2nd Tutorial

Today I spoke with Sally about my project so far. We discussed further about my mood boards and chosen target market. It was made clearer to me that I need to do some more research into the demographic I am aiming for as although I know its an adult female I need to narrow it down more.

Some questions I need to think about the target market are:

Do they have an eye for design? Do they have an inner christmas-zilla or inner creative personality which when the opportunity arises they enjoy going all out for?

What are their aspirations?

What would catch their attention in a shop when buying for christmas amongst all the other products?

I need to also look into creating more textured surfaces and including more purple/plum tones.

I also need to get into print and do some foiling particularly using gold.

The 3Dimensional things I’ve created so far are quite interesting and I need to try out other techniques such as laser cutting.

I think it went well today speaking with Sally and am happy with where I am heading although I need to do a lot more work I think.

1st Tutorial

I had my first tutorial for the project today with Keireine. I think it has helped to open my mind to more ‘out of the box’ ideas instead of keeping to what I know and automatically go to. We discussed taking my work down a more 3D avenue looking at suspending things from my walls such as ivy and holly. We also discussed experimenting with making my own wreaths out of different materials so I am going to try using Salt Dough. Keireine has leant me a book to instruct me and give me ideas.

We spoke about who my client would be and I initially think it will be adult females.

Also Keireine spoke of trying some of the Wednesday workshops there are so will look into what will be most appropriate to my project.

Finally I need to do a lot more drawing, using a variety of scale and substrates with different media.

Independent Study Day

Today was a planned London Trip for anyone who wished to sign up. Normally I would loved to have gone on the trip and I had signed up but sadly I felt I needed to spend the day on my own work for my project. Although London is full of inspiration whether you go to a gallery or just sit in a cafe and see the world pass by I thought that at that current point in time I needed to spend as much time as possible on my work. I have done quite a lot of research although I will admit not all primary since the christmas stock and decorations are not quite out in the general publics view.

Instead I spent the day working more into my mood boards which I still feel are lacking in some ways. I need to clear my mind and make sure I am absolutely positive of where my vision of my project is going. I feel I made quite a lot of progress and have a better understanding of where I am going.

Workshops: Digital Stitch

I have signed up to the 4 afternoon slots for digital stitch over the next fortnight. I want to develop this skill in stitch as I am not as confident in this from previous workshop sessions. I have a couple of ideas of what i want to try but I will speak with Maggie our stitch technician to see what she thinks and recommends.

I want to try and make a screen too to refresh my mind of this method but will concentrate on stitch initially.

I’ve started my sketchbook from the beginning and using it to demonstrate and note ideas and how I am going to develop them further. I have decided I am going to concentrate on designing for Tom Smith which is a more traditional line and focuses on Christmas.

I’ve started by brainstorming my theme of christmas with all the different things connected to it. Then I found some imagery to get ideas flowing.

I have also been doing some general drawings of my own to get back into the swing of it. I think I will definitely be going down the route of combining smaller objects i.e. baubles and holly.