Evaluation

In reflection of this unit, I can conclude that Unit X has been the most successful and finalised project that I have created during my time on this course. I feel that I have found more of an understanding of how I work as a designer and have been focused on translating this through my body of work. I have challenged myself to create two successful collections within two different contexts aimed at slightly different target audiences.

Whilst builing up a body of primary research to take forward towards a design collection, I have found that I draw from my visual research with the intention of manipulating them through digital processes. Perhaps this slightly limits my potential in terms of creating pieces of artwork although, this is the methodical process that I work in for producing designs for industry. I feel that this is something that has been brought to light to close to the end of this project, but is something I will continue to consider for my portfolio in preparation for future portfolio interviews.

Based on my collections, I feel that I am most happiest with my collection for gift wrap. In one of the live briefs from the previous practise unit, I was shortlisted from 400 applicants to 60 for a giftcard design which would be sold in Marks and Spencers. I feel that this gave me the confidence to approach this context and I have enjoyed working within a different market to interiors as it encouraged me to consider new elements and criteria within giftware and accessories. Based on the experimentation I carried out with Puff printing in the Practise Unit, developed with further cotextual research, I have achieved a highend collection for giftwrap focused on the combination of hand screen relief printing and digital manipulation.

In this project I wanted to challenge myself within my colour pallet and colour use within a collection of designs. With my collections complete I feel that I can say that I have achieved a more professional colour pallet than I ever have before. I am aware that I do work within tonal complimentary colour pallets but I feel that injecting vibrant contrasting colour has lifted my designs and given them some life.

The work of Christian Lacroix helped inform my colour pallet for my second collection. I wanted to take on a completely new colour approach to the first collection and I felt that because working in black and white is originialy such a key element to my design process, it would be interesting to explore it within the final elements to my collection. This collection in particular has been created solely through digital print and has been targetted at a highstreet audience in contrast to my high end collection for gift wrap.

Overall, I believe I have produced a professional, focussed body of work that exhibits my talents as a digital print designer for industry and I have effectively met the briefs stated at the beginning of Unit X.

Plans for Degree Show

Portfolio

In preparation for assessment, I had to carefully consider the presentation of my portfolio. I understand that it is a body of selective work that exhibits my attributes as a contemporary designer.Through my portfolio, I want to illustrate my skills within drawing and digital print, and evidence of my designs working in practise. I intend for each page to be clean, fresh and minimilistic to illustrate a clear message. This body of work will be primarily focused around my digital print samples and this is where I see my work lying within industry.

Final Collection for WallPaper

Final Collection for GiftWrap

Screen Printing

During the Practise Unit, I came across the work of Barbara Hulanicki, an illustrator who designs for both Fashion and Interiors. As part of one of her wallpaper collections, she uses the process of flocking, which adds a relief texture to the surface of designs. Combining this with the research I undertook into my outcome of gift-wrap, I felt that incorporating digital elements and the screen printing process involving a product known as Aqua-bind, I would be able to create a similar effect. This would also allow me to create a collection that would challenge a higher end market within this context. 

Also informing my choice to involved screen printing in my designs was the work of Linda Florence. Screen printing has allowed me to bring in similar elements of layering through combining a hand crafted process with digital print. 

Previously in the practise unit, I had only printed on to plain surfaces or ones I had made by hand, as opposed to digital print. Whilst sampling this process, I encountered the problem of an unpredicted colour change when applying heat to the aquabind surface to make it rise. After testing this, and discovering that the heat was darkening the original print, I went back into photoshop and altered my designs allowing for any colour change during the printing process. This has enabled me to achieve more accurate colourations in terms of my chosen pallet.

Above: The original design. Below: I have made the design lighter to allow for the darker colour change when heat is applied to the design. 

Above: The original design. Below: I have made the design lighter to allow for the darker colour change when heat is applied to the design. 

Colour

Colour was something I did not experiment with as successfully as I would have liked to in the previous Practise Unit. I want to use Unit X as a challenge to push forward a more innovative and professional pallet and adopt confidence in how I apply it to my designs. I restricted myself to tonal pallets within one colour in the last project, so for inspiration for my new pallet, I have resorted back to my visual research and selected imagery that would give me a variety of colour choices.

Digital Print Development

Initially drawing and designing in black and white helps me concentrate on the marks I am making on paper. I draw with the intention of taking my work into photoshop and manipulating them through a digital process. Throughout this project I have kept a digital development folder for black and white designs which are in the early stages of editting and another folder for more successful designs which I have taken back into photoshop to experiment with inputting colour. Having these folders as a sort of reference file has enabled me to try and test different scales, compositions and colour ways and also physically inform my design decisions.

New Body of Focused Drawing

To start Unit X I have wanted to continue to build upon the successful elements of my practise unit, taking a more focused approach. I felt that I went through a drawing journey in the previous Practise Unit, taking a variety of approaches to creating visual research.  I am beginning with additional photography on intricate detail within decorative architecture to help develop an extended body of visual research. Some visual studies from the practise unit will still be evident in the new project, however, my drawing style influenced by Barbara Hulanicki was the point which I felt inspired in the previous unit therefore I aim to continue this approach to produce further drawing material.

The purpose of my drawings is to enable photoshop manipulation towards digital designs. Therefore, in terms of a body of drawing work for this project, I will work towards a fresh sketchbook of working drawings that will enable me to establish professional collections of digital prints.

Context - Wallpaper

I was keen to challenge my designs and ideas within two very different contexts. Designing for wallpaper in contrast to gift wrap has encouraged me to consider a very different scale. I have paid particular attention the the Rorschach Collection by Timorous Beasties. What I am drawn to about their work is the composition and shape within their designs. They tend to feature mirroring and reflection which I feel breaks away from half drop or block motif patterns which are more often considered for repeats. 

I enjoy seeing how this kind of experimentation can change my drawings from their original state, resulting in imagery that has gone through a process of digital manipulation.After exploring composition in my black and white design development file, I found that mirroring and reflecting my drawings within a repeated workspace gives more potential to my designs.













I was very conscious that my designs focused strongly around a white background which can sometimes flatten the design or leave it lacking in elements. However with vibrant colours featuring in the imagery of my designs, I found that inputting colours in the background layers dulled the overall image. Timourous Beasties allowed me to see how using white in the background of a design could work successfully.  


During my development process, I found that my designs were naturally adopting a stripe composition. Faced with the option of having them vertical or horizontal, I looked at the Rorchach collection by Timorous Beasties and Barbara Hulanickis collection for Graham and Brown and found that vertical stripes were more desirable within wallpaper designs. With this comparison, it allowed me to see what these designers created for a varied target audience.

As both of my collections were inspired by the same body of visual research, I wanted there to be a clear differentiation between the two. Colour pallet was something that I wanted to push forward in Unit X and looking at artists helped inform a new approach towards my second collection. I came across this design by Christian Lacroix.

Previously I had spoke about colour injection which could focus around a black and white design. I felt that this would also illustrate how I work in terms of designing in black and white and then using digital means to incorporate colour.

Context - Gift Wrap

For my gift wrap collection, I was keen to produce designs that targeted a higher end market. Paperchase, Clintons and Marks and Spencers are retailers with audiences that would be more likely to purchase designer giftwrap. After considering their products, I decided that I wanted to produce designs for sheets of wrapping paper as opposed to rolls. I feel that this gives a suggestion of quality to designs that are more pieces of artwork rather than a design that is produced on a larger scale and hidden within a roll. I also found that designs which include printed processes such as foiling or printed relief work achieve higher price margins attracting a higher end customer. 

£1.75 per sheet of foiled paper from Clintons

£1.00 for two sheets of wrapping paper from Marks and Spencer.

I have gone on to create samples inspired by this research and my previous experimentation with in Puff printing from the Practise Unit.

(Photograph of flocked samples)

The final Unit X

To start Unit X I have wanted to continue to build upon the successful elements of my practise unit taking a more focused approach. A new learning agreement has helped me do this;

Building upon the work I have achieved in the previous Practise unit, my intentions for Unit X are to create a focused and professional body of work that would be suitable for paper-based products within the interior/ giftware markets. I aim to explore and combine the processes of puff screen printing and digital print in order to develop two collections of samples. I will begin by developing further drawings to give me the greatest potential when creating designs. I am going to experiment with scale, technique and colour within my chosen print processes to achieve the optimum for my final collection. 

I limited myself with colour in the previous project which has lead me to the decision to return back to my original visual images from my time travelling and seek a more vibrant and varied colour pallet.

In terms of contextual research I want to expand my awareness of the products further by paying particular attention to surface pattern designers and companies in the interiors/giftware fields also informing my designs and sample experimentation. In particular I will look at Paperchase for their high end quality, Barbara Hulanicki for her relief printing process and Linda Florence for her collaboration of printed processes. I am going to undertake contextual research into giftware companies in terms of quality, process and target market to inform a more bespoke collection that combines the handcraft skill of screen print with digital production. I aim to create a collection of samples for gift wrap which will incorporate gift tags for each design.  

To challenge and test my designs in a different context, I am going to work towards a second collection for wallpaper. I want to differentiate this to my gift wrap collection through colour and my aimed target market. For this collection I would like to test my ideas towards a more commercial outcome. Visualisations will help identify the success of my prints in a realistic context throughout my project. I will continue to update my blog on a weekly basis to reflect clearly and continuously on my creative journey.