Email response from Lou Alsop, to be featured between form and function section of essay
How does your approach to fashion design influence your graphic outcomes and vice-versa?
I feel really lucky that I come from a Fashion Design background and now work as a freelance Print/ Graphic Designer. My fashion degree taught me how to create ideas from original sources and develop these ideas in very experimental ways. I don't feel as though one is more important the the other but go hand in hand. Fashion design enables me to be mindful of placements for graphics and which fabrics could be great, and graphic design has taught me attention to detail. You can transform garments with the right print or graphics.
Do you think the importance of legibility is changing with regards to typography?
There has been a shift which has seen less legible type's printed on garments but it think its just a trend right now... To me the words or text used on clothing have meaning, to me thats why they're being put on a garment. The garment is saying something that the wearer wants to say or embody. Over the years we've worn garments with text or slogans, which enable us to express something about ourselves and the things we love. To give us identity. So for me typography has to be legible and I think this stands the test of time.
Which type, print or graphic artists influence your work and how?
I try not to spend much time looking at other graphic artists, this is quite hard because it's all so accessible on instagram etc, but I don't want to be influenced by something thats already happening. I want to be pushing boundaries so my influences are mainly from outside the worlds or graphics and fashion.
When working with type on a garment would you say the silhouette and structure of the typography lead the silhouette and structure of the garment or the other way around? (e.g. AW15 OUTSIDER print)
When I had my own fashion brand I would often have wild print ideas that would lead me to making a garment based around them. I had that freedom. Creating prints and graphics was also often one of the first things I did when designing a collection, to get a better sense of the vibe. Maybe this was also because it excited me the most.
When freelancing for others the garments are already designed most of the time so I just try and use the garment as a staring point and see how far we can go!
That AW15 Outsider type was designed first and we made the sweatshirt for it. :)
Within your practice does form follow function or function follow form?
Form follows function. I'm designing graphics for garments that are worn. Design as a whole is form following function. I want the things I design to be worn, lived in, and loved. I'm not an artists, I don't want my work to be in museum or folded away in someones wardrobe even. I want it to have life, physicality, and for people to enjoy it.
Lou
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