Written Evaluation:
The original concept for this project was a pattern collection, and the theme I settled on was folk art, then I narrowed it down to Scandinavian style folk art. I think my digital artefacts that I created are appropriate to the initial vision. I drew from traditional Scandinavian folk art, as well as animals and flowers from the countries. I also looked at other illustrators work to see how they had interpreted folk art style. I chose my colour palette because I preferred the muted tones, which gave a more relaxed vibe, which goes with the Scandinavian style.
The technical challenges I faced were the image trace with white edges within illustrator which I managed to overcome. Another problem I encountered was that the artefacts when printed were all slightly different colours to what they should have been. The fabric seemed to have taken on the cream background slightly, and the prints in frames were slightly the wrong shade as well. I plan to dedicate time to figuring out what I can do to avoid this in the future, and I also learned the importance of getting test prints done first.
I utilised planning to avoid overwhelm and stay within the time frame by using a Gantt chart with a break down of the steps I needed to take as well as a year chart, showing when all of my modules are due and when the holidays are, so I could plan accordingly.
By researching the culture and the traditions from Scandinavia to develop my own style, as well as Swedish flowers and woodland animals. I think the animal silhouettes were inspired by other artists takes on folk art, but I put my own take on the florals and the other elements I used. I had never attempted folk art before so the subject was completely new to me.
I also pushed myself to learn more of illustrator so that I am more confident in those skills than before. I also pushed myself to put my designs onto fabric and products and exhibit the end products, when I have never done an exhibition before.
I was interested in other styles of folk art as well so I plan to explore those in the future.
The project started out for children, being animal based, but I have managed to create a collection for adults as well.
I think the strongest part of my project is that the outcome is really versatile. They can be used for children or for adults, and on a wide range of products, I have not pigeonholed myself with the project.
I could have put more effort into the secondary animal designs, I just made them really simple. I plan to work more on these later.
I really pushed myself with this project because I knew I would be exhibiting the designs in Exeter and wanted to create a collection to sell. I learnt a lot more of the practical side artwork and printing.
I finally mastered the pen tool within illustrator which I am very happy about, now I can create designs in so many different ways and software’s. I already had skills of pattern making, but I definitely made an improvement and took the skills further. I improved my vectorising skills in illustrator and made the patterns with the vector elements so that they can be scaled up or down without losing any quality.
I also learnt a lot to do with making a whole collection of patterns whilst keeping it cohesive. I printed products with my designs so I figure out the printing side as well.
I will be continuing this project because I plan to market the whole collection on products, so I will be testing more products, uploading all of the designs to my website, and hopefully start to order in physical products to ship myself, as money allows.
I am extremely happy with how this project turned out, and I would like to carry on the folk-art theme with other collections types of animals. I have surprised myself by how much I can achieve when I put my mind to it. I actually don’t think I would change anything if I were to do this project again, which I have never said before; I would just be better with my time management.
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