Live brief_ research

For the live brief part of Locating I am working to the Branding brief. I chose knitwear brand Sibling to design for because I find them inspiring but it is quite different to how I work at the moment and I want to push new techniques and ways of working.

During this weeks tutorial we discussed how to approach the project and research the brand. I have been studying past and current collections to pick out identifiable aspects and reoccurring themes.
The designers draw inspiration from a wide variety of sources, for example youth tribes, music and aspects of popular culture. One of their signatures is to reinvent and reinterpret classics such as the twin set and fair lisle motifs, putting a contemporary and subversive spin on them.

(A/W 13, A/W 15)

I am looking at folklore monsters and myths to build my own body of visual inspiration with which to work from, I felt this would be in line with the brands ethos. I will be sampling for a A/W menswear collection so will be working with a range of yarns and materials to create monster 'skins'. One of my main sources of inspiration is a photographic series by Charles Freger: Wilder Mann.

http://www.charlesfreger.com/portfolio/wilder-mann/

Colour is something that is integral to Siblings identity so I have been focusing on developing a strong pallette that fits. Their use of colour is bright and strong but has some refinement and a good balance across pieces in the collections.

( Sketchbook page- colour ideas)

I now need to push on with sampling; really experimenting with techniques, materials and scale.