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.