TEXTILE DESIGN AS PROBLEM SOLVING ACTIVITY: A PRACTICAL APPROACHE IN MEETING THE TEXTILE DESIGN NEEDS OF 21ST CENTURY CONSUMER

EBENEZER KOFI HOWARD (PhD)Department of Industrial Art, Faculty of Art

CABE, KNUST

ORDER OF PRESENTATION

• INTRODUCTION• METHODOLOGY• RESULTS AND DISCUSSION• CONCLUSIONS• RECOMMENDATIONS

INTRODUCTION The traditional aim of textiles is clothing which is one of the

three basic necessities of man, alongside food and shelter (Adu-Akwaboa, 2010)

Although, clothing is usually prioritized second to food, textile activists posit that, one can go unnoticed without food or shelter for a moment, but without clothing, he or she may be perceived in a civilized world as insane or a mad person (Agyemang, 2001)

For this reason textile production has been the main pillar around which industrialization in Europe and other countries have evolved.

For the purpose of this study, the focus will be dwelled on

designing for fabric decoration.

INTRODUCTION (Cont’d) Today’s textiles market is described as a porous and

competitive one where local designers are faced with stiff competition from their off-shore counterparts largely due to global free trade policies (Quartey, 2006; Abdallah, 2010).

This has led to a paradigm shift in design concept where the traditional aim of textiles for clothing has given way to highly aesthetic, fashionable, functional and conceptualized designs as a result of change in consumer needs and preference which put the designer in an exigent position.

This study assesses the design approaches of local textile design practitioners vis-a-vis best design practices and suggests practicable ways of designing to meet the design needs of 21st century consumer.

METHODOLOGYResearch Design

Qualitative Universal Design Model and multiple case study

Population for the study ATL and GTP design staff Textile design lecturers and selected final year students

from KNUST, Kumasi and Takoradi Polytechnics.

Data collection Instruments Participant observation and focus group discussion

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The role of the textile designer The major role of the textile designer is to design and

produce to an agreed timetable, an agreed number of commercially viable fabric designs (Wilson, 2001)

This requires that the designer develop special skills such as (Carol, 1967)

- creative ability, - technical skills, - commercial awareness of textile industry, - research and data handling, - critical evaluation and interpretation of materials, - quick decision making ability.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)Textile design as a problem solving activity

Professional textile designers now adopt systematic and well-structured approaches in their design activities as against the conventional direct and informal approach to meet the needs of consumers(Yates, 1996).

They see textile design process as a problem solving

activity where the degree of formality becomes a function of scale and the number of interests represented.

A s a problem solving activity, design in textiles can be understood in four distinct premises as follows:

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)Textile design as a problem solving activity

• Design in textiles is an investigative process; it involves research. The first stage in any design exercise is normally an enquiry into what the potential client requires; their needs and expectations must be brought on board in the design process.

• Textile design is a creative process; it involves art and aesthetics. A design problem is solved through technical know-how, experience, ingenuity, pattern recognition abilities, lateral or imaginative thinking, brainstorming, etc.

• Textile design is a rational process; it involves logical reasoning in checking and testing of proposed solutions, information analysis, experimentation, and field trails, etc.

• Textile design is a decision-making process. It involves making value judgements.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)Design approaches of local textile practitioners

Designers mostly create on demands or orders from clients and occasionally design for the mass market.

Spent minimum of five working days on one design depending on the nature of the design.

Their design approach is direct and informal.

Design concepts are generated based on the designer’s perception and ideologies.

Aesthetic appeal is the main assessment criteria for design results.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)

Freelance textile designersDesigns with no clear boundariesLargely depend on fate to get their

creative designs to penetrate the market Low job turn-outShifted focus into buying and selling

leaving their design career Design makers and not problem solvers

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)In-House designersLimited in terms of design capabilities due to

certain restrictions that are imposed on them as salary or hired company designers which include:

Company’s design philosophies or ideologies,Working within budget allocation,Company’s range of products,Production methods and Available machinery.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)

In-House designers•In-house designers also dwell much on

aesthetic as the main criteria for assessing the design work.

•Utility, performance and commercial viability of are not a major consideration of their design activity.

•Hence they tend to create beautiful designs which have little or no commercial value.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)In-House designers• Some domestic textile factories with specific reference to

Texstyles Ghana Limited (TGL) and Akosmbo Textiles Limited (ATL) occasionally lunch design projects such as GTP Nustyle.

• The aim is to target the youth to boost patronage of their printed fabrics.

• Such projects lacks problem solving approach and for this reason designs emanating from such projects are not able to stand the test of time and leaves the seen as fad.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)Level of competencies of local textile designers

Designers have the requisite technical know-how to “good” textile designs both manually and computer-aided.

Their major challenge is the approach they use in their design activity which makes them vulnerable to create problem-based designs to meet design needs of 21st century consumer.

Their vulnerability stems from the fact that they have been trained to design for aesthetic purpose rather than designing to solve identified design problems

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)Textile design training pedagogies of academic institutions

Idealistic training pedagogies used in training textile designers in the institutions of higher learning is one of the major factors which is making textile design graduates unable to solve design problems.

Students primarily are much concerned about designing to earn marks but the issue of problem solving or commercial viability is considered as secondary factor in their design approach.

Lecturers’ assessment criteria for creative designs are largely weighted towards aesthetics which is more of extrinsic in nature.

The intrinsic aspect of assessment which assesses the performance and quality of the product is most often disregarded.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)Textile design training pedagogies of academic institutions

Monitoring and supervision of the design process is generally missing in our academic institutions.

Learning process has largely become teacher-centred

Lecturers give project assignment to students with time lines to meet and the next stage is the final product which is solely assessed by the lecturer.

Students commercialized their project assignment with little or no skill acquired in the end making them incompetent to perform after school.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)

Textile design training pedagogies of academic institutions

Another critical observation made from the institution of higher learning was that, no formal or systematic design approach is used in the training of designers.

This results in a situation where designs created become difficult if not impossible to be replicated or reproduced for the mass market.

Most academic institutions have adopted the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) concept in the anticipation of equipping students in computer aided application to enable them fit into industry after school.

The challenge however is that, students are not able to master the available design software for better rendition of their designs and as a result, they tend to create sub-standard designs which are uncharacteristic of a “good” surface textile design.

Comparative Analysis of the Universal Design Model with the Design Approach of local Textile Design Practitioners

Analytical Phase Who is the user? -Observation Surveys & observations -Measurement Standards & Regulations

Creative Phase Sketching ideas -Evaluation Drawing concepts - Judgement Building models - Decision Ranking & selecting ideas

Execution Phase Prototyping -Description Details & specification -Transition Manufacturing -Transmission Product testing Usability testing Compliance with standards Marketing

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)Using the Universal Design Model as the basis for

comparison to assess that of local designers, it could be established that local textile designers are not in conformity with best textile design practices.

Although they sometimes target a specific user for the design results, they do not consider the key indicators of modern design paradigm which require the designer to be engaged in:

1. Critical analysis of the design problem through surveys, observations, standards and regulations.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (cont’d)Critical thinking at the creative stage which involves: -Evaluation, -Judgement, and -Decision making to direct the ideation of sketches, drawing concepts, building

models and ranking and selecting ideas for the execution phase.

It could also be established that their production approach is direct and informal which does not go through the processes of prototyping, details and specification, manufacturing, product testing, usability testing, compliance with standards and marketing as projected in the Universal Design Model.

CONCLUSIONThe study concludes that local textile design

practitioners are not going by modern design approaches.

They still adhere to the conventional direct and informal way of designing with the focus on aesthetics making them design makers instead of problem solvers.

A situation which has been created largely as a result of idealistic training pedagogies of our institutions of higher learning.

CONCLUSION

RECOMMENDATIONS

• In order for local textile practitioners to remain competitive in today’s market therefore requires the need for adoption of a formalised and systematic design approach which is well grounded in problem solving concept.

• Universal Design Approach is recommended to help sustain and develop the domestic textile design industry.

• Again, the textile design curricula must be reviewed with much focus on PBL which is student-centred with real-life and hands-on training pedagogies.

• This the researcher believes will provide design students and graduates with requisite skills to solve textile design problems of our society in order to meet the design needs of the 21st Century consumer.

RECOMMENDATIONS

REFERENCESAbdallah, N. (2010). Inside Ghana’s collapsing textile industry. Retrieved 2010/06/29

fromhttp://inwent-iij-lab.org/Weblog//inside-ghana%E2%80%99s-collapsing- textile-industry/

Adu-Akwaboa, S. (2001). Introduction to Textile Design. KNUST-Kumasi: Samarg Publications.

Carol, J. (1982). Designing for Printed Textiles: A guide to Studio and Free-lance work. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs.

Quartey, P. (2006): The Textile and Clothing Industry in Ghana. Retrieved 17/07/2009 from Library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/03796/10ghana.pdf

Van-Roosmalen (2010). Universal Design Methodology. University of Pittsburgh, School of Health and Rehabilitation Science

Wilson, J. (2001). Handbook of Textile Design. Principles, processes and practice.CRC Press Boca Raton Boston. New York, Washington, DC.

Yates, M. (1996). Textiles: A Handbook for Designers. Revised edition, Norton and Company, London.

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