For our transition over summer between second and third year, we were tasked with establishing our theme for our first project back and forming some initial drawing ideas to present to our tutors when term kicks off. This has been helpful in keeping my hand creative over the summer months, giving me a focus to keep drawing when life is busy with seasonal work and social plans and I'm not in my usual studying mode.
It was recommended to us to choose a theme based on a location, film, book, exhibition or design movement.
I chose to go with a location, as I had used a location before in second year and felt very inspired from it, I thought it would be ideal to do again but slightly differently.
For the Autumn term I have chosen a National Trust property. The owner was also the founder of Morris Minor cars and did some incredibly charity work in his lifetime, so there's lots of interesting history to the property to make my design work more than just old architecture.
I also find picking a location helpful as I can return multiple times and notice different things or remind myself of what I'm looking at if I feel my inspiration lacking. I made this decision based off previous feedback from tutors as well – it's super important to follow this guidance and not ignore the constructive feedback you get at the end of every project!
Moreover, part of what I've been considering over summer is my client for the term. I'm currently thinking my work will be designed for newborn/toddler boys as an autumn/winter collection. I haven't designed for this age bracket before, so it will broaden the scope of my portfolio for post-graduation opportunities. I also find it good designing a collection for the season we are going into (autumn term so A/W fashion will be out in shops) as I can gather primary research of current target market trends for inspiration too.
Since beginning to work on my project, I have been producing mixed media drawings, predominantly in pencil, pen and oil pastels, to try and establish the style I wish to pursue. As its hopefully for childrenswear I'm focusing on making my work playful and fun. Through exploring different techniques in my first two years of study, I know I really want to push my hand/digital print and embroidery skills in final year, so I have kept this in mind whilst drawing to be aware of how I can later translate my work into final designs.
Our summer brief was to compile an A3 sketchbook of drawings and trials as well as five A2 drawings. This has helped push my confidence in working large scale and being confident in my mark making. Previously, I have kept to working much smaller, usually A4 size, so this has begun that step into working bigger and really owning my work and skill set before presenting myself to industry post-graduation.
While I have touched on some artist research over summer, I have not dived deep into this just yet for my project. I wanted to keep my summer work ideas fresh and original, based on ideas I had myself from my research imagery, to keep my work my own. Once I have caught up with my tutor and received guidance on how to develop my initial ideas for my project, I will then also bring in strands of artist inspiration to enhance my original ideas but not be led by other artists' work.
One thing I have noticed over summer too is how supportive I find the creative spaces on campus. I love the fact we get our own desk space in the textiles studio. This gives us a place to display work, so we get to see our pieces sitting together and inspire us further. But it also allows us to chat with each other – bouncing ideas around and pushing our imagery further with feedback from peers. I've noticed that I find it harder to feel creative, or to push my ideas into more refined concepts, when working by myself from home. I'm particularly excited to get back into the creative spaces at AUB to extend my ideas and form more complex design proposals as I enter my final year of study.
Overall, I'm excited to be working with new motifs inspired by patterns in the National Trust house and gardens, different Morris Minor vehicles and things that the tenant owned, like Scottie dogs, grandfather clocks and tools technology of the time such as old telephones, TVs and personal knickknacks.
I'm excited to combine a theme I've not explored before with new colours to extend my print knowledge and really maximise the opportunity to explore my strengths whilst I have so much incredible equipment at my disposal.
