Evaluation

This project has been a great learning curve. I feel I have learnt a considerable amount about the way I work, and my style of working. Exactly halfway through this project, I realised that my practice may not have been going in the direction I wanted it to be, mainly due to how much I missed illustrative drawing. This meant shifting from weave to print on a slightly crazy whim. I didn’t initially use any of the work I had produced for weave, which instantly hindered my time management.

I developed my initial theme from the live brief ‘Tigerprint’; floral designs for gift wrap. This then became the whole subject to both of my projects. I originally planned on having two completely separate collections, where one would consent to the gift wrap live brief, and one would cross over to weave and be woven on the Jacquard loom. This would have been perfect in enabling me to experiment with illustrative image in weave.

 

 

My development processes took me on a experimental journey where I tried many different techniques. These included drawing from live flowers, painting, photographing in florists, collage and flower pressing. This engaged me again with my love of drawing and photography. I took a great leap when deciding to take print due to my lack of technical skills. I forgot that I did not have to combine all of this visual research and struggled in narrowing down my experimentation. This is definitely something to work upon in the future.

 My final tutorial with Alex made me realise that I wasn’t expected to have a final collection (mainly due to my late decision to change , but to just develop design ideas. He asked me to create design ideas in two different colourways. The second colour palette being taken from my initial weave project. This finally made a nice cross over of projects, even though the theme was entirely dissimilar.

Overall, I have created designs for two very different contexts. One for interiors, which has always been my passion, and one for TigerPrint (live brief) gift wraps. If I was to develop these design ideas, I would have liked to draw and collage more to create more of a hand drawn collection, (after all, that was the reason I decided to change paths). I am most happy with my interiors collection, mainly due to the colour selections and simplicity of design. In terms of context, I can visualise my designs in commercial high street shops such as John Lewis, Debenhams, B&Q, aimed at the younger market that have interest in bold, bright and statement design. I can see my designs being versatile enough to cross over for wallpaper and fabric for upholstery, (swatches attached to samples, Heavy Cotton in Cotton Duck White).

 

 

I don’t feel like this project has been successful in terms of outcome, and I’m not entirely happy with what I have produced, however it has been successful in terms of realisations. Doing this has made me recognize I am more suited towards weave, even if I have only scraped the surface of print. Working on a constant flat surface doesn’t fit my way of working, instead I enjoy yarn selections, textures, and the ‘making’ of an actual fabric. I have opened my eyes to different ways in working in weave, whether this is illustrative drawing at the start of a project, and careful selection into translating these into weave, or working on the Jacquard loom to construct to patterns I design. I really like the idea of combining print with weave (specifically screen printing), which is a much more hands on way of working.

 

Colourways

 

As discussed in my final tutorial, Alex suggested having a nearly identical collection in two different colourways. My first colour palette has come from my first live brief that I was initially doing when I was in Weave, taken from one of Atelier Bingo's collages. My second has been taken from images that I had found when searching for inspirational floral prints on Pinterest. (Mood board shown in development work).

 

I enjoy how the two different colour palettes give the designs an entirely different feel. For example, I see the first colour palette more for interiors (specifically wallpaper and fabric for upholstery) as its much more subtle in tone, whereas the second is much more vibrant and playful, perfect for Tigerprint gift wrap.

 

 

 

Final Tutorial: New Techniques

 

Today I met with Alex for a one on one final tutorial. Here we spoke about what's expected from me as a final outcome, and helped me along with some troubles I've been having in developing my designs within Photoshop. This tutorial was really helpful in terms of helping me sort out my priorities, and how my work was to be presented from a print perspective.

 

Alex was really helpful and taught me some new techniques for developing my designs, and better alternatives for a selection of processes I'd been using already. I wanted to keep the photographic elements in my work whilst also incorporating and layering my own drawings. I'd previously been using the gradient tool to create backgrounds to work on top of, but couldn't find a way to move it on from looking like a photograph still.

 

 

Here I have imported a primary photograph and changed the mode into 'Indexed Colour'. This mode enables you to limit the amount of colours shown and allows for a very graphic image. Here, I could now control the colours taken from my palette with the fill tool. I feel that this technique makes such beautiful backgrounds to work on top on, but I also love the simplicity.

 

 

 

In terms of final outcomes, we spoke about not having a final collection, but using this project to just experiment with design ideas. This made me feel much better about my time limit as I was struggling to see how this was going to turn into a final collection. In separating my live brief and self initiated brief, I am going to d the same designs in two different colour ways, using the initial colour palette from my Wallace and Sewell live brief.

 

 

 

Print Developments

 

I first started to experiment just using the drawings I had done from the live flowers I had taken in the florists. I started to visualise these as simple repeat prints in very simple colours taken from my chosen colour palette. These were interesting in their appearance, due to the colourisation, they almost seemed like optical illusions. I realised that these had to be much more subtle for them to work well, and I needed to start thinking about possible backgrounds instead of just plain block colour.

 

 

 

In another experimentation, I used the gradient tool to shade areas of photographs I had taken. This was then developed by selecting areas of interest in the design. I wanted to start finding a way to make backgrounds for my drawings (even if these colours are slightly too bright), so looked into some of the textural photographs I had taken. I took this further by making repeats of the backgrounds, which I wasn't that impressed with. Starting to layer flowers into the image helped me to visualise some final print ideas.

 

Live Brief Tigerprint: Collaging

 

In an attempt to start combining the visual research that I have so far, I started to collage together drawings and colour manipulated photographs. Collage is one of my favourite techniques and feel that this should have been great to bring together my visuals; however, I don't feel like these collages have informed my final designs. I think that this was due to wanting to combine all of these techniques when actually I should just be narrowing down my ideas to something more specific. Doing this has made me realise how much I love the photograph elements, and I'm hoping to take this forward.

 

 

Primary Photographs

 

As discussed in previous tutorials, I took a trip to the florists to take some photographs that I could draw from and use as backgrounds. This was a vital part of my practice and I didn't realise at the time how important these photographs would be. Whilst at the florists, I mainly searched for different textures, and also focused on individual flowers that I thought I could select and add onto some pre- made backgrounds in Photoshop. I initially had a lot of trouble with the Nikon SLR that I had borrowed from uni (due to losing my charger for my own Canon SLR), so I wasn't as clued up on how to use it. I managed to get a good selection of photographs together that I felt were suitable enough for what I wanted to use them for. (Contact sheet of images is with development drawings).

 

 

 

My second shoot was much better in terms of lighting and camera equipment. I felt that white roses would be an easy colour to manipulate in Photoshop, and photographing them against the black would make for an easier selection. I am more happy with these photographs as an actual image, but as part of development, I now plan to start selecting and collaging some of the roses.  

 

 

 

My final shoot was my most successful. After experimenting with selecting single flowers, I decided that concentrating on the textures of the photograph as a whole is more catered to the way I want my designs to look. I feel that once I have experimented in changing colours and making them into much more graphic images in Photoshop, these will either work perfectly as backgrounds, or as designs on their own.

 

 

 

 

TigerPrint: Flower Pressing

 

 

To enhance my visual research, I dug out my old flower press and came across a considerable amount I had done when I was much younger. These came in really handy in order to run along side my recent photography. A mixed media approach would be interesting if I was to incorporate these into some collages/ paintings.

 

 

 

 

I felt that it was important that I did some more recent pressing, but struggled due to season and time limit. I feel that the flowers have a much nicer feel to them when they are fully dried out. I plan to make these into brushes within Photoshop to inform my digital prints.

 

 

 

 

 

Self Initiated Brief: Hand Drawn Floral Design

 

I started my initial visual research by free hand drawing some favourite flowers I'd searched on Pinterest. This was a great way for me to get back into illustrative drawing after taking some time away from it. I experimented with a variation of flowers in different compositions, but stuck to the same style of drawing throughout. I feel that these would make great repeats, or very simple designs to layer over the top of backgrounds.

 



 

 

 

To develop these, in tutorial, Alex suggested that I try to get some colour into these somehow. Still not knowing my full colour palette, I proceeded to use water colour to give a taster of what the flowers look like with a colour behind them.

 

 

 

 

 

Tigerprint: Creating Backgrounds: Marbling

 

My mood boards include some images that are quite psychedelic and taking inspiration from these, I decided to do some marbling to help me along with some background ideas to my designs. After marvelling with colours that I wasn't particularly interested in using, I proceeded to start to change them in Photoshop. I am no longer interested in using these as backgrounds as to my work purely due to my dislike in aesthetics.

 

 

Florals/ Print Inspiration

Stella McCartney SS 2012

 

 

Stella McCartney's Spring/ Summer 2012 collection is one of my favourites. I enjoy the scale in which these prints work, and the specific placements of the floral design. The contrast in different types flowers and their colour work so perfectly together, with subtle hints of background design (not above, bottom left). The photographic elements is something that I would really like to produce in my own prints. 

 

  

 

Abigail Borg

 

 

Abigail Borg is one of my favourite textile designers due to how raw her work is. Drawing has been a vast contributing factor to me wanting to try print, and I feel that Abigail's work reflects the way in which I'd like to work. Interiors has always been my main focus when working on designs, (whether this be in print or weave, or even both combined). Abigail's prints are large in scale and the colours are very overstated. Her designs make a bold statement within interior design.

 

 

 

Camilla France

 

I came across Camilla Frances whilst searching floral designs on Pinterest. Again, photography is playing a vast part in her work, but I've mainly found myself looking towards these designs for colour inspiration. Acidic colours have always captured my attention when researching, and I feel that colours similar to these could be interesting to take into interiors for wallpaper and upholstery.