Here I have detailed
some core ideals we learnt about creative product / fashion design from my
four years at Massey University in Wellington, which I finished at
the end of 2007.
Knowledge of the
Supply Market
- Knowledge of competitors Product, Placement, Price and Promotion.
- Knowledge of future trends across the market.
- Knowledge of new technology in the supply market.
Fashion trend cycle
- Trend cycle of 15 to 20 years, appropriation of past design (including movements, events, zeitgeists, idols, icons, music, politics, revolutions... – in history).
Current and past movements
- Post modernism – individual and cultural interpretation of realities. Knowledge of a wide range of cultural values, their form and function post 'modern' times.
- Post – postmodernism - new ideals, icons and manifestos which look to the future. New ideals include: faith, trust, dialogue, performance and sincerity (and how these can work to transcend postmodern irony.)
- Metamodernism - transcendentalism, Romanticism, hope, sincerity, affect, narrativity, and the sublime...
- The information age - new realities, values of beauty, taste, new paradigms through which we see ourselves and the world, new 'innovators' and 'early adopters', new ideas of 'self', collective consciousness...
Visual Design
- New movements in culture and their relationship with design.
- Current events (Politics, finance, economic, popular, idols...) how do they manifest themselves visually in design?
- Semantics – The study of meaning in signs and symbols, includes -
- Silhouettes... what purpose/meaning does it have/evoke in this context?
- Textures...
- Graphics...
- Colours...
- Details...
- Materials...
- Ornament...
Appropriation of
visual culture
- Re-vision, re-evaluation, variation, version, interpretation, imitation, proximation, supplement, increment, improvisation, prequel, pastiche, paraphrase, parody, homage, mimicry, shan-zhai, echo, allusion, intertextuality, karaoke.
Aesthetic design
values
- Views of the market on: 'good taste', beauty, art, form and function...
Fashion Marketing /
PR
- What channels are the strongest influences in the market; blogs, magazines, press releases, fashion shows, celebrity endorsements... and what are they saying?
Trends in related fields
- Textile/interior/industrial/spacial/fashion design, photography, architecture and art.
'Burn your Gods'
- The theory which states: to keep your designs current and fresh you need to 'burn' the design ideas recently created and revered by designers and the consumer market, thus reinventing aesthetic values, style, good taste, etc.
Notable exception
The notable exception from this list is 'Market Demand', and how consumer's shape the design process. I did one marketing paper in my 4th year which reconfigured my approach to design. Continued in 'Design - A market approach (post 2008)'.
The notable exception from this list is 'Market Demand', and how consumer's shape the design process. I did one marketing paper in my 4th year which reconfigured my approach to design. Continued in 'Design - A market approach (post 2008)'.