FA4027 - Fashion Image

What will I learn on this module?

This is a practice-based module that is informed by micro lectures on key issues that will support your learning and stimulate your curiosity for your theoretical and practical research. You will learn about the creative practice of fashion drawing and develop the knowledge, skills and techniques needed to create impactful, relevant and personal fashion images.

Using thinking-through-drawing methods, you will work in a Creative Process Journal (CPJ) to explore the role of drawing in fashion and its application to research, ideation, visualisation and communication processes through drawing as a way of knowing, and as a creative thinking, visualisation and communication tool.

In exploring how fashion images are constructed to convey meaning, the module also enables you to take a discursive approach to human-centred issues of inclusion, such as the decolonisation of the beauty ideal, and contribute to the debate around the political positioning and the power relationships between the creator and the subject, the observer and the observed.

You will learn how to navigate the challenges facing fashion illustration and to visualise fashion’s formal elements, creatively and responsibly for a diverse audience.

Work produced in this module will inform your 2nd year portfolio content.

How will I learn on this module?

Micro lectures will introduce fashion theory relevant to image generation, complemented by workshops and masterclasses focusing on drawing the encapsulated fashionable body and the decolonised beauty ideal. Small group seminars will encourage discussions on fashion-related concepts and theories, tailored to emergent issues shaping the current zeitgeist. Studio-based work will facilitate your fashion thinking-through-drawing and image creation processes. Adopting a community of practice approach, tutors will share research and methodologies to inspire your creative journey, in a direction aligned to your own values and interests.

Employing thinking-through-drawing techniques, you will document visual research and reflect on your creative processes in a Creative Process Journal (CPJ). Using analytical approaches to various research sources and your work you will consider your role in effecting change and develop as a reflective learner.

How will I be supported academically on this module?

At the start of the module, the creative brief, learning plan, learning outcomes, work requirements and assessment process will be presented verbally and visually by the module tutor.

Delivery of this module will be a mix of practical studio sessions, workshops, lectures, seminars, group and individual tutorials. Blended studio-based work will facilitate the development of introductory fashion thinking and practice. Directed Study will be set regularly with specific set tasks to underpin your learning and inspire independent enquiry or study.

Throughout the module, you will receive ongoing formative feedback in formal and informal tutorials. Feedback may be verbal or written.

To be successful in this module it is important to engage with all sessions and all forms of delivery.

After summative assessment, you will receive formal constructive written feedback and a grade indicating your achievement in relation to the learning outcomes. Additionally, you will be offered a tutorial with members of the academic team.

In addition to your module tutors, you will be supported by various other members of staff and university services including:


o Technicians aligned with your modules to provide technical instruction and demonstration of equipment and software required to complete you project work;

o Library staff to guide you in the ongoing development of essential study: IT skills, information retrieval skills and academic writing via Skills Plus;

o Academic Language Skills modules to help students at the Northumbria Campuses whose first language is not English or who have no experience studying in English in the UK.

What will I be expected to read on this module?

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

What will I be expected to achieve?

Knowledge & Understanding:

2. Recall and explain contextual issues, historical movements and design perspectives that shape fashion design practice.

5. Demonstrate knowledge of responsible practice through the development and execution of fashion outcomes.


Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

2. Record fashion design research and annotate development through sketchbooks, creative process journals (CPJs), or other formats.

7. Communicate fashion design concepts, proposals or solutions using appropriate media.


Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

4. Identify areas for personal interest and
professional growth within the fashion design field.

How will I be assessed?

Formative Assessment process:
You will receive ongoing formative feedback in taught sessions to guide your progression and development.

Summative assessment:
You will submit the following for summative assessment:

Deliverables:

1. CPJ of annotated creative project work; experimental fashion image making from concept to conclusions.


You will be assessed against the following Module Learning Outcomes:

KU 2, 5

IPSA 2, 7

PVA 4

Pre-requisite(s)

N/A

Co-requisite(s)

N/A

Module abstract

In this practice-based module you will explore the relationship between the human and their clothes, using a range of experimental image making approaches that challenge the conventions of fashion drawing, and position your work within contemporary fashion culture.

Using thinking-through-drawing methods you will interpret meaningful visual research into experimental fashion images, informed by debate around the encapsulated fashionable body, the beauty ideal, fashion and drawing and your understanding of the global issues that impact the culture of fashion drawing.

You will learn about the creative practice of fashion drawing and develop the knowledge, skills and techniques needed to create impactful, relevant and personal fashion images relevant to your own creative fashion practice and/or concepts.

This module will begin your process of developing your own illustration aesthetic and critical judgment skills. It will contribute to the development of your creative identity and inform the development of your 2nd year portfolio.

Course info

UCAS Code W233

Credits 20

Level of Study Undergraduate

Mode of Study 3 years Full Time or 4 years with a placement (sandwich)/study abroad

Department Northumbria School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries, Northumbria School of Design

Location City Campus, Northumbria University

City Newcastle

Start September 2025

Fee Information

Module Information

All information is accurate at the time of sharing. 

Full time Courses are primarily delivered via on-campus face to face learning but could include elements of online learning. Most courses run as planned and as promoted on our website and via our marketing materials, but if there are any substantial changes (as determined by the Competition and Markets Authority) to a course or there is the potential that course may be withdrawn, we will notify all affected applicants as soon as possible with advice and guidance regarding their options. It is also important to be aware that optional modules listed on course pages may be subject to change depending on uptake numbers each year.  

Contact time is subject to increase or decrease in line with possible restrictions imposed by the government or the University in the interest of maintaining the health and safety and wellbeing of students, staff, and visitors if this is deemed necessary in future.

 

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