Pentland Brands

Katie Greenyer

Katie Greenyer is the creative directer of Pentlandbrands meaning she oversees all of the brands within the company. I found her talk incredibly inspiring. She brought an engaging and exiting energy to the lecture and her discussion surrounding education and the Pentland Design Pool made me feel much more hopeful about entering the industry.

A key message in regard to sustainability was "design less, better" and this is a signifier of times changing from when Greenyer first began working at Red or Dead and the evolution of technology has facilitated the ability to do this. In relation to my own work this is exemplified in Shima Seiki and Stoll technology where you have the ability to sample virtually, Make design decisions about stitch, yarn, colour and even fit before anything is even knitted. More broadly this statement should be a manifesto for the industry. Many people are tired of producing and over producing and simply the planet cannot cope with this any more either. "doing less, better" is a simple way for every brand to improve their sustainability.

Image source: https://www.shimaseiki.com/product/design/system/

In a question at the end of the lecture another interesting discussion point was surrounding the idea of fashion to function. Greenyer's career began at a more stereotypically fashion brand and evolved to oversee many others which focus more on function and performance (eg. Speedo and Mitre). In response she highlighted that 'people still need to want to buy it' and therefore the two go hand in hand. I do think there is still a slight distinction but I agree that fashion and tech need to talk to each other because that is when innovation happens. Whether technical innovation or conceptual the industry should be relying on these different specialists to push creativity. I am learning that the key to creativity and innovation are learning and collaboration. On a small scale this is getting excited by new technology (eg Katie mentioned using Mac for the first time) all the way to scientists working with textile designers to create new materials.

AM I ACTUALLY A DESIGNER?

I am eager to keep learning and I think I am happiest and most creative when I am trying to understand something new. For example my current work with Shima Seiki Wholegaremnt technology to realise my knitting ideas. Are my skills and the elements I love about knitting and knitwear more rooted in the technical and problem solving. Does this make me suit a different role better? Maybe not a designer or solely a designer. It raises the topic of technical designer again.

Roles I have seen on LinkedIn:

'Technical knitwear designer'

'Lnitwear designer and programmer'

'Specialist Creative Technical Product Developer'

'Creative Technical Product Developer'

Visual research- make it different, everyone is using WGSN to identify trends, can I identify my own? Look to the real world around you, people watch, what are people doing/wearing/problem solving in daily life. I think to an extent, I already do this, I consider myself to be very observant and I enjoy noticing small details in my environment which inspire me (for example becoming obsessed with curtains which don't fit the windows). I should continue to keep this curiosity.

CV:

-I need to consider the visual aesthetic of my CV. Greenyer specifically mentioned 'no white backgrounds with helvetica neue font'. This is exactly what my CV looks like!

I perhaps need to develop a second CV with a stronger unique visual identity, however many application softwares may not be able to read a CV with varying fonts or colours so I need to retain both versions.

-Retail experience = consumer/ customer knowledge, I can enter a brand, learn and understand their consumer and apply this to sales. This means that not only do I have people and communication skills, i have the ability to understand people and understand my target audience. This makes me a better designer.

-For the right brand, send out a physical CV and maybe attach a small sample, can you even develop a swatch/ design board for that company to attach to the page. ]

-If PDF format, can I embed a link to my website/ portfolio.

-Include all of the skills I have and maybe even the ones that I want to learn.

Practical take aways:

-Be bold (put yourself out there, as the questions, introduce yourself to people- have some balls!)

-Be true to yourself

-Be smart

-Clean your laptop screen before presenting digital folio

-In the subject of an email, use FULL NAME, JOB ROLE I WANT

-In the body of the email, mention how you found out about the person you are emailing:

'I met you at...' or 'I read about you in...' etc