Beth Lewis

On this blog you will find my ongoing analytical research relating to Fashion & Faith, as well as a reflective journal documenting my work. Visual interpretations of my findings can be found in my sketchbook.

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ZERO GENDER - YOUTH CONSUMER

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Don’ wanna’ mess wit’ an indigo like that.

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http://advancedstyle.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-movement.html

Photo: Juergen Teller

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https://i-d.vice.com/en_au/article/tavi-gevinson-is-the-icon-for-an-activist-generation

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GEN Z, VICE

https://i-d.vice.com/en_au/topic/gen-z

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http://www.altgen.org.uk

Less than a year later, she set up AltGen, a movement that encourages 18-29-year-olds to set up workers’ co-operatives – a hoary old left-wing ideal, but one of the few social enterprises that has been surprisingly resilient to the economic downturn. There is now a bike co-op in Brixton, a recycled fashion co-op in Manchester, an independent media co-op in Bristol – small, encouraging signs that AltGen’s alternative theory of economics has caught on. “You have all these young people who actually want to contribute towards social change, but that talent and energy isn’t going towards anything because only a few of those jobs exist,” says Colvin. “What we need to do is stop competing for the same jobs and actually start working together to find new ways of creating change.”

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http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/24193/1/millenials-british-youth-dazed-generation

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Reflection

Looking at my work to hand i have realised that from starting off mixed media by hand I really enjoyed physically delving myself into it. Then progressing to digital and pushing myself to try new things without always being happy with the outcome I came out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed creating a collective zine with my peers because it was an interesting to get together and bounce of each other’s ideas, identifying each of our individual styles and how to link our work together. I enjoyed having a main part in making the zine, as creating layouts and book making is something I enjoy doing. Something i have learnt from working in a group project is to always plan as far in advance as possible. With so many people participating, it is easy to be let down by others. In the future for the outcome of a group project I think I would find it beneficial to have more meetings outside of uni, as when in class people can be busy on their own work rather than the collective zine.

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We made the zine!

As we all came to a finish of our individual two page spread for the zine Alex, Meryeme Sophie and I went to the library on Sunday before deadline to put it together last minute. It took us three hours all together with deciding the layout and order of work. Thankfully, we were able to include everyones work. There was a point I was unsure this would happen due to a few group members absences. We set up a group chat on Facebook quite early on in the project to keep each other updated with ideas, so luckily we were able to communicate and I was willing to wait until Sunday to make the zine and give other people more time to create their spread. 

With a short abrupt caption overviewing the concept of our project and a short credit page we tried to keep the writing minimal to make the zine more of a visual object. To give the zine a good visual flow, we ordered our work simply by what looked best by considering the balance between positive and negative space as well as breaking up work that would be considered similar to help the viewer understand each spread was created by a different artist.

To bind the book ready for the presentation I sewed it on my sewing machine at home. I left the thread ends visible and the edges are not even, you wouldn’t consider it a professional zine. However I feel for this project the textile, rough aesthetic of it works well to fit the theme. We originally wanted it bound in leather, so to give this effect we used a black image for the cover and back.

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Maison Margiela Spring 2014 Couture Collection

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Edits of final collages using photoshop

To experiment more in depth with my collages as I did not use the opportunity to use my own photography, I decided to create some edits of my final images in the style of www.frombrazilwithlovestudio.com (see sketchbook)

I used shape tools to create layers on top of my images as well as creating lines in the style of my drawings. I am happy with my outcomes, as I have done something different and I am not particularly confident using the programme. However, I feel these images do not look professional enough to use in the zine. I feel the originals are more clean and give the impression of wall art more than these, with these looking more graphic. 

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Masks & Visualisations - Photoshop

Today Sam taught us how to use masks on photoshop. On the left is my first attempt following Sam step by step. As you can see, the edges are not clean and you can see the white dress. This is because I used the polygon magnetic tool. On the right was my own attempt using a different method with the magnetic lasso tool which I found was a lot easier to follow the lines with. I feel confident I could try this on my own in the future, with the help of an online tutorial of course. 

This method would have interesting to play about with for collage, but unfortunately with only learning this 3 days before deadline my priorities lie on making the zine.