Group work/Beginning of personal work

For this project we worked towards a live brief, which was an exciting new experience; I have never had the chance before to do so, especially for a company that sells their designs internationally. It is very different to what I am used to, as for the last two units I have chosen my themes to work from, whereas for this project I was given a theme and a group to work with. It is also an interiors brief which is a new area of design I have not explored, I have never produced any interiors prints before but it had always interested me and I thought it would be a good challenge.

Our word was eccentricity;  We worked as a group to gather relevant images, words and information. We split the board into two; one using bright bold images, and the other mainly using black and white. Luckily for us we worked well as a group, we all had different ideas of what eccentricity meant, but they overlapped in theme.  The division of work was equal and allowed everyone to express their ideas and thoughts. Working in a group was very useful, as we each brought something different to the mood board we created.

 For the first board we looked into different forms of art (futurism,  cubism, and abstract art) along with eccentric performances like drag queens and carnival artists. We also included clashing prints and fabrics. The second board focused on eccentric personalities and ways of thinking.  There are images of Salvador Dali, Vivienne Westwood, David Bowie and his numerous characters, and The Beat Generation with the artists associated with it like Henri Michaux and his mescaline drawings.

When we split from the group and began our own work I was personally interested in the first board, using bright colours and gaining inspiration from drag queens and carnivals. Although, after much thought I steered away from these themes for lack of exposure. I felt I wouldn’t be able to get enough visual inspiration, so I began looking into other areas within eccentricity. Graffiti being the starting point, gaining inspiration from the unusual colour combinations, use and freeness of lines, and the juxtaposition of shapes against words. I used colours from the images I had taken along with interior fabric samples from Harlequin. This use of bright colours, obscure shapes and freeness of lines is something I will take forward and experiment with.