Presenting our work to Digetex.

Today we presented our work and final outcomes to the Creative Director of Digetex, Debbie McKeegan! The presentation was just 3 minutes long so it was a challenge to make sure that I was concise and got my point across effectively. I therefore couldn't show all of my work, but I wanted to take her through the journey of my project. I selected a few drawings from my body of work, and made design progression boards to make sure that I didn't have too much to talk about. I started by talking about my concept and context, and briefly showing her a few initial drawings from my visual research. I then moved on to explaining my colour palette and showing how my designs started to develop from the research I had done. Finally, I showed her my final collection and context images. I explained how I responded to each of the trends she gave us, and showed a strong awareness for my audience.

I feel that preparing well for this presentation meant that I came across as being confident and professional, and kept to the time frame. I had organised my work and bookmarked my sketchbook to ensure that the presentation flowed well, and I knew exactly what I wanted to say about each piece. I chose to show Debbie a cross section of my work because I feel it is necessary to understanding my final outcomes. I also opted to show her physical boards and sheets rather than a powerpoint because I would rather see physical things in front of me, and not just see work on a screen. I believe this was very effective as she responded well and could see exactly where my ideas, colour palette, and inspirations had come from. The only thing I would have changed about my presentation would be printing out my designs onto A2 paper. The large format printers have been out of order for over a week, so it wasn't possible, but I feel that having my designs at a larger scale would allow her to further see how they might look on a cushion for end use.

Final Collection.

For the last few days of this project I have been putting together my final collection. I am really pleased with the final designs, and I feel that they represent my progression work and initial brief really well. I have ensured that a variety of my ideas, concepts and processes are represented within the collection, such as watercolour, felt tip, fine line and floral studies. I have met the clients brief perfectly, producing lots of drawings, and keeping a hand drawn feel to my final collection, not just creating a sea of photoshop files. I also wanted to ensure there was a variety of scales within my collection, by having some small and some large scale patterns. I also revised the collection as a whole numerous times to ensure the colour mood was perfect, and represented my colour palette.

As well as perfecting my final collection, I also created context images for each design to ensure that the client can see my design on the products it's intended for. From the start my context has been cushions, but as Debbie said she was also keen for me to bring my designs outdoors, I decided to adapt my collection to be suitable for garden furnishings too. This was also a challenge for myself as I had never designed for outdoors before, but I really enjoyed creating bright summery designs and context images, so I will definitely be doing this again! The images below are a handful of my context images, and they show how my designs are versatile and can be used for the home or garden.

Overall, I am confident that my final collection meets the brief Debbie gave us, and I believe that I absorbed all of the advice and feedback I have been given throughout the project to produce a strong collection and ensure the client is happy. This proves that I understand how design works in the professional world, and that I adjusted and adapted my approach to embrace this.

Design Progression

I have recently been designing more prints for the brief, based on the visual research I have done so far. I am fairly happy with the results, and I think some of my designs have the potential to be part of my final collection.

This design below (Image A) was created from a watercolour piece that I created by blowing paint with a straw (Image B). I like the fact that it looks like branches, or grasses, and also the contrast between the bold shapes in the background and the watercolour in front.

Image A: Watercolour Branch Print

Image B: Watercolour painting using a straw.

During the week I have spent quite a lot of time working on a few different poppy designs, including drawings and watercolour. After completing the designs and looking back on them a few days later, I have realised that they aren't right for this project. I feel that these designs would suit a surface pattern based project better, for example a stationary collection, rather than the cushion collection that I am designing for in this project.

Image c: An example of a Poppy design I created

One of my more successful designs is also shown below (Image D). I created lots of similar variations of this using watercolour, line, and solid colour, and I feel that having a simpler, geometric design has the potential to compliment the rest of the collection well.

Image D: Geometric Triangle Print

Image E is a final example of some of the designs I have created, which consists of a scanned in sketchbook drawing of a flower. I like the contrast between the grey background, strong lines, and bold colour within the flowers. I feel that it represents my colour palette well, and overall it works as a design. The inspiration from this came from a Clintons Wrapping paper as shown in Image E on a previous blog post (http://jennasimpson94.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/developing-ideas-and-meeting-with.html). I took on board the qualities I liked most in the design and translated it to this brief.

Image E: Grey Floral Print

Creating more designs this week has helped me to work out what is working and what is not. I also had a pin up this week of all the work and designs that I have done so far, and this also helped me to realise how my collection might come together, and see how my colour mood is working across the designs. I need to make sure I have a mixture of scales in my designs, as well as a combination of solid colour and watercolour so that the collection isn't too digital or watercoloury, but is a good mix of both. So far I am really pleased with how my work has responded to the trends and the brief that was set out at the start. I have managed to combine them all well, whilst putting my own spin on things. I feel like I have absorbed all of the advice Debbie has given us, and produced work that reflects this. 

As one way of deciding which designs might suit my final collection, I spent time this week

placing some of my designs onto cushion images. This has also allowed me to realise which designs are working better than others and play with scale; some of these images are shown below (Image F & G).

Image F: Felt tip Design on Cushion

Image G: Watercolour Branch Design on Cushion

After creating some context images I realise that my designs look good on the cushions, but that maybe I should try taking some pictures in different environments such as outside, or even on different sized cushions. Rather than just doing a typical sofa cushion, I could create big floor cushions or bean bags as well! I feel like this would add a fresh feel to the collection, and show how diverse my designs could be! It would also push my out of my comfort zone and allow me to take on a new challenge.

I aim to carry on designing for the remaining time that we have on the project, and then put together a strong final collection that shows how well I have embraced the brief, along with context images to compliment these.