Market Research Wallpaper - fairy tales, damask and abstraction •
Wallpaper and Disney
Fig 1-3. Disney film original textiles
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Timorous Beasties
Fig 4. Maleficent & Diablo Flock Wallpaper
In fig 4, the inspiration of the design came from Sleeping Beauty, and the designer Barbara Hulanicki chose Maleficent and her pet Diablo as the main elements in the design. According to the characteristic of this character, the main color is black and grey, and in order to fit the dark style, the drawing skill is more realistic than fig 1.
Timorous Beasties
Figure 5-6. Grand Blotch damask solid wallpaper
Figure 10. Omni Splatt wallpaper
Through the research of these two kinds of wallpapers (fig 1-4), I am consider that based on the elements of Disney cartoons, some contrast colors and abstract textures may make the final design outcome more modern and will show my own style, so some examples that from Timorous Beasties are also searched, as fig 5-10. The dyeing effect and spraying effect is shown in these examples, which created the abstract textures and motifs in the design, and the designer combined the contrast colors together to highlight different textures. The amazing visual effect is one of the characteristics of Timorous Beasties wallpaper, which will make the whole room become unique and bright. In addition, according to the two researches, I found that the damask style is the main style of the wallpaper because of its regular arrangement and various combinations of the textures and motifs. And, the contrast and bright colors can create a better effect for the design.
• Figure 9. Imperial Apiary wallpaper
The inspiration of this project comes from Alice in Wonderland, which is one of the cartoons of Disney. Hence, at the beginning of the market research, wallpapers with Disney patterns are searched. And the examples in fig 1-4 are show two different styles of the wallpaper that the bright style can be found in fig 1 and the dark style is shown in fig 4. The interesting thing is the wallpaper in fig 1 is related to Alice in Wonderland, and the evidences can be seen in the motifs of this wallpaper such as the playing cards, the hat of Mad Hatter, the yellow hair and black bow of Alice, the pocket watch of the rabbit, the rose of the Queen of Hearts, and the big mouth and eyes of the Cheshire cat. The designer selected the most prominent features of the characters in Alice in Wonderland, and added own style on them but retained the main colors of the characters and then combined them together to create a design that is easy to recognize. As a good example of the project, I can learn the visual way of the characters in this design.
Figure 7-8. Damsel damask wallpaper
Color Forecast •
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main colour palette
Fig 15. Lilacs and purples
Fig 11. Living room
Capture 1
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Fig 12. Hibiscus mutabilis
Photo 1
Fig 14. Alice in Wonderland characters
Fig 13. Lotus flower
Photo 8
Fig 17. Milky blues
Photo 10
Photo 4
Capture 2
Fig 16. Rainy
Photo 5
Photo 6
Photo 7
The colour palette of the project is decided according to the interior colour forecast of 2016. As it shown in the main colour palette, saturated colours will be used in the design, and, the effect of the colour palette is as similar as the colour scheme of the living room in fig 11, which shows a light and bright effect to people. Furthermore, the contrast colours are existed in this colour palette, and the related pictures proved that appropriate contrast colours can become to the finishing touch for the design, for some instances, the red flower is more bright with the green colour background (fig 12), and the decorations with green colours can make the room more lively and give a spring feel to people. In addition, the another reason why I choose this colour palette as the main colour palette is the colours of the characters of Alice in Wonderland which is shown in fig 14 has the connection to the colour palette, that green for the Mad Hatter, red for the Queen of the Hearts, Purple for the Cheshire cat, and the additional blue for Alice.
Fig 18. Neutrals paired with jewel tones
Photo 9
Photo 3
Photo 2
Alternative color palette two
Capture 3
Alternative color palette one
Photo 11
Fig 19. Larkspur
Considering about the brightness and saturation of the colours, the two alternative colour palettes are chose based on the cold colours and the light colours, because I want to make two different colourways from the main colourway in order to provide more choices to customer. In the alternative colour palette one, purple and blue is the main colour, and it create a quiet and modern atmosphere for the living room, as fig 15. This colour palette makes me think of the rainy days, the silent night with bright lights, the sunset, and the blue sky with blooming flowers. Moreover, the whole colour palette is not too cold and boring because of the light brown colour, as the scene in Photo 5 and Photo 6. The alternative colour palette two is composed of light colours which close to the colour of the sea and the sky, and make people feel comfortable and relaxed. The contrast colour also can be seen in this colour palette, it adds highlight and keeps the balance of the colours for the room, as it shown in fig 17 and fig 18. In brief, the contrast color is an indispensable part in the color scheme, because it will add vivid atmosphere to the whole color palette and will attract people’s interest when used in a design or a product.
Stylistic Interpretation Birgit Amadori, Timorous Beasties, and mark making •
In order to find a different and interesting way to show the Disney cartoon in my design, I search the works from Birgit Amadori and Timorous Beasties, because firstly Birgit’s work gives me an inspiration that I can pick the symbolic things of the characters in Alice in Wonderland to create some decorative patterns and put the patterns on the bodies and clothes of the characters, as Birgit put the crown patterns onto the clothes of queens (fig 21); secondly, the spray paint technique which comes from Timorous Beasties’ designs can create abstract textures and motifs that can make the design looks not boring and unique.
Birgit Amadori and geometric
Fig 23. Bloody empire wallpaper Photo 12 Fig 22. Omni Splatt wallpaper Fig 27. Lily
My practice work
Photo 13
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Mark making
Fig 26. common callalily
My practice work
The spray painting I made is inspired by Timorous Beasties, because I want to make a different and unique design from other Disney pattern wallpapers, and I think Timorous’ work is amazing because of those abstract textures and contrast colors. So, consider about the best way to make the spray paint work, I firstly draw some shapes of the floras and then I do the laser cut on them; then I put the shapes on the white papers and use colored sprays to make the patterns. At this stage, I try to overlap the hollow shape and the motif together, put two different motifs together, and overlap motifs and abstract textures with different colors and together; and the final effect looks interesting because it shows the combination of different textures and motifs, and the colors are dyed and produce another color on some parts of the patterns. I also use sprays to make some rhombuses because I am consider to put the characters into these rhombuses to make them looks like the playing cards which is an element in Alice in Wonderland.
My practice work
Fig 28. Fern
I also make some mark making works which inspired by the plant (fig 29) and the background motifs in Timorous’ design (fig 24) to increase layers of my design.
Fig 25. common callalily
Practice 1. The first try
Timorous Beasties and spray painting
Fig 24. Convallaria majalis
Fig 21. Birgit Amadori
Fig 20. Birgit Amadori
My practice work
Hence, after the research, I use the tool to draw some different geometric circles at first in order to prepare for different combinations of the symbolic things of the characters; and then according to the cartoon, I pick tea cup and tea pot for the Mad Hatter; crowns for the Queen of the Hearts; cupcake and glass medicine bottle for Alice; and the tree and some magic stars for the Cheshire cat. Next, I put these motifs into the geometric circles and put different colours that also related to the characters on the motifs, and then I combine these motifs to create four different patterns. Actually, the original background colour of these patterns is white, but from the Practice 1, I think the character cannot be stand out with the white colour, so I decide to change the background colour of these patterns to black, which has a better effect when these patterns are put on the bodies and clothes of the characters. Furthermore, the main features of the characters are not covered with the patterns because I want to make the character easy to recognize.
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Design Layout Alice in Wonderland - Basso and Brooke, Edouard Artus, and Timorous Beasties •
Layout inspiration Fig 30. Basso and Brooke Fig 32. Edouard Artus
Fig 33. Edouard Artus
Through the research, I decide to create a single color background with some textures of the plant, and then put other layers with bright and contrast colors on the background, as the example of Timorous Beasties. Thus, firstly, I use the plant motifs to create two symmetrical patterns which are reference damask style; and one of the patterns is put on the background of the whole design and another pattern is used to as the background of the characters.
Fig 31. Bloody empire wallpaper My work
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Based on the market research, the damask style is the inspiration of the layout of my design; and in order to combine the characters and the other layers better, the designs from Basso and Brooke and Timorous Beasties are searched at first (fig 30 and fig 31). Basso’s design shows that different styles of the same kind of animal make the outcome more interesting although the arrangement of the design is regular; and in Timorous’ design, the abstract textures and the bright colors make the insect jumps out of the cold color background and brings a strong visual effect to people. I also reference the designs that made by Eduard Artus to find the inspiration of the arrangement of the flora and plant motifs I drew previously. Moreover, I found that Edouard’s works are combined with flora motifs and small mechanical or robot parts, which show an unique effect.
Secondly, I reference the design of Basso and Brooke and engrave the characters into the playing cards, because the playing cards is one of the elements in Alice in Wonderland, and it will be suitable as the frame for the characters. And, to jump out the boring shape of the playing cards, I use sprays to make the shape. But, the problem is appeared in my first practice (Practice 2) that the rectangular shape is not fit with the character, so I decide to change the shape into rhombus, which has a better effect than the rectangular.
Layers
Background My work
Fig 34. Fern
Thirdly, I investigate the floras in Alice in Wonderland and then pick some of them and use sprays to make the floras more abstract and put them on the foreground layer. Edouard’s design is the reference of this layer, that I make the foreground layer looks like has a connection with the plant motif which as the background of the characters, and it shows an effect that the characters are surrounded by the plant and the floras.
Mid-ground Fig 35. Playing cards
Practice 2. First try
My work
Fig 36. Alice in Wonderland characters
Foreground
My work
Fig 37. Flowers of Wonderland