Inspired by the Unearthly creatures report on WGSN i have decided to create some experiments inspired by different animal prints, which i can use on my monsters. Origionally i was going to use pen to create these textures; however, thought using ink and a paintbrush may be more experimental.
To create these shapes i used both a round and a flat headed brush dependent on the shapes i was looking to create. Overall i found the round head a lot more versatile and easier to controll. Despite this, the flat headed brush enabled myself to create patterns and textures in one where as i would have had to keep going back and forth on myself if i had used the rounded one.
From top to bottom i experimented with a giraffe, leopard and cow print and then also scales off of a fish. For the giraffe and cow print i decided to create another variation which i felt may suit my style better and also be more appropriate for my designs.
Overall this has been a worth while experiment as i was originally struggling with how i could vary the textures within each creature. When i continue to design my monsters i can now refer back to this page and other images online such as on Pintrest in order to adapt and develop my ideas.
Now having gathered all my sources and started to write my dissertation i feel at a much stronger point than i did at this point with my research proposal. Despite this it would be nice for tutors to reflect on our progress more frequently than only once before the final submission.
I see one of my key weaknesses as how to structure a dissertation as i have never had to do this before and the support the university provides is minimal to say the least. Because of this i am trying to use my strength of time management to get my first draft finished as quickly as possible so i can focus on going back through the work and re organising it into the correct chapters.
Overall i feel my dissertation is going well as i very much prefer having 15 minutes one on one time with the tutor, rather than having scheduled group times. As i know exactly what i want to write about this benefits me as i have very specific questions compared to someone that hasn’t planned ahead so well.
In the interest of developing my current imagery i decided to create some monsters out of paper cut outs in an array of colours, closest i could find to that on my colour pallet. I wanted to try and build on my preexisting imagery and perhaps find a new way to develop my designs.
Despite thinking this would be a good idea at first i soon realised this was going to be a lot more difficult than i originally thought. I realised cutting the monsters out so they would all slot together like a puzzle (an idea for my hero design) was not going to work. Because of this i instead focused on creating individual monsters.
I would start by drawing the monsters on the reverse of the coloured card and then go about cutting them out. I soon realised no matter if i used scissors or a scalpel i could not achieve the really fine squiggly lines i wanted to. Instead i had to settle for less detailed interpretations which unfortunately took away from the personality of each individual creature.
Within this experiment i also tried using some shiny card to see how this would look. I have been thinking foils and other shiny substrates do not really suit my target market and this experiment has reinforced this idea. Although i think it looks rather pleasant i feel a boy would prefer just a high gloss finish across the entire design.
To add details to the characters i used a black fine liner much how i had previously. Once adding these details i felt the black outline i had previously been experimenting with was missing. Instead of adding a black outline to each creature i decided to stick them to black card. Having the various coloured monsters against a black background really helps them to stand out, which is something i will remember when i start designing. Instead of just sticking this black sheet into my book i thought it might be nice to add a white outline and then another black sheet to create a border effect. With these i tried to incorporate the wavy lines within the creatures by cutting loosely around them. I feel this border effect creates a really nice finish to the design. When going on to develop my designs onto products this effect is something i will remember in case i feel it is appropriate.
Overall i am glad i experimented with paper cutting as it has been something i have been thinking about. Unfortunately, it did not live up to expectations as i could not achieve the really fine wavy details. From now i will return to my illustrations; however, remember this border effect incase i can use it in the future.
On WGSN i came across a Print and Graphic report for A/W 20/21 Baby and Toddler. Although my target market is elder, this report is for the season i am designing for so i feel i can still use it as a base to inspire my ideas and then develop them for an elder audience.
The article speaks of imaginary out of this world creatures which are patterned with spots and animal prints though a childs lens. Within my own work i have been adding textures similar to sports; however, have not as of yet considered adapting animal prints. This could be a way for myself to vary the textures i use within my illustrations, coming away from wavy lines.
Later in the article slogans are mentioned using multicoloured effects and fonts which complement the message. I feel within my designs i want to stick with the happy birthday text that really relates to my theme; however, could start to look at how i can use colour within this in a much more playful way than i was originally thinking.
Also this report mentions the use of scale and adding a bold finish. I have already been experimenting with a bold finish through the use of a black outline. As i develop my designs i would still like to experiment with a white outline; however, this is something that can be done easily within Photoshop so will be part of last minute final experiments within each design rather than an over riding idea.
Throughout my collection i will be using a wide variety of scale. As i have already mentioned in a previous post i will be having a much smaller scale within my gift wrap compared to gift sheets. As well as variation within different products i have also started experimenting with this within my first design. At first i was concerned about the size difference between the biggest and smallest creatures; however, now viewing it within the repeat because of the amount of textures added within the larger creature there is not a huge apparent difference.
Looking at this article has given me many ideas of how i can continue to develop my designs. I want to continue primarily with these developments; however, when i do run out of inspiration return back WGSN to look at reports such as this to gain further inspiration.
During my tutorial with Helen she mentioned a textile artist who uses stitch to create imagery and text. Within each piece her work includes dramatic style changes from some life like elegant parts to other more primitive child like illustrations. Although having discussed that stitch is not appropriate for my target demographic, i feel some of her illustrations could really help to inspire my own monster drawings.
What drew me toward this piece of work is the amount of child like illustrations, especially the chicken like figure which sits at the bottom fairly to the right. This although i think is a chicken could be interpreted by someone else very differently which is something i would like to create within my own work. By people having different opinions about what the entity may or may not be, it sparks conversation and there for interest. Inspired by Schwarz work i want to try and loosen up even more within my own designing process to see if i can create this convocation between younger boys.
As i was unable to recreate my style digitally i decided to return back to pen and paper to create a simple block repeat. Although i did want to experiment with a half drop or brick repeat if i can get this design to be finished in a block repeat i can see exactly where improvements need to be made.
To create my block repeat i worked on tracing paper, copying the majority of my previous design, which i then divided into four before swapping each section around. Once each section was rotated i then filled in the middle gap so’s to create the continuous repeat. I find creating repeats very satisfying; however, everything does have to be measured exactly so it will line up perfectly. A major difference between this new design and the previous is the size of the happy birthday font. I am much happier with the size of this new font as it is clearer and stands out a lot more than it had done previous.
Once happy with this design i then scanned it into illustrator so i could image trace it. Once again before i was able to do this i had to play around with the brightness and exposure to ensure there was a high contrast between the imagery and background. Although playing a lot with the brightness and contrast, this design was still exceptionally hard to image trace. Playing with the threshold, if i moved it up all the fine details would be present; however, the wavy stylised lines would be smoothed out. But if i turned it down all the wavy stylised lines would be present; however, i would loose the finer details. After playing around with this for sometime i eventually gave up and tried using the magic wand to remove sections in Photoshop. Although this did work, once again i lost the fine detailed lines. After this was unsuccessful i then went back to Illustrator determined to some how image trace the design. Looking further within the settings i realised there was a setting for lines and another for corners. By moving both from 50 to 100 and playing some more with the threshold i eventually got a result i was happy with. Despite this finally working some detail has still been lost; however, this could be put back in with the paintbrush tool on illustrator.
Once i had finally managed to image trace the design it all fitted together very nicely on Illustrator. Looking back i am glad i have experimented with a block repeat as it has lead me to conclusion this style of repeat does not work at all for this design. Although if the design were just monsters it would be ok, the happy birthday text sits in too much of a linear pattern. I feel this design would be better in a half drop repeat to stagger this slightly. As well as wanting to experiment with a half drop i feel my text could be more exciting. The mixture of upper and lower case does create a more playful feel; however, i would like to experiment with the letters being different sizes and also putting some backward. Having some of my text backward was something Helen brought up within my tutorial and i feel it would really add to the aesthetic of my design and also really appeal to a young boy.
As well as editing my text i feel i could also make some improvements with my monsters. Although liking the high density of colour and pattern i feel they are too compact, expecially from a distance. The image below is not to scale of how i would like it printed which makes it even more confusing to the eye. Although originally planning to move onto another design i am very tempted to add colour to this one. I want to see if the image is still so overwhelming even when each monster is separated by hues or if it perhaps helps each element to stand out.
I feel this design would be most appropriate for a gift roll as my hero design. I would like this to be at a fairly small scale so it can be a wash with colours and textures so’s to inspire the rest of my collection. For my gift sheet i would like the imagery to be at a larger scale, still fairly busy; however, far less so than this design. I am also considering not making the gift sheet a repeat so i can be experimental with the boarder i add to the design. This will hopefully create diversity within my collection and allow myself to be a lot more experimental with the imagery i use.
Despite knowing i would have to develop this design using a different repeat i could not help but wonder what it would look like with the addition of colour. The repeating structure in black and white appears busy with textures; however, one monster does not stand out form the
Following my tutorial with Matt i have selected a design that he liked and started to develop it into a repeat pattern. Instead of just taking the first illustration i did i decided to redraw it, taking inspiration from all the illustrations throughout my sketchbook.
To start i selected a 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8 weighted pens to give myself a range of line thickness. After creating the first section of the repeat i reflected on this and realise there was no obvious difference between the 0.2 and 0.5 so decided to just use the 0.2 and 0.8. I have used the thicker pen for the outlines, eyes and the outline of the mouths to highlight them. Then i used the 0.2 for finer details such as textures and teeth. I feel this nicely varies certain aspects.
Once happy with my design i scanned it into illustrator and image traced it. However, because some of the details were so fine no matter how much i played with the threshold in image trace they were not apparent on screen. To combat this i brought the original design into Photoshop and played with the brightness, exposure and contrast to make the lines bolder before bringing the design back into illustrator.
Once happy with the image tracing result i recieved i started playing around with positioning the design so i could fill in the gaps to make it repeat. First of all i went for a brick repeat and then started filling in the gaps with my wacom tablet and the pen tool on illustrator. Unfortunately because of how much illustrator tends to smooth out the lines i struggled creating the same style in a digital format. Although you can go back though and edit the points along each line with the direct selection tool, i still feel the digital and hand drawn elements did not match up.
After knowing creating the same style was going to be a lot harder than i first thought i decided to experiment with a range of other repeats which would minimise the gap between each motif, in the hope that as i have less space to fill the more time i can spend editing each line to ensure it matched up.
For the design bellow i still went for a brick repeat, however; moved the motifs slightly off centre to see if this would help and also flipped the design vertically. Although this did minimise the gaps I wanted to carry on experimenting as felt i could do better. The benefit with reflecting the design however, is that the happy birthday text has now been flipped upside down which makes the wrapping paper more versatile providing more ways to wrap the present without it seeming upside down.
I then went on and simply tried to rotate the design at odd angles; however, still so the text would be upsidown. Although i feel like i am reaching my target a lot better i still feel dramatic improvements can be made.
Liking the rotational aspect i then tried it around a single central point. Once again although thinking this has a lot less negative space for myself to fill in there is still too much.
From here i will go back to this design and redraw it so it fits nicely into a more even square. By doing this it will give me less space to fill once bring it into a digital format. As well as this i would like to make the happy birthday text bigger as i do not feel it stands out enough compared to the rest of the design. Once i am happy with the repeat of the design i will then start to add colour.
After my tutorial with Matt Rhys i decided to look into trend reports on a lower end market. Despite searching as deep as i could on WGSN i couldn’t seem to find anything on a lower end market. Although not finding anything today i will have another look over the next couple of days to see if anything does come up.
Although hoping to find something that directly links to this market area, from my two work experiences over the summer i learnt that lower end chains do not follow trends as closely as the high end do. Instead, they copy the designs within the high end stores. At first this seemed absolutely mental to me and it kind of still does. Despite this, now having worked at two companies that do this i feel i am educated enough to say this is how it works sometimes. Because of this as well as continuing to see if i can find any low end trend reports i will refer to my market research of the high end stores to inspire my designs for now on.
Now Matt Rhys tutorial has really sunk in i have decided to work for a lower end store and market. Despite this means i will have to remove the sustainability element from my designs, i feel my bright and bold colours and cartoon style will much better relate to this style.
Although my occassion is not halloween i browsed this report to see if there are any monster like creatures i could draw inspiration from to bring into the birthday market.
Within this report it speaks about prints and graphic which range from silly to scary with a child friendly feel. This i have been trying to incorporate within my own work by creating monsters which look ridiculous to play on a child’s imagination. For my target market i feel my designs can not be too scary so’s to not put the child off my designs. Despite this i can still take inspiration and portray it in a much more child friendly way.
Another page in this report which really stood out to me which is relatable to the style i am trying to portray is cute and creepy. This trend is described as playing with whats real and whats virtual, focusing on digital icons and gross- out graphics. I feel this really relates to some of my drawing elements so far as some of my illustrations are slightly sweet with a gross digital twist. I feel the influence i have gathered from a digital cartoon style has really added this cute element to my designs and subtracted from the scary as reported on print and graphics page. After initially drawing my designs via the classic pen and paper combo i will image trace my designs and then colour them using my wacom tablet. I feel by doing this i will really be relating to the digital element within this report.
As i will be using text within my designs i have looked into trend reports on WGSN which look at trends within typography and fonts. Within this trend report there are two key points that interest me in relation to my current project which are mixed fonts and playful puns.
Mixed fonts consists of two contrasting fonts to create one statement/ sentence. Within my own project i would like to adapt this to use two clear fonts within one word. By doing this i am aiming for a more playful style within my writing which will appeal to young boys. Although the report references contrasting fonts i would like to use two fonts which complement each other within my work so the text is still easily readable for a boy between 8 and 11. As well as experimenting with fonts i would also like to experiment with using upper and lower case text. By doing this the text will still be understandable for a young boy; however, add a playful feel.
The second element which stood out to me within this trend report was the use of playful puns. I have previously mentioned that i would like to create a play on words for the term happy birthday; however, i will still need this to be instantly recognisable as saying happy birthday as otherwise the child will not understand. As well as this parents are more into impulse buying for children than they would be their own friend as said by Matt earlier in my tutorial. Because of this not only will the statement have to be instantly recognisable to the child; however, also the parent.
From here i want to be more experimental with the fonts i use within my own work and also try to create a simple play on words which is very similar to happy birthday. For both these elements i hope to be inspired by the imagery i am creating so there is a direct relation between my typography and illustrations.
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