Alisa Paykina BA Graphic & Media Design For my Self Initiated Project (SIP), my aim is to develop a clothing brand that incorporates elements of graphic and social design into fashion. I want to position this brand as one that builds a community and grows through responsiveness and collaboration with other creators - it is never stagnant, always changing. For the SIP outcome, I want to create the branding along with designs for a small first collection. When starting to think of my brand’s identity, I though of naming it ALIAS (an anagram of my name ‘Alisa’). Alias is defined as a “false or assumed identity; or a misidentify introducing distortion or error” (Oxford Languages, 2022). In my eyes ALIAS does not fit under one identity. The purpose of my brand is to collaborate, explore different practices, mediums and disciplines. After conducting initial idea generation and research for my brand, I came across the concepts of Generative Design and Evolving Branding. In these two fields of design, the outcomes are centred around the user, this inspired me to make my brand be adaptable and constantly changing in response to the society(ies) around me. I plan to develop every collection in a way that is always different to the previous, responding to the changes in the world. Hence, to be more adaptable, during the initial branding explorations for ALIAS seen below I chose with two serif and sans serif minimal logo choices, giving the brand’s design have as little restrictions as possible to ensure the possibility for evolving branding and adaptivity. Fig 1. ALIAS Logo Explorations In most common examples evolving branding “key visuals change in real-time by reacting to the user” (Generative Design, 2022). For ALIAS, key collections will change in response to society. By creating this unrestrictive and identity I intend to challenge the standard ideas of brands and position ALIAS as a social innovator in the fashion industry. As my brand is society-centred, I want to make sure that I am building my practice in a sustainable and inclusive manner. I want to take my sustainability practices I have established at my placement over to my brand as well. At BDB I have been encouraging for such practices in briefs where I lead the design. For example, for a Clarks gifting brief I designed a snow globe shoe box out of sustainable materials, that instead of being thrown out, can be repurposed as a display box or decoration. Additionally, I have been encouraging inclusive design solutions at my job, in terms of colour choice. By using the WebAIM (accessibility in mind) contrast checker, I compare colour combinations to identify accessibility for visually impaired people, to make sure our digital outcomes are accessible for everyone. I want to carry over this my learnings from these first hand experiences of sustainable and accessible practices to my brand when presenting my collection online. Fig 2. WebAIM Contrast Checker (Web Accessibility In Mind: Contrast Checker, 2022) When conducting further research on fashion sustainability approaches I was reminded of an iconic fashion designer - Virgil Abloh. His work is centred around community, collaboration and sustainability. Virgil adapted his works to the ever changing environment issue and job crisis, giving opportunities to young designers creating societal sustainability. “Virgil was driven by his dedication to his craft and to his mission to open doors for others and create pathways for greater equality in art and design.” (@virgilabloh, 2021) Virgil challenged the norm “played a decisive role in developing the Louis Vuitton Upcycling Signal Logo” (Jaye, 2020) . As a result the brand moved to creating products out of upcycled materials or those containing at last 50 percent recycled or bio-based materials. Fig 3. Louis Vuitton SS21 Menswear: Abloh Promotes Upcycling (theindustry.fashion, 2020) Because of this challenge of industry norms, LV also lead to create their first vegan shoe, made from “recycled polyester corn-based plastic, and recycled nylon. The shoes also come in recyclable packaging” (Ettinger, 2021). This inspired me consider to use sustainable / repurposed materials for my first collection. Fig 4. First LV Vegan Shoe (Ethos, 2021) Virgil also collaborated with creators on project and gave opportunities to many young designers. Being the first Black creative director for LV, he helped raise more than $1 million in scholarship funds for Black fashion students with the launch last year of the Virgil Abloh™️ “Post-Modern”, and provided a transparency report (guide) to creatives, giving opportunity to everyone (Abloh, 2021). When developing my brand I also intend to use the resources provided to the community by Virgil Fig 5. Post Modern (Post Modern, 2021) All in all, Collaboration is essential to creative evolution which is the purpose of my brand. Hence, for my first line, I have made plans to create a collaboration piece with a skating brand ‘Slacker City’, and continue to do so with creatives from different fields (expanding the community). Fig 6-8. My Collaboration Design with Slacker City Virgil’s sustainability and community efforts are very inspiring to me in terms of how he positioned his practice - and I want to do the same, and push boundaries with my brand. Another one of my inspirations for my brand is the creative director of Balenciaga - Demna. He is a creative that goes against the rules and breaks conventions. As I am writing my dissertation on Balenciaga, I have documented the evolution of the brand over a year. I have seen Balenciaga respond to social events / issues, particularly one to the horrifying war in Ukraine, a topic that hits close to home. During fashion week many brands were criticised for ignoring or staying quiet about the war. Demna - did not. Balenciaga held a fashion show that paid tribute to Ukrainians. The show set was in a snowy storm accompanied by Demna (Balenciagas creative director) reciting a Ukrainian poem (Cartner-Morley, 2022). Demna stated “Fashion doesn’t matter now” and positioned his fashion show as “a humane and powerful show of empathy, an emotion not often seen on the catwalk” (Demna, 2022). It is inspiring and very important that Balenciaga spoke up, and I want my brand to do the same, speak up and support people and societies. As designers we have a voice that we must use in social issues. Fig 9-10. Images from Balenciaga Show (The Guardian, 2022) Overall, in my research I found that both Virgil and Demna, are practitioners in the field fashion and design that challenged the status quo, and that is how I want to position myself in my industry - being out of the box and disrupting standard practices of fashion / design. Making my voice heard. By conducting this research, I was able to identify a clear purpose for my brand - to react to society and create a community. The ideal outcome for my SIP is to develop the full branding and identity of ALIAS along with a small initial collection design, that is collaborative and responsive and will help position my brand and show what it is truly about. So how will this project position my future ambitions? Starting this brand, will allow me to take the first step into the fashion industry and allow me to empower the notions of collaboration, community, responsiveness and sustainability (showing their importance). By unifying all of the said topics in my practice, and challenging the traditional industry practices of living by the rule book, I intend on creating a brand for the future and for the people, something that is different to traditional fashion giants, something personal and different. Speaking up through my brand. REFERENCES
Abloh, V., 2021. Post Modern. [online] Virgilabloh.com. Available at: <https://virgilabloh.com/postmodern/> [Accessed 9 April 2022]. Cartner-Morley, J., 2022. Balenciaga pays tribute to Ukraine’s refugees.. [online] The Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2022/mar/06/fashion-doesnt-matter-now-balenciaga-show-pays-tribute-to-ukraines-refugees> [Accessed 9 April 2022]. Ettinger, J., 2021. A Sustainable Design Pioneer, Virgil Abloh Reimagined Fashion and So Much More. [online] Ethos. Available at: <https://the-ethos.co/sustainable-design-pioneer-virgil-abloh/> [Accessed 9 April 2022]. Instagram. 2021. @virgilabloh. [online] Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/virgilabloh/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=9c0c3cf0-1d14-4e49-95e5-aa63196e03ba> [Accessed 9 April 2022]. Jaye, M., 2020. Louis Vuitton SS21 menswear: Abloh promotes upcycling and challenges the need for newness | TheIndustry.fashion. [online] TheIndustry.fashion. Available at: <https://www.theindustry.fashion/louis-vuitton-ss21-menswear-abloh-promotes-upcycling-and-challenges-the-need-for-newness/> [Accessed 9 April 2022]. Languages.oup.com. 2022. Oxford Languages. [online] Available at: <https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/> [Accessed 9 April 2022]. Onformative.com. 2022. Generative Design. [online] Available at: <https://onformative.com/expertise/generative-design/> [Accessed 9 April 2022]. theindustry.fashion, 2020. Louis Vuitton SS21 menswear: Abloh promotes upcycling and challenges the need for newness. [image] Available at: <https://www.theindustry.fashion/louis-vuitton-ss21-menswear-abloh-promotes-upcycling-and-challenges-the-need-for-newness/> [Accessed 9 April 2022]. Webaim.org. 2022. Web Accessibility In Mind: Contrast Checker. [online] Available at: <https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/> [Accessed 9 April 2022].
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
February 2023
Categories |