Lloyds TSB

When I was walking around Manchester picadilly gardens the other day I came across a group of people protesting agaisnt Llyods TSB bank. I spoke to one of the people participating, he said they were doing this to make people aware of how un-ethical Lloyds bank is and how people should move their money accounts to other banks like The Co-Operative. I had no idea before this that banks could even be un-ethical.
http://www.dontbankonlloydsethics.com/2011/10/chapter-4do-lloyds-banks-unethi...
This website explains how a bank, in particular Lloyds TSB can be un-ethical to its clients.

Posters attack

Almost every place we put the posters and bins up we photographed !
- outside the A4 and more store
- the door of the foundation block
- inside Geoffry Manton (and on the doors)
- all over the studio (including the stairwell)
- weve all put some up in our blocks/halls
- we tried the library but they wouldn't let us....as if
basically anywhere public were allowed !
[[posterous-content:pid___0]]

Designing my poster

When designing my poster I took many things into consideration. I wanted to keep it simple, but catch the eye - so I went with a cartoon of a recycling bin with our group name above in bright colours with the locations where the bins will be below. To try to incorporate the Photoshop skills learnt in previous classes, I used Photoshop to layer the drawing and writing with computer typing, and colouring in the words. Although I ended up going over the letters again with pencil crayon, just to give it a bit of a hand rendered look ( just to make it not as flat). I looked at many different kinds of posters but my main inspiration for the poster design was from my favorite flyer - given to me at the student fare to join lacrosse. The poster was simple, but it grabbed my attention and made me laugh! because of this its always stuck. Just like this poster i wanted to design something that would have this effect on others, and make them want to join in, grab their attention and help !
[[posterous-content:pid___0]][[posterous-content:pid___1]]

More pictures from the recycling plant

I looked throught the images again from the visit to the Recydling plant and I cant justify only putting those few up. I still think they display what i was talkign about, but the other pictures turned out so well i feel like they should be put up aswell.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Visit to The Victoria and Albert museum - Theatre and Performance

Whilst at the museum wondering around I discovered a new section, the 'Theater and Performance' gallery. They had a variety of things there- from costumes, tickets, posters, videos, and small scale set designs. I took some pictures of the walls of posters to add to inspiration for designing the advertisement of our collection of clothing.
The plan for this campaign (of sorts) is to get the university involved with our project and ultimately make them aware of stresses the fashion industry puts on the environment. Were all going to design posters and put them around the different buildings, classrooms and our halls/houses.

Recycling Plant Visit

Beth already put the picture up of us all dressed in the safety gear....what a great picture!!!
The visit was informative and fun ! We got to see the entire process.. from the separation of different plastics, metals, and glass. Surprisingly it was all very high-tec using different lasers and magnets. Unfortunately the machines were not turned on so we didn't get to see it all in action, but in theory they explained how it all works.We video tapped the visit, luckily we had a class the day before showing us how to use the camera and edit the footage. Although, we could only rent out a video camera that had a casset tape, so we need to figure out how to edit the footage and upload it. As a group we were thinking of some how incorporating the video footage into our final presentation, not to sure how yet but its a possibility. Maybe layering our footage of the recycling plant and images of our final garments.
It was annoying that the machinery was not turned on, but I was still able to get some amazing pictures. The colours and materials worked so well together- the cobalt blue mixed with the cadmium yellow - the thick sturdy steel working against scattered flimsy colourful mixed paper, shredded plastics and metals compacted into tight cubes to be shipped off.

I chose these images out of all of them to put up on my blog because they show everything I was describing before and i think they work really well together. The mixture of colour and industrial machinery - strong well made machinery juxtaposed with the recycled mashed mixture of used materials.

Matthew Williamson talk

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get tickets for the talk....how ever I did manage to sneak in. Wrong I know, but I just couldn't miss it! He was so talkative and a really good 'interview-e'. Matthew Williamson spoke about how he rose to the top of the design world, his years in university and times after. It was interesting to hear- first hand how it happens and the works you need to put in to make it.
The talk was very intriguing, and inspirational - Matthew Wiliamson really encouraged me to do work and push my creative limits to be the best I can be.
All in all im glad i snuck in !

HIGH STREET 2012

HIGH STREET 2012
Dress
UHC has been asked to help with this project Dress, they in-tern asked students to help them with ideas and inspiration. I have never had an experience like this before..working with other people who are actual professionals. luckily this brief ties in perfectly with our groups ideas.
This week I am down in London and i will be taking pictures of the area so I can start creating samples and form ideas for when i am back in Manchester.  
[[posterous-content:pid___0]][[posterous-content:pid___1]]

Abdoulaye Konate - Witworth Gallery

Some of his work was displayed at the withworth, but I was more interested in his views and what he stands for so I have been looking at some of his other work. He gaines influnence from political and enviromental issues and there effects on society and indiviudals. However it was his pieces that revolve around globalisation expressed through a textile medium, like so much of his work.

Anne Wilson - Witworth Gallery

Anne Wilson is a contemporary artist who uses a variety of everyday materials (hair, thread, glass) in conjunction with traditonal Handprocesses. Her exhibition 'Walking the warp Manchester' is a production of the warping process to create a woven fabric.This piece is communcating the lack of textile production in North West England.
This exhibiton was perfect for Manchester, obviously becuase of the now non-existant textile industry.  This comment on the industry ties in with my thoughts of taking inspiration from the Bangladesh culture. When the industry left Manchester, it became a derelict run down and now student city. Curiously I wonder what would happen to the country Bangladesh, or actually would it even be relevant because of the social situations are different? I will have to future investigate !

THOUGHTS

Thinking about the cotton exhibiton, and the hisotry around the cotton industry in conjuction with  Manchester has got me thinking.
We as a group have decided to do individually led inspiration for our personall studies, then revise all of the ideas as a group and pick the strong ones. So I am going to take my inspiration for my personal studies from the Bangladeshi culture. Looking into things like tradional methods, the floods that happen, tecniques, the people, food, clothing and tradional dress. I have chosen Bangladesh because they are one of the manufacting giants, where as 100 years ago or so it would have been Manchester producing all of these goods. I feel like it would tie in really well with the group proejct, Manchester (obviously), the UHC Dress proejct (because of the large immigration of Bangladeshi's) and also I am just very interested by the country in itself.

WithWorth Gallery Visit - COTTON Global Threads

This exhibiton was disucssing- displaying the history of the Cotton trade and its world wide relations. How it has progressed in time, yet almost stayed the same but moved countries as it were. Manchester used to be the hub for the collon trade, they would have it shipped in sorted, spun, dyed, and woven in fabrics and shipped around the world. However now China is the biggest cotton manufacture in the world. There is elements of human rights and conditons rasied in the exhibiton.

Group Tutorial Spider Diagram

Inspirational Video

The other day in group tutorials Julie showed us this video, to try to get our group to be more adventurous and creative with promoting our 'trend less world' idea with collecting the clothes.

DJ talk- Dave Halsam

The idea of having a talk from a DJ seemed odd, and didn't have much relevance. He spoke about the music scene in Manchester from the 1980's to current times and its effects on the world. Bands like Joy Divison, The smiths and many more came out of Manchester. Dave Halsam spoke about a rebelious undeground period in time, all of the talent and artistic people were emerging from this 'margin' rather than the main stream. He went on to discuss that we as a group of practioners should be taking our inspiration from the margin rather than the main stream, to go to events with less than 200 people. He suggested a place called Kraak gallery....obscure name and slightly intimidating i convinced my flat mate and her boyfriend to come with me. We showed up and there was about ten people there, we waited and talked and drank sure enough about an hour or so this tiny dinghy room was packed with people. This was probably one of my favroite nights out and i intend to go to more smaller events.
Although at first I couldn't find the relevance to this talk, giving it time to sink in I have become very inspired and excited to become part of this risk taking rebleious 'Margin".

All Saints

Back to Knitwear  |  Previous Product  |  Next Product

Rollover to zoom

Image 1 of 4

Summer Court Cardigan

£150.00

• Details
• Delivery
• Care guide

Colour

Linen

Other colours

Cotton/linen deconstructed cardigan created on the stand using vintage jumpers. The Summer Court cardigan combines paneled and open work crochet with lace stitches and fastens along the asymmetric placket with signature dark rust metal buttons. A new take on an Aran cardigan.

Fabric 55% Linen 45% Cotton

Text taken from http://www.allsaints.com/women/knitwear/allsaints-summer-court-cardiga/?colour=940&category=26 (allsaints clothing website)

The idea of working with old clothing and getting new ideas, shapes and outcomes from them is somthing All Saints company does as well. I work for this company and we had a workshop explaing the new and invative techniques they used to create this seasons trends. Stated above by the company they used vintage jumpers and cardigans, cut them up and re-assembled them on mannequins to achieve these unique shapes.

MOSI - Museum Of Science and Industry

When visiting the archives in the MOSI there was a series of posters and advertisements ranging from the late 19th century onwards. Company's that would send products to non-English speaking countries would put these bright recognizable images on the products, shipments and in shop windows. Some have English, Arabic, or both languages on them while others just had images on them. This idea was very effective in that if someone was not able to read the language on the package to remember it for next time, they would just recognize the images and colours. This got me thinking that in the future with the possibility of many cultures coming together, and therefore many languages we may have to resort to this technique again. 

Swishing

This concept of sharing and exchanging clothes rather than going out and buying new ones has reminded me of an even hosted by a company called 'swishing' I had been to a few years ago. In which you bring unwanted items of clothing (in good condition) drop it off and they then proced to set up the items people have brought with them into a form of a modern shop. The idea is to bring a few pieces of clothing with you, and there for you can take the same number of pieces out with you.www.swishing.com