Hey there! My name is Matt Hunt. I’m a multi-discipline designer born and based in Basildon, Essex. My primary professional discipline is within 3D Fashion Design, utilising and mastering CLO 3D, Blender, and Adobe Suite. I generate and render 3D fashions for use within buying and editorial presentations.
My education and background is in Fashion Design. I’m a stretch-fabric specialist, operating within the Costume and Performance categories with 10 years of real-world experience. I have full knowledge of garment construction, from pattern cutting, to sewing, to finishing and embellishment.
My education and background is in Fashion Design. I’m a stretch-fabric specialist, operating within the Costume and Performance categories with 10 years of real-world experience. I have full knowledge of garment construction, from pattern cutting, to sewing, to finishing and embellishment.
I am deeply passionate when it comes to designing, hard-working with a good moral compass and loyalty, and a drive to always better myself and keep learning new methods and techniques within any skill I possess.
WORK:
At the time of writing, I am working for Brand Alliance LTD as a CLO 3D designer. I began working at Brand Alliance in May 2019, originally starting as a junior sales co-ordinator. After the UK COVID lockdowns, I would soon prove to my seniors that I was able to work as a Junior Graphics Designer, until April 2022 when I would begin work under a new-to-the-industry design system called CLO 3D. It was exactly the opportunity I had been waiting for, as this would allow me to combine my skills within fashion design & construction, 3D design, and graphic design & illustration in to one revolutionary job role. I impressed my seniors with my ability to jump head-first into the software – something they had also tried but couldn’t get the hang of, and even made converts out of the company directors who did not see the point of the software to begin with.
In 2019 I freelanced as creative director for Nerd Island Studios LTD on their video game ‘Robot Rumble 2.0’. This would see me designing several the key assets, elements, and UI for the early development stages of the game. A large part of my work involved 3D designing levels, opponents, and components to build your own robot within the game. A number of these components would be based upon real-life mechanical elements, which meant I had to be scale-accurate and highly detail orientated.
EDUCATION:
I completed my BA(Hons) in fashion design in 2017. I studied under The University of Essex in Southend-On-Sea. It was a fantastic experience that has taught me some vital skills and methods, and one that I ended up taking unintentionally. During my time at University, I was lucky enough to be a finalist for the 2015 Frankfurt Style Awards within my first year of study for a design I produced. This saw me realizing my design and flying out to Germany to witness it being modelled on an international runway. While I may not have won anything that evening, the experience was once-in-a-lifetime, and a massive achievement for a first-year fashion design student, since every other nominee that year was a third or fourth year. May I also mention that my design was the only one to earn a gasp and applause from the audience that evening!
BACKGROUND & HOBBIES:
I got into fashion and producing clothes thanks to my love and undertaking of Drag. I started doing Drag as a form of escape during a particularly hard time in my life, except I didn't know I wanted to do Drag, I just knew I wanted to be my idol - Lady Gaga! I started out by recreating her iconic outfits from scrap pieces of fabric and cut-up cheap T-Shirts, all lovingly hot-glued together. But it would be the start of an amazing journey. I continue to do Drag today under the name Kenzie Blackheart, using it still as a liberating form of escape and a canvas in which to display my skills in fashion, performance, editing, design, and styling.
By chance in 2021, I started up my own Drag night & events production company called HotHaus Drag UK. We held our first show on the 8th of July 2021 at HotBox Live Events in Chelmsford after a colleague at work told me that the owner of the venue was interested in holding a Drag show. Despite the challenges of holding an event during the tail-end of the last UK COVID lockdown, we completed our first event to a sold-out audience and rave reviews. Within our first year of operation, we were nominated finalists for a local entertainments award under the category of ‘Best Regular Night of the Year’, only losing out to our host venue. HotHaus Drag continues to go from strength to strength - continuing the fortunate streak of sold-out shows, being entrusted with our own festival stage at 2023’s Poptasia Festival in Basildon, and hour-long stage slots at Essex Pride and Colchester Pride.