Natures Armour MA Journals: March 2019

Ecology Evolution: Foreward

Marketing Green Issues.

The reasoning behind this book has come from a comprehensive journal documenting a project brief of which includes some of the Ecology Evolution deliveriables for a Masters Degree in Design at University Lincoln 2019.

Extracts from my Design Journal.

Marketing ideas and current debates to encourage consumers to and viewers to seek a deeper understanding of ecology issues is part of the objective of my designing. These new and emerging strategies debates and current issues can be part of visual information on products including Wall Murals, fabrics, wall papers, tote bags and T shirts.

Hand Printed letters using old metal printing press alphabet.

The objective is to give social impact in order to make my work relevant to social needs, recognising global warming and more specifically keeping our oceans clean through conservation campaign strategies within my practical work. Connecting with a number of nongovernmental groups to encourage a deeper meaning of social change through global knowledge of various campaigns including Antarctica Ocean Sanctuary currently run by Greenpeace.

Greenpeace is an environmental campaign organisation that is currently campaigning to prevent plastic pollution across our oceans, reducing plastic use via consumers is one way of doing this.

The Digital Revolution
"The digital revolution and it's subsequent technologies have transformed the fashion designers work.Together they form a whole new dimension from within which to create. In particular Adobe's Photoshop and illustrator programs have placed in their hands the tools they needed to bring textile design, traditionally a separate discipline, into their own studios." (Doe.T.2013.12). Collaboration between disciplines is a key advancement in design development and so is the creative collaboration between traditional and contemporary as "Philip Delamore, director of The Fashion Digital Studio based at \London College of Fashion. As a practicing textile designer he has experienced the entire digital print revolution."Early on, I was working on digital prints as a consultant for designers.I would often have to un-digitize them- try to achieve a screen print look with the technique-because digital print was regarded as inferior and that wasn't what designers were looking for.The full blown digital aesthetics look to a long time to develop." (Doe.T.2013.12.)
Integrating traditional and digital textiles bridges a gap between industrial visions and traditional crafts. " One of the main issues of design is its use and how it is respected cultivated and progressed through time(product use and usability). In late industrial capitalism, designed, artifacts and the experience of them are sites through which people , to different degrees, live facets of their lives. People live and dream through design. Designed artifacts are, in this sense, materialized ideologies”(Laurel.2003.26).
As Dalke points out "Interdisciplinary is not a place to be reached but rather a commitment to a process of continually testing the value parts, experimenting with different ways they might be combined to make wholes, and using the resulting wholes to refigure the parts"(Dalke et el 2006:7).

Within my dissemination I can see links from my multi faceted project with my numerous test projects that a desire to collaborate different techniques not only to evaluate which is the most eco friendly but also to acknowledge and understand the attributes of each process within one collection in order to add interest and uniqueness . I have learnt from my project 'Ecology Evolution' is how important the journey through researching visual imagery and theory is as important and even more so than the actual completed achieved designs. The end products I have created linked intruitivily to the 'why',that is the desire to improve the ecology of the world through knowledge distrubution andd serve as examples of how design can inheret value and meaning for a broader subject.

"Liberty has been at the for front of commercial and art textile printing since the late nineteenth century. During that time it has collaborated with many designers, from Bill Blass to Vivienne Westwood. Emma Mawston, head designer at Liberty fabrics, beleves there is a place for a variety of techniques, so long as they are treated with equally high standards in terms of print mark and colour matching, as well as design. "I think digital printing and screen printing work wonderfully together in a collection enabling different effects and designs to be created. There are colours and tints that are not able to be created digitally only with screen printing and obviously vice versa" (Doe.T.2013.15)

Extract from Ecology Evolution Design Journal.

Image on forward pages we're created on photoshop using a basic effects button. This may well be useful for screen printing imagery on to paper and fabric.

Adding text to explain damage via plastic pollution, lettering could be bolder using different text would work better.

Photograph taken while flying across Europe.

Whale tail fabric full width plus repeated for fabric roll production.

Repeat pattern width of fabric standard 140 cms wide 200m long ideal for fabric curtains or wall paper. I have also created a number of different scales for wall paper, Muriel and also silk scarf repeat and velvet repeat for interior fabric.
These fabrics were produced digitally through research within my dissemination I have realised even though currently Memaki digital fabric printers don't use eco conscious inks>However they use less ink than traditional print making " One factor that my determine where printing develops more generally is its environmental footprint. The digital printing process uses half the ink of screen printing methods and results in less waste being discharged.There is also no washing of screens or changing colours, so water consumption is reduced by almost half"(Doe.T.2013.13) The down side is the obsoleting aspect of machinery, new digital machines are constantly being designed for the industry , it isn't unusual for fabric companies to replace their machines every year. I am assuming their old machines would be sold off to other companies to reduce the impact on global waste.Otherwise an awful lot of machine waste finding itself in landfil and possibly inappropriate dumped in areas of the world, polluting our natural world.

Scale developments

I have chosen small repeat fabric scaled down 75% of original repeat for wall paper. I have chosen largest repeat for back velvet for cushions which has the text ’save’and the whale tail in the repeat as a large image single motif.

Digital printing onto silk.

This is the repeat whale tail repeat for the scarf in thin silk, the medium silk has run out which I wanted initially, however the thin is really floaty and light so either would have been good anyway. The repeat needs work as one side has a fatter element and when it is multi repeated it shows up as a block. This will be sorted out before finished print off. The velvet also needs washing twice and it needs to be dried naturally. I will be using my spin dryer to squeeze out any water and then a radiator to dry.

Velvet repeat whale tail.

Digital printing onto velvet.

Silk scarf fabric repeat whale tail.Using Memaki fabric printer. The printing of fabric using digital machines can for some feel a lack of spirt and individualism as described in the book Textile design in the digital age " Many devotees of traditional printing methods maintain that digital printing lacks the spirit and individuality of the more human processes. It can also miss the sincerity of print that has taken many stages to create. By way of response, designers have been enriching their digital prints with embellishment detailing and over printing." (Doe.T(2013.13).

Screen printing using photoshop.

This is the header card for my fabrics so they are displayed well as I am not submitting anything made up accept for a tote bag ,in order to try and reduce plastic use for the consumer to prevent climate change and to keep our seas and our Antarctica save. The repeat pattern of printed baby feet which are my daughter feet printed originally in black white colour are added to photoshop with the save text which has been printed with old cast lettering from an old printing press.Put into photoshop to the scale I wanted and then added to a screen for paper which is different coarse of mesh then for fabric printing. This was created initially onto a word doc for the Eco Evolution lettering and added to photoshop, it will also be paper packaging for tote bag and wall paper. If I have time I will create a swing ticket as well.

Section from one of my sketch books.

Developments to add to screen headers for fabric swatches and swing tickets and also wrapping packaging.

Screen for printing paper card headers for fabric swatches.

Screen print for paper and card. Using a number of colours white/cream, indigo on cream, linen/ cream,black/white,linen/ white.

Mixing colour inks for screen printing.

Linen colour/putty printing ink.
Created a really nice putty and deep navy for headers and swing tickets. Using up cycled newspaper print paper for packaging.

Printed paper with header and swing tickets.

Printed swings and header card for fabric ready for splicing. I have decided to create a eco ink swing in leather that I am up cycling from a leather sample book. I will be using the laser cutter.

Screen Printing Traditional Method. Linning for tote bag with whale Lino print has been created via Photoshop uploading an image that I created off a hand made print I created via old printing alphabet pieces used on old printers for newspapers with a printing of my daughters baby feet that was done using black water colour. I have changed the background by reversing colurway for the bottom of the tote which can become dirty of time.Making the background dark will help keep the tote looking clearer for longer. I am pleased with the indigo navy onto linen, it’s a colour way and fabric choice I have used previously and it’s more or less fail proof, classic and contemporary at the same time. Below is a traditional screen print onto Linen/single colour print.

I choice to cut and paste this design to get a random repeat using a collage effect.

Linen is more difficult to print, I over printed due to an area at the bottom of the screen not printing. Next time I need more ink generally on the screen.

Creating my own inks.

I have bought all my ingredients for making my own screen printing inks and also block printing ink for Lino printing. I will be testing on a small screen using an image of a whale. I need consistency in order to analyse correctly. At the moment for my design work for presentation ie MA unit I will be making my samples in inks used in University Lincoln print room. The reason for this is numerous, firstly developing inks is something that takes a lot of time and also the screen used in the print room are very expensive in accurate printing ink can damage them. Therefore I am buying a small screen for this job.