Visual Communication in Fashion and Textile Design

Abstract

The "technological revolution" has presented educators with a range of new tools that, alongside traditional teaching methods, can be employed in the communication of visual ideas to fashion and textile design students. Although the drive to harness the economy, power, speed, and global reach of computer communications is understandable, it is important that the differing technologies available are assessed objectively for what they can offer in terms of education, and are used to optimise the teaching and learning process, rather than being seized and used as "technology for technology's sake". This paper explores the range of communication tools available to educators, evaluates their effectiveness in communicating visual ideas to fashion and textile design students, and seeks to explore why a backlash in the use of ICT is currently being experienced in fashion and textile design pedagogy. To facilitate this evaluation, a range of visual communication tools will be drawn upon, including the author’s own illustration work which is currently being used in collaboration with the cultural anthropologist Ted Polhemus to illustrate how ideas about fashion branding can be communicated in a more immediate and potent way than via the written word