Saturday 21 December 2013

Holly Levell

Holly Levell is a textile artist specialsing in the everydayness through her soft sculptures. 
Her work is amazing. So realistic! Check out her website for more of her work, http://www.hollylevell.com


 


Emily Sutton

Emily Sutton's work incorporates a love of pattern and detail and is strongly influenced by the landscape and creatures of her surroundings in the Yorkshire countryside as well as all kinds of weird and wonderful objects found in museums and antique shops. 
Pigeon
http://emillustrates.com/gallery/songbirdsculptures/pigeonone2.jpg.html
Goldcrest
http://emillustrates.com/gallery/songbirdsculptures/goldcrest2.jpg.html

Bluetit
http://emillustrates.com/gallery/songbirdsculptures/bluetits2.jpg.html

Carola Van Dyke

A scrumptious mix of cushions, textile taxidermy heads and paintings for your home. Cushion designs include countryside, dogs, birds, cats, moths and skulls.

  


I love the mix of different patterned vintage fabrics she uses to create each piece.  
Unique and quirky!

Saturday 14 December 2013

Anthropologie Gift Wrap and Decorations

Watercolour Wrapping Paper   Pom Pom Wrapping Paper
Golden Boughs Wrapping Paper  

Fantastical Crane Decoration Darting Hummingbird Decoration
Pom Pom Otter Decoration Santa's Helper Decoration

Anthropologie - Gift Guide


I have collected together some products, printed and embroidered, whilst browsing http://www.anthropologie.eu/anthro/index.jsp to create another gift guide. I love the Christmas light print on the apron, the embroidered tea towel and the waterlily cushion.


Karen Nichol

http://karennicol.com/pages/gallery2.html
Karen Nichol is an embroidery and mixed media textile artist working in gallery, fashion and interiors. 
Big inspiration for my own embroidered fish for our embellished textiles module. 
http://www.textileartist.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Textile-artist_Karen-Nicol-thames-traveller-ejpg.jpg
Here are a few more of her pieces that I find inspiring. 

   

Thursday 12 December 2013

Mary Katrantzou






Mary Katrantzou's exclusive resort 2014 collection has a lot of different eye catching, bold, bright and colourful prints. The 'Coraline Sweatshirt' and the 'Lupin Dress' are a couple of my favourite pieces from the collection.

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Not On The High Street - Gift Guide


I have collected together some printed products whilst browsing http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/ to create a gift guide. I really like the Thornback & Peel bird and egg cushion and the 'every cloud has a silver lining' print would bring a pop of colour to a plain boring wall. These would make great Christmas Gifts!



Ethics

Today in professional studies we looked at ethical and environmental issues in the textiles industry.

Here are some pointers that we looked at:
ETHICS - Moral principles that governs a persons behavior
CRITICAL THINKING - Objective analysis and evaluation of issues to form a judgement
SECONDARY RESEARCH - internet, peoples photos, drawings, words, visual work
You shouldn't really use anything that isn't your own work.
MASS PRODUCTION - cheap labor, pay, bad working conditions, consumer needs, driven by advertising and trends
CONSUMERISM - Protection or promotion of the interests of consumers growth has led to organizations improving service to customers

Target Market/Customers

Finding and evaluating target customers 

Knowledge is everything when it comes to identifying which groups of customers you should be targeting. Market research will help you understand more about the needs, tastes and spending habits of different groups of potential customers. This should tell you about the customer segments most likely to buy into your offer and the kind of marketing and sales activities they will respond to.
Understanding what your rivals are up to is critical. Questions to ask yourself:
How are they working with your target groups? would you do better or worse? Where are the gaps in their offer and in their marketing? Are group of customers being ignored by rivals? Could you target these profitably?

Target Market

Not all customers are the same. A target market represents a specific type of buyer that a company has identified as potentially interested in the company's product or service. A target market can represent an identified niche. For example, a small manufacturer might tailor its design and production outputs to the home textiles market, which represents a relatively large market segment. The manufacturer can also tailor its productions to environmentally conscious consumers, similar to Europe's Ecolabel textile products. In such a case, the manufacturer can then market products to both general retailers in the household textile market and retailers in the niche environmental products market.

http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/marketing-strategy/your-target-market
http://www.ehow.com/info_8625985_textile-industry-marketing-plan.html


Tuesday 26 November 2013

Samples!

Printing with acid and procion dyes

Foil sample

Close up of foil sample

Pigment printing with puff binder text and barcode, I masked out some text to add foil later.

Dyed fabric sample, pigment print with puff binder

Another foil sample

Dying

Dyed fabric with pigment prints

Bay full of tests!


The Design Process

What do we need to consider as designers?

  • Clients needs/ customers needs/ ask questions to save time wasting
  • Time scale/ Time management
  • Deadlines
  • Meetings
  • Costs/Budget/Constraints/Materials/Techniques/Quality
  • Specific Materials
  • Why they chose you? 
  • Facilities/ specific techniques/ expenses
  • Freelance?
  • Payment for whole job or daily rate?
  • Ethics?
  • Style of work/Their branding/aesthetics
  • Research the company to see if they have specific styles 
  • Make sure the style fits the brief
This weeks group task was to write down our ideas on things we need to consider as designers.

Target Customers

  • Age?
  • Gender?
  • What is important to the person?
  • Hobbies?
  • Jobs?
  • where does customer shop for clothes and interior products?
  • Political views?
  • Influences on shopping?
The second task was to look at two different customers as a group and make assumptions answering the Questions above. 

Writing a CV


Here are some useful websites i've found with tips on how to write a good CV.

Here is a copy my most recent draft of my CV.

Details
Name - 
Address - 
Phone number - 
Mobile number - 
Email - 

Education and Qualifications
2009 - 2011 - Cleveland College of Art & Design
A Level Textiles - A
BTEC National diploma Design Crafts - DDD (Distinctions)

2004 - 2009 - High Tunstall College of Science
7 GCSE's Grade C or above 
-including English Lang & Lit , Maths, Art and ICT

Training
March 2013 - April 2013
City and guilds Level 1 - Employability & Personal Development for Hospitality
City and Guilds Level 2 - Food Safety  Hygiene in Catering

Work Experience
June 2008 - Primark
June 2008 - ASDA
I have had experience working in a customer facing environment. During this time I worked on the different departments which gave me an insight of the skills needed for each different department. I also gained experience of how to deliver good customer service.


Employment
January 2012 - Present - Wedded Bliss Events
- Venue Decorator  
- Handmade Wedding Favour Supplier
- Handmade Wedding Gift Supplier

June 2013 - September 2013 - AVenue Tearoom
- Summer job - Waitress

Personal Statement
I am a highly motivated individual who has recently completed a national diploma course studying Design Crafts and Textiles at Cleveland college of Art & Design. I learnt a lot of creative skills which I hope to put to use in the near future. I have also recently took part in an employability and hospitality course which has helped widen my knowledge on how to deliver good customer service and health and safety in the work place. From this I also gained a Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene Certificate.
I am enthusiastic and have good communication and team working skills. I am a quick learner and I pick things up really easily. I am an organised hard worker and am capable of working under pressure and very rarely leave things to the last minute, I like to know that I am in control as much I can be of a situation and that it gets completed to the best of my ability. 
Although I have a creative background I am adaptable and always learn something new from every experience that I go through.

References Available upon request 


Wednesday 20 November 2013