Summer Work: Preparing for final year: Concept and Inspiration

Part of the work I have completed before going back to University has involved thinking more deeply about what I want to produce and achieve next year. Below are two boards that I created to show the concept behind my work, and the inspiration that I have looked at.

This year, I want a theme and concept that can lie underneath my work to make it stronger as this is what made my final outcomes strong last year. As I am inspired by science and nature, my concept will incorporate both of these and give me lots of inspiration throughout the year. I have brainstormed my theme and have lots possible ideas to develop, including disease, cells, geography, super foods, and nature that's medically important to us. The board above shows how I have started to respond to some of my ideas.

My main inspiration over the summer has come from both the nature surrounding us, and the experiences I have had, including working at Digetex and Tigerprint. Being surrounded by designs for so many different contexts including wallpaper, cards, gift wrap and soft furnishings has really inspired me to create designs for a variety of contexts this year. I have also been surrounded by a variety of nature over summer, from holidays, trips out and my garden. I love finding natural patterns in the world that surrounds us, and I also love looking at how other designers respond to this from designers at Clintons, to designers from the Arts and Crafts Movement like William Morris. I intend to use all of this inspiration and my experiences to inform my work this year.

Summer Work: Preparing for Final Year: Media, Process and Context.

Part of the work I have completed before going back to University has involved thinking more deeply about what I want to produce and achieve next year. Below are two boards that I created to show the context of my work, and the technical skills that I want to focus on throughout the year.

Context Board

This year, I want my work to have a variety of contexts. I intend to create designs that can be applied across many surfaces, including soft furnishings, wallpaper, giftware and stationery. At the moment I am considering creating two different collections for large scale designs, and small scale designs. When considering this as a final outcome, I looked at work from this years degree show from both Lindsay Swan (http://jennasimpson94.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/visiting-2014-mmu-degree-show-lindsay.html) and Jessica Brown (http://jennasimpson94.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/visiting-2014-mmu-degree-show-jessica.html) as these artists work towards a similar audience. I reflected on what I learnt from them in the posts I have linked. 

My work experience at Digetex and Tigerprint has also inspired me as I designed for wallpapers, cushions, giftware and cards, teaching me about their audiences. For example, when designing cards, I learnt that a designer is designing for two customers; the person buying the card and the person who the card is for. I also looked at designers and companies such as Rebecca Newport, Paperchase and Rachael Taylor who create gorgeous designs for a variety of contexts to inspire my work this year. At this point I am unsure about whether I want to work freelance, as part of a studio or as a designer maker, so looking at these artists should help me confirm my context.

Media/Procces board

I also have a clear idea about the technical skills that I want to focus on this year. As I am located within print, I want to create print designs that have both a hand drawn and digital element to them. I feel that this added a great quality to my work in second year and I want to continue this next year. I also want to develop my colour and digital skills whilst doing this, and I hope that by looking at artists like Khristian Howell for inspiration, I will be able to achieve this.  

Tigerprint Placement Summary

On Friday I finished my placements for the summer! After working at Digetex throughout the summer break, I was lucky enough to spend the last two weeks on a placement at Tigerprint Studio's in Bradford. I have always wanted a placement with Tigerprint, from the moment I developed my love for pattern design and making my own cards.

Tigerprint Gift Wrap - www.tigerprint.uk.com

Tigerprint are an exciting, diverse and multi-disciplinary company with a studio that is full of creative energy! They design giftware for Marks and Spencers, and their studio has a lovely bright atmosphere, and something amazing is happening at every desk. From mocking up 3D hot air balloons to painting a cute dog and photographing their latest products, there is never a dull moment. The designers are divided into different teams that come from a variety of backgrounds such as Illustration, Annimation, 3D design, Packaging Design and Textile design. The wide variety of skills within the studio mean that fantastic, diverse products can be produced, combining lots of design elements together.

Christmas cards produced by Tigerprint for M&S - www.charlymouse.com

Whilst I was on my placement I was given the brief of 'Fathers Day' to play around with. I spent the first few days drawing and getting used to my surroundings. I loved being surrounded by creative people and also being restricted to working at a desk 9 - 5. When I am doing university work, if I am stuck for inspiration, I give up and leave it for the day. But actually I found that being forced to push through that block generated ideas and made me think more openly about my brief.

Also in the first week, I was invited to take part in a Tokyo Workshop which was so much fun! For a whole day we were given small tasks based on inspiration that one of the designers had brought back from Tokyo. There was so much to look at from painterly post cards to typographic cards and small illustrations of animals. The idea was to push us out of our comfort zone with drawing, and make us think about using other styles apart from our own. For the second day of the workshop we then had to take our favourite drawing from the day before and develop the style and spend a whole day drawing in that style. I chose Typography for this task as I haven't done it before and I linked this back to fathers day to create a selection of designs for fathers day cards. 

I spent the second week of the placement refining my ideas from the first week. I created a collection of male pattern for wraps and a collection of card designs based on my illustrations and typography. I also got used to all of the techniques and machinery that the designers use to mock up cards and product ideas. They had foiling machines, embossing tools, a gorgeous haberdashery and a large selection of glitter. I loved being able to foil some of my gift wrap designs and properly mock up cards using embossing, appliqué, glitter and foil. I was also able to make gift tags to compliment my wraps. Having learnt these skills I am looking forward to using them next year in my collections to enhance my work.

During the second week of my placement I also took part in an Innovation work shop which was designed to help us think of new ideas for projects. It consisted of thinking of a random letter, and then thinking of a random word starting with this letter. Then we had to brainstorm everything we could think of to do with this word, and when this was completed we linked as much as we could back to the project at hand. The task is supposed to generate ideas that you wouldn't have thought of before to help widen ideas for the project you are tackling. The word we chose was Jam and the theme was Party, so some of the ideas that we came up with were putting cocktails in Jam Jars to create a vintage party feel, or a humour idea of raising a toast (I.e. jam and toast), as well as musically 'jamming'. For this task we had to produce a board at the end of the day as a team of 3 designers. It was great to work in a team, as we all had different ideas that the others wouldn't have thought of. Both this and the Tokyo workshop thought me new techniques and transferable team work skills that I look forward to using in the following year and in future jobs.

Tigerprint Stationery - www.tigerprint.uk.com

Overall, I loved my placement at Tigerprint, and I definitely want to work there in the future. At the end of the week I had to put together boards of the most refined outcomes from the two weeks. I created a gift wrap board and a greetings card board. At the start of the two weeks I was pretty nervous about working towards products for a male market as all of my work is very feminine. However I am really glad that I did because it really pushed me and proved that I can work towards different markets. 

Visiting the 2014 MMU Degree Show: Pip Pittman

Pip Pitmans work immediately caught my eye when I walked into the degree show. The large floor cushions shown below were on display and their intricacy and colour immediately fascinated me. I also love the fact that she has made such professional end products as part of her show; I could easily see them in a shop.

Pip Pittman's floor cushions - http://www.pippittmandesign.com

After reading more about her work, it is clear that she thoroughly researches her subject matter using a variety of media including photography, drawings and printing, to get to grips with her subject. She has recently been inspired by 'natures gift' and is passionate about surfaces that surround us every day. This idea of 'natures gift' is very similar to the kind of concept I want to investigate next year. I am inspired by nature but don't necessarily just want to draw flowers, I want to delve beneath the surface.

Pip Pittman's Tote Bag - http://www.pippittmandesign.com

 Something else that inspired me was the wide variety of products that she applied her designs to, including wallpaper, bags, diaries and ceramics as shown in the pictures above and below. It shows that she can use colour and scale really well and work for a variety of audiences. This is another aim that I wish to achieve this year; I want to create designs for a wide range of products.

Pip Pittman's Diary - http://www.pippittmandesign.com

 Pip's love for texture also comes across in her work, especially in this ceramic piece below. I love the line quality in all of her work, and these two elements are something that I want to achieve in my work next year as well.

Pip Pittman's Ceramics - http://www.pippittmandesign.com

Over all visiting the degree show was an fantastic opportunity and I gained inspiration from every single student, including those who weren't from Textiles.

Visiting the 2014 MMU degree show: Lindsay Swan

Lindsay Swans work was also very inspiring. Whilst walking through the degree show her work caught my eye because of the fantastic patterns as well as the 3D products on her display.

Photo taken from MMU Degree show - Lindsay Swan

What I love about her prints is the intricate use of colour and also the scale, composition and contrast within the collection. There is so much texture in her work, and it appears hand drawn yet digital at the same time. Her colour palette is beautiful and I hope that the colour in my collection next year is that good.

Photo taken from MMU Degree show - Lindsay Swan

After reading more about her work, I found that she was inspired by a month of traveling in Thailand, and the patterns and architecture that she came across. She also mentioned that she was inspired by an artist called Barbara Hulanicki who I hadn't heard of before, and looking into her work was also very inspiring for me.

Photo taken from MMU Degree show - Lindsay Swan

The context for her designs is gift wrap which is something else that I am very interested in. I have always loved patterns for gift wrap and this is one option that I am considering as a final outcome next year. Unfortunately after searching for Lindsay online I can't find any more of her work, from a website, blog, twitter or Linkedin. I would have loved to see more of her collection so I have emailed her to see if I can learn more about her wonderful work.

Visiting the 2014 MMU Degree show: Jessica Brown Creations.

When this years degree show was on I took the opportunity to visit it twice, looking around the Textiles in Practice work, as well as various other programmes in depth. There was so much inspiring work but I have chosen to write about my 3 favourite designers as their work has inspired me and I wish to create similar work next year.

Some of Jessica Browns Stationery Collection - http://jessicafloralscent.tumblr.com

Jessica Brown Wallpaper Design - http://jessicafloralscent.tumblr.com

My favourite student was Jessica Brown. Her work stood out immediately with the way she displayed her work and prints. I was inspired by her work because it is exactly the kind of collection that I want to be producing by the end of next year. Her wallpaper and stationery collection proved that I she can work across a range of products with a variety of scales, which is something that I want to show in my portfolio as well. I also liked the way she displayed her work in the vintage crates (as shown below), as it stood out because it was different to everyone else's and looked professional, which is something I will take into consideration for my show.

After reading through her blog, it is clear that she is inspired by organic and natural forms, and uses her strong drawing skills to enhance her collections. This is exactly how I work and I want to make sure that I keep a hand drawn, but digitally enhanced, element to my work.

I also loved her choice of colour palette and colour is something that I intend to work on this year too. It is also clear that she had done a lot of market research about stationery and different designers and ways of designing, as well as concentrating on her brand.

Jessica Brown's Colour Palette Board - http://jessicafloralscent.tumblr.com

Jessica Brown's Market Research Board - http://jessicafloralscent.tumblr.com

Jessica Brown's Business card design, and logo design - http://jessicafloralscent.tumblr.com

I hope to achieve this in my projects next year and being inspired by Jessica's work has shown me that brand and great product knowledge is just as important as designing.