//EVALUATIONS//
//2 EVALUATIONS//
*MINI PROJECTS*
In my opinion there were a lot of things that went wrong and went downhill in our course this year, things which I will discuss in our last tutorials as me and many other students want these things to be resolved and our 3rd year to be an improvement from this one. I personally don’t understand the purpose of these min projects as from a get go it wasn’t made clear to us that they were important and part of our final hand in. They seemed to be exercises that we did whilst in the studio, nothing else. Therefore the level of commitment wasn’t the one we would put into an actual project. I couldn’t see the purpose to them because they weren’t even pieces of work we could include in our portfolio. What do they contribute to our second year? To our progress? Honestly, these are things that should have been done in first year. It really felt like a waste of time or more like we were being kept busy because you didn’t know what else to do with us. What is the purpose of getting us to draw perspective? More than halfway through second year? At this point we should focussing on defining our style, helping us to put our work out there, begin professional work and understand what kind of job roles we would be looking at, individually. Getting us ready for 3rd year.
However I did enjoy making the zine in the studio with Leigh, in was a well conducted class and he managed to motivate us all and make work that spoke to us and about us, and that is why it is my most successful piece out of all the mini projects.
*SELF DIRECTED PROJECT*
Just like last year, I really enjoyed my last project of the year as it seems that it is the time where I am really true to myself and my work is most successful. I especially feel the I learnt a lot in this project, as I did last year but in a different way. As you saw it in my PDF I chose to follow up on last year’s transcription project and give my streetwear brand, “EMBLEM”, a second season. This one inspired by Japanese culture. I always do a lot of research before making anything, but I always seem to take quite a long time before even starting to make or try out, leaving me with not as much time as I would like to actually make my outcomes. That is one of the main things I learnt from this project: its time management. Because this affected how much I managed to do or what I actually wanted to do.
At first my idea was to make this collection less of a streetwear brand and more of a creative one, like a movement, a story happening. I was picturing 3 main characters in the center surrounded by an army of modern samurais, all wearing my creations, and a story unfolding. My creations would be a deconstructed suit, with beading, sawn gold lines all across, hoodies with 3 hoodies, large shirts, sash, umbrellas… But this was just an idea that I had before doing any of the research. Once I started doing the research, my ideas went down a different way so due to my time management, my research and economical difficulties I decided to narrow down and define what I wanted to do. And that’s okay because in the end they came out really well. But still, there are things I wanted to do that I didn’t, such as, adding beaded details to the suit, sawn details to the t-shirts, gold sawn lines to the suit, cut a bit of the sleeves and trousers off, etc… But all in all I am very happy with the results and I can see that my printing has greatly improved from last year.
That is what I learnt this year from this project, is improving my skill in screen printing. I managed to print with 4 layers of colours, making very clean prints, almost like I was printing on paper, I improved things I struggled with last year’s collection such as foiling, placement, patience and preparation so that no ink would flood through onto the material from unwanted little wholes, etc. I was truly happy about that, to feel I was coming to be in control of the screen printing skill and sort of becoming one with it. Once again it is where I feel my work is at its best, through screen printing. Therefore I was confirming that this was my “thing” and getting better at it. What I would like to do next is to push my creations further and do what I didn’t manage to do this time and learn how to put my work out there, sell my work, make it into an actual brand and start something. Those are my targets for next year and my future projects. In conclusion, I am very happy with this projects and its results, both physical and mentally.
SALOMÉ GAUTIER 