Call for papers: craft & design enquiry journal

‘Global Parallels: Production and Craft in Fashion and Industrial Design Industries’

The craft + design enquiry  Editorial Board welcomes Tiziana Ferrero-Regis, Rafael Gomez and Kathleen Horton, from Queensland University of Technology, as the Guest Editors of c+de#8 with the theme of ‘Global Parallels: Production and Craft in Fashion and Industrial Design Industries’.
Contributors to c+de#8 are invited to submit Expressions of Interest for either the Themed Section or the Open Section by following the Steps to Submitting a Paper outlined below.

Expressions of Interest close on 30 April 2015. For contributors invited to submit papers, the deadline for full papers is 30 June 2015. c+de#8 will be published in mid-2016.

Open Section — call for papers
The Guest Editors and the c+de Editorial Board invite submissions to the Open Section exploring any aspect of contemporary craft and design. Expressions of Interest for the Open Section are assessed by the c+de Editorial Board. All invited submissions to the Open Section are peer reviewed and selected for publication in line with c+de procedures for the Themed Section.

Contributors to the Open Section of c+de#8 should follow the Steps to Submitting a Paper outlined below. Expressions of Interest close on 30 April 2015. For contributors invited to submit papers, the deadline for full papers is 30 June 2015.

Themed Section — call for papers:
‘Global Parallels: Production and Craft in Fashion and Industrial Design Industries’

Guest Edited by Tiziana Ferrero-Regis , Rafael Gomez and Kathleen Horton of Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. They write:

This special issue of c+de aims to explore questions of design and craft across fashion and industrial design industries in the current global context. In light of de-localisation of manufacturing practices and increasingly complex supply chains, the alternating place and meaning of ‘skills and craft’ in the context of these vast global industries, and the transformational role and status of the designer in a market that is equally flooded with fast fashion and disposable ‘on trend’ lifestyle products, we seek to examine how the two worlds of fashion and industrial design intersect in terms of production, craft and design.

The geographical distribution of manufacturing in the fashion industry and in industrial design has changed radically in the past 25 years, with much of the production and jobs shifting to low-income countries. The globalisation of production has generated long supply chains of many mediators that are employed neither to solve problems nor invent new styles. In the fashion industry, mediators ‘translate’ pre-existing trends into products at a pre-identified price point and for a specific market. In this respect the term fashion designer is something of an anachronism.

Typically, in both fashion and industrial design, the notion of design is bound to the creative celebrity designer (think Karl Lagerfeld or Steve Jobs) who is synonymous with brand or corporate identity. In both industries, however, teams of ‘invisible’ design mediators, whose roles and responsibilities are defined largely through market and industrial imperatives, are scattered across the supply chain and the globe. This text is continued on the website.

This issue of c+de invites contributions in the following areas:

•  re-orientation of the definition of ‘design’ in fashion and industrial design

•  the emergence of the ‘product developer’ and ambiguities between design and product development

•  the spectrum of possibilities afforded by craft production

•  the creative process and diffusion of creativity along the supply chain

•  design and innovation in local manufacturing

•  design and/or product development in the future 

For further information and how to submit.Top image: The Wasteland collection by Maison Briz Vegas, Paris 2011, top and shorts made from recycled T-shirt fabric,
with original hand-block prints Photo: Carla van Lunn ‘
Bottom image: Ellaspede Design Studios 2012, design process, sketching and conceptualisation. Photo: Tammy Law Photography, courtesy of Ellaspede

Text & images: craft & design enquiry journal