"Have fun and create work that you love. Show who your are as a creative!"
We know this year might feel a little different, so whether you’re just about to start your LCF journey or returning back to your studies, we wanted to give you an opportunity to take a moment to get creative. Our student life at LCF mindful colouring, is a series of illustrations designed by BA Fashion Illustration graduate Gisela Gayleard, for you to download and colour in. If you’re feeling super experimental you might want to use your expertise to colour in, develop, animate or entirely transform – it’s up to you.
We caught up with Gisela to hear more about the meaning behind the illustrations and how she hopes they will inspire and motivate.
What is the purpose of these illustrations?
The three illustrations are part of the London college of fashion wellbeing colouring book series, they encourage wellbeing among the LCF community and to influence the students about LCF life as they start their university experiences. Starting university can be hard at times so these illustrations can be used to get your creative ideas flowing and to be used as colouring pages for the students to colour in, use as inspiration for animations and to be used in an original and creative way across all the different pathways in LCF.
Talk us through your thought process for designing these – where did you start? What does LCF mean to you?
When designing these illustrations I wanted to create something that represented LCF and who I am as an illustrator. I never used to see myself as a fashion illustrator as I used to think that being a fashion illustrator your job was to draw fashion and clothes; but from studying at LCF I realised that being a fashion illustrator your role is to illustrate what's around you, that could be people, the environment, a political matter at that time or just something you saw on a train one day. These illustrations represent all these different things, I wanted to illustrate the creative individuals at LCF, the diverse community, the city life of London and just the interesting objects that always catch my eye, whether that be something in a museum, the flowers in a park or just something on the side of a road.
The illustrations have been drawn in a very simple way using a line drawing technique, this is something that I have always used within my drawings so designing a colouring book layout was perfect for the style that i normally work in.
What are you hoping people will take away from these illustrations?
I created each illustration combining lots of different ideas into one design, I am hoping that each student can find elements on each illustration that relates to them as artists, designers and creatives. I hope that by looking at these illustrations people can see my outlook on London life, the LCF community and also the individuality of each drawing, I also want to show that fashion illustration can be used in so many different ways and I hope that the illustrations inspire the new students to really create work that represents who they are as young creatives.
How are you hoping people will ‘colour them in’?
I am hoping that students find creative ways to colour these illustrations in, as I am an illustrator I would normally use, pencils, pens or my iPad, but I would love to see people take a different approach and really create something that's unique and shows their skills and passions for fashion and art.
What would your advice be for anyone joining LCF this term?
As someone that has just graduated from London College of Fashion, I would advise anyone joining this term to enjoy these next three years as much as you can because they go very very quick. In my first year I struggled a lot with experimenting and I was very much a perfectionist with my work (I still am now) but in your first year it's very important to experiment as much as you can with different techniques and skills in your creative practice so you can find your own style and use this moving on in your final years. LCF has brilliant tutors, I was very lucky with mine and they helped me a lot in my final year, so take on their advise and they will help you achieve amazing results.
The fashion illustration course was quite a small group so I was able to make some very close friends in my first year, the LCF community is so diverse, so for someone starting this term, talk to everyone because i learnt so much from friends and people in the university and this helped a lot with coming up with ideas and helping each other in our final terms at LCF. lastly, have fun and create work that you love. Show who your are as a creative!
- Student life at LCF mindful colouring, illustration 1
- Student life at LCF mindful colouring, illustration 2
- Student life at LCF mindful colouring, illustration 3
This activity is part of The Big Welcome at London College of Fashion. Find out all about The Big Welcome at LCF and what's on at LCF before the start of term.