PRINTING NIGHTMARE

Just got back from the Michael Lewis Studio after spending about 4 HOURS trying to print my bloody concept development! Luckily he wasn’t there, as it went wrong so many times I ended up printing it out about 4 times woops!! Firstly I had a nightmare trying to print on both sides of the paper and realising that the paper I had bought (which works absolutely fine in my own desktop printer!), would not go through the laserjet printer!! This was at like 5 O’clock and I had to run to Cass Art in Hampstead to buy some thinner paper (whilst crying on the phone to my dad!). Got there just in time, went back to the studio and had to print it. Also had a nightmare because I couldn’t find the right setting to print on both sides of the paper, so had to manually open the print tray EVERY time and flip the paper over, so annoying!!! Just managed to do it in time and am pleased with how it looks now. Cant wait to take it to the binders tomorrow!!!

Still Concept Developing

Not long to go now, have to finish everything by next Monday as I have to get it printed on Tuesday so it can be bound on Wednesday! Really lucky though, asked my boss Michael Lewis if I could print everything out at the studio as he has a big laserjet printer and he said yes! So hopefully that’s going to save me lots of money! Didn’t quite tell him how much I had to print out though! Woops! I don’t think he’ll be there on Tuesday as he’s in Milan so that’ll be good! Still to do:

• Finish costings
• Finish making charts from questionnaire results
• Add in initial designs
• Add in initial research etc.
• Bibliography
• Appendices

WATER DAMAGE

Worst day EVER!!! It’s a week before hand in and I just spilt water all over my keyboard and half the keys don’t work now!! AAAAAAAAAaaaargh!! Had to come into High Holborn to continue writing my concept development, so annoying and had to put everything on usb stick to bring in and all the trend research I did wont open on the uni computer!!! So having to do it all again!!!! So annoyed!! Still got so much to do!

Casting

Yesterday me and Sam got up super early and went to the H and M lanvin launch to do some consumer questionnaires! Got some really good responses and was a good time to ask people, as we tried previously to do some inn Sloane Square and got NO responses. People standing in queues don’t have a lot of other better things to do! Got quite a mix of responses, and really diverse group of people. It was absolutely FREEZING cold, but worth it, (and we had sneaky Macdonalds breakfasts afterwards!).

Have always known from the start, from my initial research into diving boots that I wanted to use toe caps, but wasn’t sure where to get them made. Had a look around Lineapelle, and found some industrial toe caps for like factory use, but they didn’t do the kind of thing I wanted. I emailed John Edwards at uni who kind of runs the metal work department at GL and organised a meeting with him. Got really excited after talking to him about it as he was really keen to help and came up with some interesting ideas! Told me to get some sheets of dental wax and start playing around with different ideas. Called my mum up as she is a dental hygienist and shes going to order me some dental wax (for free wahoo!) and hopefully that will come soon and I can start playing around!!

Swedish!

Had another tutorial with Sarah today which was good, learnt quite a few important things for when we are making:

• ALWAYS have a plan ‘B’ in case things don’t work out, so you’ve always got another option.
• Plan ahead, even if it is just week by week,

She told us to start thinking about our lasts and materials, and as I went to Springline already to order my last, it felt good that I was already slightly ahead in terms of that! Also contacted a Swedish leather company called Tarnsjo leather, who produce organic leather which is all dyed with vegetable dyes, so hopefully will receive some samples! Did some trend research at uni too and was interesting to see some similarities on the catwalks of things we had seen at Lineapelle.

Aaaargh!

Just got back from uni, after having three industry lectures which were good. First guy from Ted Baker was most interesting talking about range planning, and it was nice to see how another company actually works, from the design process to the final product promotions.

Feeling a little bit behind with work at the moment, as I keep getting distracted. I think having Sarah this year as my tutor is good, however I don't feel that panic and rush to do as much work as possible before a tutorial as I did in my second year when I had Sonia. Also still feeling a little confused on the actual concept development project that we are handing in and what needs to be included, and in what quantities.

For example, the inspiration part of the project, I have already done a lot of work for but i'm not sure how much we are expected to include in this project, before we actually begin properly designing.

Also had a good chat with Min and Emma today about the layout of the project, as some of us have had quite different opinions on how we should be laying it out, and what format to be writing it in.

I have seen some students past work, which have been written very formally and very text based, and I think while that can work for some more academic students, students like myself who don't think it is entirely interesting or necessary for the reader, want to create something a bit more user friendly and engaging.

So hopefully, I will talk to Sarah and possibly Sue about how to continue from this point to check with them about producing a document that isn't quite so wordy (but still with the critical content).

Comp Shopping

Yesterday I went to do some market research. I went to Charlotte Olympia, Georgina Goodman, Rupert Sanderson, Liberty and Dover Street Market.

At first I was a bit scared to ask questions to the sales staff, but found that everyone was really helpful and willing to answer my questions. When I first went in I decided to see how I was treated as a customer, and found that in everywhere except Dover Street Market, everyone was really friendly and approachable. Especially so in Georgina Goodman, where the assistant was really interested in helping me which was nice!

Trying now to type up and document my 'findings' but not quite sure how to lay everything out and type it up...

I feel a bit like I don't quite know what i'm achieving and don't have another tutorial til Nov 9th so am just carrying on, possibly procrastinating a little bit too much.

Also I'm a bit concerned that I haven't come up with a way to research my consumer, as I feel standing in the street and asking questionnaires, which was my first plan, isn't really going to work.

Everything

Went to two really good exhibitions at the weekend, the first, the Museum of Everything in Chalk Farm, which was a collection of things owned by Peter Blake. Most of the things were weird things from old Victorian Circus, like pictures of people in freak shows and old fortune telling machines! The second was underground in the Old Vic Tunnels near Waterloo station and it was modern art. The best thing was probably the huge arch shaped film projection of kaleidoscopic flames reflected on water. Hard to capture on a camera.

Monday morning I went to the book binders, to get my Research Plan bound, and I get to collect it tomorrow, I'm so excited to see what it looks like! Then in the afternoon I had my first tutorial with Sarah which was good. Discussed my research plan, and now need to focus on the business side of the concept, as opposed to the inspirational side, which I have been mainly concentrating on.

Went to Northampton yesterday to visit Springline, and the Shoe Museum. Was good to go and visit Springline, and got to choose a last which I am really pleased with! Also the Shoe Museum, was really good! It was actually better than I thought it was going to be! Saw some nice details that could be interesting to utilise in sampling! My favourite things were the elephant shoes!

Lineapelle

Got back from Lineapelle on wednesday night and was exhausted!

Was an interesting trip and it being my second time going, I felt a little more confident in approaching people and requesting samples. Saw quite a lot of horrible things and not a huge amount of nice things, but I guess at least in using the process of elimination you get to know what you don't like, which can only be a good thing!

Highlights:

- Interesting rope/espadrille style randing
- Carved wooden sole and wedge units, utilising different coloured foam layers
- Gold ski hooks and eyelets
- Amazing knitted leather
- Lambskins from lambs that have only died naturally
- Nice rope and striped cotton trims
- Macramé and raffia knotting


Some of my samples:




I requested quite a lot of samples to be sent to me but i'll have to wait to see whether they actually send me any or not!

First Week of Final Year

Last week was the first week back at uni. I found that after a year of no formal education, my attention span seemed to have diminished somewhat! I'm now feeling a little overwhelmed with the workload and am planning a system to divide the work into manageable, bitesize pieces. Yum yum... Keeping a blog detailing the development of my final major project, I hope, will be a good way of monitoring the progress and any hiccups along the way.

Hopefully I will keep upto date with the posts, and intend to post at least once a week. I also think it would be good to get my friends to do their own blogs so we can see each others thought processes.

I think the first thing to do is to make a big long list of all the things I need to do!