Live Brief: Surface Pattern Design - Sofia Paraizo

bedding design Digital Art floral Flowers ILLUSTRATION livebrief Nature pattern surfacepatterndesign textile

Live Brief: Surface Pattern Design

By Sofia Paraizo

Role

Surface Pattern designer

Timeline

April - June 2022

Tools

Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Padlet, Notion, reMarkable, Figma

Client

The Evans Group Ltd: Bethany Lewin, Megan Naylor, and Sarah Sweeting

Deliverables

Bedding set design, bedding design using Portfolio Home template, name for bedding design, A4 photography concept mood board, information flyer.

INTRODUCTION

About the Project

For this live brief project, we will be focusing on surface pattern design. The brief was set by Bethany Lewin, Megan Naylor, and Sarah Sweeting, who all work at The Evans Group LTD. My task is to create a bedding set design for Spring/Summer 2023. Here I will be sharing every stage of my creative process leading up to the final design.

INTRODUCTION

Creative Process

For every project, I follow a creative process that helps me to understand the project better. For this project, my creative process is: brief, trend research, artist research, primary research, brainstorm, develop, feedback, refine, final piece, and evaluate. I will be sharing all my work from every stage in chronological order with a brief summary.

INDEPENDENT WORK

Half Term Research - Surface Pattern Design

During the half term I decided to carry out research about the possible topics of the live briefs (product packaging and surface pattern) and here are all of the research I undertook. This was helpful because I was able to learn about the process of packaging design and surface pattern design. I have also researched four designers that inspired me. Once I was done with my research I decided to create a presentation to showcase all I've learned. Click here to access my research presentation.

STAGE 1

Creative Brief

The first step of every project is to read and understand the creative brief. For this project, the live brief has been set by Portfolio Home. The first thing I completed for this project was to read the creative brief, highlight any key considerations, and design a brief summary that contains the key information from the brief so that I don't need to keep referring back to the presentation and have all the key information in one place. At this stage, I also chose a trend report from WGSN to base my design on. My chosen trend report was Soul Space, and from that report I chose the Colouful Cottagecore trend.

INDEPENDENT WORK

Seasonal Flowers Research

Once I had an idea of what trend I wanted to link my design to, I started to conduct research to develop my ideas. Since I wanted to create a floral design, my idea was to use Spring and Summer flowers, so I started to conduct research on flowers that bloom in Spring and Summer.

I have created a web page using Notion where I showcase my findings. To access it, click here.

STAGE 2

Trend Research

Now that I had chosen the trend I was linking my design to, it was time to research and understand the trend I had chosen. For that, I created a research page and a mood board about the Colourful Cottagecore trend.

Next, I created an A3 trend mood board (Colourful Cottagecore).

And finally I have also researched and created a video with one of my peers (Reuben James) about the types of repeat patterns.

INDEPENDENT WORK

Exploring the Tessellation Technique

In BTEC Level 2 Art & Design, I learned a technique called tessellation, and I actually really enjoyed creating the patterns. I believe this technique could be very helpful for me during this project, so here are the designs I created by experimenting with creating tessellation patterns by hand and digitally. I will also be sharing the research page/experiments I created during Level 2 Art & Design about tesselation.

STAGE 3

Artist Research

The next step for this project's research was to find inspiration by researching artists that would help me develop the design for my final piece. For my artist research, I have chosen Mel Amstrong and Polina Oshu. Here I have created a research page, a mood board, and a response about both artists, and I have also conducted a short artist comparison.

Mel Amstrong

Polina Oshu

Artist Comparison

Here I have researched two artists, Polina Oshu and Mel Amstrong. Their styles are quite different if you put them side by side. Polina's work is botanical with bright colours that light you up, while Mel's work is more about realism with the addition of shadows and dimensions.

I really like how Polina's work is bold and bright, with radiant, flashing colours. But I also really like how Mel's work is realistic and focused on the details. I really like both of their works, and I couldn't pick a favourite.

STAGE 4

Primary Research

Now the next stage is to conduct primary research by visiting places to find inspiration that relates to the creative brief. In my case study, I will be focusing on floral pattern designs and flowers, but I will also keep my eye open for anything else that interests and inspires me. Here I have created a web case study using Notion where I added the mood boards I created with the images I took, further annotation and analysis, and also the summary of my research. To access my case study, click here.

WORKSHOP & INDEPENDENT WORK

Creating Repeat Patterns by Hand

After researching the artist Polina Oshu, I became very interested in her style of work, so I decided I would be creating a pattern by hand in the style of her work as well. Here I will be showcasing the final experiment. My first step was to watch a step-by-step video by Polina Oshu, and then next I created my own design.

STAGE 5

Brainstorm

Now that I have completed extensive research around my chosen trend, I started to brainstorm my ideas for my final design. For that, I created a project proposal using Adobe InDesign, a colour scheme mood board, and colour proportions mood board. I have also created digital scamps for my concept and illustrations.

Scamps

Project Proposal

Or click here to view PDF version.

Colour Scheme Mood Board & Colour Proportions Mood Board

STAGE 6

Develop

Now that I have completed extensive research around my chosen trend, I started to brainstorm my ideas for my final design and by using Adobe Illustrator and Figma to create my designs. These are a few of the pattern designs I explored:

STAGE 7

Feedback

Once i created my first design, I started to egt feedback from peers, mentors and friends to help me identify what i should be working on, and more. I created a survey suing Typeform with the points I wanted feedback on. In the end I got feedback from Emma (friend), Joe (friend), Lucy (mentor), Mike (mentor) and Zoe (mentor).

Feedback Overview: For this project I decided to use a different method of feedback, and that is because I wanted to see if by using a survey I am able to get feedback for specific areas. Overall I believe that by using this feedback method I have been able to get critic on the right topics. I also believe that by getting feedback from my mentors I have been able to get well detailed feedback with skills I should be developing and areas to improve. I am very happy with the feedback I got because it helped me to understand the areas I need to improve and what I should be focusing next. My next step is going to be to explore the areas of improvement raised during the feedback and experiment/refine my work.

Next Steps: Now that I have feedback from various people I am able to start applying the areas of improvement raised, so these are going to be the topics I'll be exploring next in response to my feedback:

◆ Share my work on social platforms.

◆ Use the postcards I have created and create digital repeat patterns.

◆ Continue to develop my annotations by including more key industry terminology.

◆ Scan traditional experiments and explore.

◆ Gather some physical flowers and create your own flower press which you can photograph, scan in and manipulate.

◆ Explore physical skills, more print making, painting, be experimental with mixed media work then move onto digital work.

◆ Develop and combine mixed media responses with your digital responses to create developed outcomes.

◆ Experiment with pressprints by bringing into Photoshop or Illustrator as layer masks with colour combinations.

INDEPENDENT WORK

Pattern Postcard Challenge by Jules Mckeown

I first heard about this challenge from my lecturer Zoe when she shared it on her In the Know Padlet board and I really liked the idea. Since this project is about surface pattern design I think it would be a great opportunity to take part in this challenge. The challenge is set by Jules Mckeown. She shared the challenge on her Instagram account and this is how the challenge works: the challenge is about creating mini postcards of pattern starting from 1st May. There are twelve mini projects within the Pattern Postcard Challenge. You can also decide which of these project you want to take part of. I have decided that I will be taking part in this challenge and here are all of the designs I created:

STAGE 8

Refine

Once I was done developing different pattern options and exploring different directions, I selected one of the patterns I created and refined it in preparation to present my designs to the clients.

STAGE 9

Final Piece

On The final pieces I have created for this project are the 64x64cm tile repeat pattern design, bedding design using Portfolio Home template, name for bedding design, A4 photography concept mood board, information flyer, and 'Colourful Cottagecore' research page.

Research Pages

Seasonal Dream 64x64cm Tile

Portfolio Home Sheet with Bedding Set Design Name

A4 Photo Concept Mood Board

Flyer Design

Mock Ups

STAGE 10

Evaluation

The final stage of any project is to conduct an evaluation because it provides a systematic method to study a practice, or project to understand how well it achieves its goals. Evaluations help determine what works well and what could be improved in a program or initiative. I have completed my evaluation as a Notion web page, to access it, click here.