The visit to Dianne Harrison Studio was educational and inspiring. It made me reflect on and re-think my whole practice. Normally, I work predominantly with primary digital photographs and layer them with my drawings. However, it became apparent that this is not what Dianne Harrison was looking for. It seems all of their designs are firstly, painted or hand drawn. So with this new – found knowledge I began to create additional drawings and paintings. I also thought that now would be a good idea to research into the market of interior bedding as this is what my designs are intended for so I looked at some similar designers. Although most of my designs are aimed at bedding I will most likely add them to other parts of interior design, for example: cushions, lampshades, boarders for walls, curtains and maybe even chiffon type blinds. I will decide this when I come to put my designs 'in the situation'.
John Lewis sells a range of bedding. This is somewhere
that I believe my designs would fit in, as John Lewis’s
design aesthetics are the same or very similar to my
design sensibilities; I would be more marketable if John
Lewis could visualise me meeting their fabric design
needs. John Lewis is also at the slightly higher end of the
High Street which is ideal.
Harlequin, on the left and Kirsty Allsopp, on the
right, are also designers aiming at the same target
market as me. The way they construct the majority of
their designs is also similar. They too, purposely do not
design their pillows in the full print and also have a
reverse option for the duvet. I could create
multiple colour variations of my designs to add
variety and greater choice for the target market. In
addition, if time allows, I could create coordinating
designs that could be sold together.
I realised too, that the photographs I had taken at the aquarium were not enough, so I collected some more secondary images so that I would have a wealth of resources at my disposal. I began to work on acetate because I liked the effect it gave. When the male Designer from Dianne Harrison Studio visited, he suggested I try more transparent media like tracing paper. As I had already experimented with acetate I tried tracing paper and then clear film and immediately I loved the effect it gave, the inks dried on it in a really interesting and quite fluid way. Below there are just a small selection of some of ink paintings.