OUGD503 Responsive Studio Brief 01 Individual Practice Feathr Wallpaper Brief

After the Briefing I got thinking about stories I could tell with the wallpaper I design and most importantly what stories people would want to glean from the design. I had a lot of trouble with this. I thought about my favourite books and if I could tell their story, or if perhaps there was a political issue that was worth shouting about. For me this was easily connectable to pollution and general sustainability. I wanted to look at creating a wall paper that had layers of strata and then the bones of all our machines and rubbish built up in it like we now find fossils and dinosaurs.

Another approach that was mentioned during the brief was the idea of inverting the norms of wallpaper to create something entirely new. A norm that I am particularly aware of is the way particularly plant or botanically based designs intertwine to create intricate repeat patterns. I possible could take this intertwined patter and use something completely different for the subject matter.

I started looking on pinterest and found a subject that I think could really work. Jellyfish. They are slightly trippy and psychedelic but also natural and beautiful but in a slightly sinister way, which I think will be received well as a competition entrant. I created a quick doodle on a scrap piece of paper to look at how the tentacles would intertwine off the repeat to create hopefully seamless repeat that draws connections to those botanical designs.

My pinterest board also gave me the idea to think in terms of depth as well as the repeat. I want to create a school of jelly fish as the focus of the pattern and make it seem as if the walls are some kind of window into the ocean. The next stage is to start experimenting with illustration forms to see how I can render the design.