Complexity through combination: an account of knitwear design

Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, 2014

In the field of design, the challenge in the ideation process is determining how to balance between constraining a task and at the same time creating new paths for expression. The focus of this article is on students' idea generation process during the course of their textile design learning in a higher education programme. In the course, students completed an open-ended design assignment. The assignment encouraged reflective insights about individual and shared practices and emphasized material experimentation during the ideation process. The data were drawn from interviews, essays, diaries and observations of real-time processes. This article reports students' ways of interpreting sources of inspiration, related constraining processes and students' reflections.

International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, 2020

The purpose of this study was to analyse the early phase of apparel design process and how professional designers develop their kernel idea by sketching and how visual sources stimulate their ideation. Three designers were asked to design a piece of outerwear while thinking aloud in an experimental design session. The data (i.e. verbal and video protocols as well as material written and drawn by the participants) was analysed with qualitative content analysis and by constructing idea development diagrams. The results indicated variations in the (1) use of photographs as sources of inspiration, (2) emphasis on simplification and association in interpretation and adaptation of these sources, and (3) designers' primary generators. Our findings on how expert designers utilise visual material for example to adapt visual details into their ideas or to envision a suitable fabric could be used to give illustrative examples for students of apparel design.

FrancoAngeli, 2019

Over the last few years the international design research network has become an important reality, which has facilitated the sharing of ideas and opinions, improved understanding of the subject and increased awareness of the potential of design in various socio-geographical contexts. The current expansion of the educational network allows teachers, students, researchers and professionals to meet, both online and in person. It would seem therefore that the time is now right to propose a new series of books on design, contributing the construction of the international design community, helping authors bring their work onto the world scene. The Design International series is thus born as a cultural setting for the sharing of ideas and experiences from the different fields of design, a place in which you can discover the wealth and variety of design research, where different hypotheses and different answers present themselves, in an attempt to draw up a map of Italian design, though in a continuous comparison with the world scene. Different areas of design will be investigated, such as for example: fashion, interior design, graphic design, communication design, product and industrial design, service and social innovation design, interaction design and emotional design. Books published in this series are selected by the Scientific Board and submitted to two referees for peer-review.

CADE 97, 1997

Sources of inspiration, such as garments, works of art or natural objects, are used throughout the knitwear design process to establish the context for a new season, to provide a basis for concrete design and to set colour schemes. Through a combination of observational studies, experimental techniques and computer modelling, the 'Mechanisms of Inspiration in Novel Design'

If for traditional fashion design as clothes making or as basics for the creation of fashion products the concept of good design is now acquired, knitwear is now facing its decisive change from hobby into project; the enhancement of craft (Micelli S. 2011) does not refer to any nostalgia for the past times, and even better in Italy it is a very fertile area to be innovated and experimented. The ability to innovate and promote new points of view in design processes does not arise only from a thorough understanding of specific areas, but also from a lifestyle open to diversity, that society has to accept and recognize (Micelli S . 2011). Today, the ability of designers to explore contexts in an original way, proposing ideas and results that are not just technical solutions of established problems, sees in creativity and in fashion design education the ability to solve problems through materials and their constant innovation for clothes, to experiment or to look at old problems in a different way with the aim of going beyond the usual “fashion” idea. This paper is written at the end of an educational experience in the Knit Design Lab at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano, where Missoni, the most important Italian knitwear brand, together with Woolmark, the most influencing certification body at an international level for the promotion and enhancement of Merino wool, in collaboration with Knitlab, a digital platform for the learning of the traditional knitting techniques active in the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano, realized a project in which the knitting techniques have been the first tool for the creation, design and prototyping of a clothes collection for the spring-summer 2017, coherent with the brand identity of Missoni and with at least the 70% of merino wool as a condition dictated by Woolmark. The aim of the paper is to highlight the moments of convergence and differentiation regarding the methodologies and the design process into the different areas of design. In this way today we can talk about knitwear design: a specific field of Made in Italy completely changing: to become project, knitwear must produce garments and collections enhancing traditional techniques while expressing the spirit of time and in which the manual technique becomes a research tool and method to deal with all the aspects in their influence on the industrial production chain.

Craft Research, 2014

Designer-makers have integrated a wide range of digital media and tools into their practices, many taking ownership of a specific technology or application and learning how to use it for themselves, often drawing on their experiential knowledge of established practices to do so. To date, there has been little discussion on how digital knitting practice has evolved within this context, possibly due to the complexity of the software, limited access to industrial machinery and the fact that it seems divorced from the idea of 'craft'. Despite the machine manufacturers' efforts to make knitting technology and software more user-friendly, the digital interface remains a significant barrier to knitwear designer-makers, generally only accessed via experienced technicians. This article focuses on how this issue is being explored through practice-led research being undertaken by Jane Taylor at Nottingham Trent University. The investigation is a response to a skills gap between knitwear designers and the latest flatbed knitting technology and is grounded within the researcher's experience as both a knitwear designer and technologist. Through her practice, Taylor explores how the Shima Seiki SDS1 CAD system can be used as a design tool, in order to use the SWG (3D Knit) machines more creatively. Specialist training has built on the researcher's tacit understanding of hand/machine knitting and pattern cutting, her established craft practice, where constant iterations can be made during the textile and shape creation stage. By reprogramming the hand, this research proposes a craft-based methodology that reverses the traditional relationship between making and technology, placing crafting at the centre of creative design practice where it can be applied to support and further the potential of advanced technology.

… : Proceedings of the 5th Design Thinking …, 2001

Fashion is a collective cultural phenomenon generated by the individual but linked to actions of a very large number of garment designers aiming to create distinctive but similar clothes. This paper outlines the mental processes, behavioural strategies and working patterns through which fashion and knitwear designers actively construct the contexts -their visual environments as well as memories of individual garments and mental representations of the spaces of acceptable garments -in which they design. Designers form each other's contexts through the garments they create, which are seen at shows, in magazines, in shops, and on the streetscommunicating through impersonal cultural channels. The consumers play a relatively minor role in selecting from a very restricted choice. As they share a vocabulary of design elements, garment designs are, to varying degrees, collective and cultural as well as individual. We argue that creativity in garment design resides in finding innovative understandings of the spaces of acceptable garments and perceptual evaluations of acceptability as much as in idea generation. ashion is an emergent cultural phenomenon -a powerful autonomous force -yet fashion comprises and emerges from individually designed artefacts, designed by individual designers. What is the relationship between fashion as a part of culture and the designing activities of the individual designers who collectively create it? This paper outlines an answer to this question, in terms of the relationships between present and future fashion and the contexts that inform designers' actions, and how designers actively create and exploit these contexts. It indicates the relationships between designers' design generation actions to their mental representations of designs, to how they interact with other individuals and with designs and other carriers of fashion information, to fashion as a collective, impersonal aspect of culture. This analysis is based on an extensive ethnographic study of the knitwear design process by the first author, in which she visited 25 F

In the contemporary design scenarios knitting is a really fertile project area. Even if most of the people think about it as an old-fashioned hobby, reserved to old grannies making ugly jumpers, it’s clear that today knitting is a very interesting challenge from a designer point of view. Knit design involves many aspects and allows intervention and experimentation in every part of the production chain. It’s a complex project that matches an ancient know-how with design experimentation and technological innovation. Through the analysis of a case history that involves artists, young designers, virtual communities and fashion brands this paper aims to understand, and return, how the knitting boundaries are expanding, changing a hobby into project, and what tools and methodologies a designer can use to set himself in the contemporary scenarios of production and consumption. All this by valuing the characteristics of an Italian industry which finds in craftsmanship its origin and its strength.

2015

In design-making process, Source of inspiration has a vital role, both in defining the characteristics of a new design and in informing the creation of a distinct design. This study was based on the idea to promote creative and original textile designs by using a source of inspiration. The purpose of the study was to create some original and innovative designs for textiles by using natural paintings of William Morris as an inspiration and incorporating modern elements in the design. Several designs were made and three were selected that were innovative and suitable for textile designing. This study marks the significance of a source of inspiration in textile designing.

The International Journal of Design Education, 2018

If the concept of good design is necessary for traditional fashion design as clothes making, knitwear is now facing a decisive change from hobby to project. Craftsmanship in Italy is a key ingredient for businesses success when it is able to project itself into a new economic and cultural dimension. In this way, we can talk about knitwear design as a specific field of "Made in Italy" that is completely changing: to become a project, knitwear must produce garments enhancing traditional techniques while expressing the spirit of time. Today knitwear design teaching is an evolving and largely unexplored field; it concerns a complex process, combining ancient techniques of traditional knowledge with experimentation and technological innovation. Today, the ability to explore contexts in an original way allows for the proposal of ideas and results that are not only technical solutions of established problems, but also creatively solve problems, invent new ones, or look at old problems in a different way. This paper outlines the challenges designers are facing while passing knowledge on to other young designers still in the Academy. They not only teach a manual technique, but also a method that involves multiple aspects that clearly affect the production chain.