From January 2024, 12 LCF students from BA (Hons) Fashion Textiles: Print took part in an in-course competition using AVA; a specialist design, colour and print CAD software used to produce decorative print products. Students were asked to use the AVA software to create print designs against specific briefs.
We recently caught up with winners Mikayla Ianiri and Finlay Cook. Mikayla won for her project 'Flower', in the Design and Repeat Category, and Finlay for his project 'Shard', in the Colour category. Mikayla and Finlay chatted to us about the competition and the inspiration behind their work.
Mikayla: AVA is a software that is useful for creating print patterns, repeats and different colour ways.
Finlay: AVA is a productive platform for textiles and surface design that makes it easy and efficient to produce a range of new styles.
Mikayla: For the competition I learnt how to use the AVA software by attending weekly lessons held at university. After these weeks of practice, I created multiple print designs for the two briefs and selected my favourite designs that I wanted to submit.
Finlay: We were asked to produce two specific types of prints; one focused on the separation of colours and tones in our designs, making 10 different colourways of the same design. The other was to work on our blending and repeat tiles, allowing an image or drawing to be able to repeat seamlessly for infinite lengths.
Mikayla: I used AVA to position and repeat my hand drawn motifs into a seamless design. The software was perfect when creating different colourways.
Finlay: When I was designing, we focused on our own project, taking work we had developed from our research and scanning these into AVA. With these designs already drawn and sketched roughly, I was able to make repeats and tones with AVA which enhanced my initial draw outs. I also used various tools like a personalised brush and stronger pigments of colour to highlight the look I wanted. This allowed a much more developed design from the starting sketch I had.
Mikayla: My inspiration for my prints came from flowers in my Grandma's cottage, as I was researching the objects we surround ourselves with in the home.
Finlay: My prints were inspired from raw material and wasted textures that are discarded, in what is seen as rubbish and unwanted material. I then took this in with the shadows these materials were casting, looking at how they differed. I focused on the reality of hard, strong material, using its absence through light to create a delicate, soft feel to the fabric. Very tonal, subtle and comforting.
Mikayla and Finlay were offered a free course with AVA later this year, where they will be learning more about the software.