Showing posts with label Sampling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sampling. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Mirjam Rouden Internship

     I spent one month working for Mirjam Rouden; print designer for fashion; in London creating digital prints. I found the internship integral to my learning as I experienced how it would be to work as a designer in a company and learnt a lot about the sales side of the company as I worked a long side the sales representatives.
     On my first day I had to bring in my portfolio so one of the designers that work for Mirjam could decide what my strengths are as to what I could do for them. They decided that my digital work was good enough for them to let me design on the computers. The company just use Photoshop to create digital designs as more people are fluent in this programme. I do think the company would strengthen with a designer which is fluent in Illustrator as this is more suited to different types of designs.
     Mirjam has certain collections in her work that can be sold to designers time and time again, such as florals, geometric and animal print; so these are created many times by the designers. I was set onto animal print in my first week and a half. I was supposed to have a designer to direct me but I did not get shown any samples of the type of print they wanted and the designer never checked up on me and because Mirjam's website doesn't show any of her animal print samples I didn't have a clear idea of what I was designing. When Mirjam came to check on my work she was displeased as some were too blurred and distorted. Another designer was set to direct me from then on.
     Although some of my designs could not be sold as animal prints, Mirjam was happy to sell them in other collections as they are good quality.

 Feathers that will be sold in the animal print collection.

Jellyfish print that will not be sold in the animal print collection.

     I found it strange to find out that it is not often that a designer would create their own drawings to put into Photoshop. Most of the time they take photographs from the internet and rework them on Photoshop until they are unrecognisable.
     During my second week I was put in charge of directing a new intern on Photoshop as the designers had confidence in me. The intern wasn't confident on Photoshop but she designed one rock print which was put onto fabric as a sample to be sold.

  One of my rock prints.

     During my last two weeks I created dot and paisley pattern designs out of drawings the other interns did. I found this a lot easier than using photographs from the internet as they were always good quality and I didn't have to spend time searching for images that I could use.

Dot print.

Paisley print.

     Around 40 of my designs were printed onto different types of fabric to be sold to different fashion designers around the world. While I was there around 20 of my designs travelled to America to be sold to different companies.
     As they are quite a small company the designers are also involved in sales, but they have two main sales representatives to set up meetings and travel around the world to meet with companies. Some of the designers also meet up with companies if they come to the studio to buy designs. Each time samples are going to be sold to a company a few of the designers come together to decide which samples to take. I realised through this how important it is to know your audience, including what kind of season they would be buying for and what kind of things they have bought before.   


  


Thursday, 16 May 2013

Stage 5- Final Stage

     After evaluating the beginning stages of the development of my collection, I have taken into consideration that my final prints need to be a bedding set size once in repeat. I did research into the measurements of a double bedding set; which is 200cm by 200cm, I now always work to these specific measurements when putting my designs in repeat as would a bedding designer. I made sure that my previous designs don't distort or pixelate once in the correct measurements, I then altered them to these. Through this I learnt that I should always research the measurements I need to work to before starting to design.
     Through my research I found that bedding designs at the moment are very busy and colourful and the colour scheme I had chosen was very bright and vibrant, I think this was successful. I also noticed that a lot of the engineered designs were very large; taking into account the parts of the design that would come off the edge of the bed. Through the evaluation of my recent designs I knew I needed to take this into consideration when creating my final collection. This is one design I created that I made the boarders larger, taking into account the bedding hanging over the edges of the bed.

     During the past analysis of my recent designs I found that I wasn't challenging myself enough with the types of patterns I was creating, so I decided to do this so visually my final collection would be more varied. I think this was integral to my learning process and I now have a better understanding of different patterns. In the development of my final collection I incorporated mirror repeat, half drop repeat, block repeat and engineered prints. Even though I have not included all of these into my final collection I can show through my development I have a very good understanding of each of these.
 Mirror repeat- part of development.

Half drop repeat- part of development.

Block repeat- part of development.

Engineered and mirror repeat- part of development.

     I did research into how they would be printed if they went into manufacture. I already knew my designs would be digitally printed as they are so detailed and would be produced many times. But I also did research into what dyes would be used and which colour model would be used, such as RGB, CYMK or Lab colour. I found that reactive dye is usually used in digital printing as you can achieve brighter colours with these. I also studied which colour model would work best with my designs and I found that RGB would be the best as it doesn't distort the colour which is important that it is vivid.

                                                 

                                                 

An example of a colour model test- top is RGB, bottom is CYMK. CYMK distorts the colour whereas RGB is bright and vivid like original design.  
     I did research into what fabrics are used in bedding so I could have swatches of what fabric my designs could be put onto. I found that Polycotton Percale, Polyester IFR, Cotton, Waffle Cotton, Egyptian Cotton, Cotton Percale, and for a more lustrous feel, silk. I then did research into which fabrics take dye best as it is important to me that the colours are vivid. I decided that the fabric I would use for my bedding would be Cotton Percale, as I feel that it would be more appropriate for bedding than just plain cotton as it is a little stiffer but still as soft; and Silk/ Viscose satin, as I wanted a more extravagant material than Cotton Percale but with the mix of Silk with Viscose it wouldn't be as slippery on the bed as plain Silk. I found this information very important to my learning process as I know I will have to know these things when I am designing patterns for a company, as information like colour models and fabric can affect your design and the production and popularity of it once in stores. 
     During the evaluation of my previous designs I decided I wanted my designs to feel more organic like the images of earth from space, this was inspired by the piece by tactile wonderland which looks very space- like and ordered but is also organic looking with its textures. This is what I aimed for with my designs and I think I achieved due to the detail I pay to different textures, how my colour choices accentuate this; and the overlapping of some images making it feel more natural.
 An image taken from space of earth showing natural growth and textures. 

                                     
Tactile Wonderland.


One of my designs with a more natural feel of growth, created by using different tones and textures.

     For my final collection I chose six designs, they are all very different images but link together as a collection due to the colour scheme. I felt at first that I didn't have enough designs in my collection as I had created so many designs during my development stages, but I feel that each of my designs are of good enough quality to be printed onto bedding and this is the most important factor. To present my designs I have printed my two main designs onto A1 paper as all furnishing designs are printed onto either A0 or A1 paper. To show my designs to a professional standard I have printed a piece showing each over- all design, so you can see the repeat and how it would appear on the bedding set. I have also printed out a scale piece of each print so you can see how it would appear on the bedding and appreciate the textures, scale and colour. For my two main designs I have also created a visualisation to show how each would appear on a bedding set, with pillows and an underside of the duvet cover. On the Diane Harrison studio visit I noticed how the designers there created visualisations, with a simple birds eye view of the bed showing the top of the duvet cover as a square and the pillow cases at the top as two rectangles and a triangle in the corner of the duvet cover representing the underside of the duvet cover. I chose to use this idea in my representations and I think they look simple but professional.



My two main designs in visualisations and scaled images A1 size.








The rest of my final collection.

 To prepare for my presentation I have evaluated how well my presentation went during the interim assessment with the designer from Diane Harrison, I found that the designer wanted a faster overview of my development ideas, so I know for my final presentation I will have to edit some of my ideas out to keep them interested. They also liked to ask questions about my ideas so I need to make sure I am prepared for this. At the end of the presentation I will ask the designer if they have any more questions as this will show I have confidence in my designs and am happy to talk about them in a professional manner. For my presentation I want to give the designers a brief overview of my development and ideas taken from the theme we had given from them, giving them chance to ask questions at this stage, and then present to them my final collection, showing my understanding of the professional industry such as measurements, types of pattern, fabric, colour, images used and contextual research.

     Overall I have learnt a lot during this project, it has helped my understanding of the interior industry and presenting my work to a professional audience. I have learnt more about the production side of furnishing such as colour models, fabric and dyes but also the design side such as taking into account measurements, how visualisations are an important part of the design process; and challenging myself to learn different types of pattern and ways to create visual research. I learnt a lot about how professional designers work within a design company during the Diane Harrison studio visit, such as programmes they use and different ways of creating prints such as by hand instead of digitally, I will definitely use this process in future. I believe that my presentation skills on a professional level have improved due to this project as I have learnt how to give a brief overview on the most important factors and talk about professional factors affecting my work and develop on this.
     

  

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Stage 4

The feedback from the designer from Diane Harrison Studios was very positive, he said I had lots of ideas to work with and so needed to focus them and decide how I was going to use them to create my end collection. He agreed with me that I needed to look back at my contextual research to help me decide what kind of prints I wanted to create. He said he felt that my strongest work was my own drawings and my marble paints; he agreed a combination of these would work well. But he could tell I wasn't as inspired by the hand created prints and the cubed microscope photographs so I have decided to leave these out of my design plan. I felt more confident after speaking with the designer as he confirmed my thoughts more.

I started the development of my collection by looking back on my contextual research and recognizing what kind of designs I would like to create. I especially like these pieces by print artists Claire Scully and Ce'li Lee; geometrics and mirroring are very popular at the moment in both fashion and interiors and I thought my visual research would work well with this idea.
Claire Scully

Ce'li Lee

I decided to repeat an image I had already created by doing in industry what is called a engineered design. I thought this worked very effectively so I decided to create more in this way with a mixture of my drawings and contrasted marble paintings. These worked well and I am happy to continue working with these elements. I decided that my designs worked best as bedding as they are a little whimsical and unusual to be on curtains or wallpaper. When I spoke to one of the designers on the studio visit they said that more outlandish designs usually go on bedding. I created visualisations of my designs to see how they would appear on bedding and this was successful. 


To make my work become a more professional standard I need to take into account the scale I create my patterns so they would not become pixelated if I blew them up to scale. I also need to take into account when I am creating designs that are around the boarder of the design, that once on a double bedding set, this would lay down the sides of the bed so when looking over the bed you wouldn't be able to see around 20cm off each edge. To improve my work I need to challenge myself and stop creating engineered and mirrored designs. I found a wallpaper print I liked from Tactile Wonderland that uses mirroring but has a slight change in the design; I have decided I need to do this in my work to make it more organic. 
Tactile Wonderland



Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Reworking Paisley and Insect design

I have now tried to rework the paisley and insect design, but I don't think the first designs are very affective as the images aren't bold enough. But after looking back on past designs I have used this pattern again with the same bird pattern in a past design, I think the extra bit of colour in the background print works very affectively.



Visualisations

I have now started to create more visualisations, because I have had more practice I think these have worked more successfully than the ones I did before.


Paisley and Insect pattern complete

Even though all the edges don't add up together I like the obscurity to it and I think the colours work really well together.




Paisley and Insect pattern

I have now started to create a pattern with both paisley and insects together, I have created this into a brush and will layer this up and use different opacities.

Monday, 18 February 2013

Visualisations

I have now started to create some visualisations so I can see how my work would look on real scale, I thin they work well large scale so you can see the detail well and the birds are bold.








Layered Colour

I have now tried adding bits of colour to my original piece with different brushes, I like the extra bit of colour but none of the brushes seem to work well with my images, they are all too bold and takes your eye away from the bird images. I then tried to use a large brush with a faded affect on it which I think worked better, I will experiment with this more.




Bird Pattern

I decided to put the birds in a horizontal line instead of vertical to see if it was as affective as the past ones I had done and I think it is. I would now like to try the birds with parts of them coloured in to add more colour like the archive piece.

Friday, 15 February 2013

Paisley and Insect design

I have now created a print like my paisley and fruit design as a background, I think this print works just as affectively.