Within the rift of time we had when we all knew uni was going to come to an end sooner than was planned; however, before any major or definite decisions had been made instead of deciding to slow down and wait for a decision i sped everything up. Although our submission requirements would inevitably change i wanted to have something physical to remind myself of my FMP and also an example of what i would have done; should have everything had gone to plan.

My priority number 1 was to get my materials i wanted for some of my products; however, i also wanted to have some samples which i would have mounted under a professional header and displayed in my space. If uni was still open i would have hemmed my fabric samples; however, with no access to these machine’s i decided the next most professional way of finishing my samples was using magic tape and pinking shears.

The below samples show two blender designs and one secondary i had printed. I decided to get the bottom and top design printed onto Cuddle Fleece which is a really soft fleece like material and the middle design printed onto Plush Minky which is very similar to that of a dressing gown. I decided on these fabrics as i felt they would really appeal to my target demographic because of their soft touch. In real life the colours are a lot more vibrant than are shown in these images due to poor lighting and camera quality. Despite this, you will be able to see the true tomes of each hue when i digitally upload my designs.

Overall despite not needing these fabrics i am really glad i got them printed as they are a lovely reminder of what could have been.

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As weall as getting some fabrics printed i also ensured i got some of my wallpaper samples printed as well. This design comes in five alternate colour ways to suit individual tastes and room sizes. These designs were printed by fashion formula onto an ultra matt non woven paper which really nicely picks up the hues and makes the design really clear.

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As well as having these samples which i have trimmed, ironed and presented i also got another design printed in four alternate colour ways which has been miss printed by Fashion Formula. I have contacted them asking them to reprint these designs; however, have not heard anything back as of yet. Despite these designs being miss printed it was from the purple colour way of this design that i got my material for my purple bunting, so although this is unfortunate i have been able to repurpose at least one of the outcomes.

Overall despite not needing these samples i am really glad i did get them printed as they are something i can keep with me. As well as this, they have given myself a great idea of how my collection would have looked if everything had gone to plan.

Within my show space i was going to include a dolls house which Helen kindly lent me. The idea of including a dolls house came from my show space theme of a little girls bedroom. I thought including a dolls house would be a really nice addition, which i then could decorate with my own designs such as wallpapers and mini bedding sets.

Unfortunately the show is no longer taking place; however, due to myself wanting to be prepared i had got 90% of it painted before the Corona virus really hitting the uk to the scale it is now in very late March. Despite knowing i would no longer need it i have decided to finish off painting it as if i am able to get it to Helen it can be in a prime condition.

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When i initially recieved the dolls house it was in quite a state as shown in the images above. Before i got around to painting i had to strip off anything on the walls on the interior of the dolls house as well as sand down any ruff edges and even bought some filler to fill in any obvious gaps. Although it was a bigger task than i was initially expecting i must say i did rather enjoy the process. When completing all these tasks i was well into creating designs for my project which i had to think deeply and carefully about. When i felt i needed a break from designing and wanted to do something else i would return to work on the dolls house as this was a productive way to take some time out.

To paint the dolls house i initially got in contact with Laura Lilly from fine art to ask her if she had any paint. As the walls for my show space would have most likely been white i wanted the dolls house to match exactly. Unfortunately she didn’t have any paint left over from last year; however, did tell me what paint CSAD use for the show. Armed with this information i ordered some of this paint and then started painting the dolls house as soon as i could.

To protect the windows from getting paint on them i used masking tape to cover the edges. The exterior of the dolls house where white only required about two layers of paint; however, on the coloured areas this took 3 or 4. As well as this, the interior of the dolls house took a substantial amount of layers of paint to create a flawless even finish. Although some of the walls would have been covered in wallpaper i wanted to first paint the whole house white so i could easily and clearly visualise what patterns would look best in each room.

As well as including my own designs on the walls i was also going to go ahead and order some plain wooden furniture for the house. This i would then see how looked in the house and could have also been painted white if i felt it suited it better. The only reason i hadnt ordered the furniture was because it was £10 with £5 delivery from Amazon; however, if i spent another £10 the delivery would have been free. Knowing i would inevitably need something else off Amazon i waited and am now glad i am as it turns out i would not have needed it.

With no news of Fashion Formula closing as of yet i could still go ahead and finish the dolls house, but it would cost me an awful lot to do up which seems a waist if no one will be able to see it. As well as this, with this virus spreading so quickly now i feel it would be irresponsible of me to ask for a service which isn’t necessarily essential, and this goes for the rest of my fabric samples as well. I feel now is about adapting and rethinking everything i was planning to do in a safe, responsible and professional way.

As well as furnishing, adding wallpaper and fabrics to the house i was also planning on painting the roof a green or pink from my colour pallet, with matching window frames. The decision on which hue this would have been would have depended on which hue matched best with the rest of the items in my show space as although pink is a more girly colour quite a lot of other elements would have been pink and i did not want this to be too overwhelming.

Despite now not needing the dolls house i have picked up many new skills from getting it to the stage it is at now. As well as this, it was a welcome break from creating my designs and provided me with a productive rest time. When it comes to making my product mockups i want to try and displace my designs into the interior of the dolls house to show how it could have looked if i had got the chance to finish it. This will be a way to make use of all the hard work i put into this product and means it will have not gone to waist.

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Despite not having a show to present our work i have still decided to make some of the products i intended to include, one of these was a pair of fairy wings. As i wanted to create my show space to look like a little girls bedroom i felt these fitted in really well with my market and show space theme.

To start with i got some wire and bent it into a ruff wing shape using images online as a guide. Once happy with this i started to attach some fabric i had ordered from fashion formula. The design i decided on for this product was a liquify blender design. I felt this was a good design to use as the fabric would get distorted when bent around the fairy wings and this would not be as evident with a design which was already very abstract. The substrate i had my design printed onto was Power Net which is a very stretchy and light weight material. I wanted to use a substrate similar to those already on the market as they have a very light weight and flexible feel, appropriate for this product.

To attach the material to the wire i used a combination of both embroidery thread and superglue. I felt using a combination of the two would add to the durability of the product and help to keep it stable.

When wrapping the material around the wire i realised there was an awful lot of excess hanging from the centre. Despite initially trying to think how i could hide this, i decided i felt it was quite desirable and made my product individual from others on the market. The excess material all hangs at different lengths which to my self looks pretty. I feel this would really reach out to a young girl as it adds another very girly feminine element to the product.

So the wings could join to the body i found some elastic in a similar hue to those present within the design in my sewing box. Offcuts from different items i always keep in case i find another use of them and i am very happy i kept these due to all shops except essential stores being shut at the moment. The elastic pieces i had were 4 separate pieces so i thought instead of just tying them together at the visible end i could add some small squares of velcro so the wings could be easier to take on and off. Despite this being practical i now wonder if i could cover these white squares with something more pretty to fit in with the rest of the product.

To attach the elastic to the wings i simply threaded it under my stitches and tied the two ends together. Despite that this does in fact work the joins of the elastic and embroidery construction threads are now left visible. Initially i considered whether i could use ribbon to cover this area by doing a hand running stitch through the middle of the ribbon and then gathering it to create an effect much like a smocking pleater would. Despite this i unfortunately, i do not have any ribbon where the hues match this product as well as i would like them to.

After realising ribbon wouldn’t be a possibility i started to think more about how i could cover this area. When trying to come up with an idea i then realised i had loads of excess material hanging down the front of the wings which i could use. I didn’t want to cut a section of this off as i didn’t want to risk adding angular lines to the soft drape effect it currently has so, simply pulled a longer section under the bottom of the fairy wings and then looped it back round to the top which i then secured in place with some hidden stitches. Overall i feel this gives a much more professional finish to the product and also makes it a lot more desirable.

Now happy with how the centre is covered i turned my attention to covering the white velcro. Once again i didn’t want to simply hack away at my material already on the product so decided to use the best piece of ribbon i could find in terms of its colour. If the shops were open i would have liked to have found a slightly translucent glittery/ shiny ribbon as i feel this would have really appealed to my target demographic and matched the rest of the product. However, making the best of what i have got i selected a pink ribbon with polkadots on it. Although the spots do not match my design very well this simply gives an indication of what i would have done if i had full access to the materials i needed.

Despite sticking ribbon to the velcro seeming initially a good idea i found the glue seeped through so it was visible and left a very unprofessional finish, as shown in the image below. Because of this, i have decided to remove the ribbon and have another look at ways i can cover the velcro.

Instead of sticking ribbon directly to the velcro i have decided to use an idea i initially thought of for covering the centre of the wings. This idea was to use a piece of ribbon and do a hand running stitch down the centre and then gather it producing a result similar to a smocking pleater. If i had access to university i would have both experimented with the smocking pleater and ruffler to see which produced the best results for a small area. Learning from my ruffler experiments previously in this project i decided to use a wider ribbon than i initially used when planning on glueing it down. From my previous experiments i found there was a much bigger textural value from using a wider ribbon as this gave more surface area to ruffle up.

Once creating the 4 separate hand smocking experiments i then used embroidery thread to attach them to the velcro. Overall i really like the effect this has produced as it makes the product even more girly and suitable for my target market. If i had access to shops i would have got a ribbon in the same hue as the elastic as i feel these would match better. Although this would have been a more accurate match the hue of the ribbon used is not undesirable.

The one issue i had with this element is that the end of the ribbon frayed a little. If i had access to the over locker machines at uni i would have hemmed these edges to ensure they would not have frayed.

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Overall considering i have had a lack of access to uni supplies and machinery i really like how my fairy wings have come out. Right from the beginning creating these has been a learning process experimenting with new techniques, substrates and ideas. I think these would have really added to my show space and helped it to look like a little girls bedroom.

Inspired by my previous hero design i have decided to create a secondary design utilising hearts. I feel hearts will directly reach out to my age demographic and have been something i have been thinking about considering but wanted to find a way where they wouldn’t come across as tacky.

To start with i arranged my illustrations into a heart shaped motif. To ensure the shape is clear i decided to interlock the bodies to create one consistent shape.

Once happy with the shape of my motif i then went about repeating it in different formations. This was a little harder than some of my previous designs as there is a lot of negative space within the hearts which i felt needed breaking up so it was more evenly distributed.

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As well as being concerned about the amount of negative space i also wanted the design to have a greater variety of hues. To experiment with this i opened the hue adjustment in photoshop and started to experiment with the variety of hues i could change my pink and green aliens too. Initially when making the aliens heads purple their legs would would turn into a mercy brown hue which i felt wouldn’t appeal to my target market. However, then in this adjustment panel i realised there was a master selection. This master selection allows you to select certain hues to change with only minimal differences to the rest of the hues within the imagery. As the heads are pink i selected the red master hue which then allowed me to change the colour of the heads whilst the legs remaining mostly the same tone and shade.

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Once happy with the hues of my aliens i then started to look at how i could fill the negative central space through the use of scale. I feel including some smaller hearts as well as the original larger size does help to vary the design and add depth; however, because of the geometric shape of the hearts i was finding it very hard to find a repeat i was happy with. Within my work i usually work with very free flowing forms which can be easily interlocked; however, having a shape such as a heart is something very different from what i am use to.

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Liking the use of scale i then tried adding in two bigger aliens, central to the heart, holding hands to extend the theme of hearts and love within this design. I feel including these large scale motifs helps to give the customers eyes something central to focus on before realising the hearts are also made out of these illustrations.

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Following experimenting with very linear repeats i then tried to experiment with some more random formations which i then created a repeat out of. Overall i found these inspiring to lead onto my next step; however, i found the unequal amounts of negative space very distracting.

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Once finding a repeat i was finally happy with i then went about experimenting with different backgrounds. The first image is a hue from my colour pallet as a background; however, i felt this overwhelmed the design as the pink background hue was too strong and dominant. Following this i tried lightening it on the colour wheel to a lighter tone of the same hue and i feel this is a lot more successful as the motifs are now clear and a lot bolder. As well as experimenting with flat background hues i wondered if a gradated tone would be successful. Overall i feel if this design were to be a placement design this would be successful; however, as i was intending this to be a repeated design over a large area such as wallpaper this may be slightly overwhelming.

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Throughout this process i really struggled with a repeating formation that i felt really worked; however, maybe this is because all along i should have experimented with a placement design. I will now go back and revisit this motif and manipulate it into a placement design to see if i feel it makes a stronger outcome.

For the placement design i tried a variety of ideas; however, cant seem to find anything which is particularly standing out for me. As i have now been working on this design for quite a while i will take a break and hopefully when i return, be able to come up with some more ideas i hadn’t previously thought of.

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Since creating this tossed blender design i have decided to develop it into a range of alternate colour ways, outside of my colour pallet. As my colour pallet focuses on soft hues i have decided to present this design in some brighter combinations. This means if a customer likes this design; however, is not keen on my selected colour pallet they may prefer one of the bellow options.

Because of the new brighter tones i feel some of these alternate colour ways could appeal to a slightly older demographic, or to the highest end within mine or even to a boys market. By creating these alternate colour ways i am not only allowing customers more choice; however, also reaching out to a much wider market.

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For some time now when looking at my collection of designs i have been wondering how i could use my fluid worm like aliens present within a blender design, within another. As well as feeling they had more potential to be developed, i felt they needed to be present within at least one more design as the single blender design was standing out within the collection as it did not coordinate very well.

Previously i have presented these aliens within a tossed repeat so wanted to develop them into more of a structure so the two patterns would be varied. Within some of my other designs i have used a heart shape which i feel directly relates to my target demographic. I wanted to develop this idea further within my collection so decided to manipulate my worms into this shape. To create the basic structure i played with scale, rotation and reflection until i created a shape i was happy with. As all the individual aliens have very fluid; however, odd form this took some time to manipulate.

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Once happy with the structure of the motif i then started to play around with how i could repeat this. Initially i stuck to a block repeat and interlocked the heart shapes with more alien worms so they would join in a horizontal striped fashion. Despite liking this idea, i felt there was a vast amount of negative space so started experimenting with adding in additional imagery. I selected the green alien in the bellow image based on that it is one of the least used within my collection so far. Overall i was happy with the progress i was making but still wanted to see if i could develop this idea further.

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I wondered what effect it would have if i filled in the heart shapes with a block hue to help them stand out against the white background. Despite spending a lot of time playing with this in a variety of hues i did not find it was successful as it made the repeat look unbalanced and slightly clumsy.

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Once deciding that this wasn’t working i then returned to play with repeating structures, hues and imagery. From my previous experiments i really liked the balance of tone between the dark and light pink as this created a very soft tonal value. However, once completing the repeating structure via copying and pasting the rows of hearts in photoshop, i then thought it might be nice to add in some aliens to help vary the hues and imagery within this design. I selected these two aliens (shown in the design bellow) as they have been featured the least within my collection so far. I have mostly been avoiding the alien with the brown limbs as i do not feel a brown hue is very suitable for my target demographic; however, the green hues within this alien coordinated well with the hues in the other alien and i feel the vast amount of pink within this design balances out these small areas of brown. Once settling on these two additional aliens i then started to think about how i could vary their scale from one another. I decided that as i do not want the brown hue to be overly prominent this would be the smaller alien. I could have developed this further by staggering the scale of each alien of the same form; however, felt this may have overwhelmed the design.

Despite this design initially starting as a block repeat once i had really refined my colours and imagery i felt a brick repeat was much more suitable and pleasing to the eye. By using a brick repeat this reduces the amount of linear receptiveness and makes the design appear slightly more exciting.

Overall i really like this secondary design as i feel the hues and imagery balance and coordinate nicely with each other. I could see this design on products such as bedding and wallpaper and could even be developed into a placement design for products such as pillows.

With everything going on with COVID-19 and university officially being shut today (24th March) i am finding it hard to find motivation and know other students are as well. For myself personally i know i was well on track to finish for the deadline; however, now due to university not being on and everyone on lock down it seems we have a hugely vast amount of time to play with. To keep myself busy i am setting day by day tasks i want to complete so i do not find my self at a loose end. By focusing on activities one day at a time this will allow me to keep focused on what i currently need to do, rather than looking at the vast expanse of time wondering how i could possibly fill it.

For my next design i wanted to create a design only featuring the two aliens holding flowers from my placement design. I feel these two aliens are quite sweet on their own and i could develop them into a repeating pattern.

For these aliens as the motif was going to be very simple i wanted to explore how i could develop the initial imagery first. I started by experimenting with a colour overlay and despite the lack of detail i feel these aliens are still recognisable as what they are. Once happy with this i used a colour overlay on all my aliens within the hues of my colour pallet and then started to experiment with background hues. Despite initially thinking the yellow or light pink may make the best background hue, once experimenting with them all i felt the dark pink made the imagery stand out the most as this had the biggest tonal difference.

Once settling on this i then started to think about how to repeat the design. For this i thought a diagonal may work well so staggered the rows using the blue line as a marker so each row would line up perfectly. Despite being happy with the progress i had made i did wonder how the design would differ if i had a slight overlap between the hues.

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Overall once experimenting with this i much preferred the slight overlap as this design now appears to be a diagonal stripe of each hue. Because of the soft tones within this design and the overall girly feel i think this design will really appeal to someone within my target market. Despite this design containing multiple hues its details is restricted from the colour overlay. Because of this, i feel it would be well suited to a wallpaper design as other designs could be easily paired with it.

As i had a hero and a blender design featuring a rainbow i thought it would also be good to include a secondary design featuring a rainbow. By having a rainbow featured in all three sections this should allow customers more choice of designs to coordinate together and bring my collection together.

Initially i experimented with creating a repeat pattern with three separate motifs; however, with the rainbow staying consistent within all three. I thought this may be a way to make the design appear more fun to little girls and add some variation to the design. Despite this creating a varied design i did not feel it coordinated very well with the rest of my collection so tried a different approach.

Instead of a repeating pattern i decided to develop this design into a placement design, combining all the imagery. Within my collection i feel it could really use more placement designs in order to vary the collection. Despite this new placement design (shown bellow) containing multiple pieces of imagery i felt the background appeared very flat and boring, especially in consideration of my target market. Instead, i decided to add a gradient background utilising four hues from my colour pallet. Overall i feel this does make the design look more exciting compared to just having a flat hue as a background.

Once finishing this design i printed it out and added it to my temporary collection board; however, despite preferring it to my original repeat i still wasn’t over keen on the design to moved it to the pile of printed designs which i felt were unsuccessful. After looking at it when passing for some days i started to realise that although i may not be 100% keen on the design, i am not a 5-10 year old girl. I think actually it would appeal to a girl within my age demographic and would be very nice as the cover of a sticker book. To add to my press pack i have ordered some sticks featuring my aliens which could also be added to my product range. I will work into this design a little more with the intention of it becoming a sticker book cover. All i feel this design is lacking is some sort of ground on which the aliens are standing as at the moment they appear to be just floating. Now having a particular product i am aiming this design at i feel it will be a lot easier to develop and hopefully bring more inspiration.

Since annotating this design i have returned to it and made some edits. The key thing i wanted to add was some sort of ground for the aliens to be standing on. To create this i utilised the liquify tool and made some grass as i felt this would fit in with the rest of the imagery within this design. Once adding in this element i had to also slightly edit the rest of the rest of the design so all the pieces fitted together like a jigsaw. For this i have made the rainbow bigger and also added in some more flying aliens.

One other key addition i made is the sun in the top left corner. For this i experimented with many hues; however, only felt a yellow made it clear what this element was. Despite the yellow working well in this instance as the top of the background is yellow this made the sun fade into the background so i decided to add a radial gradation to make the edges more defined. Following this, i thought younger girls may appreciate the addition of eyes within the sun to make it appear alive and interacting with the rest of the design. I feel this additional feature will really reach out to my target demographic. The eyes came from my daffodil alien which i cut out and then changed the hue from brown to pink using the paint bucket tool.

Overall i am now vastly happier with this outcome than i was previously. I am so glad over time inspiration managed to come to me so i could develop this design to a state i was happy with. Throughout my designing process i have really come to appreciate the use of the subconscious. As we have so many designs to create, inspiration can become lacking; however, by starting one design and then leaving it to work on other things an idea can come of how to develop it without really thinking about it.