SDC global design competition 2009

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Colourful designs - but are they sustainable?

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The SDC is once again calling undergraduate talent in fashion and textile design around the world to enter for the SDC Colour Design Award 2009. With regional heats to be held in Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, South Africa, UK and USA, this global competition will see each country finalist taking part in the grand final judging. A final shortlist of three students will then be invited to Goa, India for the announcement of the global winner on 26 June 2009.

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The competition brief calls for the creative, imaginative and original use of colour in either fashion or textiles. A new aspect for this year’s competition is the requirement to incorporate sustainable thinking into the designs. The issue of sustainability, while not new, still requires investigation and development particularly in regards to the textile industry, and so it is hoped that by incorporating this element into the design competition, participants will be able to contribute both to their own learning and to the wider global debate taking place.

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Although sustainability is a new aspect for this year's competition, it is clear it is something that students are already considering; in fact, a 2008 competition finalist Casey Bianco from Virginia Commonwealth University, USA (you can see Casey and her designs pictured in this post) had this to say on the matter:

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"In order to make the fabrics in my designs eco-friendly, I use nano-technology to print on cotton fabrics. With sustainability, conservation of water is extremely important. In printing and dyeing textiles, water is essential, and lots of it. I find this nano-printing technique extremely valuable because it does not require water for rinsing. It is a pigment-based process that works on a nano-partical level. These colorants, developed by Yuhan-Kimberly, do not require the fabrics to have any special coating or treatment to prepare them for printing. It uses a dry heat curing process. Because it works on the nano level, it produces a very thin coating of colour on the surface of the fabric, which does not dramatically change the hand of the fabric; the fabric stays soft. As current research has discovered, this process has best results with cotton and cotton rich blend fabrics."

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Entries for the 2009 competition are already being considered for the heat in the USA, with the finalist being the winner of the product design category in the AATCC’s design competition. Entries are now being prepared for submission in all SDC regionals and affiliates worldwide. Details of the various regional judging events include:
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Pakistan: 14 March in Lahore and Karachi
India: 28 March in Mumbai
South Africa: 20 March in Durban
Australia: 7 April in Melbourne
Hong Kong: 24 April in Kowloon
China: by 30 April in Beijing
Bangladesh: tbc
Sri Lanka: tbc
UK Midlands Region: 4 March in Loughborough

UK London Region: 10 March in London
UK Northern Ireland Region: 7 March in Belfast
UK North of England Region: 12 March in Bradford
UK Scottish Region: tbc, in Edinburgh
UK West of England and South Wales Region: tbc, in Tiverton

UK final: 24 April in Bradford

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The global winner will receive the SDC Colour Design Award, with a cash prize of £1000, plus a trophy and a prize for the winning college. For more details, and to download all the relevant documents, visit: www.sdc.org.uk/members/competitions.htm

*Deadline for submission of entry forms - end of February 2009*

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by CMcN

Playlist

The final 'Top 10' spectrum of songs that was played today amongst lots of colour chatter was as follows:

1. red - 99 red balloons, by Nena
2. orange - Frozen orange juice, by Peter Starstedt
3. yellow - Yellow Submarine, by The Beatles
4. green - Green Door, by Shakin' Stevens
5. blue - Mr Blue Sky, by ELO
6. purple - Start wearing purple, by Gogol Bordello
7. black - Supermassive black hole, by Muse
8. white - White wedding, by Billy Idol
9. brown - Brown-eyed girl, by Van Morrison
10. gold - Good as gold (stupid as mud), by Beautiful South

If you missed the show, you can catch the repeat at 9am tomorrow or 12 noon on Sat 17 Jan at: www.bcbradio.co.uk

by AnikE

Top 10 songs featuring a colour

The first entry for the year is appropriately my first entry for the colour blog. The SDC and the Colour Experience will be talking to our local radio station Bradford Community Broadcasting (BCB) tomorrow at 12 noon to promote The Colour Experience Project.

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As part of the show, we’ve been asked to give our top 10 favourite tracks, so of course we couldn’t miss this opportunity to pick songs with colour in the title. This has actually caused as much enthusiasm in the office as the broadcast itself, with much debate as to what should be included in the playlist. So much so that the SDC staff were willing to share their personal favourites, a selection of which are included below:

Anonymous 1:

1. Purple Rain – Prince
2. Certain Shade of Green – Incubus
3. Paint It Black – Rolling Stones

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Anonymous 2:

1. 99 Red Balloons – Nena
2. Blue Monday – New Order
3. Ruby Through The Looking-Glass – Tori Amos

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Anonymous 3:

1. Profondo Rosso [remix] - Goblin
2. In The Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson
3. Evergreen - Mostly Autumn

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Anonymous 4

1. Into the White - The Pixies
2. Green Gloves - Tha National
3. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt 1 - The Flaming Lips

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Anonymous 5 (NB all covers)

1. Fields of Gold - Maxi Priest
   
2. Over The Rainbow - Eva Cassidy
   
3. The Rose - Westlife

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Anonymous 6

1. Mr Blue Sky - ELO
   
2. Back in Black - AC/DC
   
3. Lilly the Pink - Scaffold

Once started, this game is additive! Why not add your selection in the comment box and the final BCB playlist will be posted tomorrow…

by AnikE

Colour: Design & Creativity - latest issue

Issue 3 of the SDC journal Colour: Design & Creativity - published online today! - contains a fascinating range of articles on colour from leading artists and scientists working in this important field.

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This issue has been published in association with CREATE (Colour Research for European Advanced Technology Employment), a group of colour professionals who have come together to promote and exchange research and knowledge through a series of conferences and training courses. Their long-term objective is to develop with artists, designers, technologists and scientists a cross-disciplinary approach to improving colour and print.

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Freely available to all, this issue includes articles by:

-Majed Chambah (France) looking at ways of restoring movie prints by digital means

-Reiner Eschbach (USA) highlighting areas of colour reproduction that can and cannot be undertaken scientifically

-Alessandro Rizzi (Italy) reporting on a study into the properties and the limits of colour matching functions when applied in a visual context
-John McCann (USA) bridging the art and science of colour, analysing the work of early photographers and the characteristics of some of the Old Master paintings

-Carinna Parraman (UK) showing how artists and scientists have investigated the optical properties of the juxtaposition of colour.

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Other contributions are by Maria Musso (Argentina) who looks at the relationship between colour and environmental protection in textiles, Victoria Watson (UK) who reveals the concepts involved in the creation of her ‘air grid’ installations (pictured above), and Simten Gundes and co-authors (Turkey) who present a historical review of the development of Turkish tile art.

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Following on from the acclaim received for both issue 1 and issue 2, it is hope the latest installment of this exclusive journal from the SDC will be as well received. Why not have a read of the journal articles yourself and then let us know what you think: www.colour-journal.org
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by CMcN

Wonderland Project - Exhibition in Belfast

The Wonderland Exhibition opened yesterday in Belfast and runs until the 6 Nov 2008 at the Ormeau Baths Gallery. We've covered the Wonderland Project a lot recently, with a full feature in the latest issue of the SDC members' magazine The Colourist. Wonderland is a visual art exhibition, events and education programme which came about by a joint belief that drastic new thinking is required to address today's environmental issues. It is the result of the three-year collaboration between INTERFACE at the University of Ulster, scientist Prof. Tony Ryan and designer Helen Storey.
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The exhibition in Belfast will focus on how the fabrics were made and the thinking behind them (read more here). Not only will visitors get a chance to see the ‘disappearing dresses’ up-close, there is also plenty opportunity to discover the driving force behind the team’s vision of a sustainable world. There are numerous workshops and masterclasses being run by the experts at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, a full listing of which is available in the related-article here and on the gallery website.
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by CMcN

New galleries & student profiles

Now the summer is (almost) over, we thought it was about time to show off some colourful designs of the students we have met over the last few months. The galleries on the SDC sites will also get updated very soon!

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SDC Colour & Textiles Award at GFW

It was an inspiration to once again be amongst all the young designers at Graduate Fashion Week this year. Here are some images of two of the graduates we met whose designs were enter for the SDC Colour & Textiles Award 2008. To find out more, read their full profiles on ColourClick.

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Winner: Laura Fauvel : : Profile

Graduated: 2008

Degree: BA (Hons) Fashion (Womenswear/Textiles)

Ravensbourne (London)

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Above: Laura's designs

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Shortlisted: Louise Simmonds : : Profile

Graduated: 2008

Degree: BA (Hons) Fashion Design

Northbrook College (Sussex)

Above: Louise's designs

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SDC Supports Texprint First View
A whole host of deserving young designers received recognition as recipients of Texprint First View prizes in July. All the six prize winners are featured on ColourClick, with a full profile available of the Colour Prize winner.
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COLOUR PRIZE: Eleanor Feddon : : Profile
Degree: BA Multi-Media Design
Loughborough University

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INTERIOR FASHION: Victoria Shepherd

Degree: BA Multi-Media Textile Design

Loughborough University

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PRINT: Hannah Jeffries

Degree: BA Textile Design

Loughborough University

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WEAVE: Elizabeth Jones

Degrees: MA Woven Textile Design, RCA

BA (Hons) Textile Design

Surrey Institute of Art & Design

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BREAKING NEW GROUND: Helen Stark

Degree: BA Textile Design

University College Falmouth

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KNIT: Ella Jade

Degrees: MA Textiles, RCA

BA (Hons) Fashion & Textile Design

Liverpool John Moores University

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by CMcN

Colour in China

Colour technology has been the focus of the SDC-sponsored conference that has been taking place in Shanghai over the past few days - specifically with the focus on sustainability and best practice in the textile supply chain. (Read more about this event on the president's blog.)
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And colour with an eco-edge also features in Beijing at the moment - where visitors to the Olympics this summer can look forward to more than just history's largest sporting event. They'll also be able to glimpse the world's largest colour LED display combined with China's first photovoltaic system to be integrated into a glass curtain wall.


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This groundbreaking project applies sustainable and digital media technology to the curtain wall of a building complex near the site of the 2008 Olympics. The GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall transforms the building enveloping it into a self-sufficient organic system, harvesting solar energy by day and using it to illuminate the screen after dark, mirroring a day’s climatic cycle. This screen will keep the resolution low, catering to arty abstract visuals, while keeping the carbon footprint low too. Some other of the world's biggest new green architectural projects are also in Beijing, including the award-winning Water Cube - it's big, it's blue (and green) and it's highly sustainably. Read more


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SDC link to LED article here
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by CMcN