Trend Hub and WGSN

I have been using the WGSN and the Trend Hub over the last term to help in the collection of images and resources to aid the making of my Trend boards. My experiences with both have varied and I have used these resources in varied amounts over the 12 weeks.

Trend Hub

I have used the Trend Hub fewer times than I have used WGSN which means that I don’t have as much experience using all the resources that are available to me in the library.  The times I have used the Trend Hub I have tried to collect many different resources not only images from fashion journal and other fashion related resources, I took time to find related images in art and architecture journals and also upholstery colour resources. I did this so that my trend ideas had more influences, so I could show that my trend took from different areas of living not just what people are wearing, I wanted my trend to have more depth so it wasn’t purely routed in clothing.

 I feel that I have not used the Trend Hub to its fullest potential over the last three months and that there is more that I can use it for in the future, the experiences I do have using it prove that as the resources I collect from there helped me to spark ideas for my trend boards. I think that I have had success in finding resources so far and documenting them, getting the right information about the resources so that I can find the images and resources again so I can use them in my blog but I think that I could have used more of my learning hours in the Trend Hub sourcing different resources I could potentially use so I can have a better orientation of the library resource improving and increasing my productivity when using the resource.

What I have learnt from my time using the Trend Hub is that there is more influences to what clothing people are buying than what is put on a catwalk at fashion week;however I am not saying that it is unimportant in creating trends. I also learnt that many trends take from the past and make new trends from older influences and ideas, recycling colours or themes.  I think I will be able to use the knowledge I have gained through my experience with the Trend Hub, not only applying it to future trends that I may be asked to create but I can transfer the knowledge to collecting resources from other trend predicting sources because the fundamentals of collecting dataare the same for all resources. The skills I have gained here can and will be used throughout my university experience and I will use them in my future in the industry because data collection skills are useful in any profession and a good transferable skill.  My targets for the future are to use my learning hours to explore more of the resources in the trend hub so I can get a better understanding of the resources available to me and how to use them in my future data collection for my trends.

WGSN

I have used WGSN for many different tasks over the last 12 weeks which is why I have more experience of it than the trend Hub. These tasks include image collection, fabric collection, finding specific reports and collecting flats for creating ranges. I have also been using WGSN to collect inspiration for my trend board. I have been using this term to get to know the layout and orientation of WGSN exploring different areas which are available through the website gaining more knowledge of the website and finding different sources of inspiration which I can use in later projects.

 My main use of WGSN was to collect images and data which I could use in my trend boards. I used WGSN because it had high quality images which I felt looked better than any I could collect. I could have scanned in items I found in the Trend Hub but I felt that the quality of images I was finding on WGSN looked better on the trend boards I created. I also used images from WGSN over images I collected from the trend hub because I understood how to download them onto my hard drive then transfer them onto the documents I needed them on, whereas I was not as confident scanning images in the library and uploading them and the photographs I was getting from the Trend Hub were not comparing to the images from WGSN in quality.  I also used WGSN as inspiration for the layout of my trend board and for the information however I found that every board on WGSN varied meaning I had to create my own personal opinion on which designs I preferred and which data I felt was important to what content I planned to put on my board.

I feel that I have been more successful in learning how to use WGSN than I have in using the Trend Hub in the library and I feel this is because of how technology is becoming easier to use. An example of this would be how I can get onto WGSN from my mobile phone meaning I can use it on the go and without a computer. Because of this I have been spending spare time on it just understanding the layout and orientation which has helped me find new ways of finding information I need such as fabric descriptions and sources and Pantone references.  What I feel could have gone better with my experience with WGSN is how I kept a record of my sources. I found going through my images I had collected from WGSN that I had not collected enough information to be able to find the source that I found images from. I also found that I couldn’t remember names of reports that I found inspirational because I had not written the name down which made it hard for me to go back to them and look back for references for layouts and inspiration for text. This is something I was good at with my image collection in the Trend Hub but I need to transfer these skills over to data collection from online sources therefore I will try and better this skill learning from this experience.

From this experience I have learnt that I am more likely to use a digital trend library over the trend hub, that I do not feel confident to using scanning technology to upload pictures onto computers and that even though many different ways of making a trend board are out there I have a personal preference of what I think looks good and I must understand this and use my individuality to create my own trend board.  Future actions that I am going to take because of this experience are to ask a librarian or a member of staff from the technology department how to use the scanner so that I have an understanding of how to use it for when I need it and Iaim to improve my data collection, getting reference of where I collect things from even if I am not planning on using the data for any other reason than for inspiration.