Call for Participation

Illustration by Joy Nevada 2011

*Call for Participation*

AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY

Calling all current fashion or textile design students/graduates interested in collaboration: you are hereby invited to participate in a practice-led research project exploring co-design.

Design has transitioned from an era of designing ‘for’ people towards the current era of designing ‘with’ people. Brown (2010) predicts that in the future, design will become a social experience and no longer practiced in isolation.

The term Generation Y is used to define a demographic (born between 1977 and 1997) who have grown up surrounded by digital media. Tapscott (2008) argues that this group are a force of social transformation:

- As consumers they want to be prosumers co-innovating products and services

- They use digital media to edit, create and distribute their own content

- They collaborate by constructing their own social networks

- They innovate by becoming active participants within the design process.

Economic changes bound up with globalisation are increasing pressures for people to re-think current models of design and production. The fashion industry is exploring new models to enable Gen Y to participate through exploratory marketing campaigns and streaming fashion week live online. There is huge potential for digital media and design to collaborate to construct new ways of working, but a re-think of the relationship between the designer and the consumer is required: both to consider how new technology can be used to enable the exchange of skills and knowledge, and to bring us into the future with consideration to the users needs and wants.

The selected participants will be invited to a design meeting where the project will be pitched and they will play an active role in defining the overall brief. You will leave with a goodie bag of design tools, tips and tricks to get started on your design research and development.

The following week we will meet again and get to work collectively designing a collection of fashion fabrics and accessories.

This is an exciting opportunity for you to participate in a live research project and play an active role in defining new design approaches, an excellent CV opportunity.

Participant Criteria

- A current fashion or textile design student or graduate

- An Interest and familiarity with digital media tools for example, blogging, twitter, Flickr and Facebook.

- Available for two weeks to participant from Monday 7th - 18th February 2011. There will be x2 real time meetings and the rest will be online.

How to Participate

Send a few short sentences describing YOU as a designer.

Send an email to: textiles2.0@gmail.com

Include: Your name, contact information, University of study, and a blog link if you have one.

Visit - http://thetextilesampler.blogspot.com/ for updates and further information. This is the first in a series of new projects so if your unavailable and would like to be considered for up and coming events just send a quick email.

Looking forward to hearing from you!