Year 3 the beginning of the end ..

I haven’t written in a while so I have a lot to update from the start of year 3. Over summer I began my extended research practices summer work which went quite well. I worked in a small square sketch book which I actually found quite difficult as I’m used to working A3. I chose to do all the rest of my research once I had started back at uni, on loose A3 pages as I feel really restricted by it being stuck in a sketch book. We started the year with a competition, for the light shopping centre. The brief was to produce a tailored garment using one inspiration page from our summer research. I used a page inspired by envelopes and folding. In the first week I produced an A3 board showing our inspiration, the second I made the pattern and made the toile and in the third I put together the finished garment. I found the last two weeks very intense and difficult but I managed to produce my garment in time. I was pleased we did the exercise because I made a coat, something I haven’t produced before, it was good to be refreshed with techniques such as lining, setting in sleeves and facings. It made me feel so much more confident about my pattern cutting skills.
15 garments were chosen to be exhibited in the light shopping centre and I was really pleased that mine got chosen. I was also shocked to find that someone had placed a bid on it and wanted me to remake it for them. This was really nice to know that someone liked it that much and I am still deciding whether or not I have the time to remake it or not. With dissertation and the introduction of PPD3 yesterday I don’t think I will have the time to remake it without neglecting things that count towards my degree.
On the dissertation front, it is going well so far, I have had two tutorials out of six and I have had fairly positive feedback so far. I have just started writing chapter one which felt difficult getting back into the flow of writing in a professional way. Mind you once I get started I get stuck into essay writing anyway with the amount I had to write for a level English literature! I read quite a few books over summer to get some out of the way, and I am just starting to read a new book called No Logo. To be honest I am finding it all really interesting, as I really enjoy the academic side of learning as well as the creative.
PPD3 sounds really interesting, we have to choose 6 briefs to work on, with the focus upon quality and not quantity, so just a few pages for each brief . I think I am just finding it hard to get my head around the juggle of research, dissertation and PPD3 without neglecting either of them. I need to start up a schedule so I do not focus on my favourite parts.
I’m trying to think if anything else has been happening since I last wrote, oh also my work placement showcased their collection at Vauxhall fashion scouts so I was asked to come along and help out back stage, it was amazing. I had such a good day in London, although it was very expensive as I booked a late ticket. I had to get up at half 4 and I got back at 11 so I was pretty tired. It was worth it though as the collection that was showcased was the one I was helping with when I was working in Easter, So it was brilliant to see the full circle from start to finish.
I’m starting to think more about what I want to do when I finish my degree and it seems I am still very much set on the design aspect but also I would love to do fashion illustration. I am partly nervous but incredibly excited at the thought of doing something I love so as a job. However I guess that is the thing that kind of worries me ..Getting one especially with all the economy issues, its going to be even more competitive than it normally would be ..oh dear !

Working with the third years and RESULTS !!

The last few days working with the third years put into perspective again how pressured and stressful third year is actually going to be. On Wednesday and Thursday I met Grace at Vernon street and she showed me some of her work- I really liked her style of illustration and it seemed as though she was very hand rendered based like me. I went into town a couple of times to print some photographs for her. However the first time I went the photos weren’t showing up on the memory stick and so I had to go back and reload them. She was telling me how to be prepared for everything to go wrong, and to have a back up for everything as lots of things she planned at gone wrong this year including her portfolio and photo shoot.
I put together the swing tags and helped her with her stand, which I was really impressed with .. I think it was the attention to detail and the theme throughout that made it strong. She had problems with her portfolio which must have been really annoying as she had booked to print it and then when she arrived at Leeds Uni they said they didn’t print A2 front and back..then at staples it cost £60 + so she had to print it A4 in the end which she seemed a little bit gutted about. I think the key for third year is going to be preparation and organisation so nothing gets left behind or left too late.
We got our results back on Thursday also and I was really pleased with my marks :
Research Practices 78 , PPD2 73 and enterprise 73.
I think what I was most happy about was the fact that I got 76% for my interview and action plan for PPD2 as this was an area I was worried would let me down, hopefully this shows that my skills in this area have developed.

Interview, action plan and working with the third years

My interview fro PPD2 was on Friday and I am really happy to say I think it went quite well, I think I came across enthusiastic and passionate about my work and what I wanted to do with my future and career. It was quite tricky to answer some questions like what to do you like and dislike about you but I think I managed to come up with some good answers. The only annoying thing about the interview was how hot it was in the room! We were interviewed by Gemma and a women that we were told was a buyer for Harvey Nichols (it was later reviled that she actually owned her own business) Putting my portfolio together made me feel really proud of myself, looking at an overall collection of how I have developed over the past year. I was happy that I had managed to put together a portfolio that I felt I could talk positively about and use as a prop to sell myself. It seems a world away that I came in the first week and felt so behind, having ever done any fashion related work before ..I remember being worried that I would not succeed on this course. I just feel like I’ve learnt so much and really found something I have a passion for and something that drives me to go further.
With the interview I handed in my action plan for year three and it went as follows:
ACTION 1: To generate design ideas in a wider variety of ways
I will go about this by sampling more on the stand rather than just putting shapes on the body. Also deconstructing garments upon the stand as I did in tailoring practices helped me develop design ideas so I plan to do this more. I will know this has been successful when my design ideas are more developed and understood.
ACTION 2: Improve technical detail of research work. I
I will do this by keeping up a more professional technique within my research work – keeping the same written style and technique thoroughly throughout. I will know I have achieved this when my research work has a slightly more finished and professional appearance
ACTION 3: I will develop my presentation skills
I will do this by becoming more confident talking about my own work and presenting my work. I want to develop this as for the trend project when I had to present my trend humble heritage I felt this was my weakness and I could have improved eye contact and interacting with the audience. I will no I have achieved this when I feel more confident presenting my own ideas to large groups.
ACTION 4: I will become more competent using cad illustrations.
I will do this by experimenting further using illustrator so I am not completely reliant upon hand rendered illustrations. I will know I have achieved this when I competent using illustrator to create strong illustrations.
ACTION 5: I would like to improve my time management when researching
I felt for the last project I needed more time upon research as I hadn’t had time to do any whilst doing my work placement at Easter. So in the future I want to plan out my time so I can organise and track my progress on a project. I will know I have achieved this when I complete a project in an organised and planned manner
ACTION 6: I want to further develop my pattern cutting skills
I feel my pattern cutting skills and confidence have really improved since my first year, however as I am gaining more confidence I am realising how much there is to learn within pattern cutting and I want my skills to be more advanced. To achieve this I am going to practice over summer making garments and pushing myself to make new things. I will know I have achieved this when I feel confident to make a range of new garments that I haven’t made before.
On another note we have been allocated our third years to work with in the next week. My third year Grace is really nice actually and I had the chance to look at her work today which was good to see. Today was very busy, all morning we were painting the boards for the exhibition stand ..this was a bit of a mission seen as there were HEAPS of boards that all needed painting several times, gum taped in places and polyfilled ! It took a long time but I guess it was an experience! It was kind of annoying that loads of people didn’t come in as all the people that did really worked together and we got stuck in and got it done! Other than that I went to town for my third year, did some photocopying and went to Leeds uni to book a digital printing slot for her portfolio. Wonder what I’ll be doing tomorrow, something interesting I hope.

Research Practices and Critical Studies feedback..

Well firstly I got my critical studies results on Tuesday and I was so happy to get 77, I was quite shocked as I wasn’t really sure how I had done but I was really interested in the subject matter and felt I researched it quite thoroughly so I was glad it was successful. It also makes me feel a bit more reassured about my dissertation for xyear and I think I’m going to stick to the same subject of sustainability and consumerism as it really interests me. To be honest I really like writing so I did really enjoy the change in doing some more academic work as I kind of miss it from A –level English sometimes!
As for feedback the positives were:

Excellent subject knowledge
Complete response to brief and title
Well formatted bibliography
Excellent range of research
Logical clear structure

And the negatives were:
Could have considered more positive practice if had time
Proof read more
Some sections appear a little disconnected from main argument
So for the dissertation I need to make sure I proof read really thoroughly, considering more positive ethical practices and makes sure all theorists and arguments link completely and don’t become disconnected from the main argument

Research practices was a hard project time management wise as I hadn’t had as much preparation time as I would have liked in Easter as I was on the placement. However I got it all finished in the end and I think I came up with quite a strong concept and branding which I will hopefully do well on. This project has really made me think about what I want from my third year research and has given me quite a strong initial starting point. I enjoyed all the researching and creating the final line up but I found it quite tricky to produce a garment in half scale because it was just so small and fiddly! Here is some of my work for this module:

Research practices and further development of portfolio..

Research practices is coming to an end now - I went home last week and I took more pictures of lost and found concepts that supported my work .I like to use mostly all my own photographs and images from where I live, this seem to get me most interested in projects. Doing this project and the previous humble heritage one has really made me consider what I want to do for third year - I think I will take aspects of what I have explored within the trend module and of course research practice. It has really got me thinking about my future career and what I’m truly interested in. I think ideally I would like to be a designer and/or illustrator -but doing enterprise and pattern cutting more even makes me consider my own business in the future. Which I never thought I would say, however I think I have developed greatly in confidence over this year in particular and I understand better what my strengths and weaknesses are and what I enjoy and what I don’t so much. I think my work placement really did aid me in understanding this. It showed me that I can cope with real working situations and hold my own on a project, by being given real responsibility. I was looking through my portfolio for my interview for PPD I am pleased with how it looks and remember how stressful it was putting it together for my interview with Bunmi Koko. I need to edit it slightly as I have some first year work in there that I want to replace with second year work I have recently done. Here are some of the strongest images in my portfolio:

Enterprise, the cape and illustration..

This has been such a busy week - firstly my group completed their dolly mixture clothing presentation for enterprise. It went quite well, we had a washing line prop with a sample garment, launch party poster, cards etc. We all spoke clearly and as planned and I think it came across well also. The only negatives were that it was suggested that our passion might not be the customer’s passion and having recycled clothing may not be successful as the main part of our business. Our customer profile got positive feedback and overall I think it went fairly well especially considering we only were awarded 1000 but we created a really exciting business with this.
On other news I made a garment for a shop in Leeds, and we went along to a launch event for it the other night, it was brilliant the place was decorated really well and it had a really cool vibe about it. I was really proud of myself as I had pushed myself trying to finish my cape and I was so happy with the finished product.
I was also asked to do an illustration for a new website launching about fashion, photography illustration etc. So I am feeling a bit behind with research practices as I have spent my time doing that as well. However it made me realise that if I really push myself I can do other things alongside the course to gain more experience.

Hand In and new project..

I handed in my enterprise file and my critical studies portfolio today and I was so pleased to get it out the way! I’m so glad I started the enterprise file quite early and began researching and typing up notes at Christmas or I wouldn’t have been able to finish with all the other things to juggle! Crit portfolio I was also quite happy with- fingers crossed I get a good mark!
Next on the agenda is making a decent start on the new project research practices. Because I had my work placement over summer I felt like I was really behind when we had our first session on Wednesday. I had my concept and idea, with a few photographs but i hadn’t properly devleoped it all. I feel like I have so many ideas but because I’m feeling behind I’m finding it hard to get them down on the page !
However I am going home next weekend and i have lost of ideas of things I need to take pictures of so I’m hoping that will drive my idea along a bit! I cant wait to go home actually I feel like I have had no proper break, work placement really tired me out (even though I really enjoyed it) but I went straight from that into work for the course again so I cant wait to go home and see everyone and relax a bit !