Project overview

When I initially picked 'Future/Past' as my theme at the beginning of the project, I envisioned elegant gowns, studying dress shapes and eventually creating something ephemeral and pretty. What I ended up designing was the complete opposite of that, but I think it is quite exciting to see how such cliche beginnings turned into an unusual prints in bold clashing colours that still manage to harmoniously work together to create the 'Symbols in Time' collection.

I began looking at the 1700s and 1950s after my visit to Platt Hall, and at first I merely studied to see which could go where - I didn't expect to be able to combine both of them together as inspiration for my final prints - and this in itself shows risk tasking, as I took two polar opposites in design history and tried to gel them together. The big moodboards I created for each period played a pivotal role in my project as I came back to them at every step of the journey, allowing me to deeply immerse myself in the 'past' section of the brief. I enjoyed finding out so much about symbolism, and it has given me a totally different view of the world as I now stop and look at motifs and wonder what they could represent. Researching current and past artists and designers work gave me plenty of inspiration, and helped to guide me in a project where I wasn't really sure where I was going.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge that was this project, and feel I really managed to settle into a work routine. Every weekly tutorial made me stop and think about my work and ended up pushing me in a different direction. It also made me realise how important the input of other students was, as without it, my work would have ended up in a totally different place.

I'm really pleased with my final 12 prints, I feel they embody my project but also work in a market sense, as there is an even spread of print styles and colour ways. I'm also very proud of my final technical flats, as this is the first project where I have taken a presentation style and followed it all the way through, from inspiration boards to prints to the name card for wall presentation. I feel this makes my work appear more like a collection as there is a consistency throughout.