Designs by second year student Chanel Buckland

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Textile Design for Fashion and Interiors students create designs for Hallmark

Friday, 9 February, 2018

Second year BA Textile Design for Fashion and Interiors students at Bath Spa University recently created unique greeting cards with complementary wrapping paper, bags and accessories as part of a live brief for UK Superbrand, Hallmark Cards.

The brief, which follows the success of last year’s similar project, challenged students to come up with Christmas designs with a twist in the run up to the festive season. Hallmark gave students a number of themes to work from including ‘Hybrid Creature’, ‘Lagom’ ‘Bohemian Bloomsbury’, ‘Dark Opulence’ and ‘Natural Folklore’.

Chanel Buckland, second year Textile Design for Fashion and Interiors student said: “I was really excited to start this project. I chose the ‘Hybrid Creature’ theme because I wanted to use exotic animals which wouldn't usually be associated with Christmas and it allowed me to use a vibrant colour theme throughout my work. Giving my collection a slightly humorous side was something I really wanted to do but I made sure I kept it minimal so that sophistication was still key.

“Having looked at some other cards for inspiration, I was influenced by some I had seen which were simple but used a play on words. Using this as food for thought I decided to put my exotic animals into hybrid situations in keeping with the brief.

"To come up with my designs, first I decided to use watercolour paints and chalk pastels to create studies of African mammals including a zebra, giraffe, camel and an elephant. I narrowed it down to these distinctive animals because I wanted to look at them using different angles, both full body and close up.

“I scanned my animal creations onto my computer and used Photoshop to edit them and add on Christmas elements such as snow boots and ice skates. I also depicted some of the animals inside baubles to enhance the festive feeling. I then laser cut my gift tags onto pearl plastic to match the pearl cards, and I etched the close up studies of my animals on them to correspond with my cards.

“Next I laser cut larger baubles onto navy cards and placed a layer of acetate on top with my designs on them and incorporated encrusted surfaces of glitter and holographic foil to make my creations even more eye-catching. Finally, I created six complementary wrapping papers and bags to bring the collection together. I’m really pleased with the finished products.”

Based on the work produced, Hallmark Cards will soon be choosing one lucky student to undertake a week-long work placement with the company whose history spans 108 years.

Bath Spa University’s Textile Design for Fashion and Interiors course, part of the Bath School of Art and Design, aims to provide ambitious students with a dynamic practical and theoretical design education, supported by industry networks and directed towards the development of a creative career or advanced research in the textile discipline.

Visit the course page to find out more.