Before I made up my mind to major in fashion design, I have known drawing for a long time. During the insipid school days, I got used to doodling on any blank page I could find. One artist that has impressed me a lot is Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao. He is best known for his vagarious and meaningful story books. The unique composition on each illustration and detailed-depicted background drag the audience into the story.
Besides drawing, I watched a lot of animation, TV series and movies. The moving pictures has the power to let people remember the story for a long time. From Cinderella’s animal friends refashion a ball gown for her to Tomoyo making costumes for Sakura, fashion design has already dwelled in my heart.
Because of my interest on TV series, I am more interested in costume design and constantly being inspired by a Chinese illustrator who works online. Sheis best at depicting the characters in TV series that resonated with many audience. The figures in her illustration all look very tall but without face.She hasthis amazing ability to catch the characters’ expression through their pose, costume, hair style, everything around the characters but no face. I learned to enhance a topic by creating a vibe. My work has a kind of romance that contain implicit emotions. Often times, it can be time consuming.
My experience of drawing makes me see fashion as a three-dimensional drawing. It allows me to extend my understanding of beauty from a plane to a space. I will use the materials to achieve the visual I had in mind.
My accomplishments in advanced research seminar, as well as the project I had this semester, could help me to research my interest deeper, but not wider.
Since high school, I started noticing that I could remember a lot of ‘useless’ details of things that had happened. Brain spontaneously creates association between each piece of your memory. Maybe I have too many unexpected association points, so I could reveal a whole bunch of memories tied together through a very tiny starting point. As a designer, after I find an interest and start my research, I started from the things I remembered. I would start from the books, fables, movies, songs, TV series I have watched or listened before. Because I see those source as my source, source that I have already absorbed. From the most familiar sources, I continue to extend to new sources, but again, through the association point.
The parallel of the peach blossom and the psychology beneath Peachtopia is something I would keep research in my thesis year. The flower motif represents its physical characteristic paralleled the physical space; its short life and flying petals imply the abstract time.
