Degree show preview

My final work at the degree show last night...

Lampshade final design decision

I really wanted to create another motif for my final collection and managed to do this last week using a cut out sunburst I hand cut within my sketchbook. I echoed this design in Photoshop with a transparent background. The inspiration for the motif was sunny simple motifs from Clothkits and I think it echoes their vibe quite closely.


From this motif I am deciding whether to choose a coloured/monochrome lampshade. I have deliberately chosen a strongly shaped shade to suit the rounded design and make it look more contemporary.


The designs will incorporate lasercut or hand cut paper stuck onto a base lampshade. If I was to consider target market amongst retailers I think this is fairly mainstream but I envisage it being high qualityand so would aim for John Lewis. 

Final design - Chipped

I could not resist using "Chip It" with my final design and it's interesting to see a respite blue in there not sure where that came from!

Final fabric design for upholstery

Here's my final fabric design slightly familiar but complete with little cameras in it. The colour palette has taken some work with these motifs and I eventually used more faded colours than I had previously used with a background cream inspired by old aged book pages.

Here is the design mocked up onto a stool (not the stool I will be using) just to give an idea of what it might look like ultimately. I have recently learnt to use the lasso tool properly in Photoshop and used it to create this image. This image is definitely one of the more successful ones for my Moodboard.

I would aspire to produce fabric that is good enough and sits well with Ercol's range of furniture. I like the idea of translating a series of prints into upholstery designs for furniture ranges. 

Final designs for wallpaper

This design was creating using my new fish scale motif and repeat filling the design in Photoshop I added colourways and also paint bucketted in my ladybird stack motif with the new faded colours and tidily cutout design.

The 1970s fish scale pattern is brought up to date by using a more contemporary colour palette but still has a retro feel to it.

I think this design is successful and when it was printed on wallpaper it too on a certain faded quality which is great as long as the orange does not turn into peach. For some reason I have an aversion to peach!

Target market wise I would not consider this for John Lewis as it is not mainstream enough and perhaps even a bit too bold and quirky for their market. I would like to think that a high end homeware retailer such as Habitat would consider this print. Even independent home decor retailers might consider this if their product ranges were fairly quirky.

This is the same design only without the ladybird background dropped in. Again, the colours are much more subtle in the printed wallpaper.

I scaled the design smaller for this wallpaper and created a layered imagery using my photo of my Brownie camera. 

The Brownie image was my own photo with a pencil filter added in Photoshop I then added a little bit of acid green to the image before repeating it into the design. 

Although the Brownie camera is not from the 1970s its still vintage and works well my obsession relating to the rounded rectangle shape. I like the way that although the whole camera can not be seen it still is a familar shape and really a rather cute image (well to me anyway).

If I could develop the above designs it would be to add in tonal gradients or stripes in tones of orange to the fish scale motif and then repeat. I would be interested to see how this would change the design.

Quilting my final design

I have been discussing whether or not to quilt my final design with my mentor and also some of my peers and I have to admit that initially I was keen to bite the bullet for my first quilting project!

The design with cut out shapes of circles and rounded rectangles would lend itself to quilting possibly but I have decided not to quilt on this occasion due to the fabric I have chosen to print on ( a heavyweight upholstery cotton drill) and also due to the fact that it is not really a technique that I find suits my style. With limited time to hand in I have now focussed my attention on other areas.

Wallpaper and fabric printing... done!

After a difficult week ( yes, it's only Tuesday ) of stress and working on my final outcome I have eventually been able to print my wallpaper and fabric design.

I am really pleased with the results although the wallpaper printed out a lot lighter tonally than I had anticipated. I will have to realise this for future wallpaper designs as the print room technician told me this was one of the drawbacks of using a digital fabric machine to print wallpaper.

My fabric design for my stool pad is graphic and bold with a quirky edge to it. I now need to wash the fabric to get rid of all the soda ash within it and hope that it does not distort.

cool video :)

Final shape for Wallpaper design

Who would have thought it could take so long to design this shape in Photoshop..

I knew that I wanted to use this shape within my patterns the moment I saw it in my photocopies of a Habitat catalogue from 1971. I discovered loads of backdated, vintage copies of Habitat and Clothkits catalogues from the 70s at the Research library within the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. I had originally gone to take some photos of 70s memorabilia but ended up with lots of photocopies from this library. Here's the link and details of a fantastic library ..  National Museum of Scotland Research Library

It has not been easy creating this shape and I eventually discovered how to make it by playing with the shape tool options within Photoshop. It is basically 3 circle shapes in Photoshop but overlapped with a cutout on either side of the main circle. Looking good I think!

It is a great shape and so versatile, so I will be experimenting over the next few days to see what I can create with it. Really excited about the possibilities.

Orange is the colour of...

Penguin paperbacks

Sagemcom cordless phone - John Lewis



• A little toy beach buggy with flower motif I used to own
• Our rusty but faithful old camper van from childhood days
• warmth 
• happiness

It's not all about the colour Orange though.. or is it?

Final (well nearly but not quite) designs

Pencil filter in Photoshop using Brownie
 camera photo in repeat

I like this Browniefest due to its simplicity. I could use a number of colourways with this imagery and I think this design lends itself well to stationery as it's quite a small print.

Pencil filter using ladybird stack

There is something so nice about a black and white image. I enjoyed creating this image and can not believe it was derived using just one easy filter. This design would look really good with lasercut incorporated into the text of the design. I have started to think about lasercutting text on a larger scale than this and I could perhaps use some of the text from within the ladybird books. I envisage using tracing paper lasercut so one of my geometric designs will stand behind the text.

partially coloured ladybird book
stacks with a plain background

I think I might prefer the back and white ladybird books with a geometric background but I am not sure.. I will see what some of my peers think about the variation in designs.

Laser cut text for possible lampshade or paper design

I have considered adding a further dimension to my designs by laser cutting text into them. The text has to be stencil text for it to cut out and I copied and pasted a free font from the internet to use in Illustrator to achieve this.

I cut into white card and also into tracing paper. The result on card is great but I would want it to be bigger than it is. The tracing paper burnt slightly but  a decent effect was gleaned.

If I enlarge the text it will need tidying up as the edges are a bit wobbly, I need to perfect using the pen tool within Illustrator to finish this task.

Anthropologie Wallpaper with Chip It!

Source: letschipit.com via Cheryl on Pinterest

Wow, I absolutely love this app.

This app allows you to add colour chips to images of your choice online. It's really easy to use and I have started to use it on a few more images.

A really useful feature for choosing colour palette options for my Final Major. Big thank you to Dyane Brown for pointing this superb app out to me.

I had a thought whilst using this app that it would be a good idea to produce a design using my ever growing collection of vintage Ladybird Books. The colours of the spines and the front makes for a lovely retro colour palette that I could explore, although it may not be quite the colours I am looking for when marrying this up with my other geometric designs. It is possible that I could go monochrome or mute the colours of the books somewhat.

Interesting lampshades

I want to create a lampshade for my final which is a little bit different but still has a retro theme. I began thinking about macrame and crochet, 2 very 70s crafts which were popular back then and thought about adding a modern twist.

I came across Naomi Paul's lampshades earlier this year, they are fun, elegant and really distinctive.

Naomi Paul lampshades. Photography by Nick Rowchowski

goldfingers.info

Very delicate and clever use of colour and placement.

goldfingers.info

These lampshade are sweet, delicate and pod-like I like the mix of colours too.

paper collage lampshade. goldfingers.info

Paper collage - I love it! This is a style I could use with a mix of my shapes and geometric patterns.

A Thousand Picnics feature at trendland.com

Yes, I know it's not a lampshade but macrame plant holders from a shop called " A Thousand Picnics " in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These clever and trendy people researched the 1970s home before opening their shop and found images of macrame plant holders. 

Source: theendcollective.blogspot.co.uk

More macrame - a plant holder and a very bold looking lampshade.

A good friend has also recently given me a book on macrame, so I wondered if I could translate this for my final lampshade into something exciting and different...Hmm.

Tracey Kendall

Tracey Kendall produces intricate bespoke wallpaper that's painstakingly put together by hand and features some unique details.

I want to introduce this element of hand collage to my wallpaper.

The shadows behind her cut out text wallpaper are very appealing and started me thinking about playing with light and shadow for my final wallpaper. I could achieve this through hand cut or laser cut wallpaper hung away from the wall slightly so there's a shadow behind the paper.

Source: www.traceykendall.com

Wallpaper draft design

After discovering Deborah Bowness' lovely wallpaper, I thought about taking my own photos and collaging these with some of my geometric patterns.

Here is one result of this initial experimentation using Photoshop to layer my own photo onto existing patterns.

This design uses my own photo (made black and white) of my favourite Ladybird books (all time favourite " The Elves and The Shoemaker" ). I had to use photoshop to repeat the stack of books height wise. I need to "cut out" the Ladybird stack better using Photoshop so that the background design does not bleed into the books - it needs to have a professional look, so I will be honing my Photoshop skills yet again!

I am thinking about this potential design for wallpaper and need to consider how large a design to do and what drop I want for the design. I will potentially be adding stitch, hand collage and a wee bit more colour to it.



More to follow soon ( I hope..)

More Wallpaper of a photographic nature

Deborah Bowness designs ultra trendy wallpaper from photographs with a tinted quality and a trompe l'oeil effect. The colours are aged almost creating a really interesting effect. I would like to explore using my photography in this current project but have not reached a point where I have the design material to take the photos.

Wallpaper -a look at innovative designs

www.lindaflorence.me.uk

Although I am pleased with my draft final designs, I feel they lack that certain ommph that comes with a well thought out design and some innovation, so I have gone back to the research desk to try and discover what I can add to my designs to make them that little bit special. These designers provided me with a few ideas..

Some time ago I came across the designer Linda Florence and her wonderful scratch card wallpaper. Parts of her wallpaper designs are covered in silver which can be scratched off to reveal a different pattern underneath. I like the idea of connecting with the wallpaper and being able to change the design whenever or however you desire.


I have also discovered the wallpaper of Sian Zeng a graduate from Central St Martins and an awarding winning designer. Her wallpaper is amazing as she uses a magnetic liner behind her wallpapers so that her own illustrative magnets can be added to her beautifully drawn wallpaper. She also has some fun printed giant stuffed scissors, really cool. These designs, whilst nothing like my own style inspire me to create designs that the user can interact with in some way. Although, I have no idea as to how I can do this at present and so its perhaps something to quietly contemplate...

www.sianzeng.com

www.sianzeng.com

www.sianzeng.com

Paper Collage experiment

Part of my original brief was to do paper collage for my final outcome using some of my geometric designs.

So I have set about to create a contemporary paper collage design using my own designs. The result is below.

I think that although some of the individual pieces of this design look nice, frustratingly it is not great for two reasons:-

1. Too many rounded rectangles
2. The spray mount shows through the tracing paper

The next time I do paper collage I will use double sided tape and PVA glue not spray mount. 

This little glimpse into paper collage has made me think that perhaps my designs are not too suited to collage and I will be exploring more photography mixed in with my geometric designs for a more successful outcome - I hope.

Draft designs for Final Major so far....

I have been experimenting via Photoshop with various designs for my final and here are a few for you to critique, if you feel inclined.

My inspiration for all of these has been 1970s colour palettes, Scandinavian designs and  my camera obsession.

 The imagery behind of the camera repeats can not really be seen above and this design was the least popular in my crit, so I will not be taking this forward.

This is a very simple Scandi style print although it is perhaps too bright for a living room wall in its current form. I need to look into a more muted orange for this design and perhaps a different background shade.

Inspired by abstract illustrative art from the 1970s I feel this is successful in drawing the eye in different ways. It took a long time to create in Photoshop but I got there in the end. Again, the brightest orange needs muting in my opinion.

Rie Elise Larsen Orange & Black Pleated Paper Lampshades -HUS & HEM- Scandinavian Design For The House And Home

Rie Elise Larsen Orange & Black Pleated Paper Lampshades -HUS & HEM- Scandinavian Design For The House And Home

For my final show, I will be creating a mini-room set with lampshade, stool and papered wall. Great inspiration.

Lovi Birch Ply Moominmamma -HUS & HEM- Scandinavian Design For The House And Home

Lovi Birch Ply Moominmamma -HUS & HEM- Scandinavian Design For The House And Home

How gorgeous is this Moomin, I love it!

Siggi Eggertsson

Siggi Eggertsson is a really interesting Icelandic graphic designer/ illustrator. I have been exploring Scandinavian design with it's distinct graphicness, boldness and use of colour (IKEA here we come!) and it occurred to me that it has parallels with 1970s design in many ways. It is interesting the way most Scandi design has over the decades, never lost this strong sense of craft, colour and shape. This factor has made me explore the world of graphic design to a greater extent and I came across Siggi's fab work.

Siggi's work is playful and sometimes comments on world issues; such as his beautiful christmas baubles which feature an atomic bomb explosion (somewhat unexpected). He is equally at home though with designing geometrically pleasing patterns commercially for the likes of Mulberry for example. I was really happy to see the diversity of his work as it's very inspiring for my Final major project. His use of colour exploration is similar to mine and I when I look at his designs I visualize paper collage, a technique that I am keen to use in my FMP (Final Major Project).






Source:  www.siggieggertson.com

Spring colours in NY

Spring colours in NY, a photo by chippyjackson on Flickr.

The contrast of spring pink blossom against bright blue sky with a very small empire state building peeking out.. Really like the mix of colours in this shot

The Highline

The Highline, a photo by chippyjackson on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
The Highline is a disused above ground railway track that has been converted into a modern walkway with amazing views of the city below. Great views of the cityscape from here.

The Red Studio

The Red Studio, a photo by chippyjackson on Flickr.

MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art has a fantastic and wide range of some famous modern paintings by Picasso, Warhol, Matisse, Monet ,Dali, Rothko and many many more.
I enjoyed viewing this stunning painting, Matisse cleverly emphasises the paintings and sculpture in his studio whereas functional objects are barely there. Apparently he painted this many times with different backgrounds and even though his studio was white he finally settled on the vibrant Red background.. completely awe inspiring and makes me want to paint!

Impossible Project NYC

Impossible Project NYC, a photo by chippyjackson on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Today I made a long awaited trip to Impossible Project NYC. You have to press a buzzer and enter one of those old fashioned lifts (where you see the floors pass you by) to get to the 5th floor. It was completely worth the detour to visit this amazing place full of old Polaroid cameras, some rather rare and prohibitively expensive. I decided on a couple of sets of PX colour film to suit my newly acquired 600 camera and two old camera bags. I thought to myself how restrained I had been and left this lovely place with a happy feeling.
www.the-impossible-project.com/ if you want to know more..

NY Subway - Colour love

NY Subway, a photo by chippyjackson on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Whilst travelling on the line towards Staten Island Ferry, I noticed this very retro colour palette of tangerine oranges and beige. It's perfect for my colour palette and so I took a speedy snap as people left the train. The colours evoke memories for me, our camper van from childhood was painted tangerine and cream ( to cover the rust and wire holding it together!) and at one stage in the 70s we even had an orange front door. I can't decide if that made us a fashion forward family or ... not.

18 minutes

18 minutes is how long it takes before you can use your Subway card again, if you got it horribly wrong at the barrier. ho hum!

New York New York

so good they named it twice ;). NYC is jam packed with phenomenal architecture when you look skywards but is also buzzing at ground level with maniac drivers, trembling pavements from subway trains and lots of indignant honking. I really want to take some closer pics of the Chrysler Building with its beautiful patterned facade, although it still looks pretty good in the snap I took from the Empire State Building.

View from Empire State

View from Empire State, a photo by chippyjackson on Flickr.

Empire State Silhouette

Empire State Silhouette, a photo by chippyjackson on Flickr.

Times Square

Times Square, a photo by chippyjackson on Flickr.