Experiments.

After our tutorial today, we were feeling extremely lost about where our project and trend book was going. We were concentrating heavily on the literal aspect of 'multiple division ' rather than thinking BIG.  So instead of researching the multiple side of the trend we started looking into division, looking at virus, then vaccines, chemical reactions and so looking at science. There was a lot of beautiful imagery when researching science. Alex and Laura told us to try and create our own imagery, so as a group we decided to experiment. We worked with ice creating sharp and intricate structures adding  and dropping colours in as the ice melted. I particularly like the gold and deep fuchsia against the ice white. We also created a 3D form which we made by putting a bar of soap in the microwave. 

JOANA VASCONCELOS. Time Machine.

I visited Manchester Art gallery today where Portuguese instillation artist Joana Vasconcelos has been exhibiting.  Here are a few photos of my favourite pieces from the exhibition,  all of the pieces were extravagant and all have obviously came from big ideas. All of her instillations are either hand made or created using other elements such as irons which have been created into robots. I was massively inspired by the vibrant colours and range of colours within the exhibition, I feel I could take some of these colour combinations through to my own work. The use of texture was also key and the combination of traditional textile and new technological techniques were inspiring. 

Lisa Stannard. Print Designer.

Lisa Stannard is a textile designer , fashion designer and fashion illustrator. She worked for whitney Eve for 4 years, as eel as interning for Mathew Williamson and showing at trend fairs such as Indigo and Premier Vision. I liked her prints as they were very graphic and busy , she also showed us a cookbook she put together for Whitney Eve. It was good to see how she'd laid it out and how she'd put her own stamp on it.

She made some interesting points about trend forecasting. She said she usually responds to what she sees in everyday life. She also said to follow your intuition and to absorb everything around you.  Look at what other creatives are looking at. But also key things to look at were :

• Fashion
• Street style
• Food
• Music
• Film
• Photography
• Literature

Sally Denton. Trend boutique

Sally talked about Macro Trends. She said she starts the trend process by looking at whats gone in the past, whats happenning now and looking at artists and designers works.

Here are a list of the current macro trends she talked about.:

•  Future Science
• Human 2.0
• Globalisation
• Creative & Consume

It was interesting learning about new trends and the way she researched trends, she seemed to be aware of everything around her, and she said a trend is usually discovered mainly due to a hunch she has which she then further researches.

I learnt about the difference between Macro , micro and transitional trends. Macro is an underlying trend that inspires creatives , consumers and designers, Micro is smaller trends such as creepers or leather skirts and transitional trends are ones that return again and again.

Presentation Slides 5 & 6

Slide 5

The underlying question is how will our trend influence design?

More people means more improvement in design, but less resources means that we have to look towrads sustainable fabrics and new technology to keep design progressing. We came across new innovative developments in textiles such as self - healing polymers, which reiterates the idea of viruses spreading and dividing. Catalytic clothing is another development  where it traps polluted air and discoloursthe fabric. Imprioving thew  wearers health and well being. There is also a eletromagnetic hypersensitive fabric that reflects smog.  These are all developments that people do not know about,  but our trend will pin point these new inventions and bring them to light.

Slide 6

We put together examples of how we think our trend could be translated. We felt that aspects we wanted to refer to were elements surrounding layering of fabrics and busy clashing prints. Both layering, hectic busy prints reflect the theme virus; spreading, multiplying and growing.

Presentation Slides 2-4

Slide 1

Our starting point was Overpopulation. World population has doubled in the last 40 years , and there have been numerous problems caused by this. We feel this is a relevent topic, that people all over the world can relate to and be interested in. After brainstroming and researching over population,  we came up with two key words. Multiple , which is the mass of things and Virus which is largely caused by overpopulation  and the spreading of bacteria between people. From these key words we came up with name of 'Multiple Division'. We found this image by Stephanie Jung , which we feel represents out trend and colur palette well.



Slide 3

We looked further into depth, about the effects of  over population and liked the idea of viruses and how they spread. However we didnt want to concentrate solely on the literal aspect so we looked into the aspect of something going 'viral'. Also with the growth of population, there is a growing social media of poeple 'sharing what they are wearing'. This combined can be used to inspire both designers and consumers. 

Slide 2

We explored the concept of overpopulation as a visual outcome, using lack of space, crowding and personal individuality as inspiration. We wanted to illustrate the broadnes of the topic and the many areas that can be explored.

Wren Viral Campaign

Kissing Campaign

Wren created a fashion film of strangers kissing for the first time, it was artistically shot and had a massive impact on the viewer.  It has enjoyed 23 million views in the three days since it was posted on YouTube. All the women sported the Wren collection, the film was very understated and not many people knew it was a fashion campaign until later research. Thus bringing a lot of attention to the brand. The video was shared on facebook and twitter , which caused it to go viral.

http://youtu.be/IpbDHxCV29A

Social Media

After attending a number of set lectures and further research into viral campaigns, we realised the importance of social media. One of the lectures was by Stack Magazine, which is an independent magazine distributor. I think the business is a great idea being able to send a random selection of artistic and graphic magazines to customers each month. It is a good way to get peoples ideas out there. It was interest to see the layout the magazines he distributes use. The main thing I took from this lecture was to focus on simplicity, re invent whats already been done and that social media is key.

He gave us a list of the magazine he distributes, I am going to look into these and how they use text and images in their layout. 

 We have set up an Instagram account - @multipledivision. These are all our own imagery which we know reflect our trend,  but we also hope to inspire both creative and consumers. We currently have 40 followers but this is continuing to grow every day. Our next aim is to contact current trend forecasters to gain knowledge on how to take this trend further and hopefully make it go viral. We also have a Facebook group to share our ideas and photos online.

Title/First Slides.

For our title we have come up with the name ' Multiple Division'. From looking at previous rends a recurring theme is idea of combining two opposites. Because we are looking at the idea of multiple and virus, we decide to combine multiple and division to portray this.

Together we have come up with a suitable font that we can carry through this whole project. We wanted our slide how to portray the mood and concept of our trend, so each slide has to be consistent. I found an image (first slide) which we felt portrays our trend well , we liked the colour palette so we decided to run with this and make it evident throughout the presentation. We have also linked our interests and created a Facebook group.

http://gb.pinterest.com/davies2870/

Dave Sedgwick. Graphic Designer

I attended the lecture by ex MMU student Dave Sedgwick today. He is a graphic designer who has his own company http://www.designbydave.co.uk . He showed numerous projects he'd been working on,  he explained how typography and icons were always a big part of his work. He created his own typography and icons based on the projects he was working on. During this project I am going to concentrate heavily on the typography and layout ensuring it is completely right.  

Unit X

Future Intelligence 
Briefing

                      

Today we were briefed by Alex on Part One of the trend project. We were put in groups, ours being a group of three. We were told to brainstorm and come  up with a trend factor that can affect how people interact with design.  To investigate what factors inspire and influence design. We are meant to research key issues and develop ideas to create a digitally based presentation. As a group we were interested in looking at Social and Environmental factors, the one that stood out to us most was the problem of overpopulation. 

We brainstormed this factor and came up with other issues resulting from this widespread problem. The few that we liked most as a group, was virus, multiple and natural disasters. After the tutorial with Alex we narrowed this down to virus and multiple, we felt these were the most interesting topics that we could create a trend out of and look at how these would affect design. We want to look at multiple - which is linked to overpopulation - the mass of things. Overpopulation and multiple people lead to virus which limits population. We want to look at the theme, Virus, not only literally but the idea of viral marketing, and how fashion companies use technology to make their campaigns viral. Now we have our theme we have to work with coming up with a name and a brief slideshow explaining and trying to inspire others with our trend. We need to decide and focus our trend looking at seasons, financial aspects and aesthetics.