FAD Pathway project
‘SURFACE PATTERN DESIGN’
January 2013 (JMR)
Surface Pattern surrounds us in everyday life, some of it appears in more obvious places than others. It appears on upholstery, wallpapers, wrapping papers, paper bags and many fabrics for clothing. It is also evident in the layout of windows, buildings, shop counters, clothes racks, supermarket shelves, garden centres and allotments. During the next few weeks your task will be to research and develop a surface pattern designs. The project is fairly open so you can develop your own ideas as. However the key goals are to become more knowledgeable in your chosen area and improve your drawing. Week 1 – Visual Recording 1. Your visual recording will be based on the Outback Steakhouse space. If you develop this project further you can also use the task below. 1a. Choose a product/ item that you are interested in designing e.g Furniture, clothing, lighting, architecture, graphic design etc. If you are more interested in just the ‘surface pattern’ then you need to choose a topic. e.g FOOD: bread, cakes, sweets, fruit, vegetables. It would be good to concentrate on one food type and explore it fully. ARCHITECTURE: buildings, houses, train stations etc 2. Completely fill an A5 sketchbook of drawings/ illustrations/ images of your chosen products. You can produce your drawings from primary and secondary sources. You can include photographs that you find too. Part of the reason for doing this book is to improve your drawing of the products you like so do not think you can just can fill it with found images. You will be making patterns from these drawings next week so make them good. Have a look at the artist Sarah Midda. She uses watercolour to produce transparent, clean observational studies that are quick and can be easily transferred into surface patterns. Buy your own small water colour/ ink set, brushes and some fine liner pens. 1. Research into Surface Pattern design. • • • • •
Look into the artists / designers below. Select some images of their work (6-10) and stick them in your main journal. Reflect on why you have chosen them? What is it that inspires you? Also do your own research into surface pattern. Simply by putting the two words together into google brings up masses of useful data. Find out about contemporary designers in this field - who inspired them?
Surface Pattern Guru’s William Morris Owen Jones
Bent Karlby Robert Nicholson
William Fetter Marion Mahler
Davis Whitehead Charles Csuri Ken Knowlton
Paul Brown Christian Montenegro Freda Nake
Kam Tang Roman Verostko Katharina Leuzinger
Week 2 – Surface Pattern creation By the end of this week you will be expected to have designed a wide range of surface pattern designs. All the elements in your designs will taken from your completed sketchbook. How to start • • • • • • •
Using inspirations from artists and designers that you have researched. Replicate some of their work but using your own images Use the surface pattern example sheet Scan in your images and digitally experiment with them on the computer using Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. See the photocopied tutorial. Photocopy the images in B & W or colour many times so that you have multiple images to experiment with. Consider collage. Vary the scales and the compositional layouts. It is up to you what scale you choose but each pattern should not be smaller than A4 Consider if you want the pattern to repeat or not. Do you want to add in text or background colours.
How to finish (Suggested solutions) • • • • • • •
Professionally display your final patterns. Mount them neatly on A1 card. Put them in frames Project them on to different surfaces or buildings. Print them on the wide format printer and suspend them down a wall. Reflect on all your designs in your journals Use your design on something from the list below
Possible further development routes for your designs Furniture Constructed Textiles Wall art
Soft furnishings Ceramics Wrapping paper
Wallpaper Lighting
Fabric Lengths Carpet/ Rugs
IMPORTANT There is no time to dawdle!! Remember the pressure is on to produce a large body of excellent work, so that you have plenty to choose from when you make up your portfolio. SOME OF YOU ARE GOING TO NEED TO DO THIS VERY SOON !!!
Surface Pa*ern Design Pathway Project JMR 2013
Indian Floral
Indian Floral
Indian Floral
Indian Floral
Owen Jones 1809 -‐1874
William Morris 1860-‐1940
William Morris 1860-‐1940
William Morris 1860-‐1940
William Morris 1860-‐1940
1950’s
1950’s
1950’s Bent Karlby
1950’s
Marion Mahler David Whitehead
1950’s
Robert Nicholson
1950’s
Robert Nicholson
Digital William FeMer
Digital Manfred Mohr
Digital-‐ Charles Csuri
Digital Ken Knowlton
Digital Paul Brown
Digital
ChrisQan Montenegro
Digital
Freda Nake
Digital Kam Tang
Digital Roman Verostko
Digital Roman Verostko
Katharina Leuzinger
Katharina Leuzinger