evaluation / reflection

Creating motifs from a wide range of imagery was useful, but my inability to be more experimental at the motif development stage held me back later in the project. I should have allocated time to undertake drawing tasks in order to create more variations of an image, giving me more motifs to select from. I found that having a range of different styles of motif allowed me to work more freely with layering and my focus for unit X will be on variety rather than quantity.

The fast development of my motifs will enable me to experiment on the ETHOS sooner and avoid struggling to get a place on the machine again. I also think that planning my time used on the machine precisely worked really well for me, so whenever I am on the machine, I will make a plan and decide colours and placement beforehand.

I found that one of the most successful ways of working was directly in context. This helped me to stay focus and enabled me to experiment with scale and colour more easily, allowing me to utilize my time more efficiently. I found that working on photo shop at real scale on a PC very difficult and time consuming compared to working on a Mac. This isn't a problem I have encountered before, having never working on a large scale. My computer skills have improved greatly. Reading Lotta Kuhlhorn's print design book was extremely useful because it taught me how to arrange a variety of repeat patterns. It also gave me inspiration for how to develop designs further.

Completing context and composition research throughout my project was very useful because it kept me focused on creating two collections for different age groups. I think that it would have been more useful for me to be constantly researching print and embroidery artists throughout the project too, as this would have given me more inspiration from which I could interpret unique designs. I feel that this would have allowed me to work more freely because although it is important for me to work with in a context, it is also important to create unique designs and develop ideas on my own.

I felt that the repeat pattern I created on the ETHOS worked well and I intend to develop this further. I believe that heavy embroidered patterns can be used as boarders or areas of focus within a design. Stitching out a large pattern can be time consuming, emphasising the importance of working quickly and effectively at the development stages of the project. Working in context helped me to foresee a potential embroidery design used for an interiors purpose.

Overall, I am happy with my use of colour for my designs. I think that I have created a good variation and have incorporated embroidery where appropriate. Throughout this course I have found it hard to place my work in context because my lack of understanding of my target audience. I feel that by completing the research throughout this project has enabled me to understand how a design can be fun and aimed at adults. I have learned that when designing I am easily distracted but by having target audience research present, it stops me from going off track. I look forward to applying my new working strategy to unit X. 

I feel that my collection for adults was more successful than my collection for children, due to the inclusion of embroidery. Even though embroidery is present in the market research I'd undertaken for children, it is more commonly used for adults. This has lead me to the conclusion that in order to develop my embroidery further during Unit X then my target market will be more suited to adults. 

more print designs and ETHOS

I created a range of repeat designs with the intention of adding more detail with the ETHOS. This should have been completed sooner and by being cautious with fabric and experimenting on screen prints, I feel conscious about my time management. Although researching the different effects that the ETHOS has on the fabric was necessary and has influenced my decisions when choosing digitally printed fabric, I am aware that the selection of fabrics in the print room are limited so during Unit X, I intend to source my own.

I like the idea of including stitch in a repeat pattern. I think my samples have been very successful because the stitching has matched well to the print design. I found it easy to do this by marking down where the centre of the design was on the computer (just after designing) so that I could line it up when on the stitch out machine. I also used filmoplast instead of stitch and tear, to ensure my design was straight.

 

Embroidery over repeat print

I also used the ETHOS to create a 20 x 20 cm repeat tile. I am pleased with the outcome, as the edges line up perfectly and I intend to develop this idea further. I will have to consider time management more carefully as the stitch out machine gets booked up quite quickly nearer the end of the project. I intend to overcome this during Unit X buy completing my design development at a faster pace.

This type of dense embroidery could be used as boarders or an area of focus within a design. During Unit X I plan on developing the repeat technique further by creating a range of designs consisting of different densities of embroidery.

ETHOS

I experiment with the ETHOS on to screen printed designs. I thought that this would be a good idea in order to experiment with placement, fabrics and colour. I only used two screens (one a negative of the other) to create backgrounds because I didn't intend screen printing to be a major part of my project because my aim is to be commercial. I didn't expect the screen printing to be as successful as it turned out to be and part of me wishes I'd developed this further by making more versatile screens.

In regards to fabric, the cotton poplin was the only one that caused an. Being thin and having a papery texture means the multi-head pierces noticeably large holes through it. The tension is also odd, as my bike motifs seemed to pucker and buckle whilst stitching out the wheels due to the circular motion and the problem didn't occur on the other fabrics. I have created another bike motif so the problem doesn't reoccur but I will avoid cotton poplin during Unit X. I have been repetitive when experimenting at this stage. My time would have been better focused on developing digitally printed designs. I will take this into consideration during Unit X.

 

repeat and design variations

This design displays the versatility of scale I wish to achieve. I have also developed it into a repeat pattern that can be used in addition to bedding. After I completed this design, I was happy with the variety of motifs and the overlapping presentation. I then went onto to creating other variations that can be used for adults instead. I aim to use this technique of changing back and forth through the age groups as I feel it allows me to be more productive than just focusing on one group. I enjoy experimenting with a design to see how much it can be changed through different processes, I feel that it is important to push each design as much as possible in order to have a wide range of designs. 

developing designs in context

Here I put into practice the idea of designing in context (bedding).I found this method worked well because it kept me focused on my overall aim and I intend to reuse it during my development in Unit X. What I found interesting was creating a single and a double duvet set with the same design, as during my market research I found that it was common to find designs ranging from single to king size.

It wasn't a surprise that Children's bedding was commonly presented on single beds, so when designing I took this into consideration and designed single bed sets for children and doubles for adults in order to maintain focus and therefore productivity.

 

I found that many of the motifs featured on the designs I'd seen varied in scale, and a few had been used across a variety of different interior products. I found that Orla Kiely's work kept occurring in the research I have been undertaking (from Marimekko to John lewis). I thought that her work achieved similarities to what I am aiming for as the size of the motifs she uses varies throughout the different products.