Friday 4 February 2011

Reflective statement


Over the last few months I have been educated into a new way of projecting my ideas and reflecting on my thoughts and work. I have done this throughout the course in my units, and my work has thrived as a result. At first I found the concept of uploading these things onto a blog impersonal, as I would have initially done it through my sketchbook, and I find it easier to project my concepts in a more visual way. However the blog has taught me too be more open in my approach, and honest in descriptions.  I consider the blog as a technological reflective journal, it has benefited me enormously, I find it easier now to analyse and criticize my practical work, and spend more time thinking of what, why and how my ideas came into place. I am much more organised, I like reflecting my work in a verbal way with the research and inspiration alongside it, reminding myself how I felt at that time and possibly how these feelings have changed.
It is hard to compare my blog with others, because every blog is individual to that person, creating quite a contrast, however I have noticed that my blog is perhaps more crowded and could benefit with less, which I will take into consideration and perhaps become more precise in my wording and descriptions, although I do like working in that way and that is what distinguishes my blogs individuality. I am really pleased in how my first unit has gone, I have applied myself  by being focused and in a result of that I have gained new skills and understanding. I have taken a new and exciting direction to my work, giving it more depth and development. I am really happy overall with my progress.  

Branding museum - Nottinghill

We were asked to pick one corporation and to answer the following Question-

  • What do they sell?
  •  What is there brand values ?
  • who is the customer?
  • what is the social /environmental impact of there business?    

The corporation I have chosen to study is Kellogg's.
Kellogg'sis a brand which sells breakfast cereal products, usually as a quick packaged dry meal or snack.

Kellogg's aims are to promote a easy quick but healthy way of experiencing breakfast,it seem to me that there market is family, whether it be children or the mother trying to loose weight.The use of the fun size packaging and colourfull type and pictures entice children therfore making them more apealing to eat. I personally think the brand seems to be very versatile in its market, because it targets the family, this way when your older you will stick with the brand because you know its reliable and people like to stick with what they know Will deliver and there will be no surprise, another family apeal is that the brand it is cheap.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

DR CLARE ROSE - TRADE

 Global Trade





Trade has been traced back as early as the 400AD, from a group of Catholics who produced the official vulgate text of the Bible translating it into Latin from Hebrew,there is said to be a reference of India and the goods and products that are harvested and produced over there. India's products were valued just as much as precious stone, so the Europeans started to demand after Indian textiles because they saw them as incredibly valuable trading pieces, as they new other countries were in demand for them, they would take the Indian textiles over to Africa to trade it for Gold and other rare materials.There was an trading advantage however for India in the 1557 the first European trading post was set up in China, so people in order to sail from Europe to china would of have to go via India, by the 1600 Europeans were starting to set up companies in India, India's products started to become very valuable, South east Asia started to become interested in there textiles which the Europeans would trade for tea, coffee, and exotic spices, they used the Indian Textiles as substitutes for Linen and woven silk, spices and textiles.
 Europeans were in demand for products that couldn't exist in there countries,such as cotton and cashmere,Muslin, which was very very fine and much lighter than the linen the Europeans were used to.
Chintz was another hugely sought after product  for its unique Indian qualities and bright colours. Chintz was very popular in England for furnishings, garments,people liked it because it was cheap and easy to get hold of the Indian's would customise there chintz to the according market,for example there are elements in Indian print of french poetry, another reason for the demand of chintz was its unique quality that you could wash it without the colours running unlike European linens,however in the 1700 there was a ban on Indian Chintz being sold, used or even printed in England, you can imagine the up roar, because of the enforced bans, England started a new printing technique in 1742 called - China blue and by 1757 the English East India company became the main colonial power in India.
 In 1800 Europe started to change its style of dress and interiors.It was called the neoclassical, which had influences of ancient Greece and Rome, which at the time were becoming increasingly fashionable, however it was not very comfortable or flattering so they would use Kashmir and Indian muslin to produce a more flattering comfortable version of neoclassical design.  
By the 1770's things had turned around in  trading, England was now the country in advantage because of it being so ahead of other countries, England had invented a water powered cotton spinning machine called the'spinning jenny'and than shortly after the roller printing was invented and by the end of the 1800's steam power was being used to drive these spinning machines.
Britain was now printing its own cloth and fast, they even started selling to India,by the 1860 they were trading in multiple countries  Africa,china and more,as you can imagine this made a huge impact on local markets and stores. Britain was expanding big, they had taken over India as a major world exporter of printed cotton cloth and by the late 1800 the British government was in direct rule over India.

Some lecture notes on trade




Saturday 29 January 2011

Photography Intuction and photos

A few selected photos of my photography induction.

Inspired by elements of a skull from my second collection, these were a series of collage paper sculptured designs that I have photographed. All of the photos below have been composed and arranged with special photography spot lights at different angles to get a striking exiting image, none of the photos have been manipulated on adobe photo shop and I did not use a flash. I did this by changing the shutter speed and using a tripod stand to keep my camera still, which is very important otherwise you get a blurry image and it is not as affective. The pictures below where all taken from different angles to create an exiting element to the compositions.Personally I find the shapes incredibly interesting and think that I could make an exiting print design from elements of these photos.
I really liked the way the paper moved when I was scoring it, I am really happy with my progress and I am happy with the outcome of the photography. I defiantly will always use a try pod  when photographing still  life because it makes a huge difference.


















Lecture Notes - Exoticism in design lecture

Exoticism in design lecture and Different kinds of orientalism up to 1990










Millbank Penitentiary: clothing fabric
Juliet Ash










Look but please don't touch






Saturday 15 January 2011

RECENT WORK



Knit



This is the biggining of my knit samples. I have demonstrated the tecnique of casting off, laddering, loop holes and adding colour in parts. I am really happy with this, it may seem avrage however compared with my other samples there is a massive contrast. 


BELOW- A COMBONATION OF THE SKILLS I HAVE LEARNT










PUNCH CARD PATTERN

I am really happy with my progress, I did not think that I would be able to achieve the outcomes I have.I have taken all the skills I have learnt and tried them out and experimented with them, the more I knitted, the more developed my skill and understanding became and my samples benefited in a result of this.  






stitch








Print
Digital print



Hear I have scanned in my drawings and manipulated them using photo shop. 
There is a lot going on in the composition but i think it works.

playing around with the layers and saturation

 

Changing the colours and repeating the pattern to get an interesting effect, it slightly reminds me of a stain glass window.

Weave
Block III
 This is the drawing I worked from I tried to focus on one or two drawing to make it easier to choose my colour pallet.

I decided to paint onto my worp to give my design another element to it and also because of my colour pallet being very strick to the drawing i used i needed a stronger brighter colour just to creep through the yarn colours to give it the lift it needed. 


Starting to design and getting used to the loom and how the patterns,yarn consistency's and colours
work together.



Evaluation

Throughout the few months I have been at Chelsea, I have worked to the best of my ability, I feel I am at my most creative hear and have really enjoyed the rough guide project and my technical blocks along with the pop up project and photography induction.
The rough guide was an really exiting way to get to know London and at the same time re introduce myself to working in a group environment, I really enjoyed it and would not do anything differently, I feel like I carried out enough drawing and research to get an understanding of the three objects that I looked at in my area. I started looking at architectural pattern around my area, for instants the pattern around a window or tiled roof and looked at the different shapes of houses and doors, I  ended up exploring all the different fibres I found in Nottinghill and Kensington for example woven chairs outside a cafe.
I ended up with a really interesting outcome.
I really enjoyed collecting my collection for the pop up project. My  theme was 'things which join onto other things' the idea was that they were incomplete objects ,because they were made as a two components object for example a door handle, without the door, A light fixture which hangs from the ceiling and connects the light bulb to the wall, but without the light bulb etc. I really enjoyed the drawing development, and observing my collections in depth which my drawings benefited from.
My second collection was 'Found Natural Forms' I found this a really nice collection to draw and because I had already experienced two technical blocks I focused on the colour and shapes instead of the design, and really knew what I wanted to get out of them. 
My technical blocks and the pop up drawing preparation beforehand was hugely beneficial for me personally, because I have furthered my knowledge and understanding and skill in fore different disciplines and two of them I had never attempted before, it was nice to be introduced to a new experiences and explore more in depth into the different possible pathways. During the technical block there were times that I felt frustrated when trying to pick up a new technique, however I put allot of time into developing and furthering my knowledge and I feel like it reflected in my work, you can see quite clearly the progress and development through my samples, however I managed to pick them up and really involved myself in them My work defiantly reflects my drawings. I also tried very hard not to stray away from my colour scheme.
I decided to do two collections for my pop up project to mix up the colour scheme and to get a contrast in my work. I defiantly stuck to my second collections colour scheme better than my first I think this is because I made my colour pallet for the second collection narrower, focusing on a few colours instead of a whole array. I am really pleased with my collection choice, and colours pallet it seemed to worked well co in siding with my technical block, I did not feel it reflected my personality hugely, however there are obviously elements, over all I was most comfortable and confident in my printing block, to my surprise I really enjoyed knit which was completely unexpected and even though it was the block I struggled the most in , you can defiantly see progress through my work. I think that my technical blocks were successful and I am pleased with my outcomes