OUGD406 (Studio Brief 1) Further design development

Due to the submission deadline on secret 7's web page, I submitted a design that I didn't feel was completely finished, if there was more time with this brief, I would have maybe played around with using the stitched illustration to stand on its own. I feel like when manipulating the design on photoshop, it lost tactile quality. 

I took more photographs of my stitched piece, some on different angles.

I edited them only slightly on photshop, and formatted them in a 7x7 square to see how they would look as the final vinyl cover.

I think that these work well alone, the detail of the stitch is a lot clearer than when placed on a background, and it is more noticeable. The quality of the illustration has also improved from my previous designs. 

If I was to resubmit I would chose this design. The quality of image is greater, and it looks cleaner and well refined.

This is now my chosen final cover for Lordes track 'team.'

OUGD406 (Studio Brief 1) Submitting to secret 7

The final design I chose to submit for secret 7:
I chose this as my final design as I feel that it shows my interpretation of a fantasy dream land. I wanted to incorporate the element of using the elegant embroidery, and also incorporate the mystical and playful theme that I think Lorde is representing in her track. 

I submitted this design online, on the secret 7 web page. 

OUGD406 (Studio Brief 1) Final design development

Now I have experimented with the stitching techniques, I want to produce a final design that I can then digitally manipulate, if the design works well. 

Below is my final machine embroidered drawing that I want to develop to create my album cover for Lordes track 'team.' 

I feel that this is successful, and I want to further my experimentations as I am not sure it is strong enough to stand alone. I could develop this by digitally manipulating, or adding backgrounds. I want to stick with the theme of elegance and also suggest mystery within my design, subtle floral backgrounds or repeat patterns could work well with the stitched drawing overlaying. 

Below is some close ups of the stitch detail, I have used several different stitch sizes and paths. Some just being a straight stitch, others being a zig-zag stitch. I quite like this piece of work, as it is different to what I usually produce, it has more tactile qualities. With this brief I wanted to explore and develop my skills further as the mandatory requirements did not specify that a graphic based response was compulsory, therefor I have chosen to create something with more textile qualities. 

After fishing this design, I wanted to play around by digitally manipulating a background and imposting the illustration on top. 

With a floral background I created on photoshop, I played around with altering the colour scheme and laying the illustration over the top and changing opacities. 

This manipulation below does not work at all, the contrasts don't work and you can hardly see the design.

This design has improved a lot, the contrasts work and the tones of green compliment each other, I like that some of the stitching in the hair stands out more than others. However I still don't feel that this is strong enough for my final design.

This shows my design standing alone, without any floral background. This has been digitally manipulated on photoshop, compared to the original stitched piece I feel like by scanning it in it has lost some of its qualities. This is bound to happen because when digitally manipulated the textile qualities are not present.

Out of the digitally manipulated ones, this one is the strongest. I like the subtlety of the floral background against the illustration which is the main focal point. 

OUGD406 (Studio Breif 1) Design Development

Design development for final idea

Now I have decided to create my final cover embroidered on the machine, I need to experiment with stitching techniques. I have sketched out the final image of Lorde that I want to use so I can start developing my piece.
With machine embroidery being my chosen form of media for this stage of development, I wanted to experiment with the different techniques and see how well a stitched illustration would work. This is a sketch I produced onto tracing paper, then machine embroidered over my sketch outline. I found that this technique works well if done carefully, however using tracing paper as the stock, I found that this was sustainable enough to create a detailed illustration using the sewing machine. 

Because of this problem I have decided to try it on a different stock. Instead I will stitch the same image onto plain a4 prating paper. 

This stock has definitely worked better, so for my final I will stitch the image on to plain paper. I will have to take care when stitching the smaller details such as lips and eyes, because they are so small they are more difficult to embroider. This work relates to my artists research, shown on the context blog. 

Now I have decided on what image I would want to stitch, I have started to sketch out the design. Below are the tracings for the drawing I will stitch. 

Below is a more detailed drawing of the image I will trace. 

I redrew this image of Lorde and started to stitch it on the machine. I feel like this technique works well, as the detailing is clear. This has been done in just plain black thread, I think that more colour needs to be added. 

OUGD406 (Studio Brief 1) Work for interim crit

From my research, I decided to take further these ideas from the previous thumbnail sketches. From thorough research into lordes video that accompanies the track, the theme of youth was very significant. For one of my themes, I chose to use my photographs of the graffiti walls, as this is also present in lordes video. However this design seems to literal, but I wanted to emphasise the theme of childhood and youth within my initial designs. To take to the crit, I have produced some mock ups, I edited the existing photographs on photshop, and I also wanted to try a hand rendered style therefore I chose to draw some graffiti then digitally manipulate by duplicating the sketch on photoshop. I feel that these emphasise the idea of youth and teens, which has developed from my research, however enabling these designs to be successful they need to include more atmosphere (within the photographs). The photographs and sketch when standing alone, need to be developed a lot further if I wanted them to successfully relate to lordes track, but I do feel that the basis of the idea could work well if developed. 

For this design, I drew a graffiti style sketch, then duplicated and played around with the opacities on photoshop. I wanted to play around with a more hand rendered design, as this is how I want to initially produce my final design.

This mock up is a combination of two different photographs layered on photoshop, with different opacities. I wanted to create something that reminded me of Leif Podhasky, as the mix of vibrant colours show relation to this designers work. If I was to produce my final design with this concept and using my own photography, I would need to take into consideration the compositional features and colours in order to create a record sleeve that successfully represents Lordes track. 

This design is inspired by a more illustrative style, these are only a rough idea of what could be produced, but it shows an example of the style of illustration. By taking a more illustrative route, it will enable me to be more creative within the design, as I could include different layers and textures to create a more of a mixed media piece. The design will have to be finalised digitally in order for me to submit online, but the idea of creating a more texturised piece then editing it digitally could be something to experiment with. After looking at designers and artists that used embroidery with their illustrations, such as Marloes Duyker, it gave me the idea to create my own interpretation in this way. To develop this idea I will research further into other designers that use this technique within their work.

Interim Crit

I took these five designs above to the crit to collect some feedback on my ideas. For the crit we were asked to present five developed designs that we will take forward to create our final sleeve design. However at this point I was still unsure whether I wanted to create a design that was illustration based, or photographic based. The feedback I received from the crit was very helpful, as it has helped me decide which definite route to take. I noted down on my work during the crit that I would like to experiment with the use of embroidery and combine this quality with my illustrations so that my peers would get a better sense of how my designs would take shape. Some of the feedback I received;

• the stitch idea seemed to very popular and said to be the strongest
• I could try to incorporate the embroidery idea into the photographs of the graffiti to combine the two designs
• combine two elements within one design, stitched illustrations and none stitched illustrations 
• the embroidery idea definitely works better than the use of photography
• drawings must be developed in order to improve the overall design

OUGD406 (Studio Brief 1) Initial ideas for crit

For the interim crit, one of my themes is the idea of youth. These are my own photographs taken, with inspiration from Lordes track video. For the crit I want to try and represent this idea of youth visually, and graffiti is also seen within her video.

OUGD406 (Studio Brief 1) Initial thumbnail designs