For my most recent design brief, I had to write a creative brief of my own and taylor it around my interests within Graphic Communication. Therefore I decided to design a window display for the store Harrods, as I have a vested interest within Visual Merchandising.
I quickly decided that I wanted the theme of the window display to be 'Woodland'. This was because of the recent trends that surround this theme, especially in the autumn/winter months. Trends such as: fur, autumnal colours, (rich oranges, purples, browns, reds and greens) woodland creatures, (foxes, owls) have all been used in the last year/s within the fields of fashion and homeware especially. Therefore I thought it would create the perfect basis for a beautiful festive display.
The 'Woodland' theme creates a sense of nostalgia and warmth, which is perfect when coming up to the Christmas period. I wanted to design a window display that was welcoming and friendly and one that people could relate to.
For our recent design brief set by the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, myself and a fellow student decided to collaborate and create a response to this brief as a pair.
We both have a vested interest in print based design and textiles, therefore we wanted to create something that would combine these two areas of design.
We were also both heavily influenced by the works of Al Johnson and War Boutique when we viewed the Herbert Gallery's "Caught in the Crossfire" exhibition, and so we agreed to make our response have similar messages/themes that these particular artists have explored.
In the end we decided to create a patchwork blanket. We made individual squares that each have their own war related theme designed onto them. We used a range of media including, paint, ink, sewing, collage and screen printing to create 12 30cm x 30cm squares. Once we had completed all of the squares we sewed them together to create our final piece.
Titling the outcome "Security Blanket" contradicted with the themes and images which were used on the patchwork, and made the viewer question its purpose/meaning. We felt this juxtaposition of harsh/evil images with the idea that a blanket offers comfort to a child to be very disturbing, which we hoped would therefore create an emotional response to our work.
I recently visited the Herbert Gallery, Coventry to view their latest exhibition, 'Caught in the Crossfire'. My new design brief at uni is to create a personal response to warfare, and so witnessing a wide variety of 'war' themed artwork was the perfect place to start.
The exhibition had a range of traditional and contemporary pieces of artwork, ranging from paintings, tapestries, video, sculpture, collage, photography/photo montage, textiles and 3D models. This was very helpful, as the wide range of work really opened up my creativity and gave me a variety of ideas for my own response. The artists below stood out to me the most.
Al Johnson's 'Roaring Girls' series really grabbed my attention. The way she has juxtaposed a gun with a cushion, I think is quite hard-hitting, as she has made a harsh, powerful weapon become something soft, cosy and comforting. She has done this as a metaphor for highlighting the involvement of women in frontline fighting. She produced a series of three cushions, each based on a different type of gun, and all three are titled as women's names, 'Sadie', 'Brenda' and 'Betty'. Even the names of them suggest kindness and motherliness, which again, when coupled with the image a gun, doesn't seem to comprehend or make any sort of logical sense.
'The Great Game' by War Boutique also caught my eye because once again, it's using the idea of textiles being something warm and nurturing, but giving it a harsh purpose/message that doesn't quite tie in with how it has been executed. I am contemplating on using textiles as a way to illustrate my own views on warfare, as I really think this juxtaposition theme creates an emotional response to the work.
The final artist whose work I liked is Kennard Phillipps. I love print based collage work anyway, and so his series 'Award' was something I could relate to. The textures of the different materials that have been used really make this series feel gritty, dirty and real. I see it as a metaphor for what war is like, dark, miserable and decaying. Also, the fact that it is mainly only black and white, makes the areas of red stand out even more, highlighting the war themes of bloodshed and anger in such a way that cannot be ignored.
