Louise Fili

These labels designed by Louise Fili are the style I feel most influenced to design like for the Laura Ashley brief. To link the packaging to the product and to add some expensive quality I feel its is necessary to use the metallic silver in the packaging but to in some way feed information to the customer about the flowers and birds. Only a small amount of text I feel is necessary for this packaging design as the product is strong enough to speak for it self.

If in fact I decide the packaging is too empty to not include illustration or it doesn't link well enough to the contents, this simple illustration of small information laid out, similar to the below labels would work as a back up for the packaging. However I do want it to be as simple but expensive looking as possible.

Packaging

All of these images are from a book I took out of the library of which I have lost the name for, part of my brief asks for the products designed to be packaged. A this stage in my development process I dont want anything fussy or over decorative, but I still feel its necessary for me to create something which is also influenced by the term'speciality.' The top image of bottles has a very simple design to it consisting of label and logo, it is the use of colour that makes this product look expensive. Most special products on the market have a very simple but sophisticated look to them and not lots of imagery and information with bright bubble colours and type jumping out at you. This is not what I want for the packaging for the Laura Ashley brief.

This second photograph follows a very similar design layout to the top, this image gives me the idea to box my products and use a label which can be adapted and transferred across the range of products. This will give them an expensive feel encasing them to protect them, hinting at an expensive precious item.

This is a very feminine and pretty packaging and does remind me of Laura Ashley, I could easily adapt this style to my packaging, however I would keep it much simpler with no decorative pattern being used on the outside with the contents being highly patterned. I really like the strip of ribbon and sticker used to fasten the box together this adds an expensive feel, rather than it simply being glued together.

The over all product shown above is not what I am looking to develop for my packaging, but there is one small part I like and feel could be useful for by design process. The side of the end 'ginger' box I really like, and find very pretty for an informational side. This is much more appealing to me that the front design on the first 3, they are much too full and cluttered in comparison.

Wall Stickers

Something else I found on notonthehighstreet.com are these wall stickers they are a really good way to apply decoration to a painted wall. Its also another way I can apply my design through another media offering another item to sell. Laura Ashley dont sell wall stickers as they are more traditional and I am too far on in my design process to add something new to my brief, however its it worth investigating and proposing on the boards or for future briefs.

Colouring in Wallpaper

I have found this wallpaper on the website notonthehighstreet.com they have some really quirky gifts and things for children. This wallpaper is amazing and very interactive for children, they can colour it in and have fun and wont be drawing on any other walls. Its not exactly a direct link to my Laura Ashley brief but I really like it, definitely worth looking at for a future brief.

Sally Elford

I have found these screen prints and although they aren't wallpaper, I could imagine the illustrations being used across a wall, I think it always looks really feminine when individual flowers are illustrated and used across a wall with a limited colour pallet, this is something Laura Ashley often do for there neutral colour range.

Amy Butler

This wallpaper has been inspired by lace and floral patterns, I find it really interesting to see where the inspiration comes from for patterns and to see what it has developed into. I would never thing to look at something existing like lace and develop it into my own work, its a really interesting concept I want to explore. The pretty intricate pattern surrounding the flower is what makes this wallpaper stand out and make it unique next to other floral wallpaper. Im dont like the colour scheme used but when it comes to wallpaper its personal preference, I would prefer something much lighter and airy rather than the dark background.

This is a really interesting way of using repeat pattern, definitely something worth investigating in future briefs, especially with how time consuming the pattern development process has been. It a really simple but affective way of using repeat by creating just one illustrations. The more context I look at, I do wish I had looked further into repeat patter I feel it would have benefited my choices so much and make the finishing processes much quicker and simpler.

Harlequin

I love these wallpapers by Harlequinn they are so cute and the bird illustrations are so lovely, I really like how they have used pattern within the illustration such as the birds wing instead of the traditional line in a birds wing, its a really interesting way to add something new and exciting to the illustrations especially when the audience is for children. Although these are only small snap shots, you can see the pattern is consistent running down the wall, what I feel helps makes this successful is the white space, usually everyone tells you not to have white space but when it comes to wallpaper I feel you need some empty space so not to over crowd the wall. The ratio of white space to illustration hear works really well and will help keep the room looking large and airy.

These designs are in fact very similar to some current Laura Ashley wallpaper, however this is influenced towards a much younger audience than the Laura Ashley. This is perhaps a future brief to introduce a children's range of wallpapers adapted from current wallpaper?

Interactive Wallpaper

I found this website when I was researching for my Enterprise, Rachel Kelly sells a range of bespoke products predominantly used for interior design. Its really nice to find self employed wallpaper designers, her work is really unique and has an expensive quality to it compared to manufactured wallpaper.

Amanda Dilworth

This is a very busy wallpaper, but it works so well you would expect the combination of them all layered up would be too much, but Amanda had cleverly made each image translucent so you can see through to the lower pattern on each one, making the over all affect really soft and flowing rather than a solid block of different shapes.

This design by Amanda Dilworth really reminds me of some of the patterns I have developed with the 'blood lilly' my drawings are much more intricate than the below, however I really like how abstract they are below and how she has used vibrant colours on top of a charcoal grey this is really interesting and the opposite to what you would normally see. It works hear on this small scale however I am not certain this dark colour scheme work work across a wall, this is always something I have to remind myself when I am developing my patterns.

Justine Ellis

Justine Ellis is a London based designer and creates screen printed cushions (amongst other items) her patterns are full of lovely textures and colour. I thought she would be really useful to blog for two reasons firstly her cushions are created in the same print process mine will be but also her use of detailed repeat pattern such as the woven cable knit patterns. I have not had the chance to look too much into repeat pattern and it would have benefited my work immensely, however its not too late to look at how the layout and colour work.

I think what works best with this pattern is, Justine has enlarged what in real life is a very tight and small pattern when knitted, the spacing and sizing she has used is what makes them really successful. The choice of colour helps them stand out and not appear too cluttered by using a plain canvas background really helps the pattern jump off the pillow.

Liberty

The brand and website Liberty has a really beautiful home wear collection, I have posted some of the pillows as they have helped inspire and develop my work. The range I am creating is for the specialist collection of Laura Ashley I want all the different products to be as best created as possible as well as using as many different techniques as I can. For my pillows I really want to use embroidery as I feel it gives a really expensive look as well as bringing a quality to it, you can achieve with print. These pillows by Liberty have been heavily embroided adding to the quality of the design and price.

Claire Coles

I have recently discovered Claire Coles and her work is beautiful, it is pretty much exactly the style I want to develop with my work. If I could get any sort of feedback from her it would be fantastic. I love the simplicity of the design and how it still works so well and detailed across the wall even though the design space its self is quite empty. The beauty of this design I feel comes from the use of line and colour, the simple but detailed illustration with only the flowers filled with colour, creates a very feminine and delicate wallpaper. I am perhaps too far along in my current design process for this brief to take all of these points into consideration for my work, and some of these points would fit in with the Laura Ashley theme however this aside Claire Coles I feel has had a big impact on my work and inspiration.

This second design Claire Coles has printed onto a wallpaper giving it life transforming it into a piece of art and not just wallpaper. The design has a very vintage feel to it and the embroidered patterns add something completely different to the wallpaper making them individual from the regular wallpaper market. I think this is a really key point and something I should definitely consider in my future work as well as this brief where the range is 'speciality.' Something I find really interesting is how Claire has managed to arrange the pattern so it flows effortlessly across the wall, this is something I have struggled with in my design work especially as I have never worked to such a large scale before.

Susan Farrington

I love how Susan Farrington gets across the delicacy of the flowers, the hand drawings are really beautiful and I cant wait to start drawing with ink. The detail works so well on the flowers, its close to really life but still pattern like which is the boundary I need to find for my tropical illustrations.

Even with colour the flowers still look really beautiful, these flowers are laid out in no particular order, but i really like this about this image, I have drawn a few flowers with stems but after seeing this illustration and knowing I want my pattern design to look quite beautiful and feminine it would be worth my while, looking for more delicate tropical flowers and not just ones that are huge and colourful.

Silvia Deker

Iv posted this image as its a design by Silvia Deker and she has transferred this and other similar designs onto other soft furnishings, I think this could be liked by a lot of people, but I feel the quality of it makes a really good design look cheap. I think this pattern laid out differently and less cluttered would have been much stronger for a bed cover design and would have had a classier edge to it.

These flowers again are are very similar to the tropical ones i have been drawing, unlike the previous flower illustrations by Lisa Congdon I think these work much better they layout with layering the flowers and not harsh blacks works much better, the colours are also really minimal. I still feel there could be areas taken away and fewer colour choices, but overall this design is much stronger and a design for me to take points from when laying out my illustrations.

Lisa Cingdon

I started research this brief thinking i was going to produce one wallpaper and looking at different collage affects, now I want to do a minimum of 2 giving me the chance to work on 2 different styles, I really like the idea of working with link on top of a flat coloured shape but also looking at collage and different textures, each styles suits a different image of either bird, butterfly or flower.

The flowers and line work on this pattern are really similar to some tropical flowers I have drawn, its really interesting to see what the similar images look like digitalised. I think some of them work better than others, and i'm not sure about the black lining around the colour, it works well on some but I think its a bit too harsh.

Jillian Phillips

If the wallpaper I were producing was aimed at children, I think this is the type of look I would be going for. There are still areas I think are relevant to my work, I mentioned on an earlier post I was thinking of drawing with ink and nib, the background flowers here have given me the idea to layer up the flowers, al traditionally you see patterns running in lines across the wall, by doing this it will be trying something a little different. I also really like the soft colours that are used, the more I am looking the more i feel swayed towards this colour pallet, however I havn't attampted any colour yet so we shall see.

Jackie Basteman

These illustrations havent been produced for wallpaper however they do give me a strong idea of what my wallpaper illustrations may look like, as they hold similar images to mine. The main thing I am taking from this is space and layout, with such detailed illustrations and strong colour, the scale and space matters so much. If the birds illustration were to be used across a wall as a wallpaper it would be far too much, everything is too close together and there are too many things going on, however the light coloured background does help this. The more I look at different patters and wallpaper I strongly thing light light light! especially if i am using detailed images.

This second piece of pattern work I have posted because although again its not wallpaper, I feel this works on a much hight level than the bird pattern although it is still quite full. I feel this is perhaps because the scale of the flowers have an obvious change to them, so the background space looks almost equal to the patterns. I also really like how she has illustrated the patterns, some are solid colours with solid pattern, other larger flowers have more 'to life' detail and shading to them. This adds more life to the pattern, the only area again I feel doesn't work for a wallpaper would be the background colour, it I feel needs to be much lighter, either that or the flowers do, theres too much colour going around.

Traditionally when you look at wallpaper it only has 2 colours, as when your decorating a room you don't want to introduce 6 - 7 colours, its over complicated and too in your face. This is something i need to remember when producing my patterns. The 3rd illustration is definitely not suitable for wallpaper, however, iv posted it and I like the individual illustrations, there really fun and quirky although they are probably too child like for my designs.

Greg Morgan

Greg Morgan has used scraps of paper to collage his illustrations, I thinks this works really well, and brigs depth to the image telling more of a story. The added texture just adds a little bit more interest to the illustration rather than flat colour. I really like the way he has layered up the different paper and think this could be a really useful technique for me to try out.

I'm not drawing beetles but i just wanted to post this to show how the layering up of different paper works on a small scale and adds character to the insect. I don't want to go this far as i'm not illustrating for a book but still I want to produce work that looks interesting each different time you look at it, and with all the different papers and patterns theres so many different aspects to enjoy.

Bonnie Dane

I don't particularly like the over all image illustrated by Bonnie Dane here, its too bright for me however, it has given me an idea which I think could work really well for my tropical brief. As I am using traditional handmade methods, this can give me the opportunity to work around in different media and with different materials. I think 'freeer' drawing with nib an ink would look really beautiful for some of the illustrations I have already drawn, in a similar way to the below butterflies. I mentioned I didn't particularly like the brightness of colour, I am in two minds as to weather it matters if i use such bright colours even though traditionally you would put bright colours with 'tropical' something to discuss in crit!

Allison Cole

Cole has a unique way of making undesirable colours work, I would never dream of using the colour combination, but hear i can see how well it works, this as a wallpaper pattern would be too much. What I like however is the use of repeat pattern and negative colour, to fill a whole wall of wallpaper I need to fill a lot of space and its useful to see how Cole has spread her pattern across the page with plain areas vs patterned.

This second design again is not something I would choose, but i really like the way the small detail has worked on such a large space, similar to the illustration above it is full but there is more background space and much lighter use of colour this would work as a wallpaper. So I need to stay away from detail and dark colours taking over the sheets.

This is typical of wallpaper or border pattern, however Allison Cole has really individualised it into her own style, and it work really well. It isn't the type of pattern I think looks beautiful, but I really like the style and method she has used. The hand draw to digitalizing has really work well hear and i didn't think it would, i am not going to dismiss this method with my illustrations.