BA Hons Textiles Consultancy Blog

Reflective Statement.

Toward the end of second year I was mentally preparing myself for the most stressful academic year of my life; however, I could not have been more wrong. There is still a long way to go but up to this point it could have not been further than what I was anticipating and has actually been the easiest year so far at Cardiff Met.

From first year and especially second year I learnt what needed to be done at each stage and the consequences of the position I would be putting myself in if I did not keep up with the workload. So, when initially starting on this project I ensured all my research was done early so I could move onto drawing as soon as possible. As I was ahead since the start the entire project has been a breeze, especially following our Matt Rhys presentations.

As all I needed to do was make some final edits and get my designs printed following this presentation, I have been able to focus a substantial amount of time on my dissertation within the past couple of weeks. By being organised within my subject work it has allowed my dissertation to flourish and will hopefully be finished by the end of this term. As my dissertation will then be done, I will be able to move onto formulating my ideas for the degree show. During my time in Colombia I started some watercolours so I will be able to continue these and start researching over the Christmas break.

Overall from being organised and managing my time a lot better than I have done previous it has made life a lot easier and shows that it is easy to get everything done if you keep on top of it. Although being organised and productive is essential, over the past couple of weeks I have really missed the pressure that loomed at the start of the project. Because of this, I cannot wait to get started on the degree show which I know will be a lot harder than the mogul we have just completed. Having so much time toward the end of the project helped me come to a realisation about my own working practices in that I enjoy being busy and working under pressure far more than having only a few things on my plate.

Having so much spare time toward the end of the project has also allowed me time to start to put portfolios together and look into jobs I would like to do following finishing at Cardiff Met. Although I did prefer being rushed off my feet at the start of my project, this time has been essential to remind myself that come next year this will end and I have to start to look at moving on.

Final Fabric samples.

As my designs have a high amount of colour and detail i felt digital printing would be the most professional way to produce them. If i had decided to screen print my designs i would need a vast amount of screens and registration points which could have meant my hues would not line up correctly producing a less professional finish than digital printing. As my collection is still mainly aimed at boys and a low end market i decided not to use any foils, flocks or decorative finishes as i wanted to keep the production costs as low as possible.

I decided to get my three fabrics printed at 1x 1 meter so the repeat would be visible within my fabric samples. Now having trimmed down my fabrics to this size i feel this is appropriate as the viewer can see the full extent of the pattern. I feel DG was correct when suggesting for myself to make the scale of my roll design bigger as now each monster has room to breathe and does not appear to be so compact.

I have decided to produce three fabrics as this was a suggestion from Keireine. This has allowed myself to demonstrate how my designs would look on two different substrates for pj’s and one for a onesie. I feel the substrate plush minky which i selected for the onesie would need to be used on the exterior and lining of this product to ensure the garment feels warm and soft to the touch on both the interior and exterior. This would also allow myself to make the onesie reversible with one design on the lining and one on the exterior. I feel this would really appeal to my target market.

Reflecting back i wish i had developed my alternate colour way before having my fabrics produced as it would have been nice to have two of the same designs in varying colour ways instead of two of exactly the same designs on different substrates. Despite this, i am glad i ordered my meter fabrics when i did following the issues i had with my samples to ensure i had my outcomes on time for the December deadline.

Out of the three fabrics i feel the loopback sweatshirt and my sheet design is the least successful as it has come out awfully dark with limited contrast between the foreground and background. If i were to have this design produced again i would lighten the tone of the background hue and make the scale of the text bigger to ensure there was a greater contrast between the colours and imagery.

As it was within my gift wear collection i designed these fabrics with the intention that my monster roll design is the hero design and the text sheet design is the secondary design. However, despite i feel this worked within my gift wear collection i feel it is not so successful when only having two designs produced within my fabric collection. Reflecting back i should have selected a design which was not quite so busy and contains more negative space for my secondary design in order to create more of a contrast between my printed fabrics. Despite this, i feel these two designs do work well together within my product mockups.

Except from the details listed above i am happy with these fabric outcomes and love finally having my designs on fabric. Although i did enjoy creating my paper gift wear collection having my designs on a fabric substrate is awfully satisfying.

Sketchbook page 45

This sketchbook page consists of samples that i ordered from Fashion Formula. Instead of ordering a swatch-book i decided to order 4 samples of materials that i felt would be appropriate for my nightwear range as i wanted to see how the substrate may alter my design. I decided to order the same design on all 4 substrates in order to compare how each material changed my design, if at all and also to see if the colours varied.

Unfortunately my samples took an extortionately long time to arrive so i had to put in my order for my final fabrics before receiving them to ensure i had left enough time for these to arrive before the december submission. Despite this, when ordering my final fabrics i decided to phone fashion formula to ask for their advice. They were able to give me some good advice on which substrates would be best for my garments and also sent me pictures of how each substrate looked.

Out of the 4 samples i ordered i feel the Calio Plain Cotton (names for each substrate are attached on the reverse of each sample) is the least strong in terms of picking up the hues within my design and how it makes it look overall. Compared to the other three samples it has a every so slightly faded effect.

For use in relation to nightwear the Calio Plain Cotton and also Poly Panama are not appropriate as they will feel ruff against the skin and have limited stretch. As my designs are intended for children’s nightwear i need the substrates i choose to be soft against the skin and have stretch which neither of these two substrates are. As well as these two substrates the Poly Stretch although does have a stretching element is not soft enough to be used on childrens night wear much like the calio plain cotton and poly panama it has a slightly ruff feel to the touch which may be uncomfortable to sleep in.

Out of the four samples the stretch jersey is definitely the most appropriate for my children’s nightwear range. The fabric has a very soft luxurious feel which also stretches in every direction. This is a substrate that was recommended to me by Fashion Formula when i phoned them and am looking forward to having a bigger sample of it. As well as being appropriate for my products it also takes the colour well and picks up the finer details within my design. I am very happy with this sample and would love to have pj’s made out of it.

Overall i wish the samples had got here in time for me to order my finalfabrics; however, by phoning fashion formula i was still able to make an informed decision on which substrates would be best for my products. From here i will cut my final meter samples to size and attach their labels.

Sketchbook pages 46 and 47

The collage of imagery on pages 46 and 47 is from my desk space. So to utilise the imagery instead of just discarding it i thought it would be best utilised on a double page spread in my sketchbook. It is interesting that the last pages in my sketchbook reflect that of my first which contains a collage of my research imagery.

I feel this double page spread would have been more visually appealing if each piece of imagery was at a smaller scale. However, i decided not to print out each element at a smaller scale as the point of this exercise was to utilise the printed elements.

Overall this double page spread would give the viewer a good idea of what my desk space looked like; however, just in a different format and missing a few elements. I would have liked to have included my ‘happy birthday’ and name sign; however, their scale was simply too large to incorporate. It is interesting looking at my very first pages of my sketchbook and then flashing to these last few to reflect on how i developed my ideas throughout the project.

Sketchbook page 44

My main feedback point from DG was that my roll design needed more room to breathe so i have decided to make the scale of this design bigger in order to give each element more space. To ensure i was going to digitally print the designs at the correct scale i decided to print them off at home onto printing paper first to ensure the sale looked correct.

Overall i feel making my roll design bigger in scale does make each element more obvious and gives them a lot more room to breathe. Now happy with the new scale of my design i will send it off to be digitally printed by Fashion Formula.

Nightwear Mood-board

To demonstrate my ideas i have created a boys nightwear mood-board. As each of the garments shown have a high density of pattern and texture i have decided to keep to a simple layout so’s not to overwhelm the page.

I selected these images based on what i saw on the market combined with my ideas of how i was going to develop my gift wear range. Throughout this mood-board i wanted to use images of nightwear that had consistently busy patterns and highly textured areas as this was something i have incorporated into my own designs.

As well as this, i wanted to include mostly designs which demonstrate a diverse colour pallet which would also represent that within my own collection. To ensure this mood-board matches that of my previous ones i have also incorporated the same font to title the board. Although this is for my new mini fabric collection it is essential it is consistent in design when displayed with my previous boards.

Mini fabric collection displacement maps

After reviewing the displacement maps i created for my gift wear collection i realised something was going wrong; however, i could not figure out how to rectify this. Although my designs were successfully displaced onto products, the shading and highlighted areas from the product were not showing through very well.

For my first product mock up i decided to have one last attempt at using my own notes to see if displacing my designs onto garments would make my outcomes any better. Once displaying the design i then experimented using every tool i could possibly think of within the Photoshop software in the hope some improvements would be made. Unfortunately, i did not have much luck and was not satisfied with the outcome of my experiment so decided to contact other students on the course to see what they were doing.

When speaking to two others on the course they explained it was not the technique i was using that was going wrong; however, darker designs tend to be more difficult than those with lighter hues. Although this did not exactly solve my issue it allowed me to realise that i was not doing anything wrong, its just my designs which were making the process so hard. Despite not getting an exact step that i was missing which was what i was expecting, it did show me where my issues lie and that i just have to keep playing around with different settings until i reach a point i am happy with.

After talking to the other students i decided to displace the same design onto the same garment to see if their advice helped. Overall i am a lot happier with this outcome bellow than the one above as it is now clearer that it is a two piece set and not an all in one. As well as this, the creases and folds within the material are now substantially more obvious than they were previously.

Overall this mock up has given myself a really good idea of how my designs would look on children’s wear products. As well as this, this two piece set has come out exactly how i pictured it within my head so now if anyone asks for a visual image of what i am explaining i can just show them this image which will explain my ideas a lot more clearly.

For my second mock up after speaking to other students i decided to displace the same design onto another image. This once again has come out a lot better than my first attempt and also shows how the back of the top garment would look.

For my next displacement map i decided to show how my design would look on a onesie. This garment was sold consistently throughout shops that i looked at for my in store research so i felt it was important to show how my designs would look on it.

As i have created an alternate colour way i decided to use both this and my original to show how the two differ and could work together. Overall i feel my design looks really good on the onesie and like how i am showing my two alternate colour ways together. Despite this, i feel the below displacement map could be improved if more shadow/ shading from the garment was showing through. This was something i did spend a while playing with; however, this was the best i could achieve on this image.

For my last displacement map i decided to use my placement design idea combined with my sheet wrap for trousers. Once again this idea was something i could strongly visualise in my head so its nice to have a visual reference to show people.

This design differers from my others as it has a lot more negative space creating some diversity within my collection. This design bellow relates a lot more to products which i saw on the market which consisted of patterned trousers and a placement design top. Despite this, this design is specifically aimed at birthdays meaning a customer would be a lot less likely to buy it except from a birthday gift.

Overall from talking to other students i feel my displacement maps have greatly improved since the gift wear project. Despite this all my outcomes have a slightly faded effect about them which is from where i have had to turn the opacity down for the garments folds to show through. Now about to go into our final major project i am a lot more confident with product mock ups and feel they are continuously improving with every one i do.

Alternate colour way

To show how my designs could be developed i have decided to create an alternate colour way for my roll design. To diversify it from the original i decided to use a more girly colour pallet which includes a pink tone. Although my original design could be used for girls or boys i wanted to create an alternate colour way which would directly appeal to a girls market.

To change the hues within this design i decided to experiment with the hues and saturation within the Photoshop software. If i wanted to push this design further i would change the slightly green monsters to yellow as i feel a soft yellow hue would appeal more to younger girls and also make the overall colour pallet more visually appealing.

Desk Space

Overall i don’t think i could have fitted much more onto the wall of my desk space if i tried which really reflects my busy designs. I wanted my space to be dense with colour and pattern to remind myself that this is the style that i am aiming for within my design work.

One of the main features within my space is the ‘Happy birthday’ text in the centre. I created this in a large scale specifically for my space because although my space did have a monster theme there was no prominent reminder that it was for birthdays. Having this at such a large scale really helped me to pick out details which were constant throughout my work and central to the style i was creating.

As well as this large text i felt it was important to include some of my initial designs to remind myself where it all started and what could be developed. My block repeat design was prominent for this idea as it reminded me that although my patterns may be busy enough to get lost in, the style of repeat can be a make or break point.

Another section that was really important for myself was to have a sample of store bought paper which featured monsters and the finish i wanted for my designs. This is featured centrally right at the bottom of the wall. This served as a constant reminder of how my designs may look with this finish, but also which scale and hues were on the market.

Having some designs and my typography in black and white was awfully useful as it allowed me to see how much colour has an effect on my work. The mogul number and first typography experiment on the right look some what more mature than the text when colour was applied. This really showed me how my choice of colour made my designs so much more appropriate for my target market.

The top part of the wall proved awfully useful for displaying my bags and first collection board. When creating my second collection board and bag i could constantly refer to my previous ideas to see what i felt went well and what went not so well.

Mini fabric collection- In store research

As i have decided to develop my collection for the boys pj/ nightwear market i completed some in store research to find out what is currently on trend and selling on the market. For this research i decided to visit four stores, all with varying markets.

NEXT

The first store i visited was Next which has a slighly higher market than the one my designs will be aiming at. In store their pj sets came in mostly multi packs of two tops with two bottoms. The hues which match those within my own colour pallet, mainly featuring on blues, reds and greys.

Although their pj sets contained a wide variety of colours and patterns their dressing gowns were overall plain, with only one product featuring a pattern which was of stars. As i will be developing my designs onto pj’s i think it will also be important to consider a dressing gown in order to create a well rounded collection. As well as this, as my designs will be for AW’20 a dressing gown will be appropriate for this time of year.

M&S

Much like Next the M&S boys nightwear section featured an awful lot of grey signalling it is a hue that is in for AW’19. Despite this unlike Next their dressing gowns featured more patterns such as the camouflage featured in the left image.

Much like Next the designs were also most frequently sold in multipacks of coordinating designs. As this is starting to become a theme on the market i feel my designs would also be best sold as multipacks.

MATALAN

Matalan had a much more diverse range of hues within their collection than that of Next and M&S. Perhaps as they are aiming at a slightly lower market they use colours to help their designs stand out, similar to what i found in the Card Factory during my in store gift wear research.

Now having visited a third store i started to notice the reoccurring theme of onesies being sold for this age bracket. I feel a onesie would be more appropriate for my target market as it is a more exciting adaptation of a dressing gown. As well as this i feel my all over monster pattern would really suit this product as it would allow the consumer to see the full pattern and get lost in the sea of colour and texture.

PRIMARK

Primark like all the other stores in my research sold pj’s in coordinating multipacks. Like Matalan their designs featured a whole host of colours and patterns, a lot more attention grabbing than those in M&S.

Within Primark it was clear how they developed one pattern/ theme across an entire range of products with matching pj’s, onesie, slippers and socks. This seemed like a very clever idea as it up sells multiple products from a collection.

Because of the wide variety of colours and patterns within my designs i feel they would be best suited to Primark’s range. As well as this, i would then still be keeping to the low market area which Matt felt my designs really suited.