Final Major Project

My Brief – Exotic Paradise

Aim

The aim of this project is to design a bedroom interior collection suitable for the mid/mass market retail sector during the spring/summer of 2016. Inspired by Asian backpacking travels for the woman between 20-35 years of age with an interest in Thai design.

Backpacking to exotic countries has become a trend to follow over the last few summers. Thailand, India and Singapore were the countries I had recently visited last summer along with hundreds of other people similar to myself.

Paradise and foreign, exotic lands have appealed to designers as of late because of their variations in colours, textures and natural forms. It is particularly fashionable today in the western market as there is this desire to be reminded of such beautiful places that distract from the current place they are in now.

Asian design is an expression of Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese cultures. Home decor from these areas often emphasises Zen-like open areas for relaxation and meditation along with feng shui furniture arrangements. Silk chinoiserie wallpaper gives the sense of richness and simplicity. This style can vary immensely. A room could hint at an Eastern influence with a Buddha sculpture and prayer beads, or completely re-create the feel of a traditional Asian house. Asian furniture and accessories, such as tatami mats, futons, tansu-style cabinets and shoji screens create a Japanese aesthetic, while red lacquer, foo dogs and paper lanterns add Chinese style. Asian art and interior is incredibly intricate and created by hand with both drawn and painted designs to hand crafted and carved objects.

Competitors Research

The mid/mass market has a range of shops that compete in the interior market. The companies that would be competing against my designed range would be John Lewis, Debenhams, Next and House of Fraser. Each relate heavily to British design and have a centralised westernised identity throughout their products.

All their company values stated on their online sites question how unique each company is. Similarly, they all speak of keeping the British heritage and how John Lewis never forgot its

heritage. However, today travelling the world has become more popular every year as well as foreign design in both fashion and interior.

Values associated with the competitors:

* Quality and Value

* Heritage

* British and Local

* Affordable Luxury

* Quintessential and Recognition

* Consistency

To allow this projects designs to have the ability to compete against such successful brands, they must be able to qualify for the above aspects. Although, to achieve that individualism and difference to stand out against the listed competitors, this exotic range will be massively influenced by Asian design, specifically Thai, and then westernised for recognition in the retail market.

Foreign design isn’t brand new to the market, but it does open up a niche market for a specialised company to focus on exotic interiors inspired by areas such as Thailand that could be recognised in the British heritage not only for those who have an interest in travelling and understanding in cultures but also those who have moved from overseas would enjoy a related interior design style that would be acceptable in both a British home and foreign home.

Objectives

The objectives to follow are:

* Complete a detailed research file and photo book from previous travels on Asian, mainly Thai design interiors

* Explore concept of customer based research

* Create Mood Boards; Theme, Colour and Texture, Client and Competitor

* Drawing and development of hand created designs

* Experiment with samples and create technical file, working with heat press, screen printing, dye and mark making

* Create final collection of wallpaper and fabric designs

* Organise Press Packs (x6)

* Written synopsis of work

Here are some images from my travels:

The temples in Thailand were just out of this world, everything was just so unreal and amazing. It was a truly beautiful country and experience.

Some Card Designs

These designs have a Aztec feel about them relating to the designs of the Native Americans and geometric patterns during the western period. Really love the colour scheme, they all contrast it each other effectively bringing out each colour distinctively.

First Term of Third Year

For my first project of third year I had a choice to create either a collection of 8 cards or a set of gift wrap for International Greetings; a leading card manufacturer for many well known companies such as Tescos, John Lewis and Next.

I have chosen to create 8 cards that fit as a collection but have individual design aspects. I am designing for male John Lewis customers in the age group of 20’s to late 30’s. My theme is western vs native american clash. I am well over mid way with my project and have started to design my cards.

Getting Hairy Up In Here

Going back to my 100 drawings I did earlier on, I decided to pick at one and develop it further into some more potential designs. I came across a hairy cow doodle which fit the bill.

I’ve really enjoyed doing these, I love hairy cows anyway but these drawings and sketches would create some really quirky and cool prints. I love finding new imagery to use for my work.

Brecon Beacons

Unfortunately I missed the trip to the Brecon Beacons due to illness, although I have visited before and found the scenery over whelming and beautiful, I do have past photos from going with my family. I can use these images to draw from inspiration later on in future designs I’d like to create. Now the trips have finished and I can work on from my drawings I can now see where this type of first hand imagery and research will take me in my subject throughout the rest of textiles. I really enjoyed this field module compared to the first one. I did find drawing philosophy interesting and challenging but the subject media of things behind the sun was much more to my taste and allowed me to actually create textile pieces back in my studio unlike the first module.

More outcomes

Some designs and sketches developed from botanical gardens trip

I developed the drawings below from the 100 small drawings from my first trip, I wanted to take them and make them in to designs that I could potentially take back in to my studio to recreate textile outcomes. Again they show similar aspects as the originals as the are simple line drawings with a little added detail effect to make them slightly more interesting. These pictures below have a slightly more design look due to arrangement of the designs compared to one block image. I can really see the benefit of starting to get first hand sketches to improve inspiration in future designs. As I find it any enjoyable experience I will continue to go out and collect images from my travels. I am very much looking forward to my next trip to the Brecon Beacons where here are massive waterfalls that will provide an amazing photo taking opportunity and to also build upon more first hand sketches to later develop.

Above I took the picture of my wood markings and exaggerated the darker lines in the wood to make this very watery feel, then tried to recreate the lighter lines with water to create a natural look, I could create this through the ease of stitch and printing.

This design was all about arrangement and creating a layered pattern to represent the vast amount of grouped snow drops I saw clustered together, as this would of taken ages to of done realistically, I flipped the same design up side down which allowed me to get this full effect.

This next one was mould from the floor, I loved the shapes and re-caught them. I believe this would make an interesting biological repeat pattern.

I loved the shape of these flowers from when I was sketching them, most flowers are pretty and delicate shapes but these are so robust and almost ugly to look at. I wanted to make up a design that would bring out the character in these flowers that would be very bold and eye catching as they were. Playing around with scale was a big factor here. Experimentation really is the key.

New Field Module – Things Behind The Sun

This is the second part of my field module, Things Behind The Sun. This module involves visiting contrasting landscapes as a source of inspiration for me and my discipline, Textiles.

In the first week I visited The National Botanical Gardens of Wales , this was a very hilly and green landscape. It had various aspects such as a lake and waterfall, forest walks and a indoor green house filled with exotic plants to draw and sketch.  The task for the day was to do 100 quick ‘palm of the hand’ drawings of what takes our fancy in a macro or micro scale. This was a very different environment compared to the usual sitting down at a desk, it was difficult in a way as it was pushing me out come my comfort zone as these sketches were messy and simple line drawings. Also the weather was not on our side which made the process even quicker. From this exercise I had a range of different outcomes, I found that some were more detailed than others. Some drawings was drawn through a sort of trance, loosing sense of anything around me which was shown in some of the sketches. I found that even though this were first hand drawings, apart from the basic outline, was made up as a quicker finish to the sketch.

I found it very hard to finish the 100 drawings as it became very monotonous ans some became sloppier which sometimes had a better effect. Unfortunately I only produced around 75 sketches, but on the positive side I can do extra drawings in my own time as I am lucky to live near Bute and Roath park. Other drawings I tried were too hard and didn’t look right among the others. These drawings will later be developed from inspiration into more of my work and style, which would then later refer to my textile discipline.

As a personal outlook on this module, I feel positive and look forward to next trip which will be to a beach with different exercises to experiment with. I enjoy very much using organic forms and nature in my work, as I have used it many times in my previous work, including my croquis designs in the first term for Laura Ashley.

Planning for Dissertation.

Content –
Cultural identity
Textiles
Britain/English in contrast to other strongly based textile countries and their identities
Finding out the contrast and why

Start –
What I’m doing
Why
How I’m doing it, contrasting evaluation
Why
Who I’m talking about, artist, philosophers, Critics
Why

Middle –
The argument
Supporting evidence, referencing people
Contrasting and Supporting aspects
About Britain and it’s history, identity, cultural factors
Other countries and the same as above

The end –
Conclusion
What I learnt
What the answer is I there is one
Restating the main facts

Dissertation Prep

I have sort of finalized my choice of research for my dissertation. It is a rough proposal on the world and its cultures including a textile twist. It is following on from my previous posts that Britain, or should I say more England has a lack in identity in the textile area. Why do other countries seem to have a stronger identity with the subject? Thinking about my background and where I come from England; do I have a culture? What is the English culture? Why is the textile identity missing?

Generally thinking about artists and designers that have been British and have had an influence of textiles and the country off the top of my head I come up with William Morris but there was no true identity to England there. Even design movements such as Art Nouveau and Deco were influenced by other countries which in my opinion were mostly linked with France. England seems to have more of a regional identity through textiles with  different areas of the country relating to embroidery and quilting. More Folk art.

So much for the United Kingdom?

My possible question/hypothesis – Why is there cultural identity deficiency in textiles for Britain compared to other countries?

Key words associated:

Identity

Culture

Representation

Expression

Pride

Strength

Weakness

Tradition

Textiles