STANDFAST AND BARRACKS LIVE BRIEF INTRO

Standfast and Barracks Live Brief

Print Brief

Above is the live brief I got set from Standfast and Barracks. If you haven't heard about Standfast and Barracks before, here is a bit about them taken from their website which you can find by clicking here. 

Based in Lancaster, England and with a heritage stretching back over 80 years Standfast & Barracks are one of the most versatile and capable fabric printers in the world, producing beautiful prints for many of the finest design-led home furnishings and apparel brands on the market.

We offer a choice of several fabric printing techniques, from conventional rotary and flatbed screen printing using vat, reactive, pigment, disperse, discharge and acid dyes to the latest ink-jet digital technology for short runs and special designs. Whatever the process, quality and service is assured.

Our standard cloth range covers a wide variety of different weights, fibres and constructions, from fine cotton tana lawn to heavy slub linens, raw silk, velvet, wool, nylon and Trevira.

A comprehensive design service is available to support our customers through the development process, from initial concept through to bulk delivery, including an in-house separation studio, screen engraving, CAD coloration and sampling.

Whether you are an established print house or a new designer looking for a partner in prints there really is no better choice.

I really enjoy getting new briefs, All the idea's I get in my mind really fuels me to do well. When I got my brief the first thing I did was to read through it and priorities the things I needed to do, Firstly was to look into Spring/Summer 16 trends, I did this on WGSN as other websites I looked at were more interior based. As the brief is quite strict as I have to consider I can only use up to 5 colours, It has to be a repeat pattern at a suitable size for using in industry etc. However I did not let these set rules hinder my creativity just yet as I want to really go all out on the trend I choose and do a lot of experimental artwork to inspire my designs.

Commercial Designer Brief

Above is a second brief for the same project but for the research or 'context file' as it is called. For this brief I have to produce a context file full of my findings along the process of this project. From unpicking my trend, artist/designer research on material,techniques, quality etc, colour palette, comp shop, customer profile board etc. Although there is a lot to  do which can be very stressful I thoroughly enjoy doing my context file, I enjoy researching into trends and designers etc.

These are my main set briefs for this project - Keep checking my blog for regular updates on this project. 

 

First Day Back [Print Workshop]

Monday morning and I have a full day of print a head of me. After not being in the print room for so long I was quite nervous to get back into it, Being a second year also means no more pre mixed pigments, remazols or disperse dyes. It was up to me as a student to do all of this now.

The first thing we did was look at other students work and see what kind of techniques I would be learning over this next year. I got a mini brief, Named 'Folk is not a 4 letter word'  (You can see the brief in the picture above.) As a group we all created designs for 2nd year shared screens for everyone to use, We will be using these shared screens in the next 6 week to create a collection of 6 samples inspired by our own summer project work - This is where we have to be clever as everyone has access to the screens so finding a way to link it well with your project and to make it unique is quite hard. 

I used a variety of different objects to create my designs for shared screens, I used scrunched up tinfoil and ink, fine liner and other bits and bats, some worked better than others.

 In the afternoon in the print room, We had a health and safety talk then 2 demos, Mixing bulk remazol dyes and mixing bulk disperse dye's. I took notes for these demos as I knew it is important I learn to do this correctly as I have to now mix everything my self.

I am really looking forward to starting this project once the screens are exposed, I am going to base my project on the culture of the 1960's as I have done a lot of research in my summer super journal about it. 

Thanks for reading.