Developing the Moments collection

After completing a large proportion of my Botanical collection, I have started working on my surface pattern collection.

As my surface pattern work is based on moments in time, I wanted to make a print based on the pond in my garden, as I have always been fascinated by the amount of plant and animal life that inhabit it.

Some of the nature that I drew from consisted of plants, frogspawn, duck weed, lily pads, frogs, dragonflies and iris petals. The designs above represent the pond in the way I envisaged, however the colour isn't perfect, and I feel that the designs below have more potential, due to the good use of colour and composition. The Iris design would add a variety to the collection so far, and the dragonfly design captures the pond perfectly, corresponding to my initial learning agreement.

After visiting the Lake district over the easter break I wanted to use this as inspiration for my Moments collection as well. Whilst I was there I took photos and sketched things that interested me.

After drawing motifs to design with, I started to assemble designs. I think that the design on the left is visually appealing, however the vertical stripe is too strong, and it's too simple. The design on the right also didn't fit the brief as it doesn't convey the Lake District, however I feel that this is because of the colour use.

 The design below was based on Grisedale forrest and I am happy with the result, as it portrays the layering of trees on the hills, with a good use of colour and line.

I also really like the design below based on a visit to Grassmere because of the composition and the fact that it represents my visit. It also suits the products I am designing for well.

The context for the Moments collection is the high end of the highstreet. I can see my products being sold in companies like Paperchase and Selfridges. More specifically, the context for my work is similar to that of Anna Emilia and Khristian Howell. They both create and design contemporary, quirky stationery that sells on their own sites and through companies on the High street, such as Waterstones and John Lewis. The price range for these products is therefore between £5-£20, and is of a very high standard and quality. I therefore feel that my work fits this market because of the style of design, colour use and quality of final product. Creating visuals and doing a photoshoot will allow me to portray this to others as well.

Anna Emilia . Khristian Howell

Pin up: Dividing work into two collections

This week I had a pin up of all my work to divide it into two collections. I found this hard, as my work could be divided in so many ways, for example visually or conceptually. I decided that the best way to do this would be to select around 6 pieces of work that would be the starting point for each collection. I then created inspirational boards based on this selection.

Above is the inspiration board for my surface pattern collection, consisting of current work. I picked the work based on the quality of drawing (small scale, linear and painterly) and the concept behind the work. All of the work above is based on data collection so I will use this and the work I have done so far to drive my designs. However, after doing work based on data such as pie charts, I know that I do not want my work to look like mathematic data because it will not suit my market. I will therefore be inspired by collecting my own material and making prints that represent a moment in time. Therefore the print will be my way of representing data.

I also created a board of surface pattern designs that inspire me. I wanted to look at how different artists and designers assemble their designs, including all over prints, motif based prints, and single or multi directional prints.

This is my concept board for my wallpaper collection, where I chose work based on botanical drawings. The concept for this collection will be based on anatomy and botany, which are two aspects of my research that I really enjoyed working with.

I also conducted some market research and created an inspiration board for the wallpaper collection, looking at how designers assemble repeats, and how they use all over pattern structures, as well as motifs, in their designing process.

I am really pleased with the starting points for each collection. I feel that I now can develop my work in a more refined way, using the best parts of my research to inspire my collections. I have also tried to incorporate as much of my initial research as I can, whilst being selective about which bits would work best. At the moment I am unsure about the name of each collection, and the colour palette that I will end up working with, but I am allowing for the fact that this will develop with the project.

Colour, Inspiration and Internship!

My Colour Palette: 

After creating a few designs, I have decided on a final colour palette for my designs. The inspiration for my choice of colour came from one of the colour palettes that Debbie gave us initially which included bright pinks, pale blues, yellows, greens and greys! I loved the idea of challenging myself by using bright colours, as I usually work with subtle, cool colours. When I started designing with the scheme I found that the palette naturally started to develop, and below is the final colour palette that I chose, along with some colour source images found online. 

Image A: My colour palette

Clarissa Hulse:

I have spent some time during this project looking at designers other than Digetex that provide me with ideas and inspiration in relation to the brief. Clarissa Hulse is one designer that is particularly relevant, as she designs cushions for the home, with bright bold colours. The way she uses her colour palette is very clever, and her combinations of colours work really well together, and this is something I want to take into my own practice and develop in my designs.

Image B: Bright cushions by Clarissa Hulse. http://clarissahulse.com

Image C: Bed sheet set by Clarissa Hulse. http://clarissahulse.com

I like the fact that she uses her prints along side solid bold colour, such as on the duvet (Image C) and on the back of her cushions (Image B). Her designs also consist of only two or three colours, and I feel that I could have some designs like this in my collection that are simpler, in contrast to some complex watercolour based designs. I also feel like in my collection I could suggest a complimentary colour for the back of each cushion to enhance my designs.

Image D: Triangle collage of Designs inspired by Clarissa Hulse

Image E: Stripe collage of Designs inspired by Clarissa Hulse

Above are some examples of how I have embraced the way she works. I have taken the idea of introducing block colour between designs on board and I think it adds a really interesting quality to the designs which could be part of my final collection.

Internship with Digetex:

After meeting with Debbie twice, she emailed me and asked me to go down to Digetex in Trafford Park for an Interview. I was so excited to be offered this opportunity as is means that she is really impressed by the way I have been responding to the brief she has set, and proves that I have embraced new challenges, understood her professional brief, and met her requirements. I was lucky enough to be offered an Internship with them, and I am so excited! I will be starting throughout this project, doing a day a week working in their studio. From then on I will be working 4 days a week over the whole of summer! It will be a fantastic opportunity and I can't wait to see what I learn! 

I also feel that this will enhance my work for Unit X, working even further in collaboration with the designers in the studio, and having first hand access to the way Digetex work and working in a professional context.

Xochi Solis

I came across the artist Xochi Solis during my summer and loved the colour, detail and media that she put in her work. When looking her up I found much more of her work and realised that it was on a much bigger scale than I expected. Her work fills walls and spaces with colour, pattern and texture.

“I am continuously inspired by my surroundings and make a concentrated effort to let the present moment resonate with me,” Xochi writes. “I am very aware that every single detail that floods my senses from sunup to sundown has importance and how I perceive this world around us is mine alone. Bad or good, sunny or stormy, this world is pretty marvelous and I try to take my observations and make something unique and true for me.”

Usually I'm not fond of abstract art but I like the way she collages imagery and colour to create an image which gets the viewer thinking about what she was trying to represent. She uses a range of media including found images, gouache, house paint, vinyl, acetate, acrylic, coloured paper, and wax.

Below are my responses to Xochi Solis’ work, which I did in my sketchbook. I used photos that I took on holiday and portrayed their colour palette with watercolour, gouache, and paper scraps, as well as the photo itself. The images which I used are of the sunset, a firework display, a boat trip, and a Sandringham flower show display. I really enjoyed this exercise, as I was able to depict colour and texture by layering up media and papers. If I could do it again I’d make even more effort to get the colours spot on, and try layering up more.

A car window drying!

This weekend, we took advantage of the weather to wash the cars, but as it was drying, I spotted this lovely pattern forming on the window, which I thought looked like my chromatography work. The colours of the setting sun make this pattern even more interesting.

Colour Scheme!

For this project I wanted to achieve a sophisticated autumnal look. I had to chose a picture and represent the colours proportionally on a colour strip to create my colour palette. This would then create my colour scheme and to my surprise, no pictures of autumnal scenes or leaves had the right colour balance, they were all too bright, orange, green or dull. The picture I chose in the end was from a cookery book, and here are the results.

Above is a moodboard which I made to help me with my autumn theme.

Colour Colour Colour!!

 This week I have been concentrating on colour! At the start of the week we used Gouache to create a colour wheel and colour strips. It really helped me to develop my colour mixing skills as we had to change from one colour to another using 20 different stages.

As part of this task we were asked to try and create the colours of certain words such as mushy peas, elastoplast pink and bluebell. It was great fun and really interesting to see how and why some people mixed their colours so differently.

Today I experimented with Gouache and colour even more! I created 3 stripes and had to pick out the colours from some drawings that I had done and represent them in proportional stripes. For example the far left stripe represents the colours in the top drawing, and the middle stripe represents the whole space of the top drawing and the lines of the birds themselves. I loved the pattern that I ended up with, and to me, they represent the colours of my journey to Liverpool very well.