Scottish Variety Awards - Artnthat Matt Russell Textiles Feature

I am so pleased to be featured in the Wishaw Press this week, featuring my nomination as "Best New Designer" at the Scottish Variety Awards 2013 with Capital Fm. Its so great to be recognised for my Textile Design work in the place where I grew up. 

The article was also promoted on the Daily Record website, where you can read the full article here.

Scottish Fashion Awards 2013 - Graduate of the Year 2013 Nominee

Walking the Red Capet.

I feel so honoured to be nominated for a Scottish Fashion Award 2013 as Fashion and Textiles Graduate of the Year selected by the worlds leading fashion houses, the most renowned and respected fashion publications and the leading figures in the fashion and textiles industry.

The 8th Annual Scottish Fashion awards took place at the home of Scotland in London, Dover House. Hosted by TV personality, host of MTV & Im a Celeb, Laura Whitmore.

The evening progressed to London's most central venue - 8 Northumberland where we enjoyed a glorious Scottish Banquet & Champagne and Whisky Reception before a glamorous after party at Whisky Mist, Mayfair.

Meeting the amazing Stella Tennant and Kim Young Seong.

I had the pleasure of chatting to the inspiring Stella Tennant and Kim Young Seong (Chanel) who accepted the award for international designer of the year in place of Creative Director Karl Lagerfeld - they were so appreciative of the Scottish textiles industry and a real inspiration to talk to.

Feature of my collection as "On Trend" for the coming season in the Official Magazine. 

It was such a fantastic event celebrating the vast wealth of Scottish talent and position that we hold within the fashion and textiles industry, I am so honoured to be recognised for my contribution and to be part of such a prestigious event in the fashion capital. 

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Pure London & Zandra Rhodes Catwalk Show.

I had a fantastic few days at Pure London 34 where I was able to explore the UKs largest and most influential buying event, with over 1000+ brands.
I attended the show as an shadow buyer and scout for a clothes and accessories company which gave me such a useful insight into the buying process, I was also lucky enough to attend WGSN trend seminars as well as the Catwalk show of British Fashion Icon, Zandra Rhodes.

I assisted Rhodes at Paris and London Fashion Week and it was fantastic to meet her again and hear the inspiration behind the designs of her latest collection presented on the catwalk live at Pure.

Pure London 34

Zandra Rhodes discussing the catwalk show

Zandra Rhodes Catwalk show - Pure London 2014

My Pass and gift bag from the Trade Show 

Artnthat - Matt Russell's Graduate Collection - 6ft Printed Fringing

As a development from my screen printed fringed lampshade seen here I decided to push my limits and work with a much longer length of fringing for the use in the fashion and interiors market.

I have had such a fantastic response and a real sense of awe and appreciation at the effort and lengths I tackled in printing on-top of the finging.

Printed Fringing                    - Matt Russell 
Photography                            - Chris Henderson 
Make-Up Artistry                   - Chloe Marie Watt
Model                                         - Aroosha Nekonam

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Scottish Fashion Awards 2013 Nomination - Matt Russell Scottish Fashion Graduate of the Year Nominee.

I am so honoured to announce that I have been nominated for a Scottish Fashion Award, as Scottish Fashion Graduate of the year 2013. You can check out my full bio and all the nominees here.

The event, which will be hosted by style icon Laura Whitmore (MTV) on 9th October in London, recognises the most influential Scottish players in fashion, working in Scotland and around the world.

 It also provides an unrivalled platform for new and emerging talent hailing from Scotland and is attended by influential industry leaders, designers, models, retailers and celebrities and celebrates the best of what Scotland has to offer in fashion, design and textiles. A host of those such as Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders, Holly Fulton and Louise Gray who are establishing our fashion future - I cannot believe I will be walking amongst my Idols in the Fashion Industry.

Nominations were selected from leading figures in fashion. The finalists will be judged by an exclusive panel made up of professionals from the world's leading fashion houses, the most renowned and respected fashion publications and leading figures in style with winners announced at the glittering awards ceremony at the plush Dover House. Moving to London for the first time the invitation only awards ceremony will be made up of a nominee catwalk show and award presentation hosted by TV personality Laura Whitmore followed by a glamorous after party at a secret location.

It is such a privilege to be recognised within the Fashion industry and to be listed alongside my idols and be mentioned on Vogue, Elle and Drapers. 

It really has made launching my graduate collection on Friday the 14th June so much more exciting! 

My graduate collection will be launched on Friday the 14^th June at Grays School of Art  before being taken to New Designers Exhibition in London.

My online shop Artnthat studios will go live from 7pm on the 14^th June but I will keep you posted.

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Exciting things are brewing...

As you may have guessed from my recent lack of blog posts, things are becoming pretty hectic with my graduate fashion and interiors collection being launched in just over 1 month - Don't worry all shall be revealed very soon!

My fashion and interiors collection is to be launched and showcased at the Grays School of Art Degree Show in Aberdeen from the 15th - 21st of June and in the following week at New Designers in London from the 26th - 28th June .

As you can imagine I'm keeping everything TOP SECRET till the launch but until then I will allow you a " Artnthat blog exclusive" sneak preview of one of my graduate collection prints & fashion designs.

In the meantime you can keep up-to-date with my daily goings on in the studio via twitter @artnthat  or you can 'like' me on Facebook here.

"Perspective" My interim exhibition - A snapshot of my graduate collection so far...

This snapshot of my work is an insight into my research and development of the topic of 'Place'.

In depth, I have developed my own interpretations of landscape, mapping and my own recordings of travel. With Aborigine Songlines, Gilbert & George and Keith Haring as my inspiration, I have now begun to construct my own abstract vision of mapping out using the constraints of scale and the interaction within the contemporary interiors market.

You can read about my design process and the printing of my fringing in detail via my previous blog post.

The fringing worked extremely well as my first sample and I look forward to developing it further for my final degree show collection.
With the fantastic response that It received during the exhibition I'm looking to create more samples and branch into the fashion market with the fringing taking it in exciting innovative new directions.

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"Perspective" a snapshot of my sampling for my honours year collection.

“Place is not a physical location nor is it a state of mind, rather it is the engagement of the conscious body within a specific location”

For my honours year collection I have chosen the topic of place to be the inspiration for my design process as I have discovered location can determine your start, present and future in life, and it plays a vital part in our upbringing, as well as the places we inhabit and visit throughout our lives

Place is such a broad concept and it can be related to a wide range of interests, varying from the influence of our location geographically to the value of inner or imaginary locations within ourselves. What inspires me most in my studio work is the landscape, inhabitants and places which have left an impact upon myself and within the international culture and contemporary world.

At the end of January I had the final hand-in of my dissertation and began to work full time within the studio focusing on my honours collection.

I have since been able to focus on the deconstruction at my own perception of place, which has led to my these designs and samples which were exhibited for the interim exhibition and external examiner visit.

The two drawings below are a snapshot of some of the maps and observations of place which I have created, heavily inspired by aborigine songlines (rock & wood carvings portraying abstract maps) I wanted to take mapping back to its foundations as it had been more and more heavily developed throughout time and with the development of technology.

My abstract map of Aberdeen and the journeys I have undertaken while living there.

My angular abstract map drawing.

Over my four years at Art school I have focused within knit & weave however I feel my real talent lies within print, especially screen printing. Even although screen printing is a lengthy and technical process, where I have to coat and expose my screens within the darkroom, spot my design, mix my own inks and dyes, and the often messy and unpredictable act of printing, I find it much more satisfying than digital print which doesn't allow for discovery or innovation in its creation.

My angular abstract map drawing.

A choice of fabric for my final year is something so important as it determines on so many levels to how my collection will look, be developed, and be used within the interiors or fashion market. During a research and fabric sourcing trip to London in December I came across the most amazing fringing in a haberdashery store, I was astonished at the available lengths, raging from about 30cm to a meter in length. It reminded me of the work by Korean fine artist Hong Sungchul who had digitally printed onto cord to create these alternate canvases.

My angular abstract map drawing.

Hong Sungchul - String Mirrors

I decided the fringing I had sourced would be the perfect output for my designs to be produced and the ways in which I could further develop them were endless. I bought three different lengths of the fringing to try out various scales and to test how the act of screen printing would impact them - or wether the design would be visible or lost within the delicate threads. I produced three alternate scales of screens to match the fringing and began to sample.

My angular abstract map drawing.

How did I screen print onto thousands of threads without them moving or being twisted and completely straight?

My angular abstract map drawing.

I have never before undergone such a technical and challenging process - one which is now top secret after weeks of working with various technicians and lots of trial and error.

My angular abstract map drawing.

My first screen with the shortest fringing (30cm)

I mixed all my own dyes for the project ensuring the print would come though effectively.

 

A close up of the fringing being printed.

My print design which was screen printed onto the 1 meter fringing.

Another close up of the printed fringing.

After much research and as my project was focused around the topic "sense of place" I wanted my designs to be suitable for the interiors market. With an interest into the contemporary boutique hotel industry - I was always impressed by their innovative approach to interiors and I wanted my outcome to be of an appropriate style to interact with the environment that would surround it.

I decided that for my interim exhibition I would design a three tier lampshade to which my fringing would be draped and layered upon, allowing the internal lighting and layers of the print design to blend.

Compared to other projects where I focused on repeat pattern or symmetrical designs I have been eager to push my own boundaries in my final year and focus on being more selective and think about the placement of my designs. This led to my design and development for the barrels of the lampshade. I wanted to continue the print design however instead of screen printing I decided to use flock which was digitally cut using a plotter cutter then heat bonded onto the lampshade.

For my interim exhibition, I wanted the environment which my work would be displayed to be built in keeping with my work, this led to the development of a support beam and lighting system to be fitted above the space. I decided to create mock ups of how my space could be set up (seen below) and with the help of a technician I began to build my exhibition.

"Perspective" Exhibition showcasing my completed lampshade and printed fringing to follow...

 

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Glenshee - A snapshot of wintery Scotland

During the Christmas break I took a trip to explore the Scottish landscape as part of my research for my graduate collection which focuses on the topic of "Sense of Place".

I began in the Alford countryside, Aboyne and moved through into the Cairngorms National Park, Braemar.

I took these photographs at Glenshee Ski Resort, Scotland's largest ski resort, although not much snow has reached the slopes...yet.

I feel these photographs portray an harsh and honest vision of the Scottish landscape and the stormy climate which embraces it for the majority of the year.

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Photogram Life Drawing Designs - ARTnTHAT

Photogram of Leaves and Lightbulbs

A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The usual result is a negative shadow image that shows variations in tone that depends upon the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey. 

Photogram of Scissors

Essentially anything can be placed onto the photographic paper to create a different effect.
I decided to combine my life drawings with semi transparent objects such as light bulbs, acetate, leaves, jewellery and feathers - it is then up to me to how many seconds of Light I give the paper with the object on top which gives the end result a different effect.

My life drawings were then converted to acetate and then layered onto the photographic paper along with some leaves, lightbulbs and text I had written.

 

The layering of all these transparent objects and drawings created a real effect of depth which could be used in not only as nice images but I plan on using it as repeat image for digitally printed fabric....

Keep your eyes pealed for some photogram inspired fabric....

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Bradford Textiles - Matt Russell Print Designs

For our summer project this year we were given the task of designing a range of designs for our specialism - my specialism being Printing .


For this I began as I usually do, with  a piece of inspirational material and go from there. 
The Inspiration I sourced for this project was an antique 1800's book on the British army in spain, with handwritten notes from a sergeant in Aberdeen and his personal experiences in the war. I wanted to capture the age of the book as well as the texture and rough surface of the book facing which had been damaged not only by age but fire also.


I combined the delicate flowing movement of the text as well as the rough and rugged patten of the book cover along with some of the map patterns, a drawing of the Sergeant himself.

From here I created a Client board and Colour board to keep my designs in line with the market and colour scheme I wanted to target.

Client Board

Colour Board

These are some of the textiles print designs I worked with and developed from this inspirational book. Now I will look at shortlisting these to the top ten and make these paper designs into fabric samples and see which ones come out the most successfully.

Print Designs

These designs will go towards the Bradford Textiles competition once sampled and the design and development process is finalised.


Hopefully I have captured something a little unusual to the ordinary applicants by using this original and one of a kind antique book and the naturally aged book pages hand writing and maps.


The Bradford Textile Society's Prize Schemes, which have been the source of encouragement and inspiration to textile students and practising textile designers, and have helped to stimulate new developments in textile design and construction, and finishing and printing techniques.

The original sponsors, the Society itself and the Wool Record, share the distinction of having presented special prizes for design achievement since the Schemes were established in 1923.
 The Society is also grateful to individual organisations and companies, whose support and encouragement has helped the organising committee to increase the total prize money by a considerable amount over the years. 


In particular it acknowledges the generosity of the Clothworkers Foundation, which has awarded a number of prizes since 1968, the Dyers' Company, Prestigious Textiles Ltd, The Woolmark Company, the British Wool Marketing Board, the Association of Fashion & Textile Courses, Holland & Sherry Ltd and Bradford College.


To find out more about the Bradford Textiles Society CLICK HERE