Apparel Digital Design
This upper level fashion merchandising course is an introduction to the creation of work within a design and technology context. Designed as a stepping stone to a student’s own investigations, interest, and professional goals, as well as a space for exploration and experimentation with alternative design processes and methodologies.
Designing a collection influenced by a street style
for an underserved target market
The very idea of ‘street style’ might soon come to be considered rather dated. Once the term suggested all those grassroots ways of dressing that were not dictated by the catwalks. Many times, underserved populations do not get fun clothing options. The clothing MAY fulfill needs but many times never wants. In this project, students select an underserved population to design a mini collection for. Students create an inspiration board, then a mini collection arranged as a line plan. The assignment's rubric, along with a published article of mine discussing user-centered design theory that students read and critique to inform this alternative design process they will be exploring in this project.
Student Examples
Becca Braxley
Modern children's clothing is divided into girls and boys. However, overall growth differences are not seen until ages 12-14. So why are girls' clothing tighter, shorter, and constricting? The main objective of this collection was to allow children to enjoy the joys of childhood with zero concern for gender conformity, ill-fitting garments, and sizing issues.
Zoie Franklin
The postpartum demographic includes a lot of women ages 25-40 who don’t recognize themselves or their bodies after nine months of pregnancy and giving birth.Studies show 1 and 7 women suffer from postpartum depression due to the changes they see in themselves and their bodies. The major focus for this collection was using comfortable, stretchy materials and adding extra room in areas such the stomach, legs, chest, etc
Print design for medical field
I love to work with the community outside the University to give my students real-world problems where they can address solutions while practicing advanced design skills. An ER doctor approached me about designing printed ER bed linens to help medical professionals quickly determine patient height to more accurately access weight for medication dosages. Many patients present to the hospital altered and unable to provide a height. Other populations give inaccurate heights. Therefore, my students were given the design challenge of creating a print that could give height measurements while the patient is lying on the bed. Student created their prints in Kaledo, printed strike-offs on the Mutoh Sublimation printer, and presented their protos to the ER doctor.
Digital Surface Design
In this course, students utilize Kaledo Print, Knit, and Weave to learn how to digitally create various surface designs for textile products. The projects help students gain design skills and introduce students to the cross-functional job position of CAD designer which is vital in many fashion brands. Practically students are introduced to print layouts (tossed, directional and engineered) along with the quality and cost implications. An emphasis is put on creating original art from an inspiration considering the potential pitfalls of cultural misappropriation in the creative design process. Below is a sampling of former students' work.
The first assignment for the semester is for students to create a graphic design for the College and Family and Consumer Sciences and to practice their new skills in Lectra's Kaledo Style design software.
FACS Graphic T-Shirt Contest
