Why digital?

So far my proposal has been concerned with the mode of communication for a costume designer. However recent discussions with my supervisor and colleagues about their opinion of digital design together with my own personal discoveries with the digital drawing tablet has lead me to want to inquire more into the mode of illustration than the mode of communication.

I have been reviewing my own work to un-pack why I have been drawn to digital illustration for designing costumes and this reflection has lead to the following conclusions. I have discovered it is hard to be critical of your own work and it takes courage to be honest with yourself. My initial reflections just skimmed the surface addressing my technical applications and digital ability but I soon came to really ask myself personal questions. Why do I prefer to use this mode of rendering apposed to traditional methods of hand drawn and painted costume designs and why have I embraced is so easily. In my research I have chosen to investigate digital costume design and how this can inform my development as a practicing costume designer and academic. But why?

Reflecting firstly on my education I can start to analyse my fundamental skill base. My Further Education training was in drama and theatre studies. During this time my love for creating costume started when I opted to work in the wardrobe department of my local college theatre. When entering Higher Education to specifically study costume I had limited drawing skill. During my Higher Education I studied both costume design and costume making but excelled in the latter and chose to follow this as a career. In my professional career, before entering teaching, I worked as a theatre costume maker and wardrobe supervisor. Working in both national and regional theatres I have observed many different approaches to designing costume.

In 2001 I secured a position at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth teaching on the BA (Hons) Costume for the Screen and Stage course. Engaging in costume design practice, alongside my teaching, I started to realise my design potential. Over the past few years I have been encouraged to explore digital media and attend courses in Adobe software. Always knowing that I was not a natural colourist I began to discover how the computer could enhance my work. This is when I first started seeing the potential of the computer as a tool for costume designers and how it could be a valuable addition to my students’ portfolio. Since then I have learnt to use the computer to enhance my hand rendered techniques and improve my colour application. When choosing to embark on a master degree program, I already had a focus and wanted to use the program of study as a platform to explore the potential of digital application to enhance costume design illustration.

As I use computers in my everyday affairs I feel comfortable with the technology. I also find that most computer art software packages are designed with visual people in mind and therefore use well known artistic icons and terminology to help the novice train.

As Holtzman states, ‘if the computer is to be a tool to facilitate tasks people
are already performing, it is easier to use it if the interface is based on
metaphors from the human world’ (1996, p. 239).

It is this connection with analogue methods which I use when introducing the digital platform to my students.

Over the past few academic years I have noted that my new students start their degree with a stronger knowledge of programs such as Adobe Photoshop, which they have gained from school or Further Education courses. In 2005, I introduced the use of Adobe Photoshop to a level 1 design unit. This was the first time CAD had been introduced into the curriculum and was in response to the developments in art and design in general. Seeing the work being produced by other students studying graphic design, fashion, model making and illustration I could see the potential for this tool to be included into my students’ portfolio. Since then the course has embraced equipment and software to help develop this area of the curriculum. Passionate about my pedagogy, I am always eager to develop my professional practice and strongly feel that one enhances the other. I believe it is important that I keep active in the subject of digital costume design and have used my Masters research to extend my knowledge in this field.

When embarking on this study I had a very narrow view of what was going on in the theatre community as regards to digital media. Attending conferences and reading articles on the subject I felt strongly that the artistic approach to digital costume design was not being investigated. Working in a community of costume designers and academics I understood that there were reservations toward engaging with this tool. Some designers that I spoke to, felt it unnecessary to learn something which could be achieved just as well by hand, while others found the learning curve too much of a challenge to fit into busy schedules. Embracing the technology and rising to this challenge has been my main inspiration and drive. This research has opened up a spectrum of contacts and healthy debate on this subject. Engaging in both national and international discussions with designers who do engage with the digital platform has offered support, encouragement and a different point of view. So to answer the question: why digital? My answer would be why not. I have learnt that the digital tool is just another medium available to the artist or designer. Through this investigation I recount my discoveries and present a tapestry of different approaches which I would not have considered without engaging with this tool.

IMAGE: The image for C-Scpare Dance Co shows an early example of my digital design work.

‘Buying’ into The Digital Image

If design is functional is there an emotional connection with the viewer?

Talking to a colleague and experience costume maker of over 20 years, I found a sense of negativity towards digital images. On asking why this was, he replied the ‘artist had not sweated enough for the image’. This discussion has opened a range of questions which has enhanced my sense of curiosity. A costume design is a functional tool for a maker to realise the image and use it as a map to re-create the design. However, if the illustration is more suggestive and expressive can the maker ‘buy into’ the emotion the artist went through and understand the feeling that the designer is trying to convey. My colleague’s personal experience of computer rendered images was that they were unemotional and bland. He expressed dislike for the mechanisation of the computer image. If an artistic decision could be made at the touch of a button then is was not a creative decision but a technical application.

Is the computer artist an artist or a technical applicator? I beg to differ on this opinion as I have spent many an hour slaving over an illustration on the computer and not felt that I was only applying technical skills but an artistic application of techniques as any artist or designer would when applying watercolours, gouache or inks. However, is has made me further consider digital ‘art’ for the costume designer.

Firstly what is the role of a costume design, should a design be functional or artistic? or both? does an emotional connection with the illustration aid the costume interpreter? Does the computer image take away the flare and expression of hand rendered images? Does the age, experience and training of the audience (makers, directors and actors) determine there attitude.

What can the computer do that hand rendering can’t?? I need to investigate further.

Cross - Atlantic Communication

Cross - Atlantic Communication

Communicating via email is not only an essential part of modern business but sometime the more accepted means of communication. I am just as guilty as the next person for emailing across the office to a colleague only a few meters away. A job that in some cases can be quicker to do in person, and when you require an urgent response you can just call them or walk over to them can instant resolve. However when you’re waiting for a response from someone in another continent it can be a little more frustrating.

I recently got a contact from a colleague I share an office with, and yes he emailed me the information before we actually talked about it. The contact was with an opera school at the University of Kentucky USA, who may be looking for a costume designer from England to work on one of there shows. With the possibility of being able to establish a collaborative project I jumped at the chance to contact them. I did however suggest to my colleague that he emailed them first to introduce me. This email was sent three weeks ago and so far there has not been a reply. With further investigation we have discovered the contact has been out of the country and unable to get to a computer. He has now returned to a week of technical rehearsals and hasn’t had a minute to ‘check his email’s’. We’ve all been there. However this early experience of web communication starts me thinking of the advantages and disadvantage of communicating by email

Email is instant and can be written in the middle of the night. Additionally you don’t have to worry what time it is in the country you are writing to. This non visual communication allows you the opportunity to read over what it is you want to discuss. It allows you to change, correct and alter what you have written, something you are unable to do on the phone or in a face to face conversation. However it is not instant. Your timescale may be different to the person on receiving end of the email and unlike a colleague on the other side of your office you can’t just wonder over and get things sorted out. Additionally though you can review your email before sending it, words can often be misread or the expression behind them ignored. These early observations have brought me to consider the following points:

Successful email communication needs structure.
Both parties need to know and agree the ‘rules’ e.g timeframe, length and frequency. A director may want to email every 2 hours with further thoughts but this may be inappropriate and overwhelming for the designer.
A relationship needs to be established so the personality of the writer is understood (though this is not always possible, as personal issues like paranoia could make one read into an email something that is not there, especially with tight deadlines and little sleep)
Either one face to face meeting or a video conference may be a good way to establish a relationship.
A record of emails should be kept for later discussion or clarification if necessary

Preconceived ideas - Interviewing Costume Professionals

By interviewing costume professionals before I undertake my practical research may influence my perception of what may or may not go right or wrong. Though it is important to identify the challenges ahead, to have too much varying opinion may influence how I approach a design project.

Passing conversations with professionals about the subject of my research has generated strong opinion and also a little misunderstanding in what I actually intend to achieve. Traditional costume designers see the experiments as something either impossible, not necessary or irrelevant. This is the kind of attitude which warns me from gathering to many opinions from individuals before I undertake the practical part of my research.

In Jan – May 2006 I designed ‘With in these Walls’ by C Scape Dance Company. During the design process I at times, had to communicate with the choreographer by e-mail. This mode of communication was not intended at the beginning of the project, but has evolved out of convenience and geographical situation. Though this exercise did not echo directly the practical research I intend to undertake it did highlight the possibilities the service a costume designer could offer and heavily influenced the drive behind the MA research I am undertaking.

The experience did generate thoughts and left me with the knowledge which I can use when embarking on my practical research.
1. Good communication is essential:
· Working with a director/ chorographer who is willing and confident enough in there own computer skills to received and view work in this way
· Visual communication (sending sketches or designs) without words means nothing
· Set deadlines for both parties otherwise waiting for an email to find out what the other person thinks is frustrating.
2. Experience from my professional career highlights the following obstacles:
· How a read through of a play would happen
· Production meetings – the discussion between the set designer, costume designer, director and the rest of the technical team.
· Fabric sourcing? - Supervisors/ Buyers could do this in a large house but the responsibility of costume designer with wardrobe in smaller theatre.
· Fittings – a great deal of design happens at a fittings and I envisage attending fittings rather than conducting them over webcams etc.

What is this MA blog all about then?

The aim of my research is to explore and record the action, reaction, realisation and the nature of challenges when rendering costume designs using the digtial platform.

It build on my MA research which took place in 2006 -2008. In that research I undertook a case study where I designed costume for 3 productions using different digtial aprroaches and observing how these designs communicate and translated into realised costumes. I outline my findings to the case study in this blog.

Since completing my MA in July 2008 I have contiued to practice in this disipline and find out new things all the time. This blog which is sometime very formal and sometimes informal is a record of my exploration.

This post has been updated and edited since starting this blog in September 2006