Tag Archives: Design

Designers Unite!

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome back to another epic installment of “Emily’s Precollege Blog Posting”! Today’s topic is the design industry.
I’m a part of the Cooper Hewitt DesignPrep Scholars Program. At its most basic level, it’s a great opportunity for learning skills related to the design industry. At the Scholars level, it’s an invaluable tool for creating a network of people who can help you get an inside edge. Here’s the link to the program page: Cooper Hewitt Design Prep Many other museums offer similar programs: for example the MET, the Rubin Museum of Art  and many others. There’s this great event the MET holds twice a year called the Teen Open House where most museums in NYC come together to show off their teen programs. These programs are great for getting involved with museums, and look GREAT on both college and job applications. Some of the programs are even paid internships!
Monday, October 15th was the 7th annual Teen Design Fair, held at the Altman Building (135 West 18th street) by the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. Designers from across the industry were there, from industrial to architecture to media to apparel and fashion. Everything was represented. There were even some college admissions tables located on the lower floor, including FIT. I spent my time floating around the tables occupied by the fashion designers. They included Ann Taylor Inc, Kate Spade, and Mal Sirrah.
Tim Gunn, THE Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame, was the keynote speaker. The other Scholars and I got to speak with him in a private setting for almost a half hour. I even got to take a photo with him! It was honestly one of the most exciting moments in my life.


His standout piece of advice I remember, however, didn’t have to do with fashion, Project Runway, or college. It was about the industry. “You have to be so passionate about your design, that you cannot imagine doing anything else”. You can’t just want to design on the side, because there are at least ten other people who want to design full time. You have to devote yourself fully to your craft, to being the best you can be at it. Another designer I met was Malcom Harris of Mal Sirrah. His advice was to “make one thing so well that no one can beat you at it”. He’s known for his “One Dress”, artfully- designed garment that is only limited in the ways it can be worn by your imagination. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each color dress benefits a different charity.

So what can you do right now? Get your name out there. Make a Facebook fan page for your designs. (Mine’s here!) Go to college tours. Interviews. Don’t be afraid of people. The more people you talk to, the more people will know your name. The more people who know your name, the better of a chance you have of getting into the industry. Mr. Gunn even said that being a designer is a cutthroat field, and you have to be able to go out of your comfort zone to excel. FIT classes are a great example of this- they help you learn new skills that can actually be applied in college and the real world.
How do you guys get involved outside of FIT classes?

Hugs,

Emily

Collage or College?

Posted on by
Reply

To reiterate our homework assignment, we were instructed to choose a product and build an ad campaign for it. The product I chose was Sharpie marker ’cause who doesn’t love the feel of a brand new Sharpie?

I got to class, did a little morning sketching to “connect our hands to our brains” and then got my first project of the day. Make a collage for the type of person that I thought was the consumer for my product and find pictures of who they are and what they like. We had to get pretty specific though, know what their job is, how old they are, what they like to do in their free time, the usual. The basic image of my consumer is a twenty-something year old toy designer who lives in Brooklyn (probably Williamsburg…), goes out to cool Brooklyn bars, and hangs out with friends when he’s not designing the newest toys on the market.
The room was a beautiful mess. There were scraps of paper, glue sticks, and magazines scattered on the table. I forgot what color the table was to begin with, but clean up was surprisingly easy with so many hands.

Evidence:

 

The end result of the collage compiled and glued into my sketchbook looked like this:

  

(sorry for the bad quality pictures, I snapped ‘em on my iPhone real quick, I’ll try to get a better one of the collage)

By the way on a total side note, I was talking to a girl in my class (who doesn’t live in the city) and asked her what the name of my consumer guy should be, and she suggested, “something french, like ‘Lephlem’” ’cause there was a boy in her school who is french and has that last name. And it turns out that same boy was also in my kindergarten class! Small freakin’ world!

Jada (my professor) did something really helpful as we were working. She asked us what schools we were looking to apply to, pulled up all of their portfolio requirements, and told what each school we were interested in wants to see in out portfolios! So many schools want so many different things its crazy! We compared it to our syllabus and we’re actually going to be doing a lot of the projects they’re looking for (I’d be scared if we weren’t).

I hope your classes are helping you are much as mine is!

Until next time,

Mai

Emotions, Patterns & Reminiscence

Posted on by
Reply

Today as I was making my collage for my advertising class, I came across this quote, “Don’t live under someone else’s shadow!”. At first I couldn’t quite fathom what this could mean. Then I realized that it metaphorically meant that we shouldn’t depend on others to create our success nor should we hide behind someone else’s deemed  success. I personally believe that everyone should create their own success and strive in it! That is why I think that FIT is a great place to get started.

During my courses this year, I’ve realized the professors are always trying to help us with our future endeavors involving the arts because inevitably success just does not just create itself… unless you’re a Kardashian. Haha. Anyways, we made a collage today that was soposed to express a feeling within the color, shape and such. I bestowed myself with an Allure magazine and cut everything up, and voila, this design was created. What emotion do you think this represents?

Yipeee! I’m so exited, my dress is 1/2 done, and we have 2 days left (NO!). And I plan to cherish every single moment until then. Of course, as I started the final dart sewing of my bodice I encountered sparse problems… mainly with the faults of my darn sewing machine! I swear it hated me, every other machine was working perfectly. In the end, my prof came and solved the problem, but I still feel like its always giving me the evil eye. Surprisingly, cutting patterns is much easier than I thought, I’m gradually becomes more infatuated with pattern making day by day. Today, I finished my doing the pleats and darts of my bodice, and I plan to finish the top and circle skirt by Thursday, which is uncontrollably our last day.

Patterns I cut out of my patterned fabric.

Lost but never forgotten. 

Today I went to the train station after school. Today I ran fast to catch the shuttle to Grand Central. Today my favorite sunglasses flew onto the train tracks shallow, swampy floors. Today the train track rats will enjoy my beautiful circular sunglasses.  But never mind, I’ll find someone like youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. ♪

Outfit of the day! (fashionpanoramic.blogspot.com)

Buffalo Exchange dress

Forever21 belt

DSW loafers

Topshop earrings

I know I don’t frequently put nail polish on my OOTDs, but I’m wearing Essie’s ”Muchi, Muchi” (LOVE) 

Tianna

If interested, check out my blogs:

fashionpanoramic.blogspot.com
muffin-t0pless.tumblr.com 

 

It’s Getting Better All the Time

Posted on by
Reply

And by that I mean my, um, “art”, if I should dare to call it that. With the help of the amazing Professor Galanos, instructor of Fashion Art for Fashion Designers my so called “art” went from this:

Beautiful, right?

  • triangles for dresses
  • stick arms and legs
  • dots for eyes
  • no hands or feet
  • I can’t even explain the hair…

No, that wasn’t actually a drawing from my six year old brother, that unfortunately belongs to me. Only a mere 5 weeks ago, this was all I was capable of doing.

 

 

By the miracle teachings of Professor Galanos, my capabilities in the art department has hugely succeeded into this:

Excuse my OCD tendency to organize my markers in colored order.

  • Better for that sad excuse for a dress design in every way possible. Check.

Dreams do come true! Living proof right here. Of course I have a lot of improvement and work ahead of me but this was two weeks ago, after only three weeks of classes! I can’t wait till I advance through the rest of this course to see my new and improved drawings blow my past stick figures out of the water. Until then, you’ll just have to bare with me through the upcoming weeks facing and eventually overcoming new drawing techniques.

In addition to my classwork, I am also working on projects at home. At the moment I’m working on a Proenza Schouler A/W 10 inspired dress from scratch, like literally, no pattern, or anything! I did everything on my own and it’s almost done. And also I’m  revamping a Michael Kors striped sweated I found at a thrift store. In between projects I do favors for family and friends and fix or alter clothes for them, I’m pretty much their personal seamstress. For example, I have to sew on Nintendo and Mario patches onto my boyfriend’s varsity-style jacket, hem pants for my mom, and turn a jewel neckline dress into a v-neck dress. So much work! But I love being busy with something I love. Reading six chapters of Pride and Prejudice and mastering logarithms… Being busy with that is a whole different story.

Until next week!
-Talya