Final Evaluation

Originally I wanted to create a collection of some sort; I feel I achieved this as my final outcome was three garments, prints, final illustrations and a photograph of the garments being modelled. The garments were completely created from scratch and I designs and drew up each pattern for every garment. Although there were many trials and tribulations along the way, I was extremely happy with how everything turned out, I was satisfied with it. I initially planned to create more than three garments, but during the design process and also the making process I realised that this was very unrealistic so settled for three main pieces. I included many experimental techniques with my sampling and used extraordinary materials, I had hoped to include either 3D printing or Laser Cutting and sadly I couldn’t include either due to both lack of understanding and also time constraint. However, the final pieces reflected my design developments well and also kept in theme with my concept of Designer Babies, the subjective nature of what is and what isn’t desirable. As I love the illustrative element of fashion, I drew up some final illustrations for the exhibition to go alongside the garments. My photo shoot came out extremely well and showed my garment how I wanted it to be seen. The main difference from my original proposal was the influence the Aryan Child had on my project; I barely used it within my work only in the initial research. I am unsure it would have made much difference, perhaps in the agility of my garment but I didn’t want the referencing to be obvious so I am not disappointed by this change.

I feel my project was successful because I really took on board all the previous marking and constructive criticisms from the previous work throughout the year to improve this project and produce the best work I could. Through blogging thoroughly every part of the project to a high standard, both my writing and my critical analysis of my own work improved too. Constantly evaluating through blogging, group tutorials, tutor tutorials and peer’s, I could keep going back and improving or changing parts that needed it. Having so many different opinions as well as my own really helped this process; it meant I could back up reasoning behind changing or moving in a new direction. In particular, as I found the beginning research phase the hardest, the tutor feedback I got pushed me out of the block and into development. Being around other students also helped this, finding new ways of doing things and also bouncing ideas off each other. I made sure to leave myself ample time for toiling and garment making as I knew I was weaker at it, being quite unfamiliar with pattern cutting especially required guidance. Documenting each part of this through drawing in my sketchbook, making notes in my mini book and photographing each mistake benefitted me so much. Especially when it came to creating the final pieces, going back through my notes and mistakes meant I especially knew what not to do so that I could get it perfectly right. The development and redevelopment of each toile taught me the benefit of pushing each idea fully and slowly, taking it as far as possible but still being able to present it well in my sketchbook. I feel that this extra time I gave myself ensured I was completely happy with my outcome and that it was made to the best standard I could produce.

I knew at the beginning of the project that time management would be my biggest downfall, so I used my plan as best I could. I felt I kept on track to an extent; the research definitely went on longer than I had planned it to but I developed as I went along so it wasn’t a problem. I think my project plan wasn’t detailed enough as I didn’t really get into the project until development so I was unsure where I was going when I wrote the plan. I find it extremely difficult to write a plan like the one we had to write when I haven’t started the work as it is quite unrealistic to know how your ‘journey’ is going to path out. However, saying that, knowing how I work and how long it takes me to get into something I felt I kept to it quite well and I was happy with the work I produced. I planned to have about two weeks research, three for development and the last two for making. This was pretty much how it planned out, with some overlapping due to further research mid project and also development during the making weeks.

 In the end, I was able to meet my general targets I listed in my project plan successfully. My first development that contributed to the final outcome came from my initial research. When I first started researching, my Tutor felt I left one piece of research before fully developing it to move onto the next. So through going back and completely development each part of my research I created certain textiles and designs that I ended up using in the final garments. Especially within sampling and experimentation, the development of my initial gallery visits became very important for paths to follow within my concept. My main aim was for the overall concept to be subtle, and I felt through development of these gallery visits I create a much subtler and more detailed project. I think if I had used the Easter Break time better I could have included more textile development, but as I am a design not textile student I don’t think it affected the project too much. My second aim was to improve my time management, which at first I didn’t think I could do, but at the halfway mark I really got a hang of everything and started to stick to my own plans and goals for each week. Keeping on top of workload and also blogging throughout meant that I wasn’t really behind at many stages and I got to include the majority of things I wanted to include. Although I illustrated throughout the book, I left my final illustrations till after my photo shoot meaning they were a perfect representation of the final pieces, and also kept in theme and colour scheme too.  My final aim was to be more experimental with my material uses, and I felt I did that. Using plastics, wools and various new fabrics like trill and denim pushed me to manipulate the samples in ways I hadn’t thought to before. Overall, I took each part of the project as its own section which allowed me to completely develop each stage. Using the tutor’s feedback to fuel it, I went back on parts that they felt I hadn’t developed enough to ensure everything was used to its full capacity.

In the first stages of the project we had both one-to-one tutorials and group tutorials, but after the Easter break the group tutorials stopped. When researching, the group tutorials were extremely useful, everyone had to contribute with offering ideas and suggestions to each other and the group tutor responded to these and added their own. Especially in the research stage, having multiple ideas is crucial and doing so introduced me to new ideas in which to take my concept but also with Gallery suggestions. I hadn’t heard of The Hunterian Collection before a group tutorial, and it proved to be a very useful exhibition where I got a lot of images that helped me develop fabrication. As well as good ideas, I didn’t agree with all the ideas people threw at me. At the beginning, I was told that my concept was really interesting but I was quite difficult to understand. This didn’t bother me too much as I don’t like things to be obvious, and I definitely didn’t want to go down a scientific route with my concept, which was one of the suggestions. Later on in the project, the one-to-one tutorials really helped me get out of my mental block, simply by being offered an idea or new direction in which to take something or even to revisit something and take it further was incredible useful. Having one-to-ones with any available tutor meant I got more than one valuable opinion and sometimes when the opinions were conflicting I could analyse them better to decide which one to go with, or even explore both and see which I liked better.

Even though I felt I improved my time management skills, I still miscalculated the time required to do each stage, and sometimes felt a little overwhelmed by the amount I gave myself to do within the time. On one hand, by the end of the project I think I handled this much better. But if I had used the whole week to work instead of cramming the weeks work into three or four days throughout, I would have been much more relaxed and I think some of the work would have been less rushed. I think I needed to design much more throughout, even though they were well developed the physical amount of designs I did was not nearly enough for a whole project. I am definitely going to continue to improve these skills with my future projects, using the help from tutors and guidance from beginning to end, especially with tasks I find trickier like developing my research and construction. I feel I need to worry less about how everything looks; much of the reasoning behind why I designed less was because I wanted everything to look neat and fit within my books aesthetic. What I noticed some other students did was kept a smaller sketchbook for design ideas, this meant the messier work was in a separate place and it could be copied and reference within the larger sketchbook where it was needed. This is something I will do in my next self managed project as I think it will really help develop my ideas and create a garment to its full potential.