Blog 3
For this project we had to work around the story Hansel and Gretel. We had to pick a character and begin to explore and design them.
For research we were also able to visit the British museum. This helped us to consider the different cultures also as we visited many of the different rooms. When it comes to culture appropriation asa designer you should be aware of these things.
I learnt ways in which research can help create images of your character. It can be like if you like the spirit of your character for example or it can be about the clothes or garments that you want to capture with the character.
It is good to look around at your environment and see what you can use this also helps ways in which you can be sustainable. You could even use second hand clothing and create something totally different and “new”.
When it comes to creating a character you can create collages where you can begin to play with the scale and also the surreal.
Our task was to create a collage of our chosen character.
As I am doing the witch, when I think of that character I see her with candy so I decided to include old candy wrappers and work with them in my collage. It would be sustainable by using old used candy wrappers for example
We explored people like Ralph koltai where we could see different examples of images using different shapes. He created his own papers and patterns and resembling them into collages. It would be good to learn how to be aware of your surrounds as you can find so many inspirations.
As also what is happening now with covid-19 people have also found ways in you can stay at home and still be creative. You start to find ways in which you can make your time go by fast. Loads of brands has also been moving towards online as most people are not going outside, so things such as online shopping just of increased a lot.
Overall I this project help me explore more ways of thinking and also creating a character. It was good to try something different which I normally don’t do like creating designing a character. It would be good to continue with these new skills I have learnt. When it comes to the topics of diversity, social responsibility and sustainability we have a choice to make a change. Everything we do and the decisions we make can make a huge impact. This can come down from choices such as buying from fast fashion brands, choosing to reuse old clothings. When it comes to diversity it is about making everyone feel welcomed no matter their background making sure to not offended or use a culture just for buyers for example.
Playing around with texture collage of witch
4th May 2020 @ 10:06 am
For the peer review section of the ‘Better Lives’ project, I wanted to choose a blog post in which could help me to broaden my breadth of knowledge, but also relate to my own creative practice. Therefore, I chose Cheryl Basko-Humphreys’ series of posts. Cheryl discusses diversity in large detail; explaining how campaigns such as ones completed by Dove, can emphasise and reflect the need for diversity within the fashion industry. Campaigns with a diverse range of images can knock back the idealisms of the human body – regarding shape, colour and size, and can help to re-shaoe the way in which we see an ‘ideal’ human body. Suggesting that it is our role as a new generation of fashion students to implement these positive notations of diversity into wider society – it had me thinking about what I, personally can do to make a small difference.
Touching slightly upon the theme of sustainability and how the unit has caused her to think more intuitively about sustainable ways of working, she proceeds to move along the theme of diversity. Cheryl mentions that there are still many makeup brands that do not supply a large enough range of foundation colours – perhaps not making it a fully diverse industry (something I found particularly interesting as a performance makeup student). This means that the industry is not also fully accessible at ease for a range of people, possibly posing the idea of marginalisation.
Another interesting point in which I picked up on, was the mention that viewing the performance space first hand can promote new design ideas – ones potentially more sustainable and considered than before.
Overall, in my opinion, I think that Cheryl has been highly successful in relating the Better lives themes to her project of ‘Navigating through clothing’, also, applying it to wider society. Particularly, the theme of diversity. Mentioning and providing evidence to show that the fashion industry needs to meet more diverse standards, has presented a very clear connection to the Better Lives themes. Pulling up points in which i, myself as a makeup student had not realised, shows detailed knowledge and research on the subject area. This paired with the touches on sustainable designing, brings to attention that it is not only products that need to be diversified. It is the design process – something in which the current circumstances have started to develop.
To further develop Cheryl’s series of blog posts, it would be highly interesting to have some information on the theme of Social Responsibility. This is something not clearly touched upon within the series of posts, and it would be intriguing to note how this connects with both Cheryl’s projects and creative practice. In light of this comment, further research into how Social Responsibility plays an active role in developing the design process could be highly successful within the series of posts. Or, perhaps the way in which it has influenced the way in which Cheryl plans to work in the future, including active steps she plans to take.