Initial Research

The Audience

The Stockists

Anna Hartley, Alys Beach FL

This shop is "Ann Hartley Alys Beach, promises to be an “out of the box” shop showcasing a thoughtfully curated collection of treasures from Ann’s travels" indicating that the audience wants something different and quirky." looking at the website it seems to be aimed at older woman who are able to afford to kit out themselves and their home with new unique items.

Get Dressed!, Dayton OH

The shop is another small boutique based in the US "Tracey Schumann’s boutique epitomises the style women love and appreciate: smartly selected classics meet collections from hip yet fashion-conscious labels" The shop is once again aimed older wealthy ladies who want something different in their outfit.

Boudoir Femme, Cambridge UK

This shop based in Cambridge. Is once again a luxurious and unique clothing store "The Viola [English Weather scarf] is luxurious and soft to the touch and will add unique impact and colour to your wardrobe." In this quote it suggesting that these scarves are the ultimate accessory for a customer to liven up her wardrobe.

Summary

The women buying English Weather are flamboyant looking for something to add to their wardrobe to make it unique and interesting. Meaning we need to create our scarf as something unique and interesting with strong emphasis on colour.

Initial ideas

I paired up with Rosslyn to create my design just after we were given the brief by the client we created a mind map of our initial ideas and then decided to research and find some inspiration on Pinterest. We then drew our initial ideas.

I started off drawing some very simple abstract shapes. However, I knew immediately it was not right because they were just shapes. They did not have a purpose meaning the pattern that we were creating would be quite baseless. So I went back to the drawing board.

I made a mind map to try and find the reason why we were designing the scarf and what made us unique. By the end of the mind map I realised that what is unique about us, is that we were graphic design students in Oxford, and what is unique about Oxford? The architecture.

So to develop my ideas I sketched the Radcliffe Camera (A famous buildingin Oxford) roughly over water colour to create a abstract look of Oxford's architecture.

To make it even more abstract I photocopied my drawings and then cut it up. I experimented with many different variations.

For each design I experimented with colour and texture through ripping and tearing, but also through photocopying my previous designs in different colours. However, I was only limited to CMYK colours on the photocopier so I was not able to create a sophisticated pastel colour pallet.

Meanwhile Rosslyn was able to think more about the colour pallet. Through doing some sketches on photoshop.

We discussed and decided that the one in the centre was a colour pallet that we would like to explore more. We also continued to discuss where we wanted this to go and we definitely want to have a mix of a textured background and the oxford skyline on our scarf. We are going to experiment with acrylics and pastels next week. And in the mean time we are going to create more refined sketches and photos of Oxford.

Research

Grayson Perry's Pottery

While creating our mood board we researched many artists and found who we both agreed was a similar take to what we are looking for. Grayson Perry is a contemporary artist who specialises in pottery and making tapestry. In 2003 he was awarded the turner prize for his creations in pottery. What Heavily inspire us is his mix media and his use of line.