Noah's Arc

So as part of my Self initiated design brief project i have been asked to complete various competitions and projects that i have found on the internet. At the moment i am currently working on a project called 'Noah's Arc' for a company called Beta Fashion. Beta fashion are a company that make and sell scarves to the public but also set competitions through out the year for the public to also design scarves that the company can go on and sell. 

So far my attempt of a scarf design isn't going will but i have created a selection of developmental design! Im currently torn between two ideas: 1. creating quite an aztec based colourful scarf or 2. creating a scarf using digital imagery. 

here is one of the designs i have done, i'm really not sure about it at the moment but i guess it's a start ...watch this space for progress!

Let me know what you think!




sooo I have done a couple more designs .. they are still really basic but I want to see what you guys think of them .... I can't decide which one to develop or whether I should just start again! dilemmas!

i think i prefer this version using the slightly more tone down colours what do you think ?

I'm trying out the whacky and wild theme ... but I'm not sure if things need to be a bit calmer or whether I should em-brass the bright colours. 

A bit toned down ! 

i kind of like this one, its a bit out there but i like the colour combination; its fun and lively ...and isnt that what noahs arc and life is all about ?

digital prints and the nervous breakdown!

After lots of research, development and planning ...so came the time to take the plunge and finally submit my digital prints!

Amazingly this year our university have managed to get the funding for a brand spanking new digital printer! An opportunity that no other year has had so far at our university! having a digital means that we can create complex colour popping prints that are impossible to create buy screen printing.... this new equipment gives us so many opportunities to create the garments and prints we really want to without compromise! how amazing!

Although the printing is fairly expensive at £30 a meter for cottons and £40 for silk...it is worth it! thats not to say i didn't have a nervous breakdown when submitting my prints to mo our digital print technician. As the printing method is a long process (sometimes taking up to 2 weeks to get your prints back) and quite costly it had never been more important to make sure i got my samples correct first time round! And after a lot of stress and many an hour spent in front of a photoshop screen...success at last! my prints were ready to go. 

Handing over my usb stick to mo was quite a nerve racking business and waiting for my prints to come back to me was like being a 5 year old child the night before christmas! the day couldn't come quick enough!

Much to my delight however all my prints were successful, no blips, no wrong turns! £40 well spent. I printed on to crepe de chine as this was the closest to the material i shall be using in my final collection; as i was printing a meter of fabric i had the option of 16 A4 samples; 8 A3 samples and 4 A2 samples. I went for the 8 A3 option!.

And here they are, my final prints.... i love them all ...but i do have my favourites!

this print was based on the crazy octopus i saw at the aquarium, i like the colours i have used in it and i feel it creates quite a quirky print.

Although we were told not to use a lot of reflection our prints i feel that within this print it enhances it in the way i want it to and gives a sense of blurred reality which encompasses my creative direction.

I like this placement print , i love the photographic quality to it but the hazy focus on the image...disorientation is a mood that i am trying to create through my collection and i feel this print will add to this notion.

Although this print is similar to the one above, i love the colours used in this; my collection primarily made up of dark shades so its nice to have a few prints that give a real colour blast !

Although this print is bold i also feel it has quite a delicate and feminine feel to the print , particularly with the use of pastels contrasting with the deep blues of the print.

This sample i have designed to be used as a lining rather than a print on the exterior of a garment, i feel it would work better as an intricate flash of design rather then across a garment.

This is by far one of my favourite prints , i love the intricate detail and the colours i have used, its dark and mysterious but can still be used to make a garment look classy and feminine.

and this is the last of the prints... so far - i like this one because its got quite an animalistic feel to it!

Now my digital prints are completed i now need to work out how i will incorporate them in to my roughs and designs! wish me luck! I'm going to need it!

Lets start at the very beginning...

So lets start at the beginning, well... of third year anyway!For my final collection this year i have chosen my creative direction to be based on the dark side of the ocean...and the dangers of the sea. The collection will be called Poseidon's allure and will consist of a minimum 3 outfits portraying both my fashion and textiles skills. 

But before i could even think about the end product i had to go and get inspired and immerse my self in all things oceany! This called for a trip to both bournemouth and London aquarium!.

The colours and mood of this image is exactly what i want to capture in my collection! moody and dark!

Getting first hand research is essential for my project because the last thing you want to do is accidentally plagiarise someone else's work ...massive no no!! and well lets face it, everything  is better if it's your own. So with this in mind i dragged my flat mate and her friend off to bournemouth for the day! it was certainly an eventful trip down there ..controlled madness as ever!.

When we arrived i was all set to get snapping SLR camera at the ready. Its safe to say after about 500 photos i definitely had enough material to get going with. From turtles and octopuses to coral and sea urchins i had shapes, colour and texture to work with ... my mind was on fire with ideas.

I love this impact of this image, its bold but delicate at the same time  which reflects the juxtaposition of my creative direction! The two tone linear pattern has give me a lot of inspiration!

With the research and imagery i have gained from visiting bournemouth i have now been able to creating exciting digital prints and roughs that use the shapes and silhouettes i have found through my photographs! Heres some of my favourite snaps i got from my day of fun!

I love the colours in this photo, i love how the orange pops out against the delicate patterning of the rather grumpy looking fish!

Im loving the tentacles and the weird suckers on this rather friendly octopus ...he definitely like posing for me on this day!

The flecks of metallic sheen adds real interest to this photograph, i love the gradient from cold greys to warm orange; this is the type of aesthetic i want to push through into my final design ideas.