I had to develop a product range for Teresa Martins Collection, Portugal using either a theme or an inspiration for exploring a selected technique or material. The final outcome could be a few products in the collection keeping in mind the trends, colours, and demand related to the market. The range was to reflect the identity and taste of the existing products of ‘TM Collection.’
I had to develop a set of prints for the Oriental theme, a set of embroidery for the four elements, textile surfaces to combine with the afore mentioned prints and embroidery usage of the waste material of the home/fashion collections. I had to design a home collection using all the above, an innovative range of home furnishing and accessories from the above explorations for the La Maison and Object Fair in Paris, and create a family of prints and coordinates that would complement the display at the stall in the fair.
What were perceived as challenges and obstacles in the beginning, such as changing designs to reduce the production cost of a piece, became principle aids and points to be considered as benchmarks. This really helped to understand the design brief and execute a collection that could be then seen through to production without having to cut corners on the original ideas. This constituted my major learning from the project.
The meaning of a well-designed collection is not only the aesthetic value it carries, but also the fact that its duplication is easy and consumes optimum time and resources. The sales figures are, on the other hand, dependent on how well the designer has worked out the collection and its feasibility in the market; this being a simple cause and effect relationship.
