U6 - Fashion Specialist Brief. First Tasks.

ART & DESIGN DEPARTMENT – BTEC ASSIGNMENT BRIEF

                                                                                                                              

Qualification	BTEC National Extended Diploma Art and Design
Unit Coverage	33: Fashion Design 35: Fashion Promotion
Assignment title	Insect Part 2 - Fashion/Promotion
Teachers/Assessors	Mr. I. Bicknell/Ms. V. Mason/Mrs. G. Bicknell/Ms R. Rendell
Hand out date	25 February 2019
Hand in deadline	25 March 2019
Vocational Scenario or context	Many fashion designers have used the characteristics of the insect as the inspiration behind their collections, whether it’s through colour, patterns or materials to represent their natural state. Texture is another element Designers try to capture, usually through embellishment but this can also be shown through structure and the actual shaping of the garment. Most notably this can be seen in the work of Alexander McQueen, Hendrik Vermeulen, Balmain, Haider Ackermann, Fyodor Golan, Catherine O’leary and most recently Moschino. Moving away from Haute Couture many designers are looking now towards collaborative sportwear design and using their existing skills and imaginations to create ranges which neatly crossover between performance and high fashion, providing them with new challenges and sets of criteria that they must address. Again, the insect world has proven to be rich in inspirational material.  Following this trend, the fashion-conscious Millfield houses have elected to put forward a proposal to redesign their individual team kit, each with a specific species and set of characteristics in mind. It is your task to start the ball rolling with the design and creation of a hoodie inspired by one of the houses chosen arthropod mascots, from which a full kit may eventually be built if the Headmaster can see the potential in this, so you have an important job to do! You must choose one of the following from which to develop you work for this project.      The Abbey Ants                          The Butleigh Beetles                 The Holmcroft Hornets      The Kernick Killer Bees              The Martin’s Moths                  The Portway Pests      The Shapwick Spiders                The Southfield Scorpions         The Walton wasps In addition to this brief please refer to https://btecartanddesignblog.blogspot.com/ for additional guidance throughout the project.
Task 1	In order to work from an informed perspective, you must gather and carefully present a broad range of information within a new sketchbook. This should include online research, existing garment appreciation and conversation with your chosen house (market research).  Within this there should be some strong evidence of your investigations into some current trend analysis. These agency sites are a good start but you must also document specialist publications, fashion blogs and social media – knowledge is power! https://www.ispo.com/en/awards/textrends/textiles-trends-spring-summer2019, http://www.mintel.com/, https://fashionunited.com/news/fashion/trend-seminar-these-are-the-four-biggest-trends-for-autumn-winter-2019-2020/2018052521407 In relation to existing sportswear design, you must provide a breakdown of the purpose, need and creative intentions of the garment you are to design and some investigation into potential materials, techniques and processes, carefully considering the workability of all in terms of their values and constrictions. You must consider all the things that have a bearing on fashion design in general such as cultural associations (popular and global), values, environmental and ethical considerations in the use of materials and techniques continually. At this point you should order a range of different samples of traditional and non-traditional activewear material samples. This could be useful in determining what you might need to order.... https://ukfabricsonline.com/waterproof-fabric/
Timescale for completion of this task:	Completed by Wednesday 27 February.
Checklist of evidence required:	4 pages of analytical research, with imagery based on current activewear trend analysis. 1 page on one high profile activewear designer focusing on a particular collection. Evidence of discussion with chosen Millfield house on contributory factors in relation to both form and function of hoodie design. 2 pages of analytical research, with samples, on materials commonly used in activewear manufacture including information on price, durability and design worth/potential.
Task 2:	Now that you have gathered the required technical and inspirational material, you should begin to design your Hoodie through the use of fashion illustration on well-presented design boards - these will be shown to your “clients” later on, so they must be effective in how they communicate your intentions. At this stage it is important to consider a breadth of ideas and to look for some distinct methods of promoting the characteristcs of your Insect diversely. You should be thinking about how you will use shape, embellishment, surface texture and colour both individually and in different combinations. It is also vital that you maintain an awareness of the practical implications of your designs too, in this you should consider purpose, durability, weight, warmth and function. At this stage you should have a good understanding of media and process and must use this knowledge appropriately. Think about which media will work best or most creatively with each process. You must consider how you might use the sewing machine, the laser cutter, the vinyl cutter, digital imaging, cutting and slashing and the silk screen. Provide some written analysis of this and how it is appropriate to your intentions. You must include the transcripts of your house discussions in the development of your designs as well as evidence of brainstorms, sketching (ie preliminary ideas prior to 3 final designs) and mindmaps. A good place to look for examples of fashion illustration for activewear is Behance. Two examples are given below. Nichole Rodriguez                                                   Brianna Vizcaino You will be working from fashion templates initially, but it is important that you develop your own visual language in this. The film below is a useful example of how to translate your given theme into a fashion idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=DAW6XP6mVmU Please also remember to refer to the information you have gathered in your trend analysis research. *PLEASE DEVELOP SURFACE DESIGN IDEAS IN THIS ALSO AND BOOK SCREEN AND THE LASER CUTTER IF REQUIRED BY THURSDAY 7TH MARCH*
Timescale for completion of this task:	By Wednesday 6 March, as you will need the designs to progress with your next task.
Checklist of evidence required	3 separate fashion illustrations which show the front and back of 3 different Hoodie designs. Each should include two colour illustrations (front and back of the garment), word processed annotation (design direction) and some space to apply the range of fabric samples/additions which you will make next.

Work for weeks 2 - 4 of this project and unit criteria coverage is detailed in the brief you have been issued with and will follow on the blog.