DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Fashion Design Elements weekly studies
7 Important Elements of Fashion Design
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Shape
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Colour
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Proportion/Space
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Form
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Line
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Value
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Texture
Elements of design: Lines (Research)
I was absent during this class where i saw that my classmates learned about lines and silhouette. For lines there are vertical lines, horizontal lines and curve lines. There are also zig-zag lines. When used in clothing, line can suggest movement or rhythm while directing the eye from one part of the body to another. You can also create texture by incorporating different types of lines such as curved or patterned lines instead of just straight lines. In fashion, line also refers to the direction of visual interest in a garment created by construction details such as seams, openings, pleats, gathers, tucks, topstitching, and trims. Straight lines suggest crispness and curved lines imply fluidity.
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Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2013 incorporating lines into his designs.
Sketching and learning about proportions
We started out by doing technical flats drawing on a croqui model. For myself, i think drawing technical flats hand drawn can be more challenging than drawing them digitally. Details are really important in technical flats such as the stitching lines, the symmetry of the garment and the folds of where the garment falls. Technical drawing is also where stitching and seams has to be drawn to detail to see the 2D form. After a short exercise of drawing technical flats of skirts and ruffles, i was able to explore on proportions and shape. At first it was challenging for me to think outside the box to creatively tweak a simple denim jacket flats drawing but i tried to play more with the sleeves to enlarge it and make them into flare sleeves, switch up the zipper teeths and move about the buttons. I was happy with the process and my end product.
What was my thoughts when sketching this denim jacket?
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I had to focus on proportions while sketching this and I wanted to make the jacket unique and change certain elements of it to be unusual of a denim jacket. So I changed the proportions of the sleeves instead of straight sleeves to wider sleeves. I made the bodice of the garment a bit more fitted to the body not too oversized and placed the zipper diagonal instead of a straight zipper. Proportion is really important in fashion as it holds the size of various components of a garment or fashion accessory to look good together. Another consideration for size and scale is to look at the elements within the creation itself. Scale can attract in different ways. It can be use to draw attention to the unexpected or exaggerated and this is often the case in advertising. Changing the natural scale is certainly not unusual.
I managed to explore on the colour wheel and learn about complementary colours, analoguous, triad, split-complementary, rectangle and square colours. Learning about colours is really interesting because you learnt about how different colours can complement each other in a garment or an artwork. As a fashion student, i think colours are really important to design a look because it puts together the style and mood you want to go for. We can simply change the mood of the colour by adding grey, white or black to create shades, tints and tones. I tried to explore my creating my own colour palette in illustrator with the colour picker using the colour wheel. My favourite colour palette from what i have created would be the third one as i think it will be pretty interesting to work with.
Learning about colour theory
Examples of proportions and scales in fashion
Trying out a simple illustration with the colour palette i created. I was really happy to see how well the colours complemented each other. I liked the colours with a more pastel tone to it.
I also found this picture online that has the basic colour wheel and will guide me in making basic colour choices. All colours have tints and shades. A tint is the variation of that colour when mixed with white and a shade is the variation of that colour when mixed with black. I realised that I usually lean towards a split-complementary colour chart. Split complementary colours use three colours. The scheme takes one colour and matches it with the two colours adjacent to its complementary colour. I think its also one of the easiest colour schemes because it is hard to mess up and the contrasting colours are in opposite spectrums. Usually in fashion, we start with analogous colours and then move on towards complementary colours. In fashion design, knowing colour theory is really important especially when sketching illustrations and even styling. Colour can bring your designs to life and it explains how humans perceive colour and the visual effects of how colours mix, match or contrast with each other. I also researched on how fashion designers have incorporated colour theory on to their designs.
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Fabric manipulation & Surface decoration
Learning about fabric manipulation and surface ornamentation, this lesson was very intriguing for me mainly because i love how fabrics are manipulated on runways and i am also using this as a concept in my upcoming project. Fabric manipulation is a technique of changing the look of the fabric, give it a sculpture or embellishing it in order to give texture, weight and a unique experience. Through my research, i managed to find some techniques of surface decorations and textile manipulations that i think is pretty interesting. Fabric art is abstract, with every new tweak in the experimentation, a new genre of fabric manipulation is born. While researching i also found out about a designer who is know for his fabric manipulations - ISSEY MIYAKE. Known for the tagline 'Pleats please', he is iconic for his knife pleats. What is unique about his designs is that he loves to combine eastern and western elements in his work. He has also experimented special treatments giving surfaces an alive, animal look, as well as exploring futuristic fabrics, such as a polyester that is heat-cut and molded into shape with the aid of just snap buttons. He turned pleats, one of the most ancient ways to wrap a three dimensional object with a two-dimensional material, into an expression of aesthetic pureness, this gives the garment a new perspective and a different point of view. To challenge myself, i went to explore on fabric manipulations and surface decoration on runways and i began to identify the type of technique used and as i identified them, i began to wonder how they actually produce such work and began to research on the techniques and the amount of work and effort put into it.
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Learning about different patterns and prints
Technology and Fabric Manipulation in Motion in Issey Miyake’s Spring 1995 Collection
- Repeated patterns
- Engineered patterns
- Placement patterns
Prints and patterns are layouts in a garment, I feel like there are no boundaries. The placement, the weight and the size of the print or pattern gives the consumer a new perspective and visual. Repeated designs are sometimes done in a repeat from the start but then often designed to balance out and put in repeat later.
For my repeated patterns, i placed the stencil on a leopard print plastic bag and a carpet i found at the home. A repeated pattern is a pattern where the same terms repeat over and over. However it is also important to see it an artists point of view where it gives dept to the print and pattern. The repetition of lines, shapes, tones, colours, textures and form allows us as an individual to discover its structural form and come together as a cohesive whole. There are 4 types of pattern repeats which are full drop, half drop, mirror and continuous. For my repeated pattern, the left one is a continuous repeat while the second one is a full drop repeat.
From my research, placement and engineered print are very similar where it is a controlled position in an artwork or product. It focuses on the scale of the product and it is then cut in a particular position to control the placement of the print. Usually for placement print, it deals with a large motif or design that is strategically placed on the garment.
From my stencil, my two placement trip, they have two huge motifs in the centre, one was taken at the locker where the lock is a huge motif and the other one was on a football logo where the centre of the logo is the huge motif.
Engineered print is a controlled position of an artwork within a product. For my engineered print, I used the background of a plastic bag and a bedsheet. I had trouble understanding what engineered print truly was as there wasn’t much information on the internet. But from my point of view, I feel like it maybe using one motif to strategically place them around by tweaking the sizes and colour of it.
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Drawing the 9-head croqui was challenging for me, mainly because you have to keep to the proportion of the croqui and follow the measurements of each circle properly. Personally for me, i have difficulties sketching hand drawn sketches as i think it was quite hard to draw them symmetrical and proportionate. Fortunately through this lesson, i was quite impressed with the final outcomes, i learned to always have a centre line when drawing croquis as a gauge to make sure that my body is symmetrical and aligned. Our body is curvy so naturally some curves while drawing is important, we should be mindful to not draw our croqui lines too straight because it would not look normal. Towards the end of the lesson, we learnt to tweak the standing position to poses, for myself i tried to slant the legs to show as if the model is tiptoeing and i put her hand like she is putting it into the pocket. My main take away from this lesson is that we should not be disheartened by the process of it cause the final outcome can be better than what we expected.
Drawing a 9-head croqui
I was inspired a lot by their Victorian era because during the 1900s they had very structured silhouettes from their shoulders to the bustles that were worn under the dress you can see how structured they looked. The fashion during the 1900s were very much inspired by classical art, very formal and had a restrictive attire. For my design I incorporated a very structured padded shoulder. For the sleeves I tried tweaking the leg of mutton sleeves to achieve a tight loose feel near the ends. Going back to the Victorian era where the bottom of dresses will mostly generous bell-shaped gored skirts short enough to reveal the ankles. Taking inspiration from there I made a track suit trousers that were more loose and wide at the top and then comes really tight at the ankles. I also incorporated some pockets for convenience of the tracksuit. This is my version of a tracksuit inspired by historical art from classical times during the Victorian era.
Tracksuit illustration based on an era
Presentation and reflection on presentation
Comments:
1.Sacai haute couture collaboration for Jean Paul Gaultier
2.On the right track, but my question here again is what is your point of view?
3.great job with the prototyping
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Reflection from comments:
- I need to make my project unique and different, something that is not similar to what was done with my reference brands. I have to offer something unique.
- To stay on one theme and develop my sketches from there, try to incorporate collages to help with my sketches.
- Scrap the wardrobe staple but make it unique and one-off instead. This helps the consumers to have a sense of belonging and have a unique experience.
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Some inspiration pictures of up-cycled denim garments by sacai x jean paul gaultier
Contrast, Symmetrical balance, Asymmetrical balance, Emphasis, Proportions, Repetition, Hierarchy, Rhythm, Variety, Movement, Unity
Learning about design principles
Contrast:
There is a contrast of the colours here, visual ratio of different colours and shape
Symmetrical Balance:
There is a good balance on both sides of the garment.
Mirror-image of each side.
Asymmetrical Balance:
There is a good diagonal asymmetrical balance.
Emphasis:
The emphasis on this garment is the image of the face, it stands out due to the fabric texture and its unusual.
Proportion:
Oversized silhouette, unusually long cape with a long train.
Repetition:
Repetition of the same texture, shape and colours.
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Hierarchy:
This tiered skirt has ruffles attached from big to small creating a hierarchy.
Rhythm:
Rhythm is achieved with repetition or recurrence of elements.
Variety:
Variety using different elements such as shapes, colours and fabric structure to create something camp and avant garde.
Movement:
Emphasising the movement of the garment in this picture through the lines, it gives a direction for the garment.
Unity:
Harmony achieved through various elements such as embellishments and textures and colours.
Exploring motif ideas and using paper and cutouts to make a motif:
Creating motifs by cutting paper and sticking them together. For my artwork, i wanted to corporate my textile motif theme of butterfly and spiderweb so i decided to cut some lines and fold them and got shapes out of it. When i was cutting the shapes, i think i was thinking too much and did not let my mind flow because i was afraid it was ugly. But after some time when i was putting together the shapes cut out, i managed to get a really nice motif which was later created into collages.
Creating a motif by cutting out patterns and paper
Making collages from motif created
We created collages with the motif. So i started by placing the motif on the bust and it sits nicely as an asymmetrical top. Then i played around by reflecting it and i got something that looked like balloon sleeves and i think thats my favourite so far at how it turned out. I also tried to distort the motif, keeping some of the design principles in mind. I tried applying hierarchy, rhythm, asymmetrical and symmetrical balance to the collages. Through this process, it was quite interesting to know how this collages are formed with the motif placing them unusually in the croqui and getting a good result out of it. For my project, i tried applying this collage method and I was able to get fresh ideas for my silhouette and was able to sketch better. I was also able to develop my ideas further from one sketch to another.
Symmetrical
Balance
Repetition/
Rhythm
Hierarchy
AsymmetricaBalance
Variety
Tracing the silhouette from the collages
Reflection:
After making the collages, I traced out the shape of the collage into the model. The silhouettes that came out of the collages were interesting and unusual. With the collages, I could develop the designs further keeping in mind of the proportions and scaling. Collages help in structuring, developing, analysing and presenting visual issues that are difficult to express in words. This exercise helped me to develop more ideas through the collages and gave me a pathway to develop my designs. I also applied collages on my semester project and it really helped me to develop my ideas when I was stuck on my sketches.
Making collages and adding them into a garment
Reflection:
During this exercise, I was told to place the motifs we made into garments on the runway and attaching the motifs into the silhouettes of the garment. Through this exercise, I was able to tweak the silhouettes and think of interesting ways to amplify the garment. By applying this motif on the silhouettes, I was able to apply the design principles as well such as symmetry balance within the garment, rhythm and hierarchy. Overall, I feel like my placement of the motifs and making them into collages were 'safe' options and I should explore more abstract designs. I need to work on my creative skills on more unique designs and indicate more details by playing with the sizes of the motif. This activity allowed me to explore on silhouettes and allowed me to apply the design principles I learnt during class.
Layout Design:
Reflection:
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During this lesson, we were exposed to layout design and grid lines. Layout grids are used for design projects that have as little as one page or as many as hundreds. These are the kind of grids that organise elements inside a space. Grids have been really helpful to align and balance your designs, it helps to achieve cool effects like diagonal typography. With grid layouts, it helps me to organise my thoughts and allows me to place the pictures and typography appropriately.
For this class exercise, we first measured and traced out the type of grid layout we wanted. For my layout, I went with an easy three column layout and most of the pictures and typography were pasted in symmetry so that there is a balance in the layout design. I wanted to reduce the empty spaces in the layout by covering most of the spaces with pictures. For my second layout practice, I wanted to incorporate more white spaces. White space are the areas of a page without print or pictures. In this layout, I used bigger pictures but at the same time still keeping the balance in the layout
Digital layout design:
Why should you use a grid for designing layout?
Grids can greatly speed up and improve your design time, as they can act as a guide that signals where is best to place, position, and scale elements.
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I did the digital layouts with grid lines from photoshop. I was able to do my own type of layout and where I wanted my grid lines to be. I realised that with the help of the grid lines I was able to organise the elements of my layout. Instead of randomly positioning elements until you find a decent looking composition, a grid should help guide you toward a natural solution. I really liked the way my layout turned out, there was less white spaces and it looked complete. However, for my second layout I had more white spaces but I balanced out the layout by placing the pictures in symmetry so that its more balanced. The grid system helped me to align page elements based on sequenced columns and rows. I learnt that the column-based structure helped to place the text, images and functions appropriately and I consider the grids as a guide for me.
What have I learnt from design principle this semester?
This module helped me to understand the 7 design principles that will help me in my design process: Balance, Proportion, Emphasis, Repetition, Harmony, Rhythm and contrast as well as the elements of design process - lines, colours and shapes. The weekly lessons covering different elements and principles were very informative and the activity we did each week on 'padlet' really allowed us to apply each principle we learnt during our weekly assignments. Through this module, I was really aware of the design principles when I was sketching my designs for the semester project, I took into consideration of the space, lines, balance and colour. Thus, without this module, I would not be aware of such principles and these factors helps to influence a final good design. Understanding these concepts and elements will allow me to break the rules a little in order to create a unique and stylish outfit based on my ideas.