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My name is Arianna Valentini and I am from Utica, New York, which is two hours away from
Rochester, New York
My current work involves consumer perception on Egypt print and textiles
It's my thesis topic in the School of Print Media
My research consists of people judging image quality on digitally printed fabric, so the fabric
is actually printed by
a method called inkjet printing, which is the same method that you would use for your home computer
or office
And what I did was, I had people rank order the samples according to feel and image quality
as if they were going to purchase a bag or a shirt and from there I could
actually figure out
what types of fabric people liked
and
statistically figure out what image quality was important for them when looking at fabric
I actually conducted my research in two parts. The first part was structured interviews
So for that I interviewed people in the Rochester area
that are boutique owners, and I talked to them about where they got their clothes from
what do they look for, what types of patterns do they like when they
shop for clothes, and also their types of, like
who their customer is. And the second part was actually
administering an experiment
that people would rank order samples
My two loves are photography and
shopping, so I figured that if I was going to spend a year doing
something that I wanted to do something that I was really passionate about and I've always been passionate
about
fashion and advertising photography, so this was a nice way to
meld my two interests
I definitely think it was successful, I think if I didn't do this research
I wouldn't actually be able to meet a lot of the people I got to work with for my thesis
so I got to make a lot of connections in the printing industry and the fashion industry by
doing my thesis
Immediately after I graduate I'm going on a six-month co-op at a
food and packaging printer plant
and I'm working in their research facility testing materials, and then after that
I'm not so sure but
I hope to either work in publishing or in the fashion industry in textiles
I definitely think that my thesis prepared me
and the work that I've been doing in general, I got a lot of hands-on work
done at RIT, I was able to work on presses, to see fabric printed
So I definitely think that
everything that I did really prepared me for what I'm going to in
the business world
The hardest thing I had to overcome is -- I guess I had to learn how to pace myself, because I
tend to like to do everything at once
So I had to realize that I had to kind of take my time more in grad school
and that's something you kind of learn to do, is you learn to focus and learn how to study more
and to focus
Yes, I definitely think that
I have people now contacting me
for things, especially how to print digitally on fabric, so I think that
RIT and the way that
I was able to do my thesis helped me become an expert
I think that if you're
passionate about what you do and you know where your focus is going to be
then you should look for schools that
will contain that focus, and also don't be afraid to ask questions when you're looking at
schools to make sure that you know that the school that you chose the right one for you
Overall my RIT experience has been really great, I'm kind of sad to leave school
I really enjoyed my
college life
But now I'm excited to begin
this new chapter of my life
and I cannot wait to print fabric
and hopefully work for someone really famous, so that's really cool