Print Designer Research- Basso and Brooke

We were all split into pairs and were to research a print designer. Me and my partner got Basso and Brooke.

Who are they?

http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Bruno+Basso/Basso+Brooke+Runway
+LFW+Autumn+Winter+2012/XpQhzKDHwvq

 Bruno Basso and Christopher Brooke are designers who design and create their own prints for their collections.They first produced their first collection together in 2004.
Bruno Basso was born in Santos, Sao Paulo in Brazil and Christopher Brooke was in in Newark-on-Trent in the UK.

What techniques do they use?

They are known for using the digital print process and have made collections using 100% digital print which they have won many awards for.

http://www.wgsn.com/blogs/basso-brooke/

What is their signature style?

They use contrasting/clashing prints such as they have designed a long sleeved shirt with the bottom half showing a vibrant floral design, while the top half is a black and white small scale spotted design.

I think the key to their style is always very graphic and bold. 

http://bassoandbrooke.com/new-flora-long-sleeve-shirt.html

What type of prints do they use?

http://mytextiledreams.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/basso-and-brooke-geos.html

•Tartan

•Checks

•Contrasting

•Loud/bold

•Floral

•Abstract

•Collage

•Geometric

Most of their prints are placed prints and some you will find are repeated prints.

https://susannagalanis1.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/london-fashion-week-
spring-12-ready-to-wear-part-i/

What is their colour range?

Their colours are electric, vibrant, loud and  bright.

They use a lot of orange-yellow, tonal blues, bright greens, rose pink, vivid whites, black, a spectra of greys and purple.

What are their inspirations for prints?

“Henri Matisse, The Snail, 1953,Gouache on paper, cut 

and pasted, on white paper, collection Tate Modern”

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Matisse#The_cut-outs

Different cultures and the Artist – Henri Matisse’s cut out work ‘The Snail’

A Short Story About Geishas
GEISHA SMALL TALK – SPRING/SUMMER ’09: We were inspired by a short story about geishas we read at the revered Hiiragiya Ryokan in Kyoto. The story described how, more than the pursuit of beauty and grace, or the entertaining of guests with poetry and music, the geishas of Gion had a strong sense of vanity and competition between them – and they loved to gossip mischievously. The print depicts abstract geisha faces, with radical strokes of colour connecting their mouths, representing this “small talk”.

http://civilianglobal.com/gallery/basso-brooke-digital-print-archive-fashion/#ixzz3oZqTJHuR

On this link you can also find their other inspirations.

Research;

bassoandbrooke.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basso_%26_Brooke

Here is a short video of Basso and Brooke S/S 2012.

Print Designer Research: Erdem

What is Erdem?

Erdem is a multi award winning, designer ready-to-wear brand from London and was started in 2005.

What techniques do they use?

"His printing technique involves the designer playing around creatively on his computer for hours, digitally altering prints by blurring them or re-sizing them, painting over them and destroying them."

Known for his use of experimental textiles, vibrant prints, and detailed craftsmanship. 

What is his signature style? 

Delicate floral meet flowing silhouettes, contrasting tones with smooth textures and geometric shapes. He makes floral for people who don't usually wear floral.

What type of prints do they use? 

• Floral
• Geometric

They use a mix of placed and repeat print depended on the garment. 

Their colour range?

Their colour range is quite dark colours such as black, gun metal grey, dark wine reds, metallic silver but they also use a lot of off-white and tonal pinks.

What are their inspirations for their prints? 

“In the late 19th century European emigrants pushed into the great plains of America’s west. These new frontiers were vast and open; landscapes so endless and empty that winds roar like screams. Leaving behind civilization with only their wagons for shelter, the intrepid folk clung to their sanity in the face of such raw wilderness. “Prairie madness”, as it became known, claimed many victims. And it’s on this brink that we find Erdem’s woman in the Spring Summer 2016 collection.                 Referencing Willa Cather’s “Oh Pioneers!” (1913), Dorothy Scarborough’s “The Wind” (1925) and contemporary paintings by American artist Andrew Wyeth, Erdem’s “prairie madness” is brought to life in a moment of tension. There is a sense that she is on the verge of coming undone. It is the point at which she wanders into the night desperate for freedom from the open landscape with nowhere to hide.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/erdem-moralioglu-a-man-for-all-seasons-2012087.html

https://twitter.com/nycpr

 http://thefashion-court.com/tag/85th-academy-awards-nominations-luncheon/

http://www.fashion156.com/collections/erdem-london-fashion-week-aw-1112/

CAD Experiments

Today we experimented with various techniques using CAD. We used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. We experimented with basic tools on Photoshop, layer modes, filters, custom brush and pattern repeat we then created a digital illustration from one of our primary photographs on Illustrator.

Basic Tools
Using the free transform tool and the bottom one is cleaning the background with the magic wand.

I used the eyedropper to pick a colour and then filled in parts of my image with that colour.

Filling in with the gradient tool. I think this is successfully because the gradient is similar to the metallic colours in my objects and pictures. 

After I added effects to my circuit board I used the repeat tool to repeat my circuit boards I really liked how the pattern came out.

Using the brightness and contrast tool.

Using the hue and saturation tool to change the look and colour of my image.

Layer Modes
I really enjoyed the layer modes I've never noticed them before and really like how they can radically change an image. I used the layer mode linear dodge (add) for the top one and vivid light for the bottom one I really like the bottom one because the strong black lines really highlight the details.

Filters
This is one of my primary objects a circuit board, I used the pixelate filter and tried a high and low radius.

I used the photocopy filter for this one, I made my colours the green and brown taken from my image and then added the layer mode linear light.

I added the stamp filter to this I really like the way were there is shadows the stamp has gone over them darker to create a gradient effect.

Custom Brush

This is the custom brush tool. I added my image to a new Photoshop document, I removed the background and selected my image. I then went on to edit and clicked define brush. I then clicked on the brush icon, went to the options found my brush at the bottom of the list, changed the sized and clicked my brush all over the document. I also changed the colour each time to get a different4 effect.

Digital Illustration

My digital illustration is of a bin man I found on Bold Street performing his duties. First of all I traced around him and the bin truck using the photograph underneath with a low opacity so I could still see the image but could also see what I was drawing. I then made some lines bolder such as the ones around the outside to make my image look more graphic and make it stand out more.

After that I began to add colour I added colour by making shapes and begin to fill my whole image with colour. I overlapped colours more were it would naturally be dark and didn't use too colour were it was light. I also used various colours to make it more realistic and three dimensional.

This is my final image I am really happy with the way it turned out but I think when ive learned more about Illustrator and used it more my images will look a lot more professional and realistic.

Pattern Repeat

This is a pattern repeat I did of my skip. First of all I added my image to a Photoshop document, cut out the background and re-sized my image. I then selected my image, went on edit and clicked define pattern. I opened a new Photoshop document and clicked fill, the options come up for the fill and I selected pattern and found my skip. I pressed fill.

Digital Print In High End Stores

We were put into three groups and were to look at the use of digital print in clothing stores; mass market, high and high end. I was put in the group to look at high end stores so I looked at Karen Millen, Ted Baker and Hobbs.
I mood boards of my research and I found a lot of common themes in their collections and a lot of similarities to similar stores.

                                 

Hobbs, all images sourced from
 https://www.hobbs.co.uk/

I think most of what I found in Hobbs was very A/W they were quite dark colours such as wine, plum. brown, royal blue, grey and blacks. There were a lot of stripes, leopard print, hounds tooth and floral patterns.

Ted Baker, all images sourced from
http://www.tedbaker.com/uk?country=GB

In Ted Baker I found there to be a ton of floral designs and a lot of those were printed on to dresses, t-shirts and play-suits. I think the theme was summery, classy and feminine. There were different florals such as oriental, geometric and also some on burnout fabric. there were also stripes and chandelier prints which were very feminine and classy.

Karen Millen, all images sourced from
http://www.karenmillen.com/?lng=en&ctry=GB&

Karen Millen also seemed very summery, they and really bold colours and bright colours such as pink purples, blue and yellow a lot of them seemed to also have black on too. I also found plenty of stripes and florals. They also had butterfly and landscape
prints all of these patterns to me seemed also really feminine and classic.







We then all mind mapped and shared what we found. A lot of the similarities between them all is they all had similar themes such as floral patterns, geometric, stripes, animal, checked/ tartan. One of the main differences I feel was that the mass market and high street used mostly autumnal colours where the high end stores used various colours but mostly a lot of blues, pinks, black and red a lot of their colours ranged from summery brights to pastels and then to some dull autumnal tones. I think most of the patterns used in the high end were also original prints where as in mass market stores you are likely to find similar prints or the same prints in other mass market stores. A lot of the prints used in the high end stores were a lot of block and repeated prints but there were also some placed prints. The high street stores used block and repeat patterns and the mass market stores mostly sold a lot of repeat patterns.