Mood Boards

 

I created mood boards in design to show how I developed my postcards and designs. For each one I had original postcards with a different technique and a Photo shop edited image. I have given each mood board a title which I think links to the mood as well as a small description and a fashion illustration for each one. For three of the boards I had fabric samples with experimental techniques that I later used for my final layered dress. I think the mood boards are a good way to express all ideas and to gather designs and similarities.

 

This is my favourite board. I like the colours and the different samples I made with fabric. I like it because it was bugs that inspired me for this board and the way they are quiet alienish under the microscope. This made me like it because it was out of the ordinary for me as I usually hate bugs but I thought this board looked full of ideas and creativity.

 

For the two mood boards above I chose to use one of my fabric samples for the fashion illustration because I would get a better picture of how the fabric would look.

For this board I had no fabric samples with techniques but I think this board is very busy with a lot of designs. This was mainly the brusho technique!

Final Print

 

I made these layers by using the laser cutting machine with white leather. I then used the circles that were cut out from the back and stitched them on to the front. On the front, I also used embroidery technique with different coloured cotton for another layer.  One of my favourite layers was the laser cutting as the laser is so precise and the end results look great. I liked the fact I could also use the left over leather circles to add to the front. On the back when the laser was cutting out the shapes, it left burnt marks around the edges, I decided to keep it like that because it has a better effect and is better suited to my style dress.

This I s my final print which I have created to be sent off and printed on 3 metres of fabric. I absolutely love the design and I can’t wait to see what it looks like in a couple of weeks on material!

To create this I used Adobe Photoshop and chose some of my favourite post card designs that I had made in class or on Photoshop. I first copied one four times and reflected them so they all joined in the middle. I then added more layers by cutting parts out from each postcard that I liked. Through this process I changed their effects with the hue/saturation, brightness and contrast, effects gallery and the opacity until I had a design that I liked.

I found the more layers I added the more interesting my design looked. I think it meets the ‘under the microscope’ brief as I think the print looks like liquid cells and it looks like it has a texture to it. I don’t think I would of changed anything to the print because I happy with it but if I was to develop it even further I would add more layers to see the other designs I could create.

I’m looking forward to starting my dress pattern with the material to see what the finished garment looks like!

Cinemagraph

In my photo shoot, as well as taking pictures I also filmed a few videos of the model standing still with a little movement like pulling the dress up or letting the wind move the dress. I have uploaded a video to Flixel and edited it so that the bottom of the dress is the only part of the image moving. I think it looks really strange as I wouldn’t expect to see an image moving. Here is the link for my cinemagraph:

http://flixel.com/flixel/1xiukc050d43gqgtb458/

Final Photo Shot!!

This is the shot I am using for my final image. I have chosen this image as I think it is a good reflection on my photo-shoot theme. The dress stands out and is the main focus of the picture. The tree in the background is visible and so is the umbrella which is acting as a shield. I also liked the stand of the model as it is strong and powerful, her face is serious and stern and overall the image is quite mysterious. Why is she here? Why is she wearing a dress like that in a place so dark and dull?

On the image I edited it slightly on photo-shop using the hue/saturation effect. This was to enhance the colours at the front of the dress and to make it more eye-catching.

I am happy with the results of both my dress and photo-shoot and think it went really well! If I were to change anything I would of most probably changed the time of the shoot because by the time in the night when it was done, it was very cold and almost unbearable for my model, this meant not as many shots were taken as I would of liked.

Photoshopped Photo-shoot!!

Just to experiment I decided to edit a few of the photographs that I had taken for my photo-shoot.

 

This is my favourite picture. I love the way my model looks like she is looking at herself like a reflection.

Here I changed the opacity on photo-shop so different layers could be seen through. they look like ghosts!

 

Photo-shoot

My favourite part of the design brief was seeing all my dress put together and planning a photo-shoot.  I used my cousin for the model and her garden which has lots of bare trees which I thought would fit into my photo-shoot theme.  At first I thought about using my dress and portraying it as ‘girly’, ‘angelic’ but then I thought how typical that would have been of me. So I then decided to contrast my dress with the darkness and have my photo-shoot at night. As the back of my dress is white leather and laser cut with the cuttings as white appliques at the front I thought this would stand out with a dark background. I also wanted it to rain but unfortunately, probably the one day of the year, the rain had decided to stop! I still used an umbrella in the shoot to give the rain effect but to also act as a shield. I used black lipstick and black eyeliner to add more contrast in comparison with the dress and had her hair back off her face to stop there from being any distractions when looking at the photographs, I wanted the model to look mysterious and edgy.

The first few shots were taken in front of a brick wall outside. I thought this would be a good idea as it is bare and just the model would be seen. Some of the shots looked really good but some of the shots had my own shadow in because of the light behind me. Also, that area lacked spacing so I couldn’t get the exact angle I wanted to get the full length of the dress in.

 

The next shots were taken in the garden. i thought about having the photo-shoot at the park or a forest but then I thought they all have trees so why not take advantage of the garden and use that, which I did. I thought it was good that the tree had no leaves as it fitted in perfectly with my photo-shoot theme; it was quite gothic and scary. Here there was no lighting only the flash from the camera so the dress stood out just how I wanted it. I used the umbrella just to give extra effect from the weather and I was really pleased with the shots.

 

New Layers

I decided to use organza for my layered dress, I did have second thoughts about using this material and thought I should have chosen chiffon but after I done my layers I thought it looked better as I done one layer on chiffon and it was too bright and out of place with the rest of my layers.

 

My first layer I made from the heat transfer technique by re-creating one of my postcards with fabric paints and printing the design all over the organza. The print didn’t turn out as bright as I thought but I still liked this layer.

 

 

This layer was made from brusho. As brusho was my favourite technique on the postcards I thought I would try it on a layer of my dress. Although the results look good, it was a disaster, I spread the material over the table which just about fit and wet the fabric then sprinkled the brusho over. It was so messy and there was not enough room so the brusho went everywhere. Even still I liked the effect it made, messy or non-messy!

The third layer was the layer of chiffon. Just by looking at the picture it is a lot brighter than my first two layers which I thought would look out of place so I started to layer the dress together and see what style I could create. I tried turned the chiffon fabric inside out which did work and it wasn’t as bright, however I still thought it looked out of place. This layer was created using heat transfer from a design I re-created from one of my postcards. I didn’t think it would be this bright as my first attempt at heat transfer on the organza fabric was quite a subtle look.

 

I made these layers by using the laser cutting machine with white leather. I then used the circles that were cut out from the back and stitched them on to the front. On the front, I also used embroidery technique with different coloured cotton for another layer.  One of my favourite layers was the laser cutting as the laser is so precise and the end results look great. I liked the fact I could also use the left over leather circles to add to the front. On the back when the laser was cutting out the shapes, it left burnt marks around the edges, I decided to keep it like that because it has a better effect and is better suited to my style dress.

Next Step Towards Layered Dress

So after using different techniques on paper I then tried it on different fabric. I kept these samples and put them on my mood boards. I used some of my postcard images straight from the printer but for some i re-created using fabric paints.

 

Heat transfer paper on to organza.

 

Re-created using fabric paints and heat transfer on to chiffron.

 

Re-created using mono printing with polystrene and fabric paints on to calico.

Photoshop Introduction!!

In design I was introduced to Adobe Photoshop, something I had never used before and something I had never even thought about using. We had to edit our original postcards and make new designs. I could change the hue/saturation, brightness, change the effect to make it looked textured, the different things that can be done where endless and I was even happier that I could edit the images. Some of the images I didn’t like to begin with but with a bit of tweaking on Photoshop, some turned out to be my favourite ones! Here are some of the new edited images.

 

 

 

The colours are all so much brighter and all the images stand out and are a lot more interesting!

In computer applications lesson I was shown how to layer different images on top of each other to create different layers, this was for our final print to be sent off and printed on to fabric.

Here are some of my designs using more than one image.