F-W-S Industry Project with Printed Textiles

This semester London and Shanghai based design studio F-W-S came in to work with the second year Printed Textiles students. The brief required the students to develop design ideas quickly and creatively using the print workshop as a place to generate ideas rather than just as a place to produced finished designs.

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Tali Furman, creative director, and Alex Poyner, designer and WSA alumni, came in to give an all-day workshop at the beginning of the brief. The students then had to independently develop a large selection of design ideas and resolved outcomes for critical review, working in the ethos of the studio.

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At critical review Tali Furman joined academic staff and to give feedback and select students for potential summer internships. At the end of the project Tali invited 4 students for interview – Cassie MacDonald, Aleks Lund, Vivian Ge and Paulina Nieduzak. 

SOPHIE STELLER LIVE PROJECT WITH SECOND YEAR KNIT & WEAVE

We are very lucky to have worked on a live project with Sophie Steller and her trend driven Knitwear Studio for second year knit & weave’s first project this semester, leading to four work placements for two knit & weave students respectively in her studio in Twickenham, London.

A little bit about Sophie Steller and her company:

‘Our London based studio is home to a team of highly talented designers who have worked on projects for clients such as SPINEXPO, Novetex Spinners, TJ Maxx, AEO, GAP, Polo Ralph Lauren, Gant, A&F, Primark Stores, Marks & Spencer, H&M and Aroma Home.

We provide a wide range of knitwear related design services including:

  • seasonal swatch collection
  • colour & trend forecasting
  • yarn development
  • marketing & branding
  • direct studio development
  • mood & product boards
  • concept fabrics’

We worked to an exciting brief set by Sophie, asking the students to approach their work in a more trend driven way. She asked the students to:

‘Develop your ability to research in a relevant, objective, and analytical way to be able to communicate your ideas with one strong, clear message.

The role of a designer is to find ways to creatively problem-solve. As a designer, whether you are designing your own collection, or working for a client you need to create desirability and suitability of your design to a consumer of some kind, and therefore whether you set the brief or the client does, you need to find the solution of creating something that someone else wants to consume.

The students were asked to:

‘Collect a range of 30-40 research images (these can be your own drawings or photographs, collage or a combination of all) of your own that observe and explore the following:

* Shapes * Textures * Colours * Atmosphere & mood * Touch & surface *

Be able to answer the following:

Why did you choose your subject and what did you found interesting and inspiring about it?

Once you went there what did you find out and observe?

Through your visual observations what did you find you liked about it and what ideas did it give to develop further?

What key elements have you identified as being important to inspire you?

From your observational research develop the following:

  • A colour palette you can work with * Textures you like * Shapes or patterns you can extract from it *
  • A mood or direction you can see it going into? Is it for menswear, womenswear or children? Is it dressy, contemporary, casual, sporty? Then develop your research into final fabrics and resolved garment or interior ideas that continue in this train of thought.’

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The students then presented their final fabrics, presentation boards, and a Powerpoint presentation at the end of the six week project to Sophie Steller, and to tutors in their subject areas, Jane Landau for Woven textiles, and Sarah Elwick, & Lisa Burn-Hunter for Knitwear. The work was generally of a very high standard overall, and Sophie was very impressed with the work produced by the students. She will select her four students for internships in due course.

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Well done to all involved. A great start to level two!

Red is the Colour – WSA at Spinexpo, Shanghai

Current second year WSA students on the Knitwear and Woven Textiles pathways had the opportunity to exhibit work at Spinexpo in Shanghai at the beginning of the this month. Two students were selected to go to Shanghai for the duration of the show, Hannah Brabon (Knitwear) and Emma Pedrick (Woven Textiles), who had the opportunity to meet industry experts, gain an insight into the industry as well as the workings of an international trade show.

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Spinexpo and WSA worked together on a project brief where students had to develop concepts around the colour RED.

‘We asked students to be very experimental and broad with their approaches to this theme. The students had the privilege to work with the latest developments in yarns from the exhibitors of the show.” (Helga Matos)

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Winchester School of Art and Nottingham Trent University are the only two education institutions that Spinexpo has chosen to promote. Spinexpo is a global yarn and trend show that takes place in Shanghai (twice a year), Paris and New York. The RED project will now go to the Paris show on the 6th and 7th July 2016. http://www.spinexpo.com

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Students work selected:
Jhonis Zipagan
Alice Bracken
Amy Fuller
Anna Bateman
Charlotte Lovell
Hannah Brabon
Isabel Worth
Katy Breeching
Sam Wood
Emma Pedrick
Grace Carter
Rebecca Lickley
Rebecca Glanvill
Isabella Bishop
Danielle Gill
Amy Nguyen
Mollie Croft
Rebecca Moore