Evaluation...

This project has been one of the most challenging projects since I have started university. Mainly because the end result had to be a digital print design and digitally I am flawed, so alongside this project I have been attending digital workshops that have been extremely helpful. I came out of every lesson having learnt something new, being able to use Photoshop improved my design work incredibly and my final outcomes were digitally printed and by the end I enjoyed using Photoshop.

                I started off with a live brief and began working by hand creating stitched floral designs inspired by the original Bradford piece. I began creating different combinations of colour and media. I enjoyed working with the needle and thread because it was something very different but the samples were time consuming and by the end result, the samples had no connection, other than that they were all inspired by the Bradford piece.

                I drastically changed the format of the samples and applied a circle format; this allowed me to capture a certain area of the design, an area that grabbed attention when I first saw the original design. I also tried this format out in different media’s and colours.

                After attending my first tutorial and taking on board the comments, I wanted to change the floral elements as well as the leaf elements. I wanted to change these elements and make them more realistic and natural, I started off with the leaves and got my imagery from the gold leaf experiments I did. As the leaves worked so well realistically it determined my idea of applying this to the flowers. I started by drawing from primary images of different flowers but nothing seemed good enough to use.

                After taking a break to work on another live brief project, I came back to this project after 3 weeks with a clear head and new ideas I wanted to try. Having a pair of fresh eyes in the end proved beneficial but at the start it seemed challenging and risky because the change of direction was so drastic. I completely left all of my other design work behind and focused on new elements from the original design, elements that was not the prominent motifs in the original piece. I draw linear drawings of them and applied them digitally to Photoshop to get a feel of certain layout formats.

                As the original drawings were only linear and the digital experiments being simple, I decided to create different combinations and compositions that included more than one of the motifs, I added shading and highlights to give extra detail. I created 10 different compositions which gave me the opportunity to explore digitally. I also made the decision to use the same colour palette as the original Bradford piece as I found it fitting with the natural elements in the design.

I continued to experiment digitally adding backgrounds, more pattern and creating brushes but the new motifs were still small on scale and pattern. I began playing around with rotation and reflection and through these aspects; I created 10 more design patterns. These patterns are my final patterns and they will play a major part in my outcomes. All of these new patterns are made up of the previous motifs.

After creating these new patterns and digitally experimenting with them, I created a number of design outcomes and I chose my favourite one as my final outcome. I chose 2 different outcomes because there were 2 different expectations. I chose one specifically for my tutor as it clearly demonstrates a repeat and the design is beautiful and the other one was chosen because I thought it suited the projects brief better, it also contains a repeat but it is not as clear.

If I was to do this project again, I would have not spent as much time on the hand-stitched samples at the beginning and I would have created more hand prepared backgrounds to then scan through, to create a freer field.

Overall, I have enjoyed this project and I am pleased with my progress, I have loved watching my digital skills grow.