It has been a busy week, but I can now tell you about the competition that I recently entered was for Tiger print.
The Surface design competition was the first of the year, and will be followed by many more.
The brief was to design a pattern that would be used for gift bags, cards, stationary, which included pencils and pencil cases, as well as wrapping paper. I needed to consider the audience my design was for, and where it would fit in the industry today.
So I chose to do some research into upcoming trends for 2014. Where I noticed that flowers were going to be big thing this year. As well as colour which seemed a big influence in upcoming trends and the specified surfaces that my pattern would be applied to.
With my designs I chose to do a modern take of the classic polka dot design that has been used on gift items for many years. My twist was to have the entire surface covered with pattern, instead of the classic block colours. I chose to have a leaf background as it felt it made more sense to have my flowers sit on top of them. As you would imagine them in a natural environment. The 'dots' were represented by my flowers in this classic design. I chose to make them more of an exotic nature as the influences from India have become a prominent feature in fashion, and I found the vibrant colours worked better.
The images above and below are my entry designs that I submitted for the competition, to represent a card format and the surface pattern. Sadly I was not selected to be shortlisted for this competition but I personally did enjoy designing work with a brief again. I found it interesting to work in colour instead of my signature black and white. I sometimes found it difficult to make the patterns flow as well as they usually do. Usually growing as a group but instead it was more independent seeds of designs.
What do you think of the designs? and what do you think of the colours? Any comments will be gratefully received.
Glad to see another update to the blog in a short space of time. The card is fantastic.. its simple yet effective and shows off both the complex beauty and simplicity of nature. I really like the smaller, rounder flowers, they have come off really well but also remind me of nature on a much more complex level, they could almost be particles inside the body. Its very unusual seeing your designs without the signature dark outlining and I think that you have pulled it off well, great choice on the colors. It is sad that such talent is overlooked and that you were not shortlisted but with determination you will succeed. The problem with being an artist is that, whereas in most jobs/ hobbies you will gain a set of skills and learn to do tasks relating to it, with art the skills are your own as is your style. If someone judging the contest is of a different taste then you have no chance from the get-go so please don't be disheartened. As said before I'd love to see more sketches and designs so please, show us more! I hope this finds you well, we look forward to more updates.
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