Calling all Designers
By Jamie Grace-Duff
26 Jul 2007
What kind of designer are you?
Fashion designer seems to bring to mind a specific image, I call myself a clothing designer. I try to make things for real people, things they had in their heads, they just couldn't make them.
What did you want to do for a living when you were a kid?
I think I wanted to be an art teacher, a ballerina or an archaeologist (specifically dinosaurs or Egyptian artifacts).
What is it about your design work that makes your photography better? And vice versa? Where do you see parallels between the two?
While learning about design I learned about line, shape, form, rhythm, texture - all the elements of design and I think these have helped really change the pictures that I take. Some of my photography is all about focus and moving the eye across an image by using the tiniest details. I try to use this same eye when creating clothing. No detail is too small or unimportant.
What do you find most challenging about your work?
The hardest thing is trying to tease out an image from someone else's brain and to make it real for them. You have to know the questions to ask and to read body language to know if the person you are working with is happy or displeased.
Do you have design heroes?
Jean Paul Gaultier is one of my ultimate design heroes. He creates a theme and then runs with it, evolving it as he goes from piece to piece within a collection. And his stage presentations are magnificent. Despite the pageantry of his fashion shows, there are really wearable pieces of clothing.
Photography heroes?
As I have no formal training in photography, I do not know a lot of photographers or their work. It would probably expand my mind to see more. Georgia O'Keeffe has had the biggest influence on my macro photography though.
Name some unexpected sources of inspiration you've had.
One day I saw a postcard floating around on the street as I walked to the bus and when I came back, it was still there. On it was some text about the seven deadly sins. And so I started thinking about the seven deadly sins and how I could represent the ideas of them in clothing. And I made a whole dance presentation because a postcard floated across my path.
Do you have any regular habits/exercises that make you a better designer? Photographer?
Where ever I am, I try to see things with a designer's eyes - I don't like this painting/building/poster - why? And I challenge myself to really look at the design and understand what works and what doesn't and try to point out the element that is bothering me. I also keep my eyes out for clothing with interesting style lines or even shapes created by my surroundings. Anything can be clothing if you can translate the geometry.
To be a better photographer I keep trying to learn more about my camera. At first, I was shy about taking it out in public. Since then I have been trying to bring it with me every where and forcing myself to take the pictures that I see because what is there to be embarrassed about? So I keep trying to take pictures and to think of things in frames and trying to do more with the camera I have.
