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F417 Fashion Design III Fashion Presentation and Analysis

This guide was created for Professor Shin's F417 class, Spring 2021. However, anyone is free to use this guide for their research purposes!

The Connection Between Visual Literacy and Fashion Design

Visual Literacy Definition:

"Visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use and create images and visual media". -ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education

Visual Literacy and Fashion Design:

"By understanding and interpreting the images and objects that surround you. you can start to understand where your work fits, in which part of the cultural landscape it sits and how your potential audience/consumer will view your work" (Gaimster,144). 

 

 

 

Assessing an Image for Quality

When searching for an image, you want to make sure that you fully understand what you are looking for and that you are using a reliable source. All of the sources listed on this guide are considered reliable sources. However, when you are using Google for image searching, the reliability of a source can be unclear.  Google is an okay place to start for image research but, not a source you want to rely on for your final research product. If you are unfamiliar with the item that you are looking for a picture of, make sure you RESEARCH it before you choose an item. That way you know you are finding and using the correct image.

Example: Which of these images is of The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503?

 

The correct answer is the image of the right! That is why attribution is very important (as well as knowing the image you are looking for). Without the proper attribution, someone unfamiliar with The Mona Lisa and the singer Brittney Spears might get these two images confused. See below for the proper attribution of both images.

 

LEFT IMAGE: "Britney Spears-Mona Lisa" by Britamainia is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

RIGHT IMAGE: "Full Frontal Mona Lisa" by MitchellShapiroPhotography is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

When looking for images, you want to make sure that you are only using images that are high quality. High quality images are clear, with accurate coloring and descriptive metadata (the attribution for the image). Below are some questions you will want to consider when assessing an image for quality.

A.) Is the image clear without any pixelation or distortion?

B.) Are the colors true to what the image is representing?

C.) Is the image cropped or otherwise distorted?

D.) Is the image large enough to suit your purposes?

E.) Is the image in a file format that you can use? If not, is the format convertible?