EXTENDED SUMMARY GARMENT PATTERN MAKING AND VISUAL SYNTAX: AN ESSENTIAL CONNECTION FOR BUILDING THE PROJECT THINKING

This paper describes the results achieved through an integrated assignment performed during the 2nd semester of 2019 in the undergraduate course of Fashion Design at the State University of Londrina (UEL, in the Portuguese acronym), whose pedagogical project is grounded on the Project-Based Learning (PjBL) and on an interdisciplinary approach.Conducted with the first-year students, this study intends to analyze the pedagogical efforts performed to promote the development of their ability with the formal syntax in fashion design and the garment pattern making as parts that combine to build the project thinking. In order to do so, we applied a methodological approach based on a collection of imagery boards and the organization of the MODThink model (EMIDIO, 2018).


INTRODUCTION
This paper describes the results achieved through an integrated assignment performed during the 2nd semester of 2019 in the undergraduate course of Fashion Design at the State University of Londrina (UEL, in the Portuguese acronym), whose pedagogical project is grounded on the Project-Based Learning (PjBL) and on an interdisciplinary approach.
Conducted with the first-year students, this study intends to analyze the pedagogical efforts performed to promote the development of their ability with the formal syntax in fashion design and the garment pattern making as parts that combine to build the project thinking. In order to do so, we applied a methodological approach based on a collection of imagery boards and the organization of the MODThink model (EMÍDIO, 2018).

Conceptual bases to approach the "project" in class
Considering that the design performance, by essence, is focused on the project practice, it is natural to assume that the higher education -in the design field -is conducted by projects. However, according to Rivera-Díaz (2017), providing a pedagogical environment that favors the development of the project thinking depends on the mutual relationships between pedagogical strategies and the curricular organization.
Through an integrative perspective, each project implies a transformative attitude, associating an investigative approach to the reflective practice. Notwithstanding, according to Silva and Sanches (2020), the process of designing a product depends on a coherent interaction between the project objectives, thus evoking a perceptive experience that is both multiple and systemic regarding the construction of the "shape".
In this sense, Sanches (2017) indicates essential activities for the systemic practice of projects in class: a) outline -exploring the context, in order to identify relationships and guidelines; b) generate -experimenting with combinations of the guidelines and multiple possibilities; c) evaluate/consolidate: selecting/channeling the possibilities into a feasible solution.
That is, experimenting with materials is fundamental to "think", since the sensorial knowledge may reveal formal directions that are not predictable at first. Therefore, the development of the visual/formal syntax in fashion design is intrinsically connected to the knowledge of the garment pattern making. 2.2 The visual syntax and the shape in fashion design projects According to Silva and Barbosa (2019), the expressive quality of the visual elements in a product comes from the intentional organization of elements in two basic resources: the textile (surface) and the body.
Thus, in order to comply with the productive and ergonomic aspects and meet the social representation and individual expression needs, the fashion design project requires from the designer abilities and skills to build the garment's visual narrative, with respect to the visual syntax and the shape "reading" principles.
The visual syntax embraces the non-determinant principles that support the organization of expressive units in creating visual narratives. The compositive decisions impact on the receptor's (MUNARI, 2006) -or the interpreter's (NIEMEYER, 2007) -comprehension over the visual discourse. The stimuli produced through the organization of visual units are processed by the perceptive system that, according to the Gestalt Psychology studies, act in a holistic and superordinate manner over the shape organizational forces (BLOECHLE, 2018;GOMES FILHO, 2004;BARBOSA, 2019).
Regarding the construction process of the shape in fashion, Sanches (2017) suggests three fundamental knowledge aspects: a) material resources, such as the textile material, including color, texture, and structural possibilities; b) constructive resources, that allow the transposition of a textile surface into a volumetric composition; and c) syntactic fundamentals, which support the planning and the organization of the composition units in building the shape.

2.3
The garment patterns as means to build the shape The knowledge about the garment pattern making is a skill that allows the designer plan, visualize and explore the formal possibilities with more clarity and accuracy during the project process, provided that the body anatomy (the object of study for the garment pattern making) is the main surface for spatially organizing the formal structures -a process that is guided by the combination of visual elements.
In order to correctly integrate such elements, the teaching of the garment pattern making (focused on a sensible understanding of the body and its relationships with the textile material) must ensure that it works as a means for the innovative creation upon the relationships between body and space. Therefore, the transformation of basic formal structures into constructive resources for the garment patterns -or the understanding of those as possibilities to structure the shape -must become a natural part in the process of "thought feedback" throughout the project execution.
With the intention of organizing such theoretical/methodological resources, Emídio (2018) proposes that the teaching of the garment pattern making must result from a two-dimensional arrangement: a) technical-creative, aimed at designing products; and b) technical-productive, applied in the garment industrial production.
In designing the shape, besides having the knowledge about the garment pattern making techniques, the designer must be able to connect expressive, ergonomic, and anthropometric criteria in favor of the formal structure. It is important to highlight that, prior to beginning the project process discussed so far, students had already experienced the fundamentals of 2D and 3D garment pattern making, according to the methods suggested by Duarte and Saggese (2008) and Duburg (2012).

RESULTS
The results discussed in this section are part of the work designed in the Integrative Project of the first year, an authoring assignment that provides the students with the opportunity to design a highly conceptual product. The project scope was guided by the use of creativity tools, with the aim to map the user's personality and sociocultural context, define the conceptual and formal characteristics of the product, and test the technical-constructive possibilities.
Prior to establishing the teaching strategies, we defined a focal question to connect the Visual Methodology knowledge with the Garment Pattern Making knowledge. The focal question was used as a guide for the activities in classroom as well. From the question "what constructive resources of the garment pattern making allow for the best formal transposition of the concept defined by the student?", we arranged the procedures to be used in each phase of the process, as described in Emídio's model (2018): Phase 1 -analysis of the problem concerning the garment patterns; Phase 2 -investigative research on the garment patterns; Phase 3 -exploring the garment patterns; Phase 4 -verification of the garment patterns; Phase 5 -producing the garment patterns. This five-phase process supported the production of the product's formal structures, by the integration of 2D and 3D garment pattern making techniques.
In order to materialize the proposed products, students used both 2D and 3D garment pattern making techniques during a long experimentation process with the shape and the construction of structures onto the textile surface, which provided them with the visualization of multiple fitting possibilities with the textile material.

CONCLUSIONS
From a pedagogical perspective, the results achieved confirm the efficacy of associating the visual syntax fundamentals and the material manipulation of constructive resources within the garment pattern making. In this sense, the assignment described in this study favored the expression of abstract ideas and broadened the shape perception as a system that embodies material, sensorial and perceptive relationships.
Finally, by presenting resources for novel pedagogical practices to improve the classroom strategies and the development of the project thinking, we believe that this study encourages the discussion on the educational practices in the Fashion Design field, especially regarding the role of the garment pattern teaching along the creative process.