Harlequin.

Fig 1. 

Researching further into market levels I found Harlequin who create high end flamboyant wallpaper designs.
Using a range of specialist finishes such as metallics and a range of different textures they are a specialist in statement wallpapers.
They create a diverse range of designs in a large range of styles, suiting to various different room styles.
I think their styles of papers are really interesting with lots of mark marking and expressive designs, which I think my work would lend itself well to.
Harlequin are also a design team, and are the sort of company that I could see myself working within, and I definitely would like to aim for the higher end of the market purely because of the elaborate designs and the more extravagant details.

Fig 1. Harlequin (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 30th December 2013] <http://www.harlequin.uk.com/>

Sofa Competition Submission.

This week I took a few days out to enter the Sofa.com competition. I wanted to enter this live brief as it stated the designs needed to inspirational and eye catching, whilst being extremely commercial.

Since I've been interested in targeting both high end and commercial market levels, I thought it would be helpful to try out another commercial brief. 

I wanted to do this with digital print, as it's something I haven't experimented too much with yet within this project. 

I changed my drawings to be put into repeat, therefore making them a much more commercially suited design. 

It was interesting to experiment with this, as the original drawings took on a completely different feel than they had originally. 

It stated within the brief that different colourways might be appropriate to have more to work with, so I experimented with different colourways in Photoshop, it's been interesting to go back to using colour again after working with mainly monochrome within my main project. Colour is something I definitely want to bring back into my project. 

 It was good to be able to work to a brief set by a company and to have a set of guidelines within the brief to work to.

Seeing print visualised has really helped, and I think that's something I definitely need to start doing within my project, just to start seeing how my prints might be applied within an interior context. Market level wise, I feel that my designs are perhaps still too extravagant for this competition and wouldn't be appropriate to the intended commercial market level. 

I have felt that within my project that I should be able to hit both market levels, but through this live project I have realised that my working style is just more appropriate to the higher levels, so instead of trying to meet both levels, I want to aim solely for the higher market level. 

New Screens.

I've been experimenting with the placement of foil within my prints. I found that offsetting the foil as an all over layer underneath the print worked well. The foil didn't detract from the print, instead highlighted areas adding a shadowing effect.

This week I also exposed two more screens that aren't in repeat to add variety to my collection of prints. 

I started by experimenting with a different coloured foil, but this definitely wasn't successful as the foil stands out far too much as a contrast against the pigment print. I do however think the design as a whole came out well, and the qualities of the line are really successful at representing my original drawings. 

I went back to lead foil and worked with it in an all over layer again, as I had been experimenting with this technique earlier in the week. I wanted to work with the foil layer over the top, so that the pigment created a darker shadow underneath, adding a lot more depth to the print. I used flock with some of the prints to add texture, I felt that this would be an appropriate technique as flock is often used within interior to replicate velvet. 

I don't feel that this design is quite as successful as the previous prints, it worked better when I only took sections of it and not the design as a whole, the flowing marks seem to work better in smaller sections. I think the off setting colours worked well with these however, especially with the monochrome shades with white aquaspand layered over the top. I definitely think that the offsetting is something that I want to experiment with further, perhaps working with three tones of a colour, and moving away from monochrome again.

Digital Prints.

I decided to try out my drawings as digital prints, as I didn't see why a drawing couldn't be a finished design in its own right.
The prints came out well colourwise etc, but I felt that as soon as they were printed onto fabric, the qualities were lost, they've become very flat and lost any depth they had originally within the drawings.
I felt that the qualities that are coming out in the screen prints are a lot more successful and this is something that I should utilise within my work. I can create a lot more depth within my screen prints with layering and adding texture, which creates more interesting effects.
I think that it might be a possibility that I create a small range of digital prints that go alongside my screen printed fabrics. But perhaps they will be a lot more commercial, where I have edited them a lot more and created repeats to change them dramatically from the original drawings.

Timorous Beasties.

Fig 1.

Timorous Beasties are a design studio that I have long since been inspired by, using a combination of screen print and digital print, they create a great variety of interior surface pattern designs.
What inspires me about Timorous Beasties is the range of different projects that they undertake, with their wallpaper, upholstery and interior accessory prints. They also undertake commissions for a variety of outcomes from window displays to exteriors of buildings, with commissions for the V&A with large scale carpet, curtain and wallpaper designs. A large scale theatre curtain for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, they partake in many exciting opportunities. I feel it important to take part in different projects to keep inspiration fresh and to possibly open new doors, and that's what I like about Timorous Beasties, and I'd like to work for a studio like this.
Timorous Beasties are at the high end market level, with extremely elaborate repeat designs, I feel that my work would fit more within this market level simply because often my designs are quite elaborate and intricate with quite a lot going on. The more I research the more it is apparent that they higher end market level create the more extravagant and busy wallpaper designs

Fig 1. Timorous Beasties (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 8th December 2013] <www.timorousbeasties.com>

Publisher Textiles.

Fig 1. 

Publisher Textiles are a screen printed textiles company, creating high end printed designs for wallpapers and upholstery and other interior accessories. As they only use screen print their designs are aimed at a high end market level, due to the bespoke and intricate nature of their designs.
They also create commission based designs on request, so can offer one off designs.
I could see myself working for a studio like this as I would want to work as part of a design time as opposed to working for myself, or freelance. Working with screen print is something I'd want to do, and somewhere like this is a studio where I could see my work potentially being able to fit.

Publisher Textiles use a variety of specialist print finishes such as discharge, foil, flock, to create textures and surfaces. These are some of the techniques that I also use within my designs, the bold nature of some of their prints is also not dissimilar to some of the marks and patterns created within my designs. I found that my designs work well repeated, and due to their elaborate nature to not begin to appear too commercial. I definitely feel that my work is more suited to this high end level of the market, which is something I'd like to aim for when designing. 

Fig 1.  Publisher Textiles (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 5th December 2013] <http://www.publishertextiles.com.au/>

Exposed Screens.

I've been preparing my screens this week, creating two designs that could be put into a repeat. I've never done hand repeat before and only experimented with digital repeat in the past. I felt that it was important for me to have some examples of screen printed repeat in my portfolio so it shows it's a skill I have.
I'd want to be able to show that I am versatile within my designs so want to have some repeatable and some one off designs, so as to show a range within the collection.

I feel for my first attempts at repeat the prints came out well and the design worked. I've stuck to monochrome so as not distract myself again, and I felt like I was able to achieve a lot more though doing this. I've worked with a variety of heavier silks, linens and wools, to think more about what sort of fabrics would be used in a interior, particularly at the higher end market level. The linen in particular hung really well, and would be something I'd like to work with further.
I brought some foil back into the prints to link to the metallics I used in my drawings. However I think that my placement of the foil in these samples is perhaps highlighting the wrong areas and distracting from the print. The print is strong enough on it's own. Perhaps the foil would work better as a layer over the top.
I feel that the exposed line has come out much clearer than the hand painted monoprints that I experimented with previously, and has still kept the drawn mark but in a lot bolder and more defined way. I would like to expose some more designs that are non repeatable as well, to start to build up a collection.

First Prints.

For the past two weeks I've been dying up fabric and experimenting in the print room. 

I wanted to work with mono printing to begin with as I felt that this would be the best way to translate my drawings to print. 

I don't feel that my time so far in the print room has been very successful, the mono prints haven't come out as I'd have liked, the lines don't have the defined quality of my drawings. 

I've found that I've become distracted by process and colour again. Although I told myself I was going to stick to a few colours, dying up the backgrounds and working with different printing dyes has started to confuse me. 

I think that the best way to move on from this week is to go back to my drawings and pick out sections to then expose onto a screen. An exposed screen will hopefully give me the defined lines that I want to achieve. 

Monochrome Drawings.

Fig 1.

Since I've been focusing more on layout the past couple of weeks, I've been looking at Richard Long's paintings, as he uses defined shapes combined with the paint being allowed to drip and splash across the piece so is still very expressive, but with a sense of structure added. It's helped me to look at how other expressive artists lay their work out and think about composition, which I think is starting to come through in my own work this week. 

I set the aim of completing 25 drawings that explored different sets of marks to help refine my drawing and ideas.

I found this task to be very helpful, and worked well to focus my marks. I'm pleased with the body of marks generated, and feel I've created a large volume of inspiration for me to work with further in the print room. 

I think the more monochrome palette is working well, as I'm not thinking about colour and materials as much and purely thinking about what marks to create. I've also found masking off sections, in a way similar to Long,  to be effective against the expressive marks, it's quite dramatic to have a hard line in the middle to cut the marks off. 

Fig. 1 Richard Long (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 12th November 2013] <http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/368/richard-long/highlights-3783>

Ian McKeever.

I've been interested in Ian McKeever's work this week, I think it relates to some of the techniques i've been using as his paintings give the effect of illumination, with abstract forms and shapes layered up together. This is a similar effect that I want to achieve with marks and pattern. McKeever's palette is quite subtle, yet effective, the darker and tonal backgrounds really illuminate the white areas. This is something for me to think about, perhaps using a darker palette, with only small flashes of brighter areas.

Fig 1.

Fig 1. Ian McKeever (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 11th November 2013] <http://www.ianmckeever.com/gallery/paintings.php?pg=5>

Layout and Marks.

Fig 1. 

This week I was inspired by Mark Rothko's paintings, mainly for his use of layering with colour to create illuminating effects. I've been thinking more about layout this week and how my marks can work in a piece without covering a whole surface. I decided to create another large scale drawings whilst taking into account how I could block sections and create areas of space as Rothko has done within his paintings.

This piece as a whole was far more successful than my previous large scale drawings, this was because I wasn't focusing on creating shapes any more and I was purely looking at marks, through which I've realised that I don't need to over work things, pieces can be simple and effective with just one mark repeated. I think it's also helped in this drawing to have areas of space and colour without marks, creating a sense of depth and illumination.  

Fig 1. Mark Rothko (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 11th November 2013] <www.wikipaintings.org>

Large Scale Drawings.

                                     Fig 1.                                                                        Fig 2. 

This past few weeks I've really been working on upping the scale of my drawings. I created three large scale pieces, to test out different techniques and colour ranges.  

I don't think the all over pattern worked too well as shown in Fig 1, as it started to become more like a geometric structure, which isn't the effect I want to achieve, I feel that focusing on more flowing shapes and marks to create a more natural and organic feel is more appropriate to my concept. 

For this reason I am happier with the drawing shown in Fig 2 as it is a more flowing structure. I think that the colours are working well in this piece, and the illuminating effect has really worked in areas. Working on a lot larger scale has helped to free my mark making up and create more flowing lines, creating a more natural feel. 

                                 Fig 3                                                                           Fig 4

I decided to up the scale further to get a feel for the scale of an interior context shown in Fig 4. 

I found working to this scale to be quite daunting. I ended up getting hung up on how the shapes needed to form, leading them to become very leaf like which wasn't the effect I originally wanted to achieve. I wanted the marks to create new forms and shapes without me forcing them into one particular shape in repeat, there needs to more of an organic feel to my drawings. To work on from this, I will focus purely on the marks from my photographs, and start to think about adding space around the shapes as filling the whole page is too much. The techniques and colours I'm using also need to be brought back as I'm trying to use too many colours and techniques in one piece. 

In Fig 3 I found that adding the cut out layer on top of the banner style drawing really helped to create space and depth, something that I want to continue experimenting with, especially in the print room with techniques such as devore. 

Homebase Competition.

Final design

I decided to enter the Homebase wallpaper competition to force myself to think more about market levels, and where I could see my work fitting contextually. Homebase being at a very domestic commercial level, I thought it would be interesting to see if my work could fit, I think it's important for my designs to be adaptable and not just suited to one market level. 

I chose the brief 'Scented Garden' as I felt this was most fitting with my current project, so I could adapt some of the work I'd already been doing. The brief asked for a design in repeat, to be based on vintage florals and using light tones of colour.  I chose to use one of my original photographs from gardens to adapt digitally. 

From doing research into already existing wallpapers within the Homebase range, a lot of the prints are quite simple and motif based, as is the same with most domestic ranges of wallpapers in shops like B&Q, Next, or Ikea. 

So to be in keeping with the commercial marketplace I chose to work with a few motifs and work in simple repeat, keeping the colours tonal and not having too much going on within the design. 

I found this brief to be useful mainly because it forced me to think in a different way about how to adapt my work to certain market levels, it was also interesting to work to a short time frame, I often find that I work better under pressure, so I enjoyed the challenge.                                                     

Drawing & Bleach.

Over the past few weeks I have been starting to create a body of drawing for my minor project, to get ideas flowing and to create a range of inspiration to work from to take into the print room.

As during the summer I had found it hard to use colour, I had stuck to a mainly monochrome palette so as not to distract from the marks in my drawing. To begin to feel more confident with the use of colour, I've decided to create colour boards throughout the project to focus on how to put colour together and how to apply colour. 

As a starting point to get away from black and white I've decided to work on coloured grounds, experimenting with different media.

Looking at hiding and revealing as one of the main ideas, I've been masking off areas with masking fluid and bleaching away sections to reveal different layers beneath.  

As I don't want the original inspiration to be obvious within the drawings I have been drawing in an expressive way, hiding the identity of the original source, so the viewer is unsure what they are looking at. 

I decided to experiment with different scales, I found it worked well to work larger as it allowed the marks to become freer, to further develop this the scale may need to be upped again to allow the marks to really flow. Different methods in applying the bleach worked well to achieve different textures and surface qualities, using a spray bottle worked particularly well to create an ombre effect. 

I've started to experiment with different papers and opacities. I found that layout paper with olive oil worked well to distort what's underneath and to also reveal sections. I'd like to develop this on a larger scale and layer up a drawing underneath so that the oil piece conceals and reveals parts.
Some of the up close studies of the objects weren't that successful as I was focusing mainly on the shape of the object, rather than the marks within, the objects need to be zoomed in on and not thought of as a whole object. The abstract drawings that create more of a surface pattern are a lot more successful at linking back to the original concept.

Autumnal.

I wanted to collect a selection of objects that I could draw from instead of drawing from photographs, since it's autumn and the season is turning I felt this would be a great time to gather objects that had a range of different colours and textures. 

I think that drawing directly from natural objects will help me to focus on shape and form, and allow me to look closer at the pattern within the objects. 

Boards.

INSPIRATIONS

These are my boards from over the summer, these show my inspirations, concept, media & processes & the context I think that my work might go into. 

My main inspirations for this project have been the nature that surrounds us, mainly looking closely at the marks and patterns embellish a plant or tree. 

CONCEPT

My concept stemmed from looking at identity in nature, such as crypsis, mimcry & camouflage and how animals and insects often hide their identity to pretend that they're something they're not to catch their prey or hide from their predators. I'm quite interested in online identity and how people can do a similar process & become or pretend to be something they're not. 

MEDIA & PROCESS

I aim to explore this concept through layering and concealing patterns, revealing and hiding different sections. I will play around with different opacities when drawing on different papers. I will experiment a lot with drawing techniques, which will then progress further into screen printed designs on fabric, and also digital prints. 

CONTEXT

I see myself working towards a mainly interiors based context, I am interested in fashion, but perhaps think that interiors is a stronger area for me.