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Project Reflection and Conclusion

The research that I have undertaken through my project has changed and developed into a range of work that even at the beginning I could not for see. I am please with how my project has been resolved and I can see further potential avenues of academic research from this if I was to study for a doctorate degree. At times I worried that my work was off track, to varied or not specific; but by updating my Learning agreements and feedback through regular tutorials I do feel that I have more confidence to be a self reflecting practitioner now. Identifying the potential within my work and knowing what pieces are important in communicating the core concepts.

I have studied via a registered project route, part-time over 2 years and I have no regrets taking longer to complete my MA. As I thought, it has allowed me to fit in my studies around my commitments to part-time lecturing and continuing my own business practice. At times I have left under pressure to deliver work ready for planned tutorial sessions, especially in my busy months (Oct to Jan). On reflection I do feel that these mini deadlines I set myself in taking work to tutorials helped me to keep on track and not fall behind with the progress of my project.

The level at which I now produce work to have been increased, with new market awareness and innovative technical approaches to textile design. This is what I had hoped to achieve from the outset when proposing my project. A collection of work that contributes new ways of thinking or working to the filed of printed textile design. To not simply produce design work that aesthetically looks great, but is also underpinned by solid academic research and offers other practitioners new knowledge within the subject area.

I have been challenged both personally and by member of the postgraduate academic staff team at Nottingham Trent University. Without Kathy Dickinson’s enthusiastic guidance and support, I really do not know if I would have achieved such a high standard of work.

Promotion and Website Design

CraigFellowsPortfolio.co.uk

I have been developing a website recently to host and present the work I have produced whilst studying at postgraduate level. This website will be separate to my current business website as the work I have been researching doesn’t as yet have a commercial or product based outcome. Presenting it together may send conflicting messages to prospective future collaborators and business that I wish to work with.

The site will need to carry out a few key roles to help me better communicate both my research and design skills. It will need to:

Ø Have a contemporary feel.

Ø Be informative. Provide clear information about myself, research interests and relevant experience with textile design area.

Ø Appeal to buyers and clients looking for print design for commercial markets.

Ø Demonstrate the level of research that I am engaged in.

Ø Be simple to navigate.

Ø Be cost effective and flexibility to grow as I build a business in new markets. The ability to purchase design work online in future.

Ø Contain a gallery of visuals (pictures or videos) of my current and past work.

Ø Have a self-contained contact area so there is no need to navigate away from the website.

There is a lot more work to be done until I am happy to invite clients to view it but I am happy with the progress that I have made so far. I plan to still link both the current and new websites together perhaps through the ‘about’ section to be transparent about who I am and what I do.

The ‘Logo’ I plan to use for my branding is very similar to my current one that I use for my business. Same font and layout, I have made an addition of some key words to emphasise my new areas of interest. Again I hope that this will retain the flow and consistency between my MA work and current business. Future plans may see my starting up a new business, which promotes and sells other print designers work along side my own. I feel that a name chance of the business might be needed to reflect this.

Interactive elements integrated into the page directs the viewer up and down the page instead of moving their attention away to separate pages. I have tried to include video media into the site as incidental backgrounds to the different sections; this will help give a visual insight into my involvement with the print processes.

Presenting Thermochromic Research

My thermochromic research has played an important role in widening my subject knowledge and questioning already existing applications for it. I will be including the thermochromic prints generated in the developments stage of my project into fabrics used for a menswear capsule collection.

The information that I have gathered through sampling has recently become something that I have identified as valuable, innovative and something that could contribute towards my field of study. Therefore I hope to briefly present this research through a research paper or document that will best show how I have developed new applications for theses ‘smart’ pigments.

In resolving and reviewing my research into the print application of thermochromic inks I have identified future research avenues that could be explored, theses are:

Ø Digital textile printing – processes for the use of smart ink.

Ø Colour cataloguing – an index or data base for referencing consistent colour mixing.

Resolving Module 3 & Planning final submission

To help organise the time left until my final hand-in and submission I have devised a work plan around the forthcoming weeks. It takes the form of a weekly diary and a checklist of items that I wish to complete.

I feel that because I choose submitted my work to be included in the MA Open Studio Exhibition I had to resolve some aspects of the project before I had planned to. Almost putting me a little in front.

My main focus for the final few weeks will be to resolve my research towards a commercial application for the apparel market. Researching and gathering contextual research from a variety of sources lead me to settle on proposing a menswear capsule collection for Autumn Winter 16 / 17. I feel that many of the trends forecasted through WGSN along with current progression of print directions in Menswear give me the greatest scope for a suitable application. Oversized shirts and tops teamed with loose poncho and duffle coat outwear will fit well with my organic, less structured prints.

In this collection I hope to draw focus on my thermochromic print research. By using the wearer as a catalyst, the print will change through heat generated and the environment during autumn / winter will provide the cold needed to change back the thermochromic prints to their original state. A Spring / Summer season wouldn’t provide me with such a range of temperatures and not allow my prints to change states as often.

My capsule collection will be resolved through a series of visualisations, illustrations, mounted printed fabric samples and a resolved sample garment. The menswear collection will communicate the concept of surface and mark interactions that I have researched by coherently brining together printed surfaces such as silk/cotton Habotai, lamb nappa leather and cotton lawn.

MA Open Studio Exhibition

Today I took my turn looking after the exhibition and talking to any visitors that came to view the work. It was also my first chance to see the work all together and to talk to the full time students about the course and their projects.

A variety of work from different courses was included in the Open Studio; these included students from visual communications, fine art, sculpture, product design, fashion, textiles, knitwear and graphic design MA’s.

There was some beautiful project work that I had time to look through and helped me to understand the level that students were working to in resolving their work. Portfolios, sketchbooks and technical samples were presented alongside final garments, fabrics, products and visuals to help give a sense of the breadth of research undertaken. This informal approach to presenting the work worked well for a couple of projects but on the whole the Open Studio exhibition did feel a little unorganised.

Everybody’s project bios were presented differently, some had postcard or business cards and some (including myself) had none. There was also no programme or book for people to take away as in previous years and whilst I was there today I only spoke to prospective students who were looking to attend the course next year.

I‘m glad that I worked to resolve my work a little earlier to have the opportunity to be included in the Open Studio Exhibition, presenting work with my peers. Although I do feel a little let down, especially seeing the work of both previous 2 years MA graduates who had exhibited in the Bonnington Gallery. It felt much more prepared, professional and resolved.

MA Open Studio Expo - Setup

Today I spent the afternoon at Nottingham Trent University to setup my work for the MA Open Studio Exhibition. The last few days have been frantic printing my final lengths and mounting them up ready for installation. The printed lengths that I have printed and plan to use in my spatial piece includes a mix of fabrics and printing processes such as;

Ø Silk Twill Heavy – Digitally Printed

Ø Cotton Calico – Digitally Printed

Ø Silk / Cotton Habotai – Digitally Printed and Devore Screen Printed

Ø Silk / Cotton Habotai – Digitally Printed and Devore Hand Applied

Ø Cotton Lawn – Thermochromic Pigments Screen Printed

Ø Clear Drafting Film (Posijet) – Digitally Printed

The spatial piece that I have resolved is 150cm wide and 250cm high, once the brackets for the hanging system were in place it really didn’t take long to install the printed lengths.

Along with my large wall piece I also presented my portfolio on a plinth and wall hung a few of my A1 size printed samples and printed leather swatches.

I really didn’t know until I turned up today exactly where my space would be in the studio and how much width I would have to display my work. I feel that because of all my pre-planning and CAD visualisations the work was displayed to the best of my abilities with minor complications and little compromising.

Concluding and reviewing my work submitted for the MA Open Studio Expo I identified a few adjustments that I would make. In future if I was to exhibit more spatial pieces in one go, in say a gallery setting, I would:

Ø Adjust the hanging rails to maximise the depth and distance between layers

Ø Print onto an alternative clear film (posijet) that does not have a blue tint

Ø Install a variety of lengths that have different widths and heights

Ø Consider paring down the number of layers used

Ø Utilise the back wall as a base layer.

Ø Paint the Aluminium hanging system white or at least all of the faces on view to help draw focus on the prints.

I was a little disappointed with the overall feel of the show when compared to previous MA Expo’s. Having the show in the studio retained the creative atmosphere and less formal approach to displaying work and as such felt a little cramped and unfinished. This setting would have been ideal for a work in progress show.

There were only 2 RP MA students (including myself) exhibiting work, the others were full time students. This may have been largely due to deadlines, with RP students not handing in until September, many projects perhaps were not ready to display or resolved enough to show.

Spatial Piece - Printing of final lengths

Today I continued production printing my spatial piece. My digitally printed silk / cotton Habotai had arrived back from The Silk Bureau, which looked fantastic, and so I began to cut out the lengths of print to work into further. I repeat printed devore paste in stripes over 2/3 of one length and hand painted marks and textures into other pieces.

Whilst I waited for the fabrics to finish in either the steamer or oven I printed the posijet film with the transparent marks and began to mount the lengths of fabric onto the rail runners from the Kvartal system that I had purchased from IKEA. Doing this now will hopefully save me time when it comes to install the work next week.

Diffusion Collection - Menswear Resolution AW 16/17

Diffusion Collection - Menswear Resolution AW16/17

My main focus for the next few months is to resolve my research towards a commercial application for the apparel market. Researching and gathering contextual research from a variety of sources lead me to settle on proposing a menswear capsule collection for Autumn Winter 16 / 17. I feel that many of the trends forecasted through WGSN along with current progression of print directions in Menswear give me the greatest scope for a suitable application. Oversized shirts and tops teamed with loose poncho and duffle coat outwear will fit well with my organic, less structured prints.

In this collection I hope to draw focus on my thermochromic print research. By using the wearer as a catalyst, the print will change through heat generated and the environment during autumn / winter will provide the cold needed to change back the thermochromic prints to their original state. A Spring / Summer season wouldn’t provide me with such a range of temperatures and not allow my prints to change states as often.

My capsule collection will be resolved through a series of visualisations, illustrations, mounted printed fabric samples and a resolved sample garment. The menswear collection will communicate the concept of surface and mark interactions that I have researched by coherently brining together printed surfaces such as silk/cotton Habotai, lamb Napa leather and cotton lawn.

Formative Presentation

The presentation that I delivered today provided me with excellent feedback and a reinforced focus in resolving my research project. Along with other RP MA students made a 20-minute presentation and answered questions from my peers and the academic team.

Previously I have presented my work to subject specific lecturers who already have good knowledge of the processes that I have been investigating. Today the panel consisted of lecturers from fine art, fashion, historical studies, product, ceramics, decorative arts and textiles. Having such a wide variety of feedback really helped me to understand the audience that I would present my research to. I had always presumed that my audience would have a background in either textiles or printmaking and that a lot of the processes that I had explored were pretty self-explanatory. I found myself fielding questions where I had to explain textile-printing processes, processes that I had quite wrongly presumed that my audience would know about. In preparation for my final presentation I will ensure that in explaining my project work it is robust and in depth by communicating the relevance and importance of processes such as devore.

Ø Final resolution needs visualisations of how the work will sit in an alternative (diffused) commercial market.

Ø Samples of work really help communicate the journey.

Ø Allow the audience time to examine and look at any work/print samples passed around.

Ø Slow down and better pace the presentation. Don’t let my excitement take over.

Ø Ensure that all of the slides/visuals are readable and not all crammed onto 1 page.

Ø Keep the logical flows to the presentation showing us how the research developed and what informed the resolution decisions.

Ø Excellent quality of visuals used and good use of PowerPoint.

Ø Try to include videos to help better communicate the Thermochromic processes

Ø Thermochromic work needs a context – indoor / spatial / apparel ?

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