Week Beginning 11th January

I've chosen to spend the next few weeks focusing on producing an outcome for the Adamley live brief to produce a print for men's silk accessories. I have chosen to generate designs for pocket squares. In terms of a starting point I didn't see anything that particularly inspired me in the Adamley archives, so I've decided to use less obvious references in the form of photographs of interesting compositions, shapes and textures, that I took whilst on the mill visit.

Using the same abstract, painterly drawing technique I have been using throughout this unit, I've created a number of potential design motifs. To develop it on from my previous drawing work I have brought in the contrast of linear qualities, looking at the finer details. I'm doing this so that the work in my portfolio doesn't all end up looking too similar.

Visual research

To get a good idea of the types of designs Joanne from Adamley might be interested in I've conducted research into the high end independents they have supplied to for example Doherty Evans and Stott and Turnball and Asser. The key thing to remember from the briefing is definitely colour, when wearing formal/workwear men will often use a pocket square or neck tie to show off their personality. I'm going to try to include orange or mustard as it was mentioned in the briefing that they were strong colours.

Doherty Evans and Stott

Week Beginning 30th November

The review presentation took place on Monday. I prepared a digital presentation with key images of my development since the last review session, I also presented all the visual research I had produced. 

Things for me to consider going forward include:

• Instead of bringing all of the visual research and presenting it like a 'bring and buy', I should select key work that supports what I'm saying.
• As a development I could consider what I can do with 140cm (furnishing width) of fabric before the print repeats, creating large, abstract feature designs.
• I have edited the spot design (below) as it was commented on that by only using two motifs I've lost the difference that makes the other designs effective.

Design Before

Design After

Last week I created some fabric samples using sublimation printing but the fabric wasn't the right weight to portray a cushion fabric. I had them digitally printed onto Cotton canvas, which has the right weight for what I'm looking for . 

Fabric Samples

My next priority is to complete a live brief before the end of the unit. I plan to begin to develop my self initiated project but I also want to focus enough time on a live brief.

Week Beginning 23rd November

Below is the line up for my self initiated collection. I believe I have created a collection of prints that has the right amount of experimentation and variation. There was a sixth design (seen in the bottom line up) but on review I felt it wasn't as strong as the others designs especially when put into context, it really stood out.

Design Collection

Including the 6th design

I've designed this collection of prints for interiors, particularly for wallpaper and cushions. This combination of products is one that a lot of leading designers such as Rebecca Atwood and Timorous Beasties produce. The visualisations below show the 'inky' design in context, I especially like the wallpaper visualisation because it looks realistic.

Having 4 weeks to complete each project has been challenging but it has also pushed me to develop my ideas and almost reach a resolve at every 4 week stage.

Week Beginning 16th November

This week I have made the decision to move away from expanding the collection of prints from the first four weeks and instead create a separate collection of prints. I made this decision because I could see potential in the visual research to be more than supporting designs for my previous designs. I also see it as an opportunity to broaden my portfolio.

Initially as I was still designing with the idea to create coordinating designs, I was using the same colour palette as my prints for the Bradford Textiles Society competition entry, but when I started to produce design ideas I didn't feel that the colours were having the same impact as the original drawings.

Design I created

Original drawing

The green and blue are too similar tonally, the green floral shapes look drowned out by the blue background whereas in the original drawing the black and white contrast really well and are very striking together. With this in mind I have decided to rethink my colour mood and use a two colour, colour palette of white and indigo blue.

Colour Palette

Rebecca Atwood

Rebecca Atwood has a simple yet sophisticated design style, it's the type of style I hope to achieve with my self initated collection. Using a two colour, colour palette could be limiting if it's not used in the right way but because Rebecca Atwood's designs are so varied in terms of motifs, scale and composition, it works perfectly.

This amount of variation has been fed into my design work, when experimenting with putting designs together I have considered the use of motifs, scale and composition. The designs (below) are all quite linear based but because they are created using different compositions and scales they look unique to one another.

Week Beginning 9th November

This week I have established what I need to do next. As there isn't a live brief that I like the look of yet I'm going to focus my time on the self initiated project. With the idea to create semi plain prints that complement the collection I produced in the first 4 week project, I have been producing visual research that is created using the same process, creating painterly marks but moving away from focusing on florals and looking instead at abstract shapes.

Visual research I've been producing

To get a clearer idea of how a company puts a print collection together I have conducted research into leading brands such as Harlequin and Romo. The image (below) from Harlequin's website shows their Amazilia collection working in context. There are the stand out, main designs i.e the blue and gold wallpaper but then there are also the simpler prints i.e the hummingbird curtains that are complementing the wallpaper. As a whole all of the prints are working well together. Designers have coordinating designs to compliment the bolder main ones because they know if a customer is decorating a room they will be looking to match their wallpaper with their curtains and their furniture and so they will receive more custom.

Week Beginning 2nd November

In the week since the two tutor crit I have been using the feedback I received to make improvements to my work.

Firstly I redesigned the arm chairs for my visualisations as they weren't reflecting the contemporary style of the prints. Comparing the two styles I can now understand what Teresa meant when she said that the chair I chose wasn't contemporary enough. In comparison to the chair after, the original chair looks 'old ladyish' and it's nowhere near as visually exciting as the new visualisation. 

Scaling up the design has added to the appeal as the motifs are so large, it creates a lovely abstract pattern. It's also difficult to identify the repeat, which as a designer you want. Instead of just going with the first piece of furniture I find when creating a visualisation, I've learnt to experiment with a number of different styles because choosing the wrong piece of furniture can ruin the appeal of the print.

The chair before and after the two crit

I have also printed some more A3 samples that are a snapshot of the larger scale and reflect the updated visualisations. I've realised I should take my time when making my samples and visualisations. It's important to have accurate/to scale samples that reflect my visualisations. I plan to print A1/2 paper samples for my portfolio before the end of the unit.

To scale A3 Samples