The Ask.
Choose a country/culture/ethnic group to research and create a concept board as a resource for developing a collection of textiles for the athletic and/or athleisure market. Using these textiles, create a collection of pieces for an athletic brand.
The Process.
Choosing a country
For this textile/ line development project, I chose Brazil because I was in awe of the beautiful colors during Carnival. Also, I felt inspired after looking at pictures of Rio and Sao Paulo. The art and architecture dispersed around the cities are so colorful and compelling. The Carnival festival is what really caught my eye though because the intricate details that go into each look for the parade is fascinating. I was also intrigued by the culture in Brazil because its major cities have been created through influences from all around the world. After choosing a country, I had to put together a mood board that captures the essence of Brazil by including photos that show different aspects of the country.
Colors and Icons
After reflecting on the mood board, I had to pick out repeating shapes in order to create icons. Along with the icons, I also had to pick out colors from the mood board, and with these selected icons and colors, the next step was to build the textiles. Putting together the icons and color palette was all done in Adobe Illustrator. I used the pen tool to trace out the different shapes on the mood board for the icons, and I used the color picker tool to get an exact match to the colors in the inspiration pictures.
-
This mask icon was inspired by the masks that generally accompany the extravagant costumes at Carnival.
-
This icon was inspired by the mosaics and tile work covering the famous Selaron Steps in Rio de Janeiro. I placed the circle in the middle because it reminded me of Brazil’s flag.
-
This icon was inspired by the black and white tiled walkway in Copacabana beach. It also represent the curvy and figurative shapes in Brazilian art and food.
-
This feather like icon was inspired by multiple things: the feathers on the costumes at Carnival, Brazil’s famous birds, and the palm trees all across the beaches in Brazil.
-
One of the predominant animals in Brazil is the jaguar, and this icon represents print on their exterior.
Textile Development
When choosing the colors and icons, all I was thinking was “Go big or go home”. I wanted these prints to be super vibrant, lively, and dynamic, just like the pictures of Carnival I saw. Before this project, I’ve never done anything like this or had much experience with Adobe. So when it was time to transform these icons and colors into prints, I experimented and played with all the features that were available to me. With this time spent experimenting, I think it really helped me achieve a layered look to these prints, and that was important to me because I did not want them to just be one note, I wanted there to be depth and excitement.
Textile Development
After the textiles were finished, it was time to choose the athletic brand to design the athletic pieces for. I chose Adidas because after keeping up with the brand for a while, I feel like they are not afraid to use loud and funky prints and I could visualize the textiles I created, possibly being something they would’ve sold at some point. I designed a sports bra, tank top, sweatshirt, biker shorts, joggers, and a headband. To create these garments, I used a croquis and the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. For each of these six garments, I had to create four iterations of it, incorporating the different textiles I made. One of my favorite pieces that I put together was the sports bra because I personally would just love to wear them.
The Final Package
After designing the garments, I had to present them in a line sheet that included a picture of the piece, name of the product, materials used, sizes, and SKU, just like a real line sheet would have. Next part was to come up with a name for this collection as well as creating a logo. I decided to call this collection “Flavor” because it is spicy, vibrant, and colorful, and it just has that something extra, some flavor if you will. The logo is a woman in a dress dancing, and I thought this was perfect because the image is dynamic, there is movement, and it is just a good time and I think this encapsulates this collection and Brazil appropriately.
