Diploma Module 2 Chapter 14 - Developing Design Ideas

Proposal for First Assessment Item

Criteria

Specified

• made mainly of metallic materials

Personal

• using design ideas developed in Module 1 design exercises from my research topic 'gulls with an emphasis on shadows'
• consolidating many of ideas sampled in modules 1 and 2
• neutral/limited palette, with little splashes of colour
• non-symmetry
• layers of pattern and shape
• ripped/cut edges
• changes in scale
• introduce quiet space into design - keep it simple
• use of wax 
• influenced by my favourite designs from my research topic, detailed below so you can follow my thought process in coming up with my design:

Image 167, 177, 192, 280, 281,231 and sample produced at Summer School workshop with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn.  Influences from Japanese boro textiles and traditional English spot samplers.

Image 204 - mixed media piece from workshop with Debbie Lyddon (middle section is collaged onto paper), gulls cut out to produce shadows if piece hung away from wall.

Additional design elements - harbour wall, steps and sea -  MM303/4/5.  By enlarging MM303 the marks from the sea become apparent and lend themselves to interpretation with metallic thread (MM304/5).

Design development from MM280/281 - cut outs, textured gulls, add-ons - MM306. 

So I would propose to make either:

• a boro style mixed media sampler/panel, with sections printed and heavily stitched in metallics to give the idea of gulls and their coastal surroundings, with 'holes' from the traditional boros based on gull shapes, with changes of scale and simple quiet areas. This would be similar to Image 167 above but with more texture and stitching.  It would be a simple colour palette, very similar to that of Image 167, but with the addition of silver and perhaps a little yellow, or
• a more constructed piece, held together by a design element on the right of the photo in MM303 - black rubber tubing surrounding chain. Below MM307 is a quick sketch of the idea.  It would have five sections each enclosed in black tubing either made of rubber or painted calico, three containing cut out gulls (the one on the left gives an idea of how this would look), rigid enough to support their sections, and the other two sections would be sand and sea, with silver metallic thread and perhaps Swarovski crystals to give the glint that you get as the sun hits the water (this will probably change but at the moment I'm still under the spell of the Christian Dior:Designer of Dreams Exhibition at the V&A!).

Alternatively, the two outside sections could have negative cut outs of gulls and the middle section the positive cut outs.

The gulls would have a similar construction to Image 236, below, but would be more abstract/fluid  in shape and the stitching would be integrated into the shape.