Where Good Ideas Come From

Where do good ideas come from? This new book by Steven Johnson explores the natural history of innovation. The video clip below explains in more detail... I have just purchased this from amazon so a mini book review will follow.

Sew Lagerfeld

Make Karl Lagerfeld's Designs via Burdastyle

Karl Lagerfeld has designed a two piece open source pattern collection for online sewing community Burdastyle. These fashion forward patterns are available for download (approx $10 for both) with detailed instructions.

I can't wait to attempt both pieces. Following the feedback from Burda's online community the skirt the is much easier out of the two to produce. There has been a lot of discussion in regards to other star designer's following Lagerfelds offering and lots of speculation, hopes and wishes for a collection of star designers to follow suit!

There has also been some reference to the SHOWstudio Design_DOWNLOAD project which invited participants to access a collection of open source patterns by Alexander McQueen, John Galliano ,   Maison Martin Margiela and many more. This project invited the participants to reproduce the designs and upload images of their finished work. Entries were judged by a panel of experts and the winners were invited to showcase their garment within the SHOWstudio Fashion Revolution Exhibition (2009) London. 

This approach is accessible, affordable and extends high end fashion to a wider audience... With a little 'know-how' and support people can make the garments for themselves. I love this approach but have to admit some of the patterns are very complex therefore support of an experienced dressmaker might be required! However, I find both projects really exciting... Is this a new way of consuming fashion for the future? We will need to wait and see. 

The Voice Knitter

A new approach to 'interactive knitwear' from Berlin based fashion label Trikoton... This interdisciplinary team have designed a production process which enables users to create personalised knitwear. 

In the 'Voice Knitting' collection, users can convert their own audio messages using the pattern generator  to create an individual pattern. A built in web application converts sound into pattern allowing users to play with pattern and apply it to a selection of different garments. 

The Trikoton team are interesting in exploring new ways of making the garment manufacturing process more interactive, as well as more personal therefore hopefully less disposable for the wearer.  Fusing traditional and new technology, they have converted some domestic knitting machines by hacking the punch card slots and converting them with micro controllers which connect to a computer for audio transfer. 

This project presents lots of possibilities for producing personal products which makes custom clothing really accessible. 

Design Council: Design Glossary #1 - 'Co-Design'

The Design Council are in the process of 'crowdsourcing' a series of design terms to help designers define their value to clients. The first term is: co-design...

The term 'co-design' is frequently used within the field of design but use, application and principles vary depending on context and discipline. Last year I carried out come research into co-design and presented on open lecture to a large group of students, tutors and my PhD supervisors.

Co-Everything: Defining Co-Design within the field of fashion & textiles was a thirty minute presentation followed by a question and answer session. This was a really valuable exercise for me as a designer and researcher... I found that the landscape is huge and the term co-design is associated to  multiple modes of design practice. The question and answer session enabled the audience to challenge co-design, contribute their opinions and share their insights with me. 

Following on from 'Co-Everything' I designed and facilitated a series of exploratory co-design workshops with textile design students. These workshops are going to be expanded upon over the next twelve months... If you are interested in participating please send me an email.

What is co-design? Instead of a definition I have made a list 

Co-design is a method / an act of collective creativity / it bridges the gap between the designer and the user / goes beyond specialist mindsets / welcomes the unexpected / should encourage a playful approach / is a shared experience / ...

To add your definition visit the design council facebook page... I am going to submit something more specific this afternoon.

My Crowdsourcing / voting Experiment: The End

And so my experiment comes to an end... It have been an intense experience and I have learned lots in the process. I love 'crowdsourcing' as a concept but had no prior experience of participating or contributing within such projects.

I got through the whole experience with very little negative comments and was supported by my friends who supported, voted and encouraged others to vote. The final results have not been tallied officially but I made it into the top 50 out of over 500 entries which is not bad for a first attempt!

My Reflections

1. Establish a network first - it's difficult to establish support and pull in votes from scratch

2. The WOW Factor - don't play it safe, people need to remember your design and talk about it to others

3. Be Strategic - have a game plan, everyone else does

I continue to believe in crowdsourcing as a concept and I do think that it has the potential to produce good design. I previewed all entries and two of the strongest designs (in my opinion) made it into the top five. 

However, lots of fantastic entries failed to attract support and should have been rated much higher. A lot of the comments within the community profiled the platform as a popularity contest... and when you begin to pull in votes from family and friends of course it gets personal. Maybe designs should be submitted anonymously?

What I like about the talenthouse.com approach is that after the competition closes you still have all of your supporters backing your profile page. Within a week I have an established profile and have almost 200 supporters, which would have taken me a lot longer to achieve... They are star making and giving everyone an opportunity to compete for their 15 minutes!

I would like to say thank you to everyone who supported me throughout this experiment, especially Green my Style for promoting the call for participation and supporting, and also  Social Alterations for backing my entry.

My Crowdsoucing / Crowdvoting Experiment!

My Entry 2010

I am participating in a little project inspired and driven by my research project. As well as exploring co-design concepts for fashion and textile design, I am really inspired by social networking and new technology. Therefore I have set myself a 'crowdsourcing / crowdvoting' challenge and would love you to participate!

Crowdsoucing is an act of outsourcing tasks to the crowd through an open call for participation. The designs produced are openly revealed to the pubic who can cast votes and submit comments.

"Talenthouse is a platform providing opportunities to the world’s creative community – a place to participate in unique projects with artists and brands, collaborate, gain recognition and compensation."

I have submitted a fashion design concept for their creative invite to design a stage outfit for Florence from Florence and the Machine. 

The Process

Stage 1: Create a design concept and submit

Stage 2: Gather support

Stage 3: Collect votes 

Stage 4: Voting closes

Stage 5: the votes are counted

Stage 6: the top ten awarded a runner's up prize

Stage 7: the final five are sent to the artist who chooses the winner!

How it Works: all participants need to gather a bit of a following... they can use twitter, facebook, google news and email to promote their design and invite people to support them within this process. So, I have uploaded my design and am now working on stage two - gathering support!

If you would like to participate and support me carry out this experiment visit my Talenthouse and click the 'support jen' button. Stage three: voting, begins tomorrow and all supporters will be invited to vote via email or facebook.

I am going to blog about my progress and the experience itself throughout the duration of the week. 

Will it be easy to collect votes or will I fail miserably... how will be design be received... do people love/hate it? It is officially out my my control and in your hands... 

View my submission and show your support

Creative Review Tweet Up

I unfortunately could not attend this event - but I love the concept!

Creative Review staged their first ever 'tweetup' event at the Design Museum last week in co-ordination with the London Design Festival. On arrival participants were greeted with a free drink and gifted a moleskin journal and bag of lego...

They were asked to bring a piece of work with them which was used to produce an impromptu exhibition within the gallery. Activity tables were set up and participants were asked to draw onto an endless roll of paper inspired by a frequently updated brief... that's where the twitter component come in!

Tweets were streamed live and projected onto a screen within the venue... this allow outside participants to contribute and follow the event in real time. 

The participants also got to work using their free bag of LEGO and you can see the concentration within the room as lots of participants got to work to produce a new invention.

I love this concept. As designer's begin to use twitter and other social networking / digital applications it presents us with new platforms to be innovative, collaborative and challenge traditional models of working together. 

This does not need to be a group event, I think the individual designer can use twitter to work with a larger audience and the work of Textile Designer / Illustrator Johanna Basford is the best example which comes to mind. I have embedded a video below!

Fringe Cover from Johanna Basford on Vimeo.

Co-Design Workshops @ the Eco Factory: Part 2

Today I facilitated some co-design workshops @ the Eco Factory, Oxo  Gallery, London. 

I demonstrated some fabric necklaces which I designed using recycled leather scraps... Using some basic running stitch sewing methods participants engaged in a workshop for 30mins to an hour and left with a finished necklace or cuff bracelet. 

This short workshop worked well as it allowed amateur to professional designers to adapt the design to their skill set. Some participants followed the set instructions whilst others became a little more adventurous and re-worked the pattern to their preference.

I am going to expand on this collection of accessories over the next few weeks and produce a series of DIY kits and instructions which will be tested through some more workshops. 

I really enjoyed working with the participants and spending a day sewing by the river chatting to people who came to visit the exhibition. 

Co-Design Workshops @ the Eco Factory: Part 1

Old is the New Black.org

Old is the New Black is a fashion reclaiming movement designed to promote participation and empower people to take control of their wardrobes.

I recently joined the Black Fashion Bureau and have made some new work through workshops for London Design Festival in collaboration with Eco Factory. Annie Sherburne and Barley Massey have been running a series of workshops from a Gypsy caravan which toured London during Design Week... you can follow their adventure via Barley's blog.

Their journey continues at the Oxo Gallery where a collection of work will be showcased until the 4th October. This event will also host a series of co-design workshops by a selection of designer's.

Today I ran an old is the new black workshop and will be running another co-design experiment tomorrow... A full report of the event to follow.

Come down to the Oxo Tower Gallery between 11-6pm to participate!

Textile Environment Design: D-Day

Old T-Shirt Before

Old T-Shirt After

Textiles Environment Design (TED) is a Research Group based at Chelsea College of Art & Design. I am a PhD student there and was lucky enough to participate within one of their workshops last Friday.

The Workshop titled 'D-Day' defined durability day and was inspired by the recent Martin Margiela exhibition hosted at Sommerset House, London. 

Using a variety of different print techniques a collection of old garments were transformed. I really enjoyed this workshop experience and was amazed at how quickly old garments could be transformed into something new and desirable.

I transformed an old t-shirt that I no longer wore due to damage and stains (images above). You can see some of the other work produced on the TED and Make it Digital.

The full report and next event will be documented on the TED blog. 

100 DAYS OF ACTIVE RESISTANCE

'The principal idea of Active Resistance is that you get out of life what you put in and that real experience of the world involves thinking' - Vivienne Westwood.

100 days of positive thought, active change, speaking up and being heard. Vivienne Westwood Anglomania and Lee Jeans encourage communication and individuality through an online installation sharing interpretations of Vivienne Westwood's Active Resistance. 

'It is not enough to follow world politics, see films and read the prize-winning best seller. This is superficial, you need to go deep in order to understand who you are, what the world is and how things could be better. This involves culture which can only be acquired by self-education: human beings should mirror the world.'

Every day for one hundred days one image representing your ideas of Active Resistance in the world, will be selected from your submissions and shared online. At the close of 100 days, the 100 chosen images will become a part of an itinerant exhibition dedicated to the project. So stand up and speak out! Take a photo, write a slogan, create an image or an artwork and show us your active resistance!

The installation will commence on September 28th 2010, with the 100 Days coming to a close on January 5th 2011. For more information on Active Resistance please visit www.activeresistance.co.uk

Submit an image and one of these squares could be represented by YOU.

P.S. - I Made This: I see It. I like it. I Make It.

P.s. - I made this... is a DIY resource which offer's inspiration and how to guides to make fashion and accessories. The recently published book demonstrates 25 different projects inspired by Catwalk looks.

I love the inspiration collages and the way the materials and instructions are annotated as sketches...

Digital Design Tools

When generating idea's for new sample's and design work... I have been exploring how digital app's and online tools can support me throughout the design process.

I began this discovery by visiting Style.com and was drawn to  their Hue New  Trend Report forecasting a/w 2010.

I uploaded some images from Style.com to Image Spark... on online resource which allows you to archive inspirational imagery and generate moodboards. I then sourced some additional imagery from COLOURlovers another online resource for designers to create a custom palette to represent this trend. You can create your own custom colour, palette or pattern, search flickr for photography to influence your selection or  source a ready made palette within their online community.

Both application's are a valuable resource for designer's generating new design concepts. They allow ideas to be tried and tested very quickly without any fear of making mistakes.

I have enjoyed this experiment and the next step will be to generate some new sample's inspired by this palette.

100 Days of Active Resistance

Vivienne Westwood Anglomania and Lee are collaborating to launch an online installation entitled '100 Days of Active Resistance' on the 8th September. 

They will invite YOU the public to collaborate with them by submitting an artwork or photograph that best represents Westwood's Active Resistance project. 

HOW IT WORKS: everyday for one hundred days one image will be selected from the submissions and shared online at www.ar100days.com from the 8th September. When the project comes to an end, one hundred days later... the final selection of images will be further showcased within a London exhibition dedicated to the project.

I am going to look out some images and might even get sketching. Good luck to all participating! 

Design Activism: Old is the New Black

'Old is the New Black' is a fashion reclaiming movement facilitated by The Black Fashion Bureau.

I Love my Scarf / J'aime mon Carre

Luxury brands are now becoming more heavily engaged in the internet. Hermès have just launched 'J'aime mon Carre' (I love my Scarf)... an interactive website which show cases street fashion from the IT Girls of London, Paris, NY and Tokyo. The content is captured in multiple media formats - video, images, photo booth style pics and detailed how-to's...

I love the 'knotting card' element - which illustrates lots of different how-to's. I have to try some out!

This website is also open to customers who are invited to build their own space and upload their version of wearing 'Le Carre' (the French name of Hermès signature silk scarf). 

This platform is created in a similar format to Burberry's Art of the Trench. Which indicates a trend towards user generated content and viral marketing. Both concepts have rating and  sharing features integrated which enables users to rank profiles and connect them to their social networks... I think this is a really exciting move from high end luxury retailers. I can't wait to see how both platforms develop...I'm all for fashion being more connected! 

Grunge Glamour Knits

 "Slouchy Knits please elegant evening skirts: it's a modern mass up" Vogue, Sep 2010

Louis Vutton a/w 2010

Marc Jacobs a/w 2010

Do it Yourself (DIY)

To follow this modern grunge look dig out an old favourite or source one from your local charity shop. Alternatively, you can Do it Yourself by signing up to Ravelry. This online knit community host a range of patterns that can be downloaded for free. Further support is offered through visual how-to instructions and video demonstrations. 

I hope to try this out soon and have selected my top two patterns to replicate this look. I love the idea of making a jumper like this, as I know I would wear it forever. I'll update my progress...

Aran Knit via Ravelry

Aran Knit via Ravelry

An Open Letter to the UK Handmade Industry

Mary Portas: HANDMADE needs YOU 

Mary Portas: Fashion industry consultant has released a response to a call for advice from the UK handmade Industry. The response was triggered due to an innovative marketing campaign which encouraged makers to sign a petition and display a badge (image above) on their blog or web page.

This letter offers honest and direct advice to all of those designer makers trading handmade goods. To compete with the big boys handmade goods need to be stylish, sexy and desirable to stand out. 

1. If you're selling online, look at Topshop, ASOS and Liberty - these are your competition for share of £'s spent. Then look at Etsy. Spot the difference.

2. PR - of you've got a product that deserves space in magazines, you'll get it. Write a lost of ten magazines you want to appear in. Then call them. But add your point of difference. Tell the press why you are unique.

3. Think about produce adjacency's on your site. Yours are all over the place. I noticed an absolutely gorgeous necklace that was placed next to an odd glass painted tile - what is this saying about the necklace? Segment the range to lifestyle and end use.

4. Pricing - you say in your letter that you'd like handmade to be a "viable, affordable choice". If I am honest, at first sight some of the pricing seems quite premium. I find £25 for three egg cosys a bit steep. However if under the produce there was a beautiful design, fabric and source story which I as a customer can pass onto my friends, then I might not shirk at that cost. Remember Status Stories are the Status Symbols replacing logos, brands and general bling. 

I think each point offers independent designer maker's something to consider. Portas also highlights that handmade goods will stand out if they are beautiful , stylish and presented in a sophisticated way. I like the last point which references "Status stories are replacing logos, brands and general bling..." The narrative surrounding the product is really important and what separates the handmade from the mass produced.