Starting Visual Research

I started my visual research by addressing the first trend that I chose: Floral studies. I started this by gathering images and drawings of flowers from a variety of places, the garden, parks, and garden centres. I found that the most interesting photos were those taken in the garden centres due to the more colourful range of flowers. They were full of tone, texture and colour, such as these two shown below. They offer lots of qualities that I can draw and work from. 

After collecting a selection of images, and finding plants to draw from, I began to address some of the other trends that Digetex had given us: Watercolour and Fine Line. I therefore drew and painted them in a variety of ways: creating studies of line and texture, drawing linear, accurate drawings, and loose watercolour paintings. This mixture of styles gives me a lot to work with and I enjoyed seeing the different qualities I could achieve with the media. I was also very conscious that Debbie mentioned that she wanted to see lots of drawing and layering of media, so I wanted to make that aspect very strong in my work.

Image A: Study of Pansies

Image B: Abstract Watercolour Floral Painting

Image C: Fine Liner Flower Drawing

I feel that Image B is very successful. I like the way the paint bleeds in areas, and the colours and style isn't accurate, but is stylised. This is not my usual way of working at all. I usually draw accurately and neatly, so producing such an interesting loose drawing was a shock and surprise to me. Image A represents my style and abilities more, it isn't as loose as the other painting. Unfortunately this weeks setback was that I can't seem to loosen up enough to create more paintings like Image A. I feel as though it was a one off lucky painting and no matter what flower I paint, or how quickly or loosely I try to do it, I can't achieve the same kind of painting. I will keep persisting with trying this style as I would like to achieve a looser and more abstract quality in my work. If I can achieve this effect, I think it will contrast well with the line qualities achieved by Image C.

As well as experimenting with florals, I also experimented with just the watercolour trend to see what kind of effects I could achieve. I painted wet on wet, I bled colour into wet shapes, played with resists and colour effects to try and meet the brief as best as I could. Some of my favourite effects included rice (Image D) and PVA, as well as making wet colour circles and letting the colours bleed into each other (Image E). I definitely want to continue experimenting with these ideas to see if any areas could be blown up and used as a design.

Image D: Watercolour and Rice Study

Image E: Watercolour Study

The next stage for my work will be to continue creating drawings and paintings to work from, but to start experimenting with arrangement and consider ideas about how my work could be translated into designs. I have started to experiment with a colour palette that was on one of the trend boards  provided by Digetex. I can already see that I am slowly changing and adding colours as my work develops so I will post this at a later date when I am certain of what my Palette is.

Starting Unit X: Learning about Digetex.

Concept

For Unit X, we have been set a brief by Digetex, a bespoke digital print company based in Trafford Park. The brief looks amazing: we have to pick from a list of trends and produce lots of work with mixed media, drawings and colour and I can't wait to get stuck in. I am looking forward to responding to a professional brief and working within a professional context. I want to embrace the challenge of adapting my work to an external context to produce a collection suitable for the client. From the list of trends that we were provided with, I intend to mix a few key themes together as shown below, along with a concept board that I created:

• Watercolour
• Floral Studies
• Fine Line
• Felt Tip

Concept Board

Digetex Visit:

Visiting and meeting the client was a vital part of this brief for me, as it really inspired me, and helped me to establish my context. It enabled me to get to grips with and understand the company we are designing for in more depth. We got to see how the design process works, as well as the production of their wallpapers and fabrics as they have a factory on site. We also saw their showroom which was full of wallpapers, fabrics, cushions, blinds, trend boards and also antique prints! The fact that Digetex has such a great relationship with technology, but also embrace the history of design, and still love getting inspiration from antique prints was refreshing. 

As well as meeting the Creative Director, Debbie McKeegan we got to meet the design team and their studio which was full of trend mood boards. They gave us lots of tips about designing as well, such as scanning in work at a high resolution, working from other peoples designs, and giving us information about graphics tablets. It was also great to hear that they still love seeing drawings, and traditional working methods. Even though they work with photoshop a lot, this hand drawn quality still isn't lost, and they have the perfect balance between old and new methods and designs. I also listened very carefully to what Debbie wanted to see in our final collection, which was a mix of processes, and she emphasised the importance of hand drawn and digital mixtures to produce an interesting collection.

Digetex are classed as converters, and are the middle people that put a design or idea into end use. They work with a range of Clients, from designers like Matthew Williamson, to anyone who wants their own fabric samples printed. They print and finish all of their fabrics in house, and also have a sewing team who can hem banners and fit eyelets for peoples orders. We also learnt more about their product range and their large customer base including one off purchasers and contract clients such as Hotels. As their company is so expansive, they have divided it into four main sections: Home, Contract, Graphics and Online (more is explained later in this post, on our presentation board). For me, the most interesting part of their business is Digetex Home, as they sell designer wallpapers, roller blinds, cushions and homeware. They also won Best Wallpaper Collection at the Northern Design awards, which is a staggering achievement! 

Below are some examples of their products that I think might be especially relevant for this project, as I am going to be looking at water-colour and florals as two aspects. On their website there is also a much bigger range of products that have inspired me, and this allowed me to see what their collections look like (http://www.digetexhome.co.uk)

Orange Poppy Roller Blind by Digetex Home

Rainbow Stripe Wall Mural by Digetex Home

Oriental Floral Cushion by Digetex Home

This visit really showed me what Digetex are all about and now I feel able to start my visual research and find my context because of this.

Context

After looking into what my concept is going to be, I needed to think about my context, and who and what I am designing for. As I am designing with Digetex in mind, I looked at their website and the products they sell. The visit that we went on also helped me to define their style and product range. Their wallpapers, blinds, cushions, and wall murals feature a lot of placement designs and not many in repeat. As I have designed for wall papers and murals before, and I haven't yet done a fabric based project, I have decided to design for cushions to learn more about another aspect of the design world and embrace new challenges. Below is a context board, showing how my theme might be conveyed onto cushions. At the top there are current examples of cushions that Digetex have on their website, to give an impression of their style.

Context Board

First Group Task

Our first task for this project was to work as a team to create boards and a presentation on what we had learnt about Digetex as a company, which was a valuable experience. With all of the information from the visit and their website, we had lots to talk about. Therefore our first task was to divide up the information into the 4 key areas of the business as mentioned above (one area per person), so we created a simple poster as a basis to talk about at our presentation. As well as the content of the presentation, we all contributed with our different photoshop knowledge to put together the poster, and taught each other tips, tricks and shortcuts to make our lives easier in the future too! We discussed the layout as a team and worked out which layout was the neatest, most concise, and got our point across the best!

This talk allowed me to use and develop my teamwork skills. We used our different strengths and weaknesses to work out who would be best at doing each job, and produced this presentation board with the information we have gathered over the past week. It also helped me to realise how important organisation is when you don't just have to think about yourself. An example of this would be that in the first lecture, we made sure we all had each others phone numbers, and organised our first meeting in advance, to ensure that everyone had a clear idea of what we were doing.

Images courtesy of www.digetexhome.co.uk

This collaboration with other students has taught me how I work best in a team, and allowed me to develop certain skills (such as leadership and listening) which I can use and build on in future teamwork exercises. An example of this would be that I am not a natural leader, but this exercise with just 4 people allowed me to practice and enhance my leadership skills so that if I needed to lead in the future, I would be more comfortable doing it. 

With all of this information on Digetex and my context and concept sorted, I can't wait to get started with my visual research and start exploring the different trends that I have chosen.