Adobe Session 2 – New Shapes and Reflections

For our second Adobe session, we looked into using the Adobe Illustrator software, moving away from InDesign from last week. Earlier in the week, I had watched Sing’s video that was put up on Moodle and was able to gain a basic understanding of how to create a fashion CAD drawing, which I thought looked so interesting and I am curious to see how we will use it this coming business week.

However, for this session we focused on drawing some basic shapes on the software and using different tools to manipulate these shapes, like merge and divide. We also got taught how to create a pie graph which I thought could be a very useful tool within the business pathway, in terms of displaying recorded data and figures.

Below you can see the shapes and line tools I played around with. I feel like I got some solid introductory knowledge into the Illustrator software and look forward to further learning how to use it in the coming weeks.

After this, we were split into breakout groups to reflect on our look books that we were tasked to create earlier in the week. I didn’t find the group I was in particularly stimulating due to lack of involvement by most of the members, but found the main session where everyone presented to be extremely enlightening, as well as the feedback I received from my peers and the tutor.

My look book (that you can view in the post “Adobe Session 1” was definitely presented quite incomplete, due to the fact that I had only had my second media session the previous morning and had not had the time to update my look book with the images from that lesson. Viewing the works of my peers, I saw how commercialised some of their look books were, and I really liked the way many of them were presented. I was able to learn valuable tips like making sure my shoes are the central focus and through this, was able to come up with a plan for how I’m going to tackle my look book.

I plan to redo the document and include elements of my artist research within it to link my shoes and their inspiration. I also received feedback that my cover page wasn’t powerful enough so I plan to have a more striking and bold image of my shoes on the first page to extend to an audience the focus of my look book. I will also make sure to use my styling photos and make sure I have clear images of my product being promoted. Sing really liked the playfulness of the coloured lines on the last page, so I do plan on keeping that and incorporating it in somehow. However, I am also considering using one of my Pantone colour stories to guide the colour palette of the look book so it appears more consistent and not all over the place with random childlike colours, as it might at the moment.

I would like a more coherent look book that looks more contemporary and commercial and feel like I have a good grasp of InDesign now and the direction I want to head with this, especially after this Adobe session. I also didn’t realise this look book would be something that would be summatively assessed eventually, so I do plan on dedicating more time to its presentation and will continue to seek feedback from my Adobe tutor and media tutors about it.