Critical Reflection--A Project of Trimmings for ECKO

Subject: Research and communication

Lesson 1: Design and Communication

Topic 1: Critical reflection

Student: Wong Chi Fai (Marcus)

What is a Critical Reflection?

Critical reflection is a reasoning process to make meaning of an experience.

(The University of Tennessee, s.d)

After combining the study from Mayer's lecture and my self study on this term, I made a process for the critical reflection and will use this as reading guide in the following contents.

1. Playback of the experience:

In 2018, after I just backed from Japan(I studied and worked in Japan from 2017-2018), I was started to work as fashion designer in HK first although I would like to work in Japan. At that time, my Japanese level is only N2 , which was not enough for applying a full time job so I hope to gain more experience in HK before my further development.

I worked in a Chinese fashion company called POS and worked with the label called "Ecko" which is a classic US street fashion brand. Because POS have its license in China , so HK team can develop own collections which is localized for China ‘s market.

What is ECKO?

The US original street wear brand, ECKO UNLTD. "represented more than just any one person, graffiti culture, or fashion. It became the alter-ego of generations of artists and outsiders, sub-cultures and counter cultures." (ECKO UNLTD, s.d) ECKO now has grown to a global brand and still impacting in the area of street fashion.

My position

I was worked as Fashion Designer. I reported to Assistant Design Manager directly, sometimes to Creative Director, and I worked with graphic designers and same level's fashion designer as well. Under is assistant fashion designer and we worked as team no matter the title. This was my first time that I could with with a team of designers, not directly under Creative Director nor one-man designer.

Normally, I would do sketches and develop products and act as a bridge between the managers and the fellow designers. It was a hard work that I always OT to over 10 o'clock at night, but I was enjoyed that what I have learnt from there.

Stage 1: What?

The Project:

After my probation, Creative Director asked me to help to develop new trimmings to be used in new collection. I was mainly work with assistant design manager to finish the project and before the start, we had a meeting that the director gave us directions.

At this period, communication is formed.

Communication is a continuous process which included 4 elements, sender, message, receiver and response. It can be divided to 2 types, one way and two way communication.

Two way communication is more effective because it included response and feedback.

But also suffered from noises.

There are many factors directly or indirectly affecting the communication process in transaction model. These can be environmental noise or communication barriers. Environmental Noises can be Physical noise, physiological noise or psychological noise. businesstopia, "Transactional Model of Communication," in Businesstopia (Businesstopia ,2018)

The components in this communication:

Sender: Director

Receiver: Me, Assistant design manager

Message: Please use the brand’s DNA (So called Three boards: Skateboard, Surfboard, Snow board ) with new shape/material to develop new trimmings, like pullers, zip and if possible the stoppers and the trims that we think are suitable for the new collections.

Response: Not too much at this period because it was like giving a brief. Although we have asked some questions about the design but still in vague, not so clear for exactly which part should be changed and which part should be retained.

Noises are mostly the psychological noise. Because we were talked in meeting room, and everyone can heard each other clearly.

Although two way communication is formed, most of the time is the sender give directions, the response is not so enough due to the abstract of the concepts.

Feelings: Actually it was exciting because trimmings are important elements in fashion design and we shared similar views on the mood that the brand should have although we were not dressing the same styles. As I was a new member at that time, I was eager to learn more through the cooperation with Creative Director and Assistant Design Manager.

Here are the illustrations which showed the situations and noises based on the transactional model of communication (Barnlund,D,1970)

Stage 2: So What?

After the brief, I continued my works from then on and kept on discussed with Assistant Design Manager. Firstly, I suggested the following puller design to director. I chose puller first is because this is an elements which every items would use including jackets, hoodies, pants, bags, etc.

But seems this wasn’t the thing he was looking for.

The main reason was that the puller ‘s shape is too special and not everyone would accept such design.

Noises:　We have different meaning on “common” and “special”

As this are subjective description, it would easily led to misunderstanding.

Noises: I didn’t have supporting for this as a good design to most of the customers.

Subjective sense is hard to argue, but objective statistic can show support.

It was better to research on how customers feel on different kind of shape before.

Although to me the shape is quite comfortable, it was not common enough.

Why was this important to me?

Because the reject of the proposal made me think about how to communicate more effectively before we had an outcome or agreement.

If we can have some common judgement first, time can be saved for better development on other parts and not affect too much to other works.

This time, the mistake was also related to perceptual process. Because I found we may have different perception on same design or concepts.

Perception is how you interpret the world around you and make sense of it in your brain. (Trafton, 2018)

Perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information. The perception of stimuli pass through our perceptual filters, then interpreted based on our own experiences. (Gerber.J & Murphy.H, 2021) Besides, the perceptual process develops a receiver ’s perception of certain objects and this may led to their acceptance or rejection.

Here I did a illustration to show how the stimuli (the puller) work on the receiver (e.g. Director/ customers)

KPU. (s.d.)

Finally, We were going to discuss again and gave new design based on the findings from the merchandising team. In that development process we have done a lot discussion and reference to what the markets were doing at that time. In addition, the materials that were available was important because sometimes not all the design can be produced by the manufacturers.

Here is the final design at that time. We have also developed other trimmings like aglet and also some new tags. But after around 2 months, HK team was dismissed due to the reconstruction of the company. However , I did learn a lot from this period.

Stage 3: What Now?

The experience I have learnt

Communication is a continues process (Talathi.R ,s.d.), I need to discuss with director from time to time to make sure the things are on the right way. Otherwise, most time is waste to do the wrong design. Build a common basis of judgment is quite important when we started creating.(Erwin, 2013) I will try to do more visual demo at the kickoff—visual representation of the project that include items , colors and fabrics. Because shared experience can make a basis of judgement which can make sure the design going forward.

After reference to the book called "Communicating the new", I will try to include these practical procedures during my design thinking process. News may not just new ideas, but also new innovation, new design and anything that is different to before. And my experience taught me if I wanted to give a new ideas, there is a lot of problems needed to be solved so I need to plan it with design thinking, communication models and also discuss to know what the stakeholders are actually feel as early as possible.

This illustration showed my understanding to facilitate my design process with a combination

of design think process, methods to create the news and the actual procedures which I am doing everyday. (Dam, R. & Teo, S. ,2020) (Erwin, 2013)

Design Plan with practical process

After review to the notes of the lesson again, I also learnt to start the design plan with pratical process at the beginning of the project, this can ensure that i can identify the think point, the message/information before taking action on the communication. For the actual practical process, I will explain how i would do if i did again with this project from the very beginning.

Identifying the think point:

1. The PURPOSE of the communication

To show target audience a new update of the brand. Because this brand was started just 1 year in China, director wanted to keep it fresh in this period. As some of the trims and details of the items have been used since the start, so there is a need to apply some updates even the items and graphics were updated seasonally. Besides, show the vision of “unlimited” to the audience.

2. The SUBJECT to be communication

The part needed to be updated immediately should be puller and zipper, because these trims are easier to be found by merchandising team and could be applied to different items like jacket, trousers, shirts, shorts, accessories, etc.

3. The NEEDS and PROFILE of receivers – (WHO) (The profile of target audience: age, gender, lifestyle, education background, location…)

This part is neglected during our first meeting and only the elements (of the trims) that should be included were being discussed. And this led to the failure of the first version, now, after learning the summary of design in communication, i knew the importance of including this part as an effective way to communicate.

The profile of target audience:

Age: 18-30, the youth and teenagers who are active and sporty

Gender: Both men and women because apart from menswear and womenswear, we had unisex items and this was the situation even now especially in the world of streetfashion.

Lifestyle: Those who likes street culture (Street surfing, street dance, graffiti) (as the elements of the graphics and items) and

Extreme sports (related to the actual performance of the products (surfing, snow surfing, street surfing)

Education background: Not a focus point because street culture is own by everyone, not owned to specific education background.

Location: Big cities in China like Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen

After knowing the profile of the customers, then we can understand their needs more clear before we carry out research to find the painpoints of the customers and how to identify their needs. For example, we can record the opionion through online channels like weibo, instagram and facebook. There are also more directly way is the feedback from retail team because they can reach the customers everyday. Yet, designers may not have the permission or ways to directly communicate to the local sales (e.g Beijing is far away from HK) But through the official channels and the forum that created by the locals, designers can also have a picture of what they really wants.

4. WHAT (messages/information) and HOW (methods) communicate with receivers will be an appropriately

The spirit and core value of the brand together with freshness are the messages that needed to be communicated with receivers. This part is discussed during the very beginning of the meeting. However, when I playback the process, I found that how(methods) communicate with receivers didn’t have a common ground since the start, of course that had been developed after several times of meetings but the lack of common ground caused noises and so I developed the first version was not accepted.

The method I found is first change the shape of the puller but actually director thought that is no need to use any special shape because when the receivers use the puller, they may prefer a normal one because of the hand feel.

So, the method should base on the color(focus red and accent color to show the power of energy) and the composition as a method (color combination that shows the spirit of Ecko is unlimited ) to send the messages that these are the new trims and details that they will find interesting and feel that's new when see it.

5. Identify the message/information before taking action on the communication.

- What is the Specific Differentiation from another product/brand?

Unlimited as a sprit, we can freely put the most updated elements on the items. There isn't any restriction on color and silhouette. Therefore, even shock color or exaggerated shape can be used. More freely to express the concepts and more interesting. Nike is one of the competitors, but if we referred to clothing, the form of items produced by us was more fashionable although they are strong in and more focused on performance.

What I am going to do next?

I will use the models and findings which I discovered for my experience and learning. However, I need to admit that some person is only push his opinion alone and give one way communication even though they seems to discuss to you! I need to learn how to persuasive them to do a real communication. For this part, I think the communication need to combine both strong and solid communication strategies and also the abilities that I lacked- psychology of conversation. This included the method to persuasive people in a effective manner.

As now I am an Assistant Fashion Designer which is directly under Brand Designer, I always need to communicate with him and do reports. Sometimes he is not so care for reports as Director is normally giving one way communication, that is order us to do the designs and there is not the same situation like I was in ECKO. Discussion is much less now.

Under this situation, I learnt one more thing is , if I were a senior or director, I know the importance of two way communication. Because design is for the customers, not for personal habit, this is not art creations. When I have money to start my business, I will make sure the channel is open and listen as more as possible and I hope this learning is the start of my success.

Reference:

Barnlund, D. (1970) 'A transactional model of communication' In: K.K. Sereno & C.D. Mortensen (Eds.) Foundations of communication theory (pp.83-102). New York: Harper.

Businesstopia (2018) 'Transactional Model of Communication' In: Businesstopia.net. At: https://www.businesstopia.net/communication/transactional-model-communication (Accessed 11/1/2022).

Dam, R. & Teo, S. (2020) '5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process' At: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process

(Accessed 11/1/2022).

ECKO UNLTD.(s.d) 'Our Story'

At: https://ecko.com/pages/our-story-1 (Accessed 11/1/2022).

Erwin, W. (2013) 'Communicating The New: Methods to Shape and Accelerate Innovation' New Jersey: Wailey.

Gerber.J & Murphy.H. (2021) 'The Perception Process' In: LibreTexts.

At:https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Communication/Interpersonal_Communication/I.C.A.T_Interpersonal_Communication_Abridged_Textbook_(Gerber_and_Murphy)/03%3A_The_Perception_Process_and_Perception_of_Others/3.01%3A_The_Perception_Process.

(Accessed 11/1/2022).

KPU. (s.d.) 'THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS'

At: https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/introconsumerbehaviour/chapter/the-perceptual-process/ (Accessed 11/1/2022).

Talathi,R (s.d.) 'Communication: Concept, Features and Process (With Diagram)'

At: https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/management/communication/communication-concept-features-and-process-with-diagram/69861 (Accessed 11/1/2022).

The University of Tennessee (s.d) ’Critical Reflection’

At: https://www.utc.edu/academic-affairs/walker-center-for-teaching-and-learning/thinkachieve/critical-reflection (Accessed 11/1/2022).

Trafton, A. (2018) 'How expectation influences perception- Neuroscientists find brain activity patterns that encode our beliefs and affect how we interpret the world around us.' In: MIT News. At: https://news.mit.edu/2019/how-expectation-influences-perception-0715 (Accessed 11/1/2022).