasn't passed on and hasn't been recreated.

Moving on to Rob's second year, he fell in love with pattern cutting, and that love continues through today, and discovered you need to be able to understand how to pattern cut in order to move your collections forward. At one point he worked at Alexander Mcqueen as a studio assistant, working with the pattern cutting archive, it was a lot of pressure as they had just 3 months to create a 48 look collection.

'Don't over complicate things.'

Tarasek is currently working for Marios Schwab, he finds Marios very inspiring, selling a lot to the middle East, and in London with a few boutiques and Selfridges. And there is no money pressure, he is able to do experimental work, whereas Mcqueen was very money focused and there was no time to be wasted experimenting. Rob is currently working on couture beading, draping, Oribotics (origami with fabric). 

'I prefer to network in person, but you have to be quite pushy'

Kansha No I!!

Charlotte

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Sustainability: Aisling Clancy - Project homegrown

Aisling Clancy has been spending the past few years trying to make the wool industry in Ireland more sustainable, instead of shipping in wool from New Zealand and Australia like they currently do, Clancy has been working on using the native sheep of Ireland, and blending it with other wool in the area to make it softer like the wool they currently ship in.
Donegal Yarns s the company she is currently working with to use the Cheviot Sheep in Ireland, and using alpaca's too as they are a luxury, high quality yarn. And attempted to use plant dyes that would keep their colour.

Also worked with Malloy and Sons, who are weavers, and wove her fabric here. Here she found that around 15% of fabric ends up on the industry floor when making patterns.

Kansha No I

Charlotte

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Trendboard Spring/Summer 2014

My trendboard looking at SS14 looking at couture and ready to wear, Dolce&Gabbana, Chanel and Christian Dior.

All Photos from Style.com

Kansha No I!

Happy reading!!

Charlotte

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Bill Davison

So I study Fashion as a degree at Plymouth College of Art, we regularly have visitors coming in giving lectures on their field of study and bill is the last person I thought I would be interested in. He is interested in the Far East, especially Japan, specifically Kimono's.
So everyone knows a Kimono right? But maybe not like this, they were extraordinarily beautiful.


Japan had no foreign influences between 1600 and 1800 because they didn't want their history and culture to be ruined by foreigners, all foreigners already living in Japan at this time were put at the very tip of Japan and walled in there.

'We are elite as a nation, we are special'

Japan have a very 'If it isn't broken,don't fix it' attitude, which meant they had one style of shoe for over 200 years, and they are still worn today because they are practical made of rice straw, they are basically what we know as the flip flop. They aren't inventive people, they re-invent and they don't have many natural resources.

No clothing in Japan has zips or fastenings, they didn't exist, they had ties, and they worked so why change it?

'Kimono- Ki = Garment, Mono = Something - Something wear'

All looms in Japan produce a piece of fabric that is roughly 32cm wide. In Tokyo there is the 'old city' where everyone dresses more traditionally, wearing Kimono's etc. Pockets were seen to be ugly so they are embedded witthin the long sleeves of these garments, if kimono's have long sleeves that almost reach the floor it shows that a lady is single and so available for marriage, once married, Kimono sleeves are shortened. Some designs such as the Imperial Carriage, Shivoy, Fans, turtles and cranes are still used, but you can also get more modern designs that are influenced by the A

rt Deco period for example.

Kansha No I (thankyou)

Charlotte

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Derek Crookes

Derek Crookes has worked at Radio 1 since 2005, which has a target market of 18-24 year olds, and they always try to look for stories that aren't covered elsewhere as well as thee main stream stories.

Derek studied at City University in Islington for four years, and did some free work experience with various places, (it is now possible to do a trainee course in journalism at the BBC).

Crookes started newsreading nights and weekends, this is the standard to start off with, working for LBC radio station, and went freelance so he could work his way up to National News. So when he started working at Radio 1, reporting and newsreading, he was on a freelance contract, now has ommited to a permanent contract. He is currently working on developing the newsbeat website to make it more modern, appealing, and up to date.

An average day for Derek is having a meeting at 8am where everyone presents their ideas for the days news stories, these will be broadcasted throughout the day and so must be interesting to the target market. Derek constantly has access to facebook and twitter to catch the latest stories, following not only places in the UK but Australia and America too to get different news stories, also has subscriptions to newspapers, whilst travelling into work Derek catches up with these sources and networks. There is a lot of rules that have to be followed when working with newsreading, it's a must to have at least two liable sources to verify a story is true, as some stories found could be just rumour. Due to social networking playing such a massive role in this target market, newsbeat uses facebook and twitter to use photos to engage the audience, these can be easily be spread and shared, widening the audience.

This isn't a job where you start once you get to work, you need to already have stories at the start of the day. To do this they look at every story possible, and then narrow down to what their target audience would want to hear. All the stories are scripted for legal reasons and as it sounds better on air, even if sometimes it sounds like it isn't scripted so much as they use conversational language.

Thanks for reading! 

Charlotte.