TEAM WORK

Working as a team has its advantages and disadvantages. For us as a college to produce the best, working as a team is ideal. We are able to discuss each others ideas and inspirations as a whole and are then able to decide which are best for are desired needs. The disadvantage i can think of is maybe that not everyones ideas can be used so compromise is vital.

Here below are some shap shots taken of Business and Marketing's base room. Here we have a collection of images, inspirations, lists and ideas of what to include in the planning for our stand at the Clothes Show Live 2010.

Embroidery

While looking at various artist using embroidery techniques i found Tilleke Schwarz most inspiring. From first glance his pieces look like drawings, the detail and technique used is incredible to look at. I love how the drawings look like children's graffiti, the little doodles of animals and text tell a story in a form of poetry.

I took an interest in looking at different example of text in embroidery to see if i could attempt my own for the college stand at the Clothes Show Live 2010.

 Some of the embroidery pictured here is by hand and some machine. I think the most effective would be the large fancy D text, i would love to do my own version on this so i will experiment further to see if its  doable obviously depending on how time consuming it may be.

My attempts of embroidery below. Trying out a simply text that would be easily read by people passing the stand.

Here a much larger ring of embroidery cleverly using the college logo as a love heart. Keeping with the college colours to blend with the collection as well as to represent the College. I think this is a really effective piece that will make people stop and take notice of what we have to offer at Stafford College.

Window Displays!

Now Christmas is upon us the window displays are getting into the spirit, i adore how each display has a story to tell and how they capture our full most attention. Here is a shot taken by myself of Next's window display. What grabbed my attention as walking past was the paper objects and very minimal use of colour, the colour scheme being very similar to the college stand colours. (red being the main colour to stand out) I think this would look great on our college stand but would involve alot of time and effort and detail.

Influences

Jayne had set a task to be done for next week which was to produce a power point of visuals of our influences, this would go into our personal planning files and would show Jayne a bit more insight to what makes each of us tick. Also this will help to prepare for interviews and jobs in the future. I will do mine tonight and hopefully not make it too long as i have alot of influences and passions in my life. 

Mary-Kate Olsen

A great influence to me as i have loved her style for along time. I adore how elegant and sophisticated she makes her laid back vintage attire look. Now having her own label (which i only dream of owning one piece some day) has made quite a success of her self and i not only admire her ambition and drive for fashion but that she is a very intellectual woman too.

Luella Bartley

Geek Chic SS08

About the Designer: Luella Bartley is a British Designer known for her quirky collection of Brit-inspired clothes. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, she became a journalist for The Evening Standard, a leading U.K. newspaper, and then moved on to become a fashion writer for British Vogue. Luella then launched her own fashion label in 1999 with a capsule collection of clothes at a friend’s apartment. 12 months later, she was crowned Britain’s Young Designer of the Year and she has been unstoppable ever since. Boldface fans of her quirky style range from Foxy Brown and Christina Aguilera to Reese Witherspoon and Cate Blanchett. Her designs are an unofficial uniform for supermodels like Gisele, Carmen Kass, Maggie Rizer and Kate Moss.

Vogue

'Today I'm wearing' would have to be my favourite part of vogue.com i love to look at blogs to see what the general public are wearing but to be able to see what celebrities are wearing on a day to day basis is really inspiring. 

This month it's Marina from Marina & the diamonds showing her daily choice of attire. 

'Street Chic' really inspires me to try different fashions. Here is an example of a 'Street Chic' i adore and that would definitely wear.

Pin up

Peter Driben was one of the most prolific pin-up artists of the 1940's and 50's with his work gracing the covers of a plethora of girlie magazines.

Peter Driben with his wife, Louise.

Although both Alberto Vargas and Gil Elvgren have extensive catalogues of work, neither came close to the output of Driben...


His career was not limited to magazine covers, he also worked in advertising and for Hollywood, perhaps his most famous work being the original posters and publicity artwork for The Maltese Falcon. Peter Driben was also a close friend of publisher Robert Harrison, and in 1941 was contracted to produce covers for Harrison's new magazine Beauty Parade. Driben went on to paint covers for all of Harrison's magazines including Eyeful, Titter, Wink, Whisper and Flirt, often having as many as six or seven of his covers being published every month.

Gil Elvgren

 'Weightly problem' 1962

Gil Elvgren was one of the most important and best loved pin-up artists of the twentieth century.

Gil Elvgren...the Norman Rockwell of cheese-cake.

His heroines are often caught in humorous but distressing situations. His exquisite oils of gorgeous girls-next door their skirts often blowing up to reveal lovely nylon-clad legs rival his mentor Haddon Sundblom's "Coca-Cola" Santas for sheer nostalgic pleasure...

60's Fashion Icons

Edie Sedgwick

Edie ripped up the rule book and created a new, fascinating style of her own which completely turned the 1960's upside down.
Her dynamically different sense of style came from spending her early year's studying art in Cambridge which followed to her moving to New York and becoming Andy Warhol's muse and one of the most famous "Factory Girls". Her style was unlike anyone else's before her. She was known for her large sweeping earrings, pointed high heel shoes, leopard prints, black tights, dramatic eye make-up and her pixie short bleach blonde hair.


Edie was a 1960's socialite and had every girl of her time wanting to look just like her as soon her fame arose. Her 15 minutes of fame were without doubt a well spent 15 minutes that reset the rules of fashion. Fashion today is still a reflection of what Edie Sedgwick introduced to the world of those years ago.Pointed high heel shoes are still an essential for every girl. Edie was the first to promote the shoe in an iconic and trendy way, just like shoulder sweeping earrings (also known as statement earrings). These great fashion accessories have recently done a major come back on the catwalk and now on the high street and it seems that every girl is running out buying the biggest pair of statement earrings they can find which again, Miss Sedgwick herself initially brought to the world of fashion.

Brigitte Bardot

Bardot was also known as BB which was a knick name given to her. Brigitte Bardot was born on September 28, 1934, in Paris, France. Her father had an engineering degree and worked with his father in the family business. Her mother was 14 years younger than Brigitte's father and they married in 1933. Brigitte's mother encouraged her daughter to take up music and dance, and she proved to be very adept at it. By the time she was 15 Brigitte was trying a modeling career, and found herself in the French magazine "Elle". Her incredible beauty readily apparent, Brigitte next tried films.

Capitalizing on her success in French films, she made her first US production in 1953 in Un acte d'amour (1953) with Kirk Douglas, but she continued to make films in France. Brigitte's explosive sexuality took the US by storm, and the effect she had on millions of American men who hadn't seen a woman like her in a long, long time--if ever--was electric. took the US by storm, her explosive sexuality being unlike anything seen in the US since the days of the "flapper" in the 1920s. rise to the phrase "sex kitten" and fascination of her in the US consisted of magazines photographs and dubbed over French films--good, bad or indifferent, her films drew audiences--mainly men--into theaters like lemmings. 

In 1965 she appeared as herself in the American-made Dear Brigitte (1965) with James Stewart (she only appeared in one scene). Just before she turned 40, Brigitte retired from movies after filming L'histoire très bonne et très joyeuse de Colinot Trousse-Chemise (1973). She prefers life outside of stardom. While it enabled her to become internationally famous, it also carried with it annoyances. It wasn't anything for her to have "fans" enter her house or wander around the grounds of her home in the hopes of getting a glimpse of her or to take something that belonged to her. Paparazzi constantly hounded her with their cameras. She has been so soft-hearted that some people even have taken advantage of her generosity. After her life in the spotlight, Brigitte went on to become a leading spokesperson for animal rights and started the "Foundation Brigitte Bardot" dedicated solely to that cause. Her work in that realm is, perhaps, far greater than any film she could have made.

COMMUNICATION

Todays personal planning session was really useful and very incuraging. For me, i found that discussing interview techniques and questions that are expected to be asked gave me a very much needed confidence boost. During the session we covered a number of exercises; What is communication?, What is Non-verbal communication?, Influences and in pairs acting out interviews.

For the last 15 minuets of the session we were given a handout which was called '3-2-1 exercise (communication)  There was 3 questions to answer;

Give 3 examples of work that you are very proud of?

1)  My illistrations drawn for a project last year in Ian Lowes class. Very proud because i had no idea i could produce work at that level, i draw pin up girls on small canvass using pencil crayons. I learnt so many new skills from shading to life drawing techniques which i have never been very good at. But now from consentrating and working on something i felt very passionate about i found i can do anything i want when i out my mind to it.

2) Very proud of my photoshoot produced last year for a media project. The theme was vintage fashion which i am very enthusiastic and passonate about, so i found this very easy and very enjoyable. The skills i gained using photoshop really helped to make the vintage effects and constantly brosening my knowlegde through out by learning to edit appropriatly.

3) Specalist pathway report, i had great feedback for it which really felt great as im not very confident in my writing skills so to know what i had produced was at a great level was fantastic. I did work really hard on it and felt i put alot of detail and time into it.

Exploring Specialist Pathway

Working on the promotional material preparations for the Clothes Show Live 2010 stand for Stafford college i have been assigned to produce the Rob Ryam inspried tags, these will be hung from the garments and from the stand. The tags will be made from card and have words cut out such as 'Stafford Silhouettes' and 'Stafford College Fashion'. Here are a few example i have experimented with.

MyRob Ryan is one of my all time favourite artists. I absolutely adore his work.

He makes the most incredibly gorgeous silhouette paper-cuts and prints. Quirky messages woven into enchanting scenery that you cannot help but be drawn to. 

My ideas are to link both the college and the theme 'Structured Silhouettes' together to promote the fashion studies at Stafford college. With the unique look of Rob Ryans cut out pieces i thought this would be a great eye-catching promtional idea that prepective students could take home with them to remember the college by. 

I have experimented with white and black card to see which is most effective but i would like to experiement further using red card also to keep the college colours as the theme. Using black card looks quite eye-catching with a piece of white card behind to see the cut out letters more clearly or maybe to use red behind to make the letters and images more prominent.

Tilleke Schwarz

Tilleke Schwarz (1946)

My work is a mixture of graphic quality, content and fooling around. The humor in my work is typical for my Jewish background: a mixture of a laugh and a tear. Folk art and daily life are great sources for inspiration. I use mixed media with a focus on embroidery on linen and on drawings and paintings.

My work can be understood as a kind of visual poetry. It is a mixture of contemporary influences, graffiti, icons, texts and traditional images from samplers. The embroidery contains narrative elements. Not really complete stories, with a beginning, a storyline, and an end. On the contrary, the narrative structures are used as a form of communication with the viewer.

The viewer is invited to decipher connections or to create them. The viewer may assemble the stories and to produce chronological and causal structures. Actually the viewer might step into the role of the "author". It can become a kind of play between the viewer and me. The work also relates

to the history of humanity that is determined through stories.

 

Facts

Born: December 10, 1946, Winterswijk, The Netherlands
Education: H.B.S. – B (Dutch highschool)
USA Highschool, near San Francisco (as an exchange student)
Academy for Arts and Industry, Enschede (1965 t/m 1967) general arts and textile design
Free Academy for Modern Art, The Hague (1985 tot 1990): Textile-experiments and painting

My art activities were until October 2004 combined with a professional career for the Dutch national government (policy development).