Over the past 2 months we have generated a brand which applies both virtual and tangible media together to build a non-for-profit organisation that donates profits to various mental health charities. “IM/PERFECTION” is an eco-friendly sustainable brand which draws upon fashion activism, an imperfect society and clear trends. Built on the basis of an ever growing concern for mental health and our generation's ability to make uncomfortable topics comfortable in general conversation, our tote bags have become a staple in everyday fashion and conversation.
Hasso Planter Institution of Designs 5 step design process was the basis of our brand journey, as we first began to define, empathise and ideate our key focus issues. Then using Canva AI and MidJourney to create and design printable images in correlation to a specific issue (ie: suicide prevention, anxiety), these images were the basis of our design process. We ran into a few issues when first generating designs through Canva AI and MidJourney as sometimes we did not give enough information as to what we wanted or needed. So through editing and altering the initial AI designs we were able to finalise our first prototype designs and generate 4 prototypes to be printed onto our first tote bags.
Now having our first designs we were then taught how to use and download the software needed for the Sublimation printer. Through the guidance and help of our subject coordinator and fellow peers who were using the printer we found that setting the printer settings to 200° for 60 seconds for each print allowed for the most pigmentation without burning our polyester bags. Although polyester itself is the easiest to print on, our bags were difficult to place within the sublimation printer. The creases of handles where they join to the bag needed to be split or positioned in a different angle to allow for the smoothest image to be printed. The bottom corners of the bag also needed to be hanging over the other side of the printer otherwise this would result in creases in the prints or faint white lines where the design did not compress onto the polyester; as shown in images below
The next step in our process as a team was either finding more prints to sublimation print or using the embroidery machine to further our designs. For myself, I chose to use the embroidery machine to add more detail to my prototype bag. The bag being already sewn together made it extremely difficult for the needle to not catch and embroil both sides of the bags together. My original design had one text at the bottom of my sublimation print, as you can see in the image in the middle below, the embroidery mechanic began to write out the word cont;nue but as you can see the build up of excess fabric caused the needle to catch and sew together both sides. I then spent 30 minutes unpicking the stitches which caught on the backside of the fabric. Minimal damage was caused to the fabric of the bag but there was slight pulling in the polyester, as seen in the image on the right hand side below.
Now that our first prototypes have been made, we are looking to expand our online media presence though the progression and further development of our website and instagram page; potentially expanding out to TikTok or other online platforms. Through conducting an online survey I was able to determine what other designs our audience is looking for, 34 responses allowed us to see that a further extensive colour range is the next step in our design process.
As a whole group, I felt that we all contributed heavily and worked extremely well together to generate ideas and elaborate on designs. Not only have we found our target audience but our brand has the potential to succeed with our eco-friendly mental health tote bags. One thing we did struggle with was the contribution of our online student, Cooper. Hardly replying in our messenger groupchat made it hard for us to share and generate ideas with him. He did say that he had been generating AI images on MidJourney for tote designs, however, everytime we suggesting putting them in our shared google doc so that we could discuss and see said images he went dead silent again. To read more about our design process and to follow our journey check out these links!
Sources
Gulliver, R. (2022) “The Iconic 21st Century Activist "T-Shirt and Tote-Bag" Combination Is Hard to Miss These Days! How Fashion Manifests in Environmental Activism”, M/C Journal, 25(4). doi: 10.5204/mcj.2922.
Plattner, H. (2010) An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE. Stanford University. Available at: https://web.stanford.edu/~mshanks/MichaelShanks/files/509554.pdf.
Hirscher, A.L. and Niinimäki, K., 2013, April. Fashion activism through participatory design. In 10th European Academy of Design Conference-Crafting the Future. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304354045_Fashion_Activism_through_Participatory_Design
Comments