Contents
Chapter 1 Designing skills 1
Chapter 2 Making skills 38
Chapter 3 Values 69
Chapter 4 Fibres and fabrics 76
Chapter 5 Finishing processes 120
Chapter 6 Components 147
Chapter 7 Product analysis 155
Chapter 8 Social, cultural, moral, health and safety 179 and environment issues
Chapter 9 Processes and manufacture 216
Chapter 10 Production planning 237
Chapter 11 ICT 252
Index 273
Introduction
The focus of Criterion one – investigating the design context – is on your design, research and analysis skills; that is the ability to sort through a wide range of written and visual information. Your relevant fi ndings will be summarised and will assist you to make key decisions on how to develop your design ideas in Criterion two. It is essential at each stage of your research to clearly communicate what you did, how you did it and why you did it, to help you write your design specifi cation at the end of this section.
For Criterion one you will be awarded a maximum of eight marks. This section of your design folder should be a total of fi ve pages and should be carried out in four hours. Project planning skills The time allocated to complete your project is 45 hours. Therefore, it is essential that you plan your project to know how long each section will take. In the fashion and textiles industry, designers use specialist product data management (PDM; see page 266), which allows them to plan all aspects of a design project. For your own work, you may use either mindmapping software or spreadsheet software, such as Microsoft® Excel® to produce a Gantt chart, or a simple fl ow chart. You can refer back to the time plan when you complete each task to remind yourself that you should spend the majority of your time working on the areas worth the most marks. Planning your time will help you to properly evaluate the overall project in stages. The design task (brief) The design brief outlines the requirements specified by the client. In the controlled assessment task, you are given an open brief(s) by the examination board that can be adapted to fit the context.
Why use a design brief?
Designers use the design brief to give them a clear understanding of their client’s requirements. The design brief allows you to focus your research skills on particular areas within the design process.
The value of design journals (paper-based sketchbooks, new media – electronic ebooks, e.g. Flickr, Vimeo)
Research can be collected in many different forms (digitally or from magazines, for example). The sketchbook is important because it means you can have all the visual and written information you have collected at your fingertips. It is a fantastic reference tool to bring your idea to life.
Analysing a design task (brief)
The key ways to analyse a brief are: ccto highlight key words, terms and phrases and make sure you understand them ccto identify clearly all the design needs required.
Methods to use to analyse your task are:
- ccmind-mapping.
- cca spider diagram
- cca list of bullet points
- cca short piece of written work.
Make sure you have a clear understanding of the task before you go any further.
What is research?
Research is searching, investigating and learning about the past, present and new information that surrounds us in society. You can accumulate this information by carrying out the following activities: ccreading a range of relevant books, visiting and viewing journals, galleries, museums and historical private collections, art, fashion or textiles exhibitions. ccfinding and gathering information that can help you to design your product ccanalysing and reporting the information ccextracting key points to enable you to start your own designs.
Excessive amounts of time should not be spent on conducting your research. You need to make sure your research is relevant and identifies the areas highlighted in your task analysis. This information needs to be accurate so you can refer to it throughout the task.