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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Make a shopping list of at least FOUR existing products that would fit in the room. Save links and an image for each product.
  5. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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

  1. 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
  2. Design an 11” x 17” layout (aka mood board) incorporating the images from the previous step, demonstrating your process from start to finish.
  3. 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.

Living Patterns Final