Experiment with Colour on Photoshop

As you can see, below i have experimented with different tools on photoshop to create different looks for my final garment.

 

In this image I used the blur tool to create a contrast between the garment and the background. Also changing the hue and the contrast to brighten the image. I was going for a grungy, ghostly look to make the black and white in the dress stand out.

I sharpened this image to create a 'edgy' look. I also used the hue and contrast tools to brighten the image.

In this image I blurred the background using Gaussian blur tool, a neon glow filter to create a 'grungy' look. Also experimenting with hue and saturation to help add to this look. Although the filter 'Sepia' was not used in this edit, the look was created to have an 'edgy sepia' look to it. 

With this image i wanted to experiment with colour. Therefore I changed the colour of the gingham to pink by using the quick selection tool and then used the colour balance tool. Then to highlight the change of gingham and to make a more aesthetically pleasing photo I changed the background to black and white.

Here I did a similar edit as the image above, except I wanted to see the changed colour against the same background. I changed the colour by using the quick selection tool again and then used the colour balance tool.

Overall I feel that these images show how I have developed using Adobe photoshop and can use it in my work in my future career. I also feel that the edits have shown other possible ideas (colour changes) that would still work well with the garment. By doing this in the design process you could see how a potential idea would look when developing.

Final Garment: Urban Utility Gingham Dress

This is my final garment for my first year of my course at college. I am very proud of this dress as i feel that it was well constructed and was perfect for the brief that was set. 

Here i used photoshop to brighten the image using brightness and contrast, hue and saturation tools and experimented with the colour balance. I did this to create a more striking image and to put the focus onto the dress. I also did this by choosing a location with a plain background to make the dress more of a contrast.

Liberty Art Fabrics Design Team: A/W 12 Print Collection

Above is a video from Liberty's Art Fabrics Design Team and each of their design/collections for the A/W12 Print Collection. Each of them have different approaches to their designs and different inspirations which really interests me. All the designs are amazing and I really like the creativity behind all of the ideas and concepts.
During the video, the design team are interviewed whilst sat at their desks, and in the background you can see their computer with their work on it, they then start developing and changing the design by playing around with colours and shapes. It really interests me as to how fast you can change aspects of a design. They also talk about how the swatches were created and why. 

Sally's designs called Camilla was inspired by leaves and pondweed and they're designs were based on print techniques. Sally shares that 'its normally a design that we would have to do digitally because of the amount of colour, but as the brief was print techniques we tried to do it conventionally and use screen printing'. This resulted in using 10 screen printers, but I feel that it worked just as well and the designs are gorgeous.  

Altogether, I feel that this video highlights and gives an insight to the fashion industry and how fast paced and creative it is. This video on the whole is an eye opener to everyone.

Nicole B: Textile Designer Boden

As a textile designer, your job heavily relies on computer software. For Example CAD, illustrator etc. Below is a youtube video of Nicola B who is a textile designer at Boden and throughout the video you can see her using computer software to manipulate and develop textile prints and designs. As you can see this is very helpful in the modern world as you can change and develop designs with a click of a button, as apposed to re-drawing ideas out over and over again.
I feel that this job role would be good for me as I like the idea of exhausting ideas for textile prints and creating garments with these prints on them, also using global inspiration to create these designs, however I feel that I would not be creative enough to create a design. 

CAD - Computer Aided Design; In The Fashion Industry

Computer Aided Design is used when designing on a computer, mainly to enhance the quality of design and to increase the productivity of the designer, also it is very economical. this is very useful in the fashion industry as a design on paper can be transferred to the computer so it is precise. Its a very quick process which is great working in the fast paced fashion industry as it allows you to change, recreate and develop designs. For example, a last season best seller, can be modified and developed into a new garment, still using similar elements in minutes using CAD. 

As you can see in these two images, the designs include precise details of the pattern, the colours and design, and how it is to look on a model. This is why it is good in the fashion industry as you could send that off to construction and they would know all the details needed to construct it. Also it gives you an idea of what the design would look like on a model and can show you if the design is possible to make and look good to sell. 

Winner of Best Womenswear Award 2014: Graduate Fashion Week

Graduate Fashion Week was a big inspiration for me and my future studies and career. I really enjoyed the experience and one day strive to be as good as all the participants in the catwalk show. As we all know that Graduate Fashion Week also has competitions within itself and Grace Weller from Bath Spa University won the Best Womenswear Award. Being so close to home I am delighted for Grace for doing herself, Bath Spa, and Bath proud and an inspiration to all the up and coming designers. 

Now why did Grace Weller win? Was it because of her flawlessly designed garments? or was it the use hand embroidered lace?

The hand embroidered lace looked amazing (shown in image below) and was created using a sewing machine. Personally in the past I have struggled with machine embroidery and therefore did not show off how well it can work but I feel that these designs have really tested as to what it can do, especially with the lace. You can also see the inspiration clearly (the ideas and themes behind the work of romantic artists and writers of the 18th century) which I think makes this collection so great as you can relate to each of the garments and see the ideas behind them. 

Grace Weller : Bath Spa University
Winner of Best Womenswear Award

Embroidery Machines

Embroidery machines are used for stitching pattern onto textiles, they can be used for fashion purposes and for branding on uniforms. There are many types of machine embroidery ranging from free-machine embroidery, link stitch embroidery and computerised machine embroidery.

Graduate Fashion Week: Monday 2nd June 2014

On Monday the 2nd of June I went to Graduate Fashion Week for inspiration in my own work. I watched the Nottingham Trent University show and took images of my favourite garments and collections. 

Stephanie Parsons- Nottingham Trent University
Graduate Fashion Week: Monday 2nd June 2014

I love these garments as I feel they are original and unique. I love the use of a contrasting colour on the black, white and grey and love the style of the garments. My favourite design is the jumper with the leather trousers.
Overall I feel that this work is very strong and portrays a girly yet sporty look that has created a trend within the current trends.

Shengjia (Sophia) Ding- Nottingham Trent University

Graduate Fashion Week: Monday 2nd June 2014 

I like the range of pastel colours in this collection and how it portrays the current trends. I like the sophisticated and feminine look that Sophia has created and feel that this work is strong. However an improvement or development from this that I would add in would be some laser cutting around the waistbands, hem and neckline or embroidery with white to keep in touch with the sophistication. On the other hand I do understand why this was not done as it looks classy without any designs on the garment.

Aimee Lorraine Spies - Nottingham Trent University

Graduate Fashion Week: Monday 2nd June 2014

In this collection I mainly liked the detailing on the garments. It looks like it has been made using free machine embroidery or a hand embroider. I also like the use of a contrasting colour for the detailing so it stands out as apposed to a similar colour that you can only see when close up.

Olivia Andres - Nottingham Trent University

Graduate Fashion Week: Monday 2nd June 2014

I love this collection for the use of white with a contrasting colour and that the collection also fits into current trends. Also a range of fabric manipulation was used to create the pleats. Also the use of dip dye or dying the fabric at the bottom.

Potential of Illustrator in the Fashion Industry

Illustrator and the Fashion Industry

Adobe Illustrator is a computer programme which allows you to draw and create images on digitally. This can be used in architecture, graphic design, and also fashion illustrations. Personally I love using the software for fashion illustration as I feel that it produces a neater and cleaner piece of work and allows room for change. 

Here is a design which I drew on illustrator recently.

As you can see. Above I have used illustrator to create a fashion illustration of one of my final designs of a recent project. I drew the fashion illustration using the pen tool and brush tool and have added a pattern. 

The reason I feel that this software is good for the fashion industry is because it has flexablility. What I mean by this is that you can create patterns for garments, resize the pattern, add to a garment, and play around with proportion and scale, as well as having the flexibility to create whatever garment you want and edit this in the process which can help with development. 

Laser Cutting in the Fashion Industry

Laser Cutting

Lela Rose

 Spring Summer 2007

Ready to Wear

http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2007/ready-to-wear/lela-rose/full-length-photos/gallery/183633

As you can see above, there is an image of a garment by Lela Rose in her Spring/Summer 2007 collection, where the detailing has been made using a laser cutter. 

Laser cutters are machinery that cuts into a surface, which provides a cleaner and more accurate cut towards a higher quality finish.  Laser cutting works better on synthetic fabrics due to the plastics in these fabrics melting creating a sealed edge that will not fray, whereas more natural fabrics will singe by the heat holding the fibres in place. 

Laser Cutting Machine

Above are two images that I have created using illustrator. They are laser cutting examples that can be used on a garment. You could put this design on the bottom of a skirt to cut out or on the neckline of a top or a dress. You could also use this on a waistband. 

When creating this, I used guides and rulers to make the pattern the same, and then I used the pen tool to create a filled shape. When creating these, you have to make sure that you do not use too many bezier points due to the laser struggling to cut the fabric and it may take a while. 

Above are the laser cutting designs placed on to a dress. as you can see I have played around with the positioning, to the waistband and hem. 

Final Design for Fashion Illustration Project

Above is my final design for the last project that I have done in my studies. I created this using illustrator and have shown a front and back view of the garment in which I have decided to make.

To make this I have used the pen tool to create the outline and the face, but to create the gingham crosses I clicked on show guides, and show rulers and used the line tool to create some lines which were equally spaced.

Overall I feel that this has worked really well and shows that my drawing is improving, it took me slightly longer to draw this one and I think that shows in the work that I have produced.

Photoshop; What is it Capable of in the Fashion industry

Below are two videos illustrating what the process is in the fashion industry to make a model look good, and also how it may not even have to be a real life model in order to make a good picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUF2zbgBXwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j656_RiO0k

Below is an image that I edited myself. The picture on the left is an unedited image of me, the image on the right is my edit on the picture. As you can see I am not a professional and doesn't look as up to standard as a professionals edit would, but this illustrates how much work goes into each edit.
Firstly I edited the eyes, lips, and hair using the brush tool and overlaying the layer in which I was changing the colour on. I then airbrushed my face and neck to get and even tone. I then took it a step further and removed flaws in my skin (such as moles), using the spot healing tool. Finally i tanned my skin more so I didn't look so pale using the adjustments tool in the image drop down menu. 

Original Image

Edited Image

In the fashion industry, models have to look tall, thin and have what is classed as 'beautiful features', such as straight white teeth, high cheek bones and big bright eyes. However, models are not perfect so once a photo shoot has taken place, it is then edited to make the models features more like this cliché. Most people are against the look of models in images and this has raised issues in the media due to the pressure of looking like these models. I feel that the videos I have posted have allowed the public to realise that even models need editing. So why as a business do we edit our models? Well, I feel that this is due to the idea of clothes looking better on an elongated model. As a fashion student I agree with this, in order to sell garments, they need to be shown on a tall model, this doesn't have to pressure people to look that way, it just a business choice. The choice of model is a tool of marketing to show the garment in its best light, this image does not have to reflect the everyday customer.

I feel that photoshop is a great tool for making this possible and is used daily in the fashion business. 

Drawing in the style of Patrick Morgan

 Patrick Morgan 

http://patrickmorgan.co.uk/

Here I have created an illustration in the style of Patrick Morgan.

Patrick Morgan is a digital artist who above has done some illustrations for Tom Ford. I like how he has got a background colour and the image is drawn onto that. I also like how detailed the drawing is and the use of shading has made the image very interesting.

As you can see I have drawn my own version of this. I have taken it from the brief that I was given in a project of using gingham to create a dress.

I feel that this style isn't strong enough for me as I am not too good at drawing human proportions, I feel I am better at drawing features on their own. 

Experimenting with Flowers on a garment

Above is an illustration and four potential dress ideas using the flower that I drew on illustrator using a picture that I took. As you can see, you can play with the scale and proportion of the textile pattern to create other patterns. This is part of the developmental process and I have illustrated this above.

Flower Drawing Using Illustrator

Above is a drawing that I created using illustrator. The reason that I drew a flower was due to the idea of using it as a textile design on a garment. I took this picture in my garden and thought that it was a very good image to use for textile design as the thread could portray a scratchy effect on the material. 

Alyana Cazalet Illustrator

Alyana Cazalet

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/AlyanaCazalet/view

Above I have attempted to draw in the style of Alyana Cazalet. I found that her style is very interesting and cartoon-like. I think it looks really good and portrays images in a very artistic manner. However I do not think that this style suits me. 

Alyana Cazalet has previously done illustrations for Sainsbury's, Cafe Rouge, and BBC Children's Magazines. She was born and educated in Russia, currently living in London woking as a freelance artist and illustrator.

Overall I have found that I have experimented with this style and tried it but I do not feel that I can pull it off in an artistic manner, however, if I were to use a similar style and customise it to my strengths in drawing I feel that it could work really well. 

Ayalah Clothing Branding

Here is a branding title that I have created using photoshop. In photoshop I used the text tool and moved objects around to line them up perfectly. I was able to move an object more flexibly by holding CTRL down and then moving it, then to release into that spot you have chosen, then you must release the mouse before letting go of CTRL. If however I wanted to release the object onto an exact line, I would press SHIFT and it would snap into that exact position. I feel that this portrays my brand really well and can use this for heading everything as this would be consistent and professional. I could also use this as my watermark over my work for copyright purposes. This is why I have created such a versatile piece of branding as I can use it for multiple jobs. 

I chose this lucid and defined font style for my brand name 'Ayalah' to keep the branding clear and concise, while clothing was left in script to further emphasise my personal brand.

Jaqueline Bissett Experiment

Jaqueline Bissett

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/JacquelineBissett/view 

Above is the work of Jaqueline Bissett and a version of my own, attempting to use a similar technique created using illustrator. Overall I feel that it was successful, although details such as the face and hands I struggled with due to illustrator automatically straightening the lines. This made me unable to make sharp corners as they were softened by the brush tool. 

Jaqueline Bissett is a very talented artist and from looking through her portfolio from the link above I have taken inspiration. This is because I like the style that she uses and portrays within her work. The work she produces always looks natural and feminine and hopefully soon I will be able to portray his in my own work.

I also feel that my technique is overall improving and hopefully in the near future will be able to produce work to a high standard with the help from inspiration in the early stages of learning and practising techniques.

Katharine Asher's Work

Katharine Asher 

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/KatharineAsher/view

This is my attempt at working in the style of Katharine Asher . I used the brush tool on illustrator to create my version. This is my first attempt and could be improved a lot, and feel that I can achieve this by practising and choosing a style that works for me. 

I feel that that this style could work for me but as stated above a lot of practise is needed. 

Katharine Asher's work is very good in my opinion as it is very detailed but this is created by doing extracting little details. I also feel that the brush used has allowed the image to have a more feminine look. 

Swing Tag Analysis

Here is a swing tag from a garment I brought online. The store is called Evita. 

I feel that this swing tag is very effective as there is minor detailing and is not to busy to the eye. Although using contrast colours this allows the attention of the target audience to see it. The font used on this swing tag suits the theme that it is trying to portray and I like the effect of adding detail in the background in a gloss finish to make a contrast with the matt tag.

This BIBA tag I feel is very successful. This is because of the gloss finish of the gold detailing (making a contrast to the black background) and the font of the text (as I feel that this adds to the theme that they are trying to portray). However I feel that it may be a bit busy to the eye and to change it I would change the finishing from gloss to matt, as this adds shine to the swing tag to add detailing when the contrast in colour already does this effectively. 

Overall both tags are beautiful and very strong. They share similar qualities such as the shape and the gloss finishing in some details and personally have used some of the ideas used above to inspire my own swing tag.

Swing Tag 2

Here are three different variations of swing tags. The reason I have done this is so that I can change the tag depending on the garment, so it is a contrast and the label stands out. By playing around with the colours, I was able to create three successful variations enabling the swing tags to be consistent to the brand and still be appealing to serve different purposes. From my first attempt at  making a swing tag you can see I have added text and a deer with decorative antlers on. I have changed the appearance of the deer using photoshop and have written out my text to fit the theme of my blog. I also changed the colour of my swing tags to fit my theme of pastel and natural colours. 

I took inspiration from other swing tags that I have researched so that I was able to produce my own swing tag, for my own brand.

First Swing Tag

Here is my attempt at creating my own swing tag. I achieved this by drawing a rectangle, then pressing cmd c, cmd f which pastes the object in front of the old one. I then used the arrow keys to move one of the rectangles exactly above it. I then used the pen tool, clicked the middle of the top rectangle, then pressed '-' and clicked on the two corners. This created a triangle.
Then using the white arrow, you select the two corners which need to be joined up, press the scissors button, and then, using the black arrow, click on the lines leading up to the corners, and the corners themselves and this will join them up to make one line.
This is how I made my swing ticket.

Illustrator Pen Tool Experiment

This is my first experiment with a pen tool on illustrator. Using a range of techniques I was able to create a range of patterns.

In order to create the first pattern I made guides to follow using the ruler. Once I had made those, I clicked on corners in order to make a zigzag pattern.

The second one was made using a similar process. But in order to make a separate pattern I had to press the pen tool so I could stop the line I was doing and start a new one.

The third pattern was made using handles on the pen tool. Which means that I could make a curve.
This method was also used when making the forth, but in order to stop the curve and deselect the handle, I had to hold down alt and click on the last point in order to cancel that handle.

The fifth ones were made using the same technique as above but to add detail to the outside I used a different brush. 

Fabric Manipulation Moodboard

Lauren Dear
Fabric Manipulation
Moodboard

Here I have created a mood board in which I made for my project I was doing at college. The project was focused around fabric manipulation. On this mood board I have illustrated what has inspired me throughout the whole process and also have edited images accordingly to suit this. I changed all the colours to match the colour scheme that I was using. This was a midnight blue colour and the fabric was taffeta. I made this on photoshop because it allowed me to edit images that inspired me and make them relevant. By using photoshop I was able to edit images so that there was no background and only edit certain parts of the image. This has allowed the mood board to create more interest, as there are not only square images on the page. However, to improve this mood board I could have added more text describing the moods that inspired me, also adding in swatches of the fabric by scanning them in to the computer.

Overall I feel that this mood board was successful du to the lack of imagery making it look less busy and using a consistent font.

Moodboard Anaylsis

http://www.pinterest.com/barkerbillet/

   Jessica Barker-Billet

I feel that this moodboard overall is very good. It allows the viewer to feel the mood that their project and moodboard is trying to portray. It is all well linked in and contains a variety of medias. Also the layout is very interesting, and makes you want to take a more detailed look as although it looks good on the first glance, you can tell that you would miss a lot of little details, therefore taking a longer look you would see things that you may not necessarily notice straight away, and in my opinion I feel that this creates a more interesting and more enjoyable moodboard to look at. On the other hand I feel that maybe there should be a little less on the moodboard, although it is very interesting to look at, it is very busy and others may not like it as much as they may want a moodboard which clearly illustrates the mood that the board is trying to portray.
Overall my opinion on this moodboard is that it is a very successful moodboard and is very interesting to look at.

http://www.pinterest.com/saggiloo/

Sadie

I feel that this moodboard contains very nice elements such as nice pictures and minimal text. The text says 'Bare minimum', and this is portrayed throughout the moodboard. However, this also may be translated as too little as there is a lack of different medias used and is more of a paper collage. I like this moodboard because I feel that it has complimentary colours in it which makes the moodboard very calming and peaceful to look at. Also the layering and placement of the images is very good and personally I feel that it is a perfect amount of images to use in a moodboard. I feel this because it gets the ideas across without cluttering the moodboard up too much.
Overall I feel that this moodboard is a very strong moodboard but if I had to give an improvement it would be using more of a wider range of medias to create the moodboard.