Evaluation.

Unit X I feel has been a short yet successful unit. Working two projects alongside each other has been a learning curve in terms of time management, trying to keep on top of both sampling, and researching new inspirations.

This is something that I managed well in the end, and I'm glad I ran both projects at the same time. I feel this allowed me enough time to develop my 'Nature Overtaking' samples fully, as well as then being able to develop a new set of research and drawings to take into the print room in the last few weeks. 

The addition of embroidery to some of my prints developed my work further and I am pleased about the outcomes that arose from the sampling. Through contextual research I found a lot of interior fabrics to use multi head embroidery techniques, so I feel this is an important addition to my portfolio. 

In terms of my portfolio I feel that my newest architecturally inspired collection has added much needed variety. I was worried that my work was becoming too similar in terms of inspiration and feel, with my other collections being very natural and organic. 

As the newest collection is much more graphic and bold, I feel that I have successfully achieved this, showing I can design with other inspirations in mind and with a different style. 

Colour is something I feel has developed again since the practice unit, and is something that I've really enjoyed using in a much bolder way, again adding more variety in terms of my portfolio. 

As Unit X has been all about the portfolio and developing work to be presented to the design world, I've taken time to contact companies about possible internships as well as creating a professional website. Sending out self promotional packages out, with samples and a CV has allowed me to gain feedback from textile companies, and although I have not yet been offered any internships, the feedback has been positive and has shown I am on the right track with my designs. 

Unit X has allowed me to think a lot more seriously about where I want to be after I graduate and think about how I can get there and how to present myself. I feel like I've really started to prepare for the textiles industry. 

For my degree show I aim to showcase I selection of my interior fabric prints, and also a length of screen printed wallpaper, which I will be printing in time for the degree show. I feel it important to hand screen print the wallpaper instead of showing one of my digital prints, as this will reflect the processes and qualities I have used throughout this year. I will be contacting a selection of interior textile companies to invite them to the show, which I hope will be useful starting point in making contacts within the textile industry. 

Embroidery & Finalised Prints.

I wanted to use the multihead embroidery machine on my linen prints, as I had done on the printed wool. The embroidery I find to be really successful at linking in with the collage aspect of the project, and lifting certain areas of print in terms of colour. It worked well to fill out the patterns more, and add different elements that I haven't had exposed on screens.

I'm pleased with how this collection has finished with large variety of coloured grounds, textures and pigments. I feel I've explored and experimented thoroughly with materials to create a refined selection of final prints. 

I changed the fabric for my latest collection to smooth cottons, trying a mixture of cotton satin, mantra and poplin. I found a mixture of the satin and mantra worked to have a combination of a heavier weight ground and a much lighter weight. Working on different weights and fabric grounds adds more variety to my portfolio and is really helping my knowledge of fabrics and how they work when printed. 

The smooth grounds are a lot more successful, comparing them to the earlier linen samples I created of these designs, it is obvious how wrong of a choice linen was for these particular prints. The graphic qualities are a lot more prominent on a smooth ground. 

I've been working with a range of different colour combinations, which create different feels and moods, which I will then refine to the prints which work. The prints I choose may then be displayed at my degree show and as part of my final portfolio. 

Large Scale Printing.

As I've been visualising my work on a much larger scale than my screen prints, I decided to get an idea of scale and how my patterns would look upscaled as wallpaper. It's been great to be able to see my designs on this scale and they work well for being larger. Showing these within tutorial, it was suggested that although these designs really work as digital prints, it would be more fitting to create a hand printed length of wallpaper. As I've really played upon hand print and the hand qualities throughout this year, it would be a shame to lose these at the last stage. 

A length of wallpaper is something that I've been thinking about displaying alongside my fabric samples within the degree show. This would be something I'd create after the deadline, for which I would recreate one of these designs, perhaps sampling a range of textures to see what works best before printing the final section. 

Cole and Son.

http://www.cole-and-son.com/en/collection-geometric/wallpaper-93/13043/

Cole and Son have a bright and bold collection of geometric styled interior products, ranging from wallpapers to wardrobes. They have a range of different colours and styles within this collection so that there would be a colour palette to suit most peoples tastes. This is something I am beginning to think I should think about in my collection, and having some toned down versions and some very bright and bold. This will create variety and versatility. 

http://www.cole-and-son.com/en/collection-geometric/wallpaper-93/13043/

Visualising.

Thinking about my prints working on a larger scale, I have begun to visualise how some of my prints would work. I think these are really successful, and showing the print on a much larger scale allows the design to appear less rigid in its repeat, as it  can do on a smaller scale. It was discussed in tutorial that it would definitely be beneficial to have visualisations like this in my portfolio as it totally changes how the prints would be perceived. The context for this style of print wouldn't be domestic, and would be more for corporate environments or public buildings, that are of a much larger scale. 

Outwards Facing.

The last couple of weeks I've been building up a contact list of potential employers I'd like to work for to apply for internships. I've created a series of self promotion packs, to showcase a selection of my samples in the style of a wallpaper sample book. I wanted to send physical work as emails can easily get unnoticed, so I hope that by sending work, employers are more likely to respond. 

I've sent out eight packs so far, and have received feedback from two companies, that although currently don't have any positions for interns, offered feedback on my cv, which they both said was very professional, and also positive feedback on my samples. 

It's encouraging to hear positive feedback from the industry that I want to get into, and has shown me that I am on the right track, I just need to keep applying. 

I will continue to research companies to send out more self promotion packs and also start applying for graduate textile jobs. 

I feel it is important to have an online presence, as a quick and easy way for potential employers to access work, and to quickly get an overview of what I'm about as a designer. I've created a very simple portfolio website just to show snapshots of some of my prints. From tutorials I have realised it to important to not show everything at once, and to leave people intrigued to find out more about you and to then perhaps encourage them to contact you directly. 

http://alishman.wix.com/ailsaltextiles

Odili Donald Odita.

http://www.odilidonaldodita.com/exhibitions/index.html

I've been looking at Odili Donald Odita's paintings this week, and was really inspired by his large scale works, especially those which are directly applied to the wall. I've been much more interested in large scale works for this project, and think my prints would work well in a much larger context much like how Odita's paintings are used. 

It's also interesting to look at how Odita has used colour, and perhaps if I were to develop my current collection further in the future I would look to combining different colour groups together to create different feels and moods like Odita has done. 

http://www.odilidonaldodita.com/exhibitions/index.html

New Collection Prints.

This week I've been finishing off my 'Nature Overtaking' collection and starting my new collection of prints.

I added in prints on off white linen to the nature collection, which I think works really well with the collection as a whole and creates a nice contrast in ground colours. I feel that the multihead would also be a nice addition to some of these prints, especially the prints where there is more space around the shapes to be filled in further with embroidery. This is something I will try to fit in next week. 

I've also started my new collection of prints. I wanted the grounds for these prints to be on an optic white linen, so as to allow the print to really stand out. I feel that adding a coloured ground would cause the whole colour palette to have to change.
Although the prints worked out well and the colour separations fitted together, it was mentioned in tutorial that the linen as a ground was breaking up the graphic feel of the prints, I think the linen worked well for the previous collection because the prints were so organic feeling. Whereas the feel of this collection is a lot cleaner and bolder, and the linen is detracting from this feel.

The fabric I need to source needs to be a lot smoother, with little grain so as not to interrupt the prints, something like a heavier cotton, or a synthetic fabric.
It was also mentioned in peer tutorials that perhaps the yellow is too much of an in between colour, it is neither yellow, or cream and more of a magnolia, so this either needs to be brightened up or toned right down to work with the other colours.

Ferm Living.

http://www.fermliving.com/webshop/shop/wallpaper.aspx?m=c

I've been researching into other interior wallpapers and fabric companies who use bold prints and colours in their collections with a graphic feel. Danish company Ferm Living, do just that, creating almost optical wallpapers with their use of geometric shapes. 

The colours used are a lot more tonal than in my current collection, making it a lot more suited to a domestic market, however if my prints were changed in colour I'm sure they could also fit to a more domestic market level. 

Some of their prints are quite elaborate like mine and are only toned down by using only one to two colours, which is something I could think about developing in the future, creating multiple colour ranges within a print collection to suit different market levels.

http://www.fermliving.com/webshop/shop/wallpaper.aspx?m=c

Printing on linen.

It had been previously suggested that I source some pre dyed grounds to print upon for my 'Nature Overtaking' collection. I sourced some pre dyed linens in a variety of colours to test out and to lift the colour palette.
I felt these linens worked really well in combination with the different pigments and textured binders, adding yet another texture into the mix of the collage. The pink, grey and dark blue were most successful, as the colour palette complimented these well. However the purple and light blue backgrounds were making the collection appear too tonal overall, and the contrasts in colour were beginning to be lost. I will take these colours out of the collection and perhaps add in an off white linen or a very pale grey to add another contrast in colour, which I think will bring the collection together nicely.

For the degree show I'd like to showcase a length of wallpaper alongside fabric samples, to show how my work could work in context and on a larger scale. I've been creating repeats from some of my illustrator drawings, so that the designs repeat from all sides. I've found it hard to create repeats that don't look too mechanical and that flow as a design well. I envision the designs being on a much larger scale if they were to be made, so I think this would help with the flow of the repeats. In order to see I will create visualisations this week to see how the designs would actually work.

Portfolio Crit.

The first tutorial back after easter was a portfolio crit session, which proved to be really useful in gaining feedback from peers. I think it was especially useful as the other people in the group were people that didn't necessarily know my work that well.  

I had put most of my portfolio so far together at this point, to gain as much feedback as possible. It was fed back that my way of presenting the work was good, but that I needed to really play upon the story of my work and how it has developed, and why certain choices have been made.

This is possibly something that I could write up, to have a story that goes along with my portfolio. 

Some of the most useful comments were;

- to introduce the embroidery onto the linen samples. 

- keep the mood boards simple, lots of white space. 

- perhaps have boards with visualisations as well.

Overall some really positive comments and feedback, it's definitely been useful to get other peers opinions. 

Black & White Tigerprint Competition.

This week I found out that my design was chosen as a runner up for the black & white Tigerprint competition. I entered one of my screen printed designs from one of my previous collections as I felt it was most fitting to the brief of an all over black and white pattern. It's been really encouraging to receive feedback from a design studio, and to see that my work would be commercially viable within a design context. 

As a prize I was sent Designing Patterns by Lotta Kuhlhorn and my work will be featured on the Tigerprint blog. 

Prints and Patterns.

I've focused on creating patterns from my illustrator drawings this week, I wanted to be as prepared as possible to get into the print room after easter. So to keep on top of things I have prepared the colour separations for these designs, which will be presented during peer discussion before getting them exposed onto screen. I wanted to have a variety within the collection, so having some busier prints as well as designs with more space. I feel that this as a collection is starting to work nicely together, I wanted the prints to be graphic and bold, without becoming too overwhelming, I will begin to visualise these designs this week, so I can check how they would work within an interior before printing them. I will ideally be able to print four of the designs onto fabric, and perhaps print one as a length of wallpaper.