REFLECTION

This project has overall, been a joy to complete. I began working on the designs themselves as a quick doodle outside of university at the end of last year and I’m glad I decided to take them further, trying several different mediums along the way. Giving myself the opportunity and space to use different mediums is the best decision I’ve made for an assignment because throughout this degree I have missed getting to work with my hands and make something that is tactile and tangible.

The outcome I wanted from this project was to design shirts that reflected a positive message, using minimal materials and to be put towards a good cause. I feel like I am on my way to achieving this, but I didn’t quite fulfill the vision I had before submission. Below I will go into the specifics of what worked and what didn’t in each asset I created for this project.

Illustrations

Once I printed the designs onto the shirts, I had the realisation that perhaps not all the designs I created worked best in a wearable format. Out of the three I printed, I think ‘Validate Your Feelings’ and ‘I am Enough and I Have Enough Time’ work the best due to their closed-off composition. As documented earlier, I already cut two other designs (for time constraints) but also because I just didn’t see them on a t-shirt but instead on a print. From here, I would love to experiment with the designs I already have burned onto the screens and play with where I can print them and how I can continue to do so in the most sustainable way.

Shirts

I loved that I was able to source second-hand shirts as this was a really important part of my plan for ensuring sustainable practices across my work, however in the future, I would be more selective about the shirts I purchase. Because I wasn’t sure how successful my search for shirts would be, I just bought a whole bunch of shirts for the sake of having them. But if this were to be an actual viable business, I wouldn’t want to give my customers a sub-par product.

AR

Ideally, this is the step I would have taken at the very end. By doing so, I could have individually tested all the shirts and their variants in colours and how the AR components would have interacted with them, and in turn, the AR would have been completley succesful. As mentioned, I’m happy with the simple coloured designs I created for AR, but I would love to introduce some animated elements and this is a project I plan to continue to work on and perfect in my own time. Having AR on clothing is not something I’ve seen and I would love to develop something very unique and cool to offer to potential future customers.

Design & Branding

This is the element I am completely happy with. I think the colours work well, along with the logo and I think both are quite timeless. I think the design reflects the shirts and also HB Pencil as the brand. While I would have liked to of played around with animated and illustrated elements more in the videography and photography, I think altogether, they’re cohesive and complement one another.

PHOTOS

I was really excited for this portion of the project because it’s something I don’t do often, but enjoy doing. However, I ended up only having a 45-minute window with my friends to shoot all content, so I had to squeeze in what I could. I think the main downfall, was not being able to go to a location that suited what I had planned and so we just ended up in my friend's backyard. There also wasn’t time for styling in terms of outfits and hair/makeup as I recruited 2 of the 3 people last minute since others dropped out. I think I did alright with the footage and photos I did take and I think I edited them well with the time I had, but I know I can always try again another time since I have all the products.

Positivi-Tees is a project I will continue to work on and develop in my own time. I always had the idea of selling it under the HB Pencil brand so I will work hard to experiment how I can incorporate all the work I completed this year into this meaningful project. I said in my second assignment of the first semester that I wanted to create these shirts in response to the fast-fashion industry and developing a brand that meant the messages it was outputting and that will remain my number one goal going forward.