Midgleys Experience: February 2013

When given our Live Brief we were given a choice between Interior or fashion and for each we had a presentation from our clients in which they supplied us information and what they wanted us to achieve. After taking this into consideration, I chose Interior because I felt it was a huge opportunity for me because in the future I want to work within Interior design & textiles, and also this project is presenting the business side in which I will deal with a real life client. I also chose interior because I felt the Fashion project didn't give me as much of a challenge and didn't give me a wide variety in which I could experiment like the Interior, because as for the fashion it was a case of creating the lining for a Moo bag and I felt this was something I wouldn't gain much interest in as Interior. So therefore when been set the Live brief and been given the artists, fabrics, time zones & information to gather and be inspired by I was looking forward to learning for a different kind of project compared to our previous ones.
So therefore I began my research with the artists that had been given to us by Alison and the main artists we were suggested to concentrate on were Charles Rennie Mackintosh & William Morris so therefore I began my research on these and surrounding artists. So I collected research on their background, influences, what was happening in the world when they were producing their art/the effect this had, what they used & why, quotes, relationships etc. I concentrated a lot on Margret Mackintosh who was Charles wife and whom also did artwork, and their work related a lot to one another. For my research I also looked into the type of material I could use as this was an important aspect as the material needed to be strong, comfortable and flexible to be used for an armchair, so therefore i did a lot of research into which materials would pull easily or fade a design easily or were too thin to be used, and I produced all this on a sheet. If i would of been more time effient I would of drawn up some observational drawing but I felt with this project I was concentrating a lot on collecting information on my artists and their background and becoming inspired. For this project I also read books more than looking into the internet as I felt this was a better way to research with the information been based more in the older days than in the modern so the books provided me with lots of images to photocopy and work with and information I knew was reliable. I decided with my research that instead of putting it into a sketchbook I wanted to produce it on sheets because I wanted to have each sheet with a theme and present lots of information.
For my designs I created I made a lot of changers in my development sheets because I wanted to combine all my different ideas and create something that was both vintage and modern for an armchair. I first of all did 3 designs on my design development sheet but neither three of them felt really presented my inspiration and the artists. So therefore I created design 4 and I was really pleased with this result because this design brings ino it so much inspiration and detail, and I feel each section of this repeat feeds into the next.
I ensured to make the main attraction of this repeat the silouette of Margret Mackintosh as she and her husbands work was a massive part of my research and where my inspiration came from because their work says so much about themselves. Also the roses came from Charles work because the roses represented love and art as said by Charles, and I felt their was a real beauty to this because if he ever put his wife in his work he would present her with or surrounded by roses. The large mid-opening flower was from William morris's work because in a lot of his prints he creates nature in mid action like its opening it up life, and this inspired me to design the rose as if it is opening up the rest of the repeat pattern.
When presenting my work to Alison she appreicated my used of a style I did on one my visual sheets, this was on my 2nd visual sheet (numbering on the back) and on the right on this sheet I did an evergrowing pattern up the side that went upwards, i also liked this design because it showed what I felt my artists work showed and thats the pattern and images feeding into the next image/pattern, but I didnt like this design on this sheet very much because even though it was unique againist everyone else's designs in the class as it was in a line going upwards instead of a 360* pattern and this is why Alison liked it because it was unique, so therefore I began working into it on my visual sheets as I wanted to improve this idea and alter the parts of it I disliked. I always feel its important to keep improving your ideas and do rough sketchers of the same idea but just different alterations or different angles or different ways to repeat because it may have an outcome on a design and it may be one that looks better than the rest.
I felt my outcome was set with what the client wanted as they required no blue in there design so I limited my use of Blue and if I created a dye or a pigment paint that was more Blue than grey as sometimes this was the case then I would alter this until I felt I had the correct shade my client would appreiate. I also used mainly Cotton Velvet as my client required some form of Velvet and I felt what i'd chosen was the best to use because it was comfortable against the skin to use on an armchair, it was thick so I could not only work into it with my repeated screen prints but it would also be long lasting on the armchair and also this fabric was commonly used within the fabric for armchair so I was taking into consideration the fabrics that are usually used. My client also wanted a design that could repeat throughly so I ensured my design would repeat and that it would all look acurate.
For experimenting I creatured a sheet on my colour samples as when creating a dye, pigment paint or puff binder I had to ensure that id created the correct shade when dryed, and that I could see the difference when a drop more of ink or water was added as this would always make a slight or big difference, I did this because it showed experimentation and that i was aiming to be acurate, and it showed my colour chart and the colours I was staying within but also it showed that when producing my screen prints I wanted to contrast the correct colours against each other. Within my colours I stayed with Burgenday, Black, Grey, Lime green, Purple and pink, I kept a wide range of colours because they all had different colours againist a different background but all worked well together in my print and in making the silouette stand out and be the main aim of interest. Also for experimenting on my prints I used a range of material and did my screen prints from different angles and repeated in different ways as I think this is always an advantage when creating the perfect repeat design. For experimenting I also think its important to use materials and techniques you may not even used on the armchair but to still show your experimenting and showing youve taken these into consideration like for example I used Devoure and Puff Binder when I could never used these on the armchair as they both have disadvantages but it shows a variety and experimenting.
For problem solving I had to make some alterations when matching up my pattern and ensuring it repeated accuratly and this was just a case of photocopying my design 5 times and all the same size then matching it all up onto a sheet and seeing where the design didnt match up accuratly, because if I didnt do this it wouldnt work when coming to experimenting and presenting it on fabric repeated. Another problem was when I did my first few screens I realised I needed to mask my screen as some pigment paint was coming through on where id wrote 1st screen, 2nd screen, 3rd screen, 4th screen on each of my screens so I didnt to mask up these parts to ensure my prints revealed only my design but to be careful when washing my screens, I also realised my screen was sometimes smudging when screen printing so to ensure this didnt happen to show the full detail and accuratness of my design I put weights on either side of my screen to keep it in place.
I think my final design may be difficult to reproduce because it includes a lot of detail and patterning espically on the flower, but I wanted my design to include a lot of design as I thought this would be effective on the armchair but was an advantage when producing my tracing as I had to do some of the lines thicker to ensure they came through on the screen as if they didnt it may ruine the quality.
The type of customer did have a big influence on my design as I knew he wouldnt want something that looked too childlike and simplified, so I wanted to do something unique with significance to it, I tired my design with musical notes in it or a threatre based symbol but I felt this wouldnt fit in within my design and would look slightly random, but I knew this was something my client was interested in. I also felt my client was very eligent and had a wide intrest in detail as been interested in threatre and been within threatres they also include such elgant detail within the interior so I wanted to try produce some of thin within my design, some small some significant detail.
I felt this project went very well, the only thing I would change if I could is I would produce a sheet on art neuvour as I found out lot of information on this and became really inspired, and this was a really big part of the project as it related all my artists into one and showed a style to there artwork. I would of also done a sheet on the time zones in which they were producing their work as this gave some reason to effects it had on their work, and this was of big importance as it showed what was surrounding them, what was happening. I also wish I would of made my design simpler as when Rachael won the project her design was very simple but effective, so I wish I would of created a design that was more block images/patterns and not too complicated as I felt my design became very complicated and too busy and contributed to the reason for not winning.
Throughout my project i used my diary and blog very effectively because it gave me tasks each day to set myself and complete and also my blog presented the work I had already produced and why and it really help me on staying on track and knowing what I had already achieved and needed to achieve.
I felt this project was really effective in the fact that we were producing something for a real life client outside of college so I felt it was a real feel for the outside business world and what people expect from you within so many weeks, I felt it was a really good opportunity to be able to create something someone was going to use within their home, so if I felt to do interior within the future it showed me that it takes longer than I thought just to create the fabric for a armchair, and just to imagine how long it would take to create a living room or a bedroom, it really puts things into prospective.
I felt overall I did well on the project as I took into consideration everything the client wanted and all my influences, so i'm satisified with the outcome but I wish I could of done more sampling as this may of gave my client more of a variety to look at and when doing my presentation.