In this lesson you’ll learn about why as fashion designers we need to do research in the first place and how it all fits together into the design process. You'll learn about what 'research' is in the context of a fashion designer's role.

In this lesson you'll learn about how much research is the right amount to do for your projects and brief.

In this lesson you’ll learn about the first five of the 15 sources of research. These are:

• Museums and Galleries
• Architecture and Graphic Design
• Fabrics and Trimmings
• Shopping
• Street Fashion

In this lesson you will learn about the following research sources:

• Society, Economics and Politics
• Social Media
• Performance Art
• Industrial Design
• Costume Design

Finally in this lesson you will learn about the last of our 15 sources of research which are:

• Music and Fashion
• Science, Nature and Technology
• Fashion and Sport
• photography
• Vintage clothing and Secondhand

In this lesson you’ll learn about the four types of research that you will need to use in your projects as a designer. These are fabric research, creative research, historical research and trend research. These are different to research sources as these are not directly sources but areas of focus, or themes.

Before you begin learning about the research process I want to first explain the difference between primary and secondary research as they both bring different benefits and limitations. You will be faced with using both types in the future so it’s important for you to know the difference. This lesson teaches you the difference between the two and how they apply for you in fashion design.

In this lesson you’ll learn how to manage and organise your research work to ensure that you work efficiently and remain focused. You will learn about the following elements of the research process:

• Planning
• Collating and Documenting
• Organising and filing
• Reviewing and using

In this lecture you'll learn about what being inspired as a designer really means and why it's so important a personal characteristic to continually develop.

In this lecture I share with you my top 25 tips for getting unstuck when inspiration leaves you and you feel uninspired. All of these tips can easily be applied by anyone. Try them and I guarantee you'll feel the difference.

This lecture teaches you how to become inspired when you feel stuck and your creative ideas are not flowing.

In this lesson I teach you how to get behind the scenes access to research material in museums and galleries.

In this lecture I run through the content of the course and remind you of the key learning messages. This will give you an overview of the material you have covered and offer you the chance to ask any final questions before you take the optional quiz.

These assignments are optional but I highly recommend that you carry them out as they will deepen your awareness of what research has to offer a designer and give you first hand experience of how it can bring new ways of seeing what’s around you. You can download the assignment briefing notes from the resources section and follow the instructions to complete your assignment.

If you have any questions about the assignments please ask them once again in the Q&A area. Don’t feel afraid that your question might be silly or irrelevant. It will not be. I believe the only silly questions are ones you should ask but don’t! So please ask if in doubt.

You can contact me via any of the following ways. I'd love to hear from you so please feel free to reach out and let's stay connected.