Jake Platt-Freelance Fashion Designer-(Portfolio contact)

I sent Jake a PDF of my some of my design work and this is the feedback he gave to me.  Jake was freelance at Henri Lloyd and now he is fully employed by dare 2b.

Looking through your collection is inspiring; you obviously have a flare for graphic design and print, for fashion and there are quite a lot of fashion company’s looking for in house graphic designers.

Your designs look strong as a collection because of their variety and because of your colour choices, you have obviously researched current and future trends to gain inspiration for your colour palette. I think the brightness of the pink in your women’s collection against the softer deeper tones works fantastically.

I like the way your work is laid out, clearly showing the range of prints you have created. Your line quality allows your designs to look varied, and one of the strongest aspects of this collection is how you have created delicate shapes and more bold street graphics and have combined them into one commercial collection. I also think your fashion illustrations work well because of their simplicity.

I would continue to research emerging trends and styling and print design, which will allow you to create even more exciting designs and make your portfolio even stronger. You obviously have a great understanding of print; I’d just suggest looking at existing prints on the high street and what people on the streets are wearing, to ensure your designs are always commercial and fresh.

I am delighted with Jake's feedback and will make sure i take his advise on board.

Rose Barber/Sian Evans-Print Tank (Portfolio contact)

I met Rose and Sian at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester, they came to meet the members of my class individually to look at our finished prints from the fashion brief that was set, it was good experience to get this type of feedback from a professional practitioner and I was pleasantly surprised with the feedback I received.

 Rose said that my strong points were use of color and sophistication in pattern in some of the silk prints. she also said that my elements in the designs were good and worked well together, she also said that as a collection my prints worked well and said she could see my work in places like Whistles that is higher fashion label. 

My downsides were that I hadn't made some of my samples big enough and also the cotton samples didn't work so well because the fabric wasn't thick enough and took away some of the colour because of the transparency in it. I agreed with all of the feedback I got and felt like i could take there advise into consideration next time I screen print by thinking more about the fabric i am printing onto for the best result, I will do more samples first.

I know I would like to work into some of my samples, maybe add a bit of stitch to enhance the colour in the cotton samples and back them up with another piece of fabric to make them slightly bigger and this will also give them a nicer finish.  

Karen Little (Portfolio Contact)

I arranged to show my portfolio to Karen Little who is a freelance designer for mainly interiors. I had some older designs as well as recent drawings and digital designs that are in working progress.

The first advice that Karen gave me was to know exactly which market I am aiming for and to spend a lot of time researching this, as this insight can really help when showing design work to certain companies.

My a3 fridge and typewriter design was the first two to be looked at. She said that my fridge design would suit kitchen apron or kitchen wallpaper. When I designed it I had a tea towel in mind but now I can see how it would change the appearance of the design and applying it to the wall would be more fun and quirky, she also mentioned that in the design I have the word Lunch written on some of the fridges, she said the design could look more expensive if I wrote different words such as dinner, tea, lunch, supper ect.

My typewriter design, Karen couldn’t necessarily place where this would fit because of its graphic nature, however she said that it was very commercial and could be used in a magazine or advertising, as well as stationers or alongside some text like an editorial piece or something. She said that my drawing style had a very nice naivety and freshness to it.

She said that my repeat bike design was a nice thing, and said that it would suit the gift side of things; she said the drawing was pretty and had a lovely feeling to it.

I next showed her two Christmas gift-wraps that I designed for a Whittards project last year, she said that she really liked these because the goats were really well drawn and the concept of the goats discovering coffee beans added a nice humour to it.

She said the repeat pattern was perfect and some of the lines that were not completely straight within the repeat added a quirky sense of charm, she also said these designs were just the type of design Hallmark would be interested in and said that I should think about contacting them in the future. She said that from what shed seen so far, she thought I suited the gift market very well and said I had a very special drawing style. She told me about how at Christmas the gift market like shiny things and thought that this design would look good with flat colours on shiny, she felt that the gift wrap had a retro feel to the colour pallet I had chosen and thought it worked well.

Karen said that she thought my most previous work was more exciting because it has nice depth and decoration and I have used different scale and placement and as a lot of people are drawing floral I am not doing the obvious, she said my drawings were ornate, intricate and jewel like and gave her the feeling of being highly decorative like Klimt. She said that I should add Jewels and shiny things that are full in some areas and less in others. Some of my drawings made her think of threaded diamonds going up a dress. I will defiantly consider adding these types of embellishments to my digital printed designs in the future because I think it will give my design work something extra special.

Karen said that in design it’s becoming less and less floral and more geometric, she said that simple geometrics and leaves were an eternal source of inspiration.

I asked Karen if she thought my work suited the commercial market and she said that it did because I can draw and can use pattern and shape well, she said she thought I could be a good designer and to look at the general market high end to mass market and to be more confident in my own ability. She said I should look at how interiors are looking today and how creative I can be in all different areas.

I asked Karen about choosing colour pallets from trend predictions in magazines such as View; she said that it does not necessarily have to be chosen from a set pallet in the magazine. She said the colours being shown should influence me to set my own original palette. I was unsure about how strict the rule was regarding colour pallets so I am pleased to learn that it is freer than I first thought at the commercial trade shows. Karen said that there are no limitations with design and said they are even using half drawn motifs falling off the edge in pattern design now so there are even less boundary’s!

Karen said that New York is very interested in British design, I am already aware of Print Source trade show that is held in New York and will think more seriously about sending some of my work to be screened by them and find out as much as I can about exhibiting my work their. After speaking to Karen I realised that I do have potential and felt more confident about my own style. I also learnt that it pays off to push the boundaries in design because it’s those designs that turn heads and make people take notice.

Jennie Rivers-Paper&Cloth (Portfolio Contact)

paper & cloth are a pattern surface design studio based in Northampton.  They Produce designs for women's, Interior, Stationary and children, each designer is promoted under their own name to the industry and clients.  The artists earn commission through their online portfolio or directly through the studio.


I spoke to Jennie Rivers about my portfolio, she displayed my A3 designs out on the table and discussed each one, She firstly put a few of my designs together and took me through the reasons the designs did not seemed resolved to her, the teapots for instance just seemed to be in the wrong placement, however she did say that teapots are an extremely lucrative market and if you get it right they are a big money maker for accessories.  She mentioned that she liked the linear aspect of my drawing and its style.  She said if i dotted them around the page in different directions this might have worked. 

Jennie picked out the fridge design, typewriters and bikes as her favorite and said they were brilliant, I was really pleasantly surprised when she said I had raw talent and should trust my instinct more, she said that the bike design with the slogan 'get a move on' she said the placement of it was perfect and fully resolved.  She commented on my drawing style and said it reminded her of a girl that works in her studio, she said it was playful and refreshing.  The other two designs which were the typewriter and fridge's she said reminded her of Andy Warhol because of the bright clashing colors.  She said these were her favorite, but the typewriter was her top favorite because of the scale and the placement and the drawing she said was really great.

I was really taken back by her enthusiasm for my portfolio and walked away from it with a new found confidence in my drawing ability.