BA Hons Textiles Final Major Project Blog

Exhibition& Business Card Research

Over the summer between second and third year i attended both London Metropolitain and UAL degree shows in order to gain inspiration for how i could present my space at the end of third year. I was hoping that by doing this research i could bring back some fresh ideas to Cardiff Met. The layout in both universities was vastly different to how we present our work at Cardiff Met, especially because not every student would display their work due to the lack of space within both universities. Despite this it was still awlfully informative to see the dirverse nature of textile applications and all the tricks they used to hang 2D and 3D work on the walls.

London Met

London Metropolitain University used a series of grid like structures to hang textiles work from. Although giving the show an overall industrial aesthic it was hard to pinpoint one persons work from another. It was clear to see how some had used a series of designs that formed a collection; however, as not everyone had done there was no concistancy throughout the show making it awlfully confusing.

Despite the shows confusing and sporadic nature it was really informative to see the style and mediums of work that were being produced. It has definely helped me to concider the type of work i want to be producing within theird year and how i would fit into the industry.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3qgfckb4tl6d7sckhaoojq.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is svlbymaqeidy9xfb3nbq.jpg

UAL

The show at UAL was alot more concistant with what we do at Cardiff Met as there was more evidence of a concidered collection and each designer had their own space marked out. The presentation of work was alot more experimental and informative to what i shall be producing next year.

There was a high volume of students focusing on knitwear who had cleaverly extended their garments to become part of the display as the images below show. Despite the designs being the least aesthically pleasing it was the final image that really caught my imagination as it was so different from all else. The fabric had been attatched to the wall using nails; however, there was something really inspiring about having to tilt your head in a different angle to view the work. It added a whole new dimension to what the design could be applied to and definetly stood out from the rest because of its obscure placement.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is okiwptuyqh6xoiwpxb47jw.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is rtvyg5gqrog2uwetj9lhtq.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is lmutqnpsfsbexfomkzisq.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is kk6c5xaas6stdurl4dhw.jpg

Buisness Cards

Both universities also had a series of buisness cards accoumpying each persons work. Knowing i will have to produce a design for this in third year i picked up a few from each university so i could compare the substrates used, printing methods and overall aesthic of the design. I tried to gaver a diverse range of those i thought were sucessful and others that were not so much so i could analyse where i thought they went wrong so i dont make the same mistakes.

London Met

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is zew8arkcsfcxkbtuhr4gqw.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 4uhll9geqx2p3goqxwserq-copy.jpg

Overall these 4 buisness cards were pretty concistant in the substrates they used. They were all printed onto a high gsm matt card which made them seem more durable and professional compared to if they were printed onto a light weight paper.

I am in two minds about the size of number 4. It is half the size of the others meaning it will proably cost half the price to print which would be of benifit to any student; however, the information on the back was in such a small font it would be very hard for anyone without perfect vision to read.

I think from this research the buisness card needs to be clear, direct and accuratly link to the work that is being displayed. Although i am sure number 2 has some intresting themes behind it the design is not aesthically pleasing from an outsider view. Unfortunatly within the exhibition i coudnt see any work that resembeled this pattern leading me to believe it wasnt very well concidered.

UAL

There was a much more diverse range of standards at UAL. Number 3 had been printed onto ‘normal’ printing paper which made the card flimsy and didnt give it that professional edge.

Number 2 was quite pleasing not because of the imagery used; however, because it had been printed onto a high gloss paper. It gave the impression the designer had really concidered their options, this glossy effect was well selected as it was also reflected in the work they had produced.

Although on a slightly more flimsy substrate number 4 really stood out to me because of the concideration of paper used. It was so different to the thick flat matt cards that most others seemed to have gone for, and for that reason it really stood out. I also really like how the font used suits the paper its self so give off an overall well rounded aesthic. Despite this i do believe the reverse side of the card would benifit from some colour or pattern; however, this may be due to the fact the paper is a much lower gsm and there for coudnt absorb the inks used.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is d3qex7fq4ikgqzeejddoa.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is fas4lo1js0whkese7wa4ew.jpg

Key take away points:

Use a large font
Concider the substrate used and how well it will absorb colour printing
Use a reasonable sized buisness card so all information can be clear
Concider weather a matt or gloss effect suits the collection
Ensure the imagery and font used ties in with the collection
Use colour to your advantage
Ensure the imagery is clear and can be understood without any prior knowledge required about the key underlying themes

Iridescent effect experiments and new colour mood-board

Throughout my trend research an iridescent and pearlescent effect kept coming up as being on trend for children’s interiors SS’21. To start my experiments creating this effect i decided to use illustrator and simply draw wavy shapes utilising the pen and eye dropper tool with my Wacom tablet to see where this got me. However, through this experiment i realised my colour pallet may be slightly brighter in tone than what i have been envisioning so also took this opportunity to slightly mute my tones to better reflect this effect and my trend research.

The above image demonstrates my original colour pallet and my first iridescent/ pearlescent experiment. Initially before realising my colour pallet had to be improved i intended to merge the colours together better and push this outcome further, but thought it be best first to revisit my colour pallet in order to be time efficient.

Despite liking the hues within my original colour pallet when together such as in the above image they appear an awful lot brighter than when separate on my colour pallet. To ensure my colour pallet best represents my market and theme i have decided to make the hues in my colour pallet softer and to test they are exactly how i want them create an outcome utilising the same method as the previous through Illustrator.

After making the hues within my colour pallet lighter i am a lot happier with my outcome; however, still felt they may be slightly too bright in tone. As my colour pallet is littered with contrasting colours such as pink and green this means my pallet appears a lot brighter than if it mainly utilised harmonious tones meaning that although these new shades are very pale they still have a high contrast. To try and get my colour pallet correct in tone i once again made the hues lighter and created the same outcome via Illustrator and my Wacom tablet.

Overall i feel the above hues and their new tone much better reflect what i had been envisioning for my colour pallet and collection. Now they are much softer in tone meaning there is less contrast between each hue and i feel these colours will make my collection a lot stronger and also help me to create a really strong iridescent effect. To demonstrate the process i have been through i have kept the colour chips i have been working with throughout these three experiments and inserted them within an image bellow.

To keep the my mood-boards in my sketchbook up to date i have also printed out a new version of my colour board and stuck it on top of my old one; however, in a way that the original can still be viewed to show my development. Despite that i set out to start to develop my iridescent effects and have not got very far with this process i am glad i encountered the issues with my colour pallet at this time instead of only realising this much later in the project. From here i will start to create my designs to be sent off for fabric samples so i can start to decide what fabrics i want to utilise within my collection and how well my colour pallet appears on these substrates.

Sketchbook page 19

Before creating my initial patterns and sending them off for printing i wanted to create some last imagery so i had a good selection for my designs. Initially i was going to carry on with my watercolour and print out collages; however, then thought this may be a good opportunity with what i have learnt from my research and previous experiments to paint my florals as aliens straight away. Unfortunately, watercolours do take up a vast amount of time so these six creatures bellow took me a total of two days to complete. Unlike previously i decided to paint them onto A5 paper and then stick them into my sketchbook as i could start on one and then while it dried start on another in order to be time efficient.

Overall i do not think these were more or less easy to complete than my previous experiments as as long as i have a flower image as a starting point i can refer to my research and everything seems to flow and come together quite well. The only thing about painting them from scratch is that they do take longer to complete as i haven’t got the basic floral shape already painted. Despite this, not already having the original floral painting did mean i could be a lot more experimental with how much i manipulated the floral to best suit the alien.

Learning from my previous out outcomes i have decided to discontinue the use of mouths within my illustrations. From my previous paintings i felt these were far too aggressive for my target market and including at least one eye was enough to demonstrate that these entities are in fact living. If i do select any of my previous aliens with a mouth i with use the correction tool in photoshop to cover it up so the illustration will seem as if it does not have one.

One major thing i learnt from these experiments was that i have to be more considerate with my use of colour. Initially i was just directly painting with the watercolours; however, when i started to mix these hues with a white acrylic paint they became softer in tone and better reflected my colour pallet. As well as these hues better reflecting my colour pallet i think they better suit my target market as these softer tones were used within lots of designs directed at a younger age group.

Overall i feel these designs are really helping to start to create my collection and visualise what my collection will look like. From here i will scan these designs into my laptop and start to manipulate them on photoshop and illustrator in order to create repeats for my samples.

Sketchbook pages 17 and 18

Informed by my research i have been playing with the idea of including hand embroidery within my outcomes; however, have been hesitant about how this medium will feel against the skin on bedding. To start to explore how i can effectively utilise this medium within my work i have now completed my first few samples.

First i wanted to explore how hand embroidery could work with my current imagery so decided to transfer some of my initial watercolours onto two different fabric substrates. To do this i printed off a copy of my illustration, put a medium- think layer of acrylic paint over it and then stuck the paper to the fabric using the acrylic paint to bond the two together. Once the acrylic paint had dried i then rubbed softly over the paper with wet hands which caused the paper to deteriorate and the design to be left on the fabric. Although this method is a lot quicker than digital printing for getting my designs onto fabric it does not produce the same high quality results as if you continue to rub the paper eventually the design will be removed as well. I decided to experiment with this method on both a cotton and a poly-cotton fabric to see if one fabric was more effective for this method than the other; however, both substrates produced similar results. Perhaps if i were to try with a greater range of substrates and different papers i could have recieved a more professional outcome but unfortunately i do not feel this is an effective method to utilise within my children’s range as the acrylic and paper does cause the fabric to go awfully crisp once dry.

Once happy with these samples and they had dried i then decided to stitch into one; inspired by my previous watercolour collages. The two main stitches i feel could be useful within my collection is back stitch and french knots. I feel a back stitch will be key for creating basic long flowing lines and the french knots will be useful as they can appear to look like little flowers. Overall i am a lot more satisfied with this sample than i thought i would have been as i feel the soft flowing lines of the stitches really lend them self to my initial illustrations. As well as this, i feel the french knots do resemble flowers especially when presented in little clusters.

Despite being happy with this sample i still was cautious to whether they would be comfortable to sleep on. To test this i then stitched into one of my pillow cases using a basic layout that could resemble the type of structure that i would use within my designs. Overall once sleeping on this sample it was to much relief that i didn’t even notice it was there. Because a pillow is soft the stitches just squash down into the material and become level meaning i didn’t even notice them.

To present this pillow case in my book i did not want to have to cut it up nor position it in a way where it could not be easily unfolded so i decided to make a little pocket in my sketchbook and place it neatly in there. Although this was a practical solution the outcome of this sketch book page was not awfully aesthetically pleasing so i decided to experiment with some stamps to make floral shapes. These stamps and ink pad i have wanted to experiment with within this project and thought this would be a nice way to utilise them and make the page look more inviting. Overall the stamps are not as pleasing to the eye as i initially thought they would have been. It was hard to get a consistent coverage of the ink meaning some of the floral shapes stood out more than others. Unfortunately due to this i do not think these stamps will appear again within my developments, nor in my outcomes.

Overall despite my stamps nor transfers proving awfully successful i think embroidery could work very well within my collection. From here i want to start to put some of my imagery into repeats using photoshop and illustrator so i can start to send off for material samples with my designs on them from the digital fabric printers. Although these designs may need more editing when i come up with more imagery, it will be useful to order them at this early stage so i know i have time to wait for them to be delivered and they wont hold me up later in the project.

Student meeting- Business and Post cards

Today we have decided to meet up to discuss our business and postcards ahead of the show. Overall we tried to come to a decision about how similar our postcards and business cards need to look to each others whilst still being able to retain our personal styles. Despite having minimal information between us we have managed to come up with a basic format on which we can all start to base our ideas. Now knowing this i am a lot more confident moving forward as can now start to see how my press pack will come together.

Show Space ideas

Wanting to design for little girls bedrooms it would be logical that my show space demonstrates elements from this. In order to expand my ideas i have found a range of images from Pintrest of different children’s bedrooms. To find these images i searched words such as girls bedrooms, alien themed kids rooms and bedrooms from different cultures. Despite feeling these images are very different from my initial ideas there is not much that is really standing out to me as being realistic to create within two weeks in my small show space. From here i will continue to keep an eye out for different ideas as i still have time to come up with new concepts before the build starts.

The Green Man

Another comment my support worker made in relation to my work so far was its likeness to the green man. Upon researching this concept i have learnt that this is commonly used as a symbol of rebirth in the spring. Although i do not intend my project to focus on the idea of rebirth, the imagery i have found in relation to this topic is very inspiring. One really good thing about Pintrest is how it links every image to dozens more like it meaning you have an infinite amount of research. The imagery i have found in relation to this search term differs quite a lot to that of the elementals, nymphs and dryads as it focuses on pretty ugly little men. Overall i feel this imagery could prove to be really inspiring for the shape and forms i use within my initial drawings. However, to make it more appropriate for my target market i will have to edit the colour pallet to softer hues and make the imagery appear overall more alluring for young children.

Nymphs and Dryad’s

Within my previous research looking into elementals some key words kept reappearing which were Nymphs and Dryads. These words i have never encountered before; however, they were linked to almost every earth elemental image so i felt best i looked into the meaning behind these words incase they could provide any inspiration.

Upon further research i have learnt that these words refer to tree spirits within Greek mythology and often refer to human tree hybrids within fantasy tales. Now understanding this i have also researched to whether there is any such name for flower human or flower alien hybrids; however, this research has come up with limited results.

Overall the imagery from this research matches up with those from my earth elemental research so i have decided not to include any additional imagery. It is interesting to consider that some of the key themes from my project dates back to Greek mythology and has much deeper routes than just coming about within my collection for SS’21. Despite this, i feel my project will take a modern approach to these older ideas as i will be bringing in the key element of aliens which will be essential for reviving these ideas in a modern way, and be on trend for my season.

Earth Elementals

Upon showing some staff my ideas so far they mantioned the resemblence of my research to elementals. Although knowing earth, wind, fire and water had their own symbols i was not aware that there was a greate variety of art that turns these elements into people. As my project focuses on florals i have decided to take a deeper look into the earth elementals to see what inspiring imagery i can find.

First i started to look on google; however, found this range of imagery was exceptionally lacking. To extend my research i then took to Pintrest where there is a vast amount of imagery in relation to earth elementals. Overall this imagery very much reminded me of my previous research into flower fairy’s and aliens; however, this time the imagery all embodied a very green colour pallet. From this research i have gathered a selection of images all shown below which i believe could inspire my theme and future drawing/ painting ideas.

Stranger Things

Another research recommendation that arose within my tutorial with Sian was to look into the Netflix series Stranger Things. Unlike Avatar this series i have never seen before; however, now will definitely watch to gain further research. Upon briefing Sian of my trend research i mentioned the amount of out of this world, space and alien themes coming through for kids SS’21. This is when she mentioned this is because of the popularity of Stranger things in the UK and US.

When looking for alien imagery online i could only find one alien; however, having not seen the series the aliens may not be portrayed in the classic way that i am thinking about them. Overall despite there only being one alien it is still quite inspiring as it has a flower like face/ mouth which could help to inspire some new ideas for my own project/ illustrations. As of yet i have been thinking about florals in context of the body; however, not in relation to particular body parts such as the mouth. Despite liking this idea i will definitely have to make the alien less scary to be more appropriate for my target demographic. I feel by utilising a softer colour pallet along with removing the vicious teeth and making the mouth more resemblant of a floral this should work better for my target demographic.

Overall i feel to gain a full understanding of this series and where the kids SS’21 trends are coming from i will have to watch it over the course of this project. This is something i could have on in the background when doing work as i will want to watch it soon enough to inform my ideas; however, not forget about the rest of the project and simply spend my days watching a Netflix series.

Since initially creating this post i have watched most of the Stranger Things series and can confirm there is only one style of alien looking creature throughout the program, although this series does show this from a baby later in the series. Although glad i watched it i must say even myself at 22 found this quite scary so is definitely not appropriate for my younger girl demographic.