BRIEF
For this assignment you will create a product and a textile (fabric) pattern to complement the interior design of a space from film, tv, or other mass media. In a multi-step process, you will analyze and present the characteristics of your chosen space, develop a color scheme and design direction for both object and textile, adapt your physical designs and drawings for digital production, and design a mood board layout presenting your project and key steps in the design process.
(For the purposes of the project, “product” refers to any permanent man-made object: furniture, artwork, toys, etc.)
PROCESS
STEP 1: INSPIRATION & RESEARCH
- Choose your room and get approval. It can be real or fictional, live-action or animated, so long as it’s an interior (indoor) space. When you’ve made your choice, run it past me for approval – if you missed the class session, email me your idea instead.
- Get a high-quality, high-resolution reference image (1280 x 720 or larger). I recommend taking your own screenshot; some streaming services automatically block screenshots on computers, so it may be easier to take the screenshots on a smartphone. When you take your screenshots, make sure the play buttons and progress bar are hidden – otherwise you’ll have to take it again before final presentation.
- Paint a palette of at least FOUR key colors from the room. You might have to “correct” for the brightness and coloration of the light in the screenshot.
- Make a shopping list of at least FOUR existing products that would fit in the room. Save links and an image for each product.
- Write an OpenLab post presenting your room, painted palette, and shopping list (with images). Present and discuss the content of your post in class. Include a paragraph explaining your choice of room, color palette, and products.
STEP 2: DESIGN DIRECTION
- Design and paint a new palette (4 – 8 colors, not counting black/white) that relates to, and expands on, the original color scheme. You will use these colors (not necessarily all of them) in your textile and product designs.
- Draw/paint FIVE concepts for your product design and FIVE concepts for your pattern/textile design in your sketchbook. These are thumbnail sketches – small, quick drawings no larger than 2” x 3”. Thumbnails are very rough; they only need enough detail to communicate your ideas when you share them in class. Although thumbnails are usually black and white, I strongly recommend painting in key colors for this assignment – it makes the design easier to communicate.
- Sketch full-scale, black-and-white drafts of your final product and pattern/textile designs (on separate pages). These should be roughly 8” x 8” or larger, but the exact size and proportions will depend on your designs.
- Paint and present final product and pattern/textile designs. You will create these paintings on the same sheet of Bristol board, then cut them out and crop them to size for presentation.
STEP 3: RETOUCH & REFINE
- Digitize and retouch product and pattern/textile design. Scan or photograph your final designs, then use Adobe Photoshop to optimize the colors and clean up the image.
- Recreate and revise pattern/textile design. Trace and re-illustrate your retouched pattern design using Adobe Illustrator. Adjust and edit the digital version to ensure it tiles properly. Save two versions: one of the full design, another of a shape filled with the pattern (scaled down) to show how it repeats.
STEP 4: PRESENTATION
- Collect images for final mood board and presentation. The images you need:
- Original high-quality room photo
- Painted palette from original room
- Painted palette for new designs
- Full-scale black-and-white draft sketch of pattern/textile
- Full-scale black-and-white draft sketch of product design
- Retouched final painting of pattern/textile design
- Retouched final painting of product design
- Revised AI version of pattern/textile design
- Scaled/down AI version of pattern/textile design to show repetition
- Design an 11” x 17” layout (aka mood board) incorporating the images from the previous step, demonstrating your process from start to finish.
- Export final mood board as a .PDF using the “High-Quality Print” preset.
DUE DATES
10/14 (Friday) – Present and discuss OpenLab posts analyzing rooms
10/18 (Tuesday) – New color palettes complete
10/21 (Friday) – Concept sketches due, will discuss further design direction in class
10/25 (Tuesday) – Full-scale black & white sketches due
10/28 (Friday) – Final product and textile designs painted and presented
11/4 (Friday) – PROJECT DUE – SUBMIT LAYOUT VIA BLACKBOARD
PATTERN EXAMPLE
The example below is from an earlier version of this assignment, but Chakris (the student) did an excellent job of designing a pattern that complements the colors and forms in his room.