Preparing my portfolio

This week I have started to focus on getting my portfolio together. When assembling the whole portfolio, I have researched into the presentation of furnishing and surface pattern portfolios to make sure I adhere to industry standards. This includes factors such as including reference numbers on the back of designs, along with visualisations. However, furnishings differs from surface pattern in presentation, which is important for to me embrace as I have such a varied portfolio.

I have narrowed down the designs for the Moments collection, to create the final collection (shown below). I made the selection based on how the colour palette worked as a whole, whilst ensuring that each design represented a different moment, and no design used the same element as another so that they can be bought by clients.

I also felt that it was important to complete a gift wrap photoshoot to provide visualisations to include along side each design in my portfolio. After trying to complete this on photoshop using a blank present, I felt that the curves, angles and folds weren't realistic enough, so I styled a shoot with printed papers to achieve perfect results. 

I am happy with the final outcomes, as they look good in my portfolio next to my prints. They also compliment my website, as I took photos that can be used on the homepage (shown below). I ensured that the various wrapping accessories that I used (twine, rafia, natural objects) adhered with my theme and complimented the design I was photographing, enhancing the feel of the images. Having a visualisation next to my design will further ensure that my portfolio is professional and appropriate for my audience.

Testing foiling methods has been on ongoing research process throughout the unit. After finding a successful way to complete the foiling, it didn't work on the laser printed images because the glue beaded on the paper. I intend to refine this technique before the end of the unit. Alternatively, I could show a small swatch of the foiled design from an inkjet printer next to the full design from a laser printer.

I have also decided on the final designs for my Botany collection, which was difficult as I had numerous different designs that worked well, containing the same elements. However I am confident that this collection represents my concept well, whilst maintaining a strong colour palette, and mixing traditional and modern techniques together.

When presenting this collection, in order to work professionally, I need to include visuals and colour ways to suit the market I am designing for. I have dedicated a lot of time to ensure that the visuals show off my work in the best possible way, and the colour ways have a sensitive and complimentary palette. Below is an example of the information I am including on the back of each design: a visualisation, colour way, 2x2 repeat square and a reference number. 

I have also considered other practical features for my portfolio, including mounting each collection on heavy card to ensure that they are sturdy and won't crease. Testing has been completed for all of my collections to ensure that the final portfolio versions are printed to the correct scale, and I am happy with the colour and printing quality. I also intend to include a folder with boards showing the concept, research and context for each collection. 

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

Developing the Botanical collection

I have been continuing to draw and paint images for my wallpaper collection for a large proportion of this unit, in order to meet the requirements of my learning agreement. As they take a long period of time to draw, I scan them in at different stages so that I have a large quantity of imagery to work with. This is illustrated below.

Due to the amount of time that these illustrations take, I plan out drawings before hand to ensure that I will be able to use them in a design. As well as creating the design I planned originally, I also designed other potential wallpapers, some of which are shown below.

The elements that I have been drawing over the past few weeks have been meadow plants, so I was keen to get across that feeling of delicate, yet cluttered flowers. I feel that the prints shown get across this feeling whilst staying contemporary. I think they also work well because of the contemporary composition and colour.

I also wanted to use the pencil sketches that I scanned in, and the traditional botanical writing. I feel that this is working well in the image below, as I have used the white, solid sketches to overlap the watercolour images, giving a contemporary twist to a traditionally inspired design.

I have also been creating more drawings using pen to draw with rather than pencil and watercolour.

I think the green background of the design above will fit into the rest of the collection well, but I am concerned that the style might not suit. I could therefore create other design that is similar to this to bring the rest of the collection together if this is the case.

I also tried to create a watercolour effect in the background of the design below. However I don't think the design is successful as part of the rest of my collection, as the style looks completely different.

I preferred the designs (below) which involved all four different plants that I drew as there is more to look at within the design. I also felt that adding text in the background helped my designs to link more to the rest of my collection. However, I felt that the white design would probably fit into the rest of my collection the most. This is due to the text in the background, but also because the images look less graphic as the background colour is the same white as the imagery.

My context for this collection is similar to that of companies such as Osborne and Little, Harlequin and in particular Marimekko. I feel that Marimekko's prints have an impact due to their size, and they also digitally print their wallpaper onto varying widths of paper, which is exactly what I intend to do with my designs. As well as selling through their own site they also stock companies like John Lewis. This production method and scale mean that their wallpapers are specialist, designer products, and this is why I think my work would fit into the same market. 

Marimekko

I am really pleased with the developments over the past few weeks. Although it has taken a long time to do the drawings, I feel that it has made my designs a very high standard. The only problem I will have is that I can only use an element in one design. It will therefore be hard to chose which design or designs to take forward for my final collection. As I am finding this decision hard, I might look back at it in a few weeks time, and might have to redraw some elements if I want to include the design in my final collection.

Developing Surface Pattern designs

This week I have had the opportunity to develop my surface pattern designs further along side visualisations.

I am really pleased with some of these prints as I feel the scale is working well, along with the colour and content. Although I was worried that my concept was hard to explain and get across in a print, I feel that these prints are successfully representing data. To enhance this idea, I have named individual designs with the moment that the data was taken, such as winter woodland.

When starting to look at the prints together, I started to notice that certain elements stood out from the rest of the collection, for example the typography in the print above. I do like the typography but in Unit X I might consider adding it into more than one design so it works well over the whole collection.

I also spent time this week taking photos of objects for visualisations to help bring my products to life. I am happy with these but in Unit X I feel I could produce stronger images that set more of a scene. For example a set of stationery, or a pile of presents.

I also started to see that some prints (e.g. above) have the potential to develop into a christmas collection in Unit X. I feel that this would also be good for my portfolio, showing I can work to realistic breifs.

Surface pattern designing

This week I have been getting back into designing for the surface pattern part of my project. I decided when I divided my work that I wanted to work with data for the surface pattern aspect of my project. After having a break whilst working on my botany work, I now know that I want my prints to represent the data I have collected from a specific moment in time.  After looking at how other people represent and collect data, I realised that I didn't want my prints to look like mathematic data as it wouldnt suit my target market, which led me to the idea of making my print a way of representing data, or a moment in time. I am therefore going to collect or draw items at different times and locations, and turn these into prints.

I had already been doing this sort of data collection throughout the project, but this week I took the opportunity to document more objects around me. I started at the bus stop that I use to get to university, and also went on a woodland walk. These have produced good drawings but I feel that in the next unit I can gather more data using more varied locations. This will also end up producing more interesting prints.

When I placed these motifs into photoshop I created a number of prints to allow me to experiment with the motifs to their full potential. This resulted in producing more than one print that had the potential to be a final design with the same elements (shown above). Therefore in Unit X I could recreate a similar print after drawing new motifs.

Next week I want to create more prints with different elements so I can see how the collection might function as a whole. I feel that to enable me to see which prints are working best, I need to take some photos for visualisations, which I will complete next week.

Designing Botanical Wallpapers

After spending two weeks creating detailed botanical drawings I had enough material to create designs this week which are shown below.

When I started to assemble designs, I soon realised that scanning in my drawings at the pencil stage and the watercolour stage was really useful for the design process as it allowed me to build up layers of line and solid imagery. I feel that the different styles of layout, from organised to scattered are working well and are giving a breadth to my collection. I also used many drawings of the same plant to create more detailed prints including buds, stems, cross sections of various parts of the plant and writing (as is used in traditional botany illustrations). I also feel that the context and layout of these prints reflects my concept really well.

Some designs were simpler with just two colours, and the Echinacea design above worked really well, as it also had a linear quality that would work well for wallpaper. I feel this contrast could add a nice variety to my collection.

Creating visuals as I designed helped me to see how the scale of my designs were working and also gave me more inspiration for other designs. I now feel that the way I am working to create my designs is working really well for me. For future designing, I will bear in mind that plants with flowers produced better prints, due to the different qualities to the drawing such as colour and shape.

Botanical Drawings

I have spent the past two weeks dedicating a lot of time to drawings for my wallpaper designs. I know that in order to create high quality wallpaper designs, I need to produce large scale, detailed botanical drawings to work with, so I have managed my time well to accommodate for this.

After my research and experimentation based on botanical drawings, I now have mastered the technique for creating these illustrations. I start off by creating a detailed pencil drawing like the fern above, and then go over it with detailed watercolour as shown in the foxglove image below. This technique has worked well for me as it recreates the botanical illustrative techniques really well, and creates high quality drawings.

When choosing my subject matter to draw from, I have also been considering my initial concept, science and nature. I am keen for the plants I draw to have a scientific relevance, for example, the foxglove has medical properties such as curing heart disease. However if consumed in its raw state its also poisonous.

I feel that using a long period of time to do these drawings was a good use of time management, and will allow me to produce high quality drawings that reflect my concept really well.

Design Experimentation and Development

For me, this week was all about developing the drawings I have been doing into ideas and designs. Sometimes this was just placing different elements together to see what they looked like, and some developed into design ideas.

I started off by defining my colour palette which is inspired by natural and scientific elements, as well as colours that I like. I have enjoyed working with the colour palette but to improve it, I feel that I need two different palettes or colour directions for me to experiment with (such as bright and tonal). I will bare this in mind when working on drawings and designs in the future.

Colour Palette Development

I started by experimenting with some of the large scale shadow drawings that I have completed, and I like the design below as there is a good contrast between line and shadow. I also like the fact that it involves the shadow and contour line drawing of the same plant, so both elements have come from the same source yet look totally different. However, I after using the larger scale shadow work in my designs, I dont feel it does justice to my concept and the ideas I have had throughout the project. I therefore might use the data ring idea with other elements to make a stronger print: the larger scale work might be something I could pick up again in Unit X.

Shadow and contour line print experiment

I also mixed up some painted elements to create a traditional style print with a modern twist. I like how each element works well together, with the paler silhouette in the background, and the bold flowers. I think if I created more similar, but smaller motifs, they would all make a good repeat pattern too.

Experiment with gouache flowers

I also wanted to keep some prints simpler, using just a few colours, and I am pleased with the print below. I like that this print represents the taxonomy, and data collection part of my project, as all of the elements were collected on the same walk. I think I could experiment more with the way I arrange these, possibly bringing in the botany element from my work so far. 

Print based on collection of natural elements

Finally, I also like these two prints below because I feel that they are starting to become more original and different to whats already out there. I feel that the mix of hand drawn, graphic, textural and solid colour work well together and I wish to develop this with my next set of designs too.

I am really pleased with my design development and I feel that this will now help me to focus my drawings as I know the kind of designs I want to create. 

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.