George Childrenswear Competition 2014

I have just submitted my collection of 6 outfits for the George at Asda Childrenswear competition. The category I chose to design for was girlswear aged 8-9 yrs. It has been really difficult to balance working on my submission alongside my studio modules. I have spent a many hours on photoshop (creating print designs, scanning in and editing swatch samples and technical drawings) to produce some professional looking range pages.

Although there was another competition to design a mens t-shirt which would have taken much less time to complete, I really wanted to design a girlswear collection - my daughter is 10 yrs old and I feel like I have a good idea of the target customer, as it is mostly mothers like myself who will be buying clothes for their younger children. My daughter loved the designs so much, she has asked if I can make her some of the outfits too. Maybe during in the summer break when I have a bit more time on my hands!

Fired Up Portmeirion Competition 2013

During our second year, there is a strong focus on us entering industry based competitions. Some of the competitions have been worked into our modules, but we also have to enter at least two independently.

I have just submitted my design for the Fired Up 2013 competition run by Portmeirion. My design was inspired by the photos I took inside the beautiful Cloud Forest conservatory during my visit to The Gardens by the Bay in Singapore.

I really loved the juxtaposition of the organic foliage and the harsh geometric lines of the hard landscaping within the conservatory and wanted to recreate that in my design. I initially began working with ink to sketch from my photos, but decided that using hand cut paper helped me to reproduce the clean lines of the landscaping the silhouettes that the light through the leaves. I'm really apply with my finally design, It gives a nod to the sketchy black lines of 1950s print design, whilst looking contemporary. I can see it sitting happily on an Ercol dining table in a mid-century inspired home.

image via Ercol.com