2nd January 2014 - Pecha Kucha Presentation, Script 1

2nd January 2014 - Pecha Kucha Presentation, Script 1

So, as this project was focused on the creation of a scarf, I thought that the natural starting point would be to take a look at the types of scarves that are already out there in the market. It did suprise me, at the size of the scarf market. Looking at a variety of different stores, from budget highstreet to one off boutiques there was a huge array of scarves for women, fashion scarves

After doing a little research on the scarf market, I began to think about the focus of this project, based around Norwich. The first idea that came to me was the wide array of architecture in Norwich, however I thought that this was going to be the focus for a lot of people’s work. I decided to adapt it a little, instead looking at decorative architecture in Norwich, focusing on sections of buildings, patterns and textures I thought were interesting. Two examples of the photos I was taking are shown now. I hoped that from these smaller motifs, that it would be easier to turn them into a repeat structure.

I ploughed straight into the drawing stage of the project with great enthusiasm. I had lots of ideas a was looking forward to experimenting with a variety of drawing techniques and creating patterns. This is because I feel I work best through pattern, I see pattern in everything. For a while this was working well and I was churning out lots of colourful drawings.

I tried to experiment with a variety of materials in my drawings, using my work from my first year as a starting point, trying to use colour and variety of materials. This was all going well, but then I started to doubt myself and the way I was working. This is because I was pushing myself out of my comfort zone in trying these new materials.

My Worries were made worse when we had our first group tutorial. Not only was I way behind everyone else, everyone had used photoshop as the main body of their projects. I had not used it at all. I definitely needed to get onto the computer to help me develop my work into a digital print considering this was a digital print project! This however was easier said than done because I had created hand drawn patterns instead of just motifs, developing my ideas into print was difficult.

Now that I understood the rather obvious importance of Photoshop in this digital project I began to use it more and more. One thing I did notice was that sometimes patterns created in photoshop had lost their hand drawn quality. I wanted my designs to maintain their hand drawn style and soon learnt that certain styles of line quality worked better than others.

I think that as the project continued I lost that hand drawn quality which I desired. I don’t like the fact that my designs were beginning to become perfect copies of the last. I think that liking this style of work has probably been influenced by the first sketchbook of this project looking into children’s illustrations. I love the hand drawn quality of those illustrations and the way that in recent years, they have been turned into print patterns and used in fashion and other accessories. I lost that style when creating the repetition and playing with colour.

After this stage, I think my need to change the course of the project was inevitable. I wasn’t enjoying the course it was taking and decided to create a colour scheme to reign it in, so I had a greater control of end design. The colour scheme is based on a scarf from Libertys Autumn/Winter collection and contained a range of colours which I could experiment with.

Focusing the colour scheme did help a little, but I was still not enjoying the course of the project. After a tutorial on the 27^th November I decided to completely re-think both this and my other sketchbook. I decided to I wanted to take a step backwards thinking carefully about composition and design. You have to have drawing you are happy with before you can turn it into a design you’re going to like.