Henry Holland

I love Henry Holland collections and I was looking on the House of Holland website to look at his new collections and I found that his new pre Spring 2012 collection has been inspired by Mexico, both the shapes and cuts of the clothes but also the print, patterns and colours of the clothes.
Here are some photo's:

The collection is bright, bold and colourful, the brings mix together stripes, florals and skulls, all inspired by Mexico and the Mexican Day of the Dead Festival. The stripes also have a Mexican feel also he has used shapes and cuts of clothes that are similar to Mexican ponchos. I really love this collection and I am really inspired by the colours, shapes, print and patters of this collection.  

Personal Passions

For our new brief we were told that we could choose the theme and what the project would be about, I decided that I would do my project about Mexico and Folk Art because it is a culture and art style that I have always wanted to look into and draw from. I love the mexican culture and traditions, such as the Day of the Dead Festival, also the colours and patterns in their work and arts.
Here are some research photos I found: 

Toys and Tales Finished

At the start of December we were given our new brief and it was to design a shop window for a children's toy shop, called Toys and Tales. We each went into groups of two, three or four and had to work together to design and make three shop windows, the brief in total was about four weeks long, so it was a lot of work to fit into a short period of time. 
In our group we had three people from surface design and one person from illustration, we had to work together to create ideas and also make things and mock-up's of what the windows would look like, we then had to pitch the idea to the shops owners and they would pick their favourite to actually be the window display. I think that our ideas were good and imaginative, we decided that one of the windows would be aimed at girls and one at boys, and the third window would be aimed at both boys and girls and would be interactive. 

We decided for the boys window we would have a treasure chest and lots of teddies and bears climbing out as if they come to life at night, like Toy Story or Small Soldiers, then there would be a washing line above this with more bears from and also hanging hot air-balloons, rockets and planes hanging from to create more depth in the window, however this would also let in the light. 
These are some sketches of what it could look like from my sketchbook and some small mock up's of what they would look like: 

For the girls window we decided on a fairy, enchanted garden theme and would be made from layers of cut wood in the shapes of grass, toadstools and flowers. And then stock could be placed in-between the different layers to create a scene and would be an interesting idea to display the stock that they have in the shop. 

For the third window, which would be the interactive one we decided on a giant jigsaw theme, and we would make a giant jigsaw that we would stick onto the window with suction cups and then the children could play with the giant jigsaw while they were inside the shop. 

Finally to link all the windows together we decided that we would create vinyl stickers for the windows of toys that are in the shop and the children could match up the sticker to the actual toy in the window. We thought that this would be a fun and interesting idea and would be imaginative and different. 

Overall I really enjoyed the brief, although it did feel a short, I think that we worked really well together as a team and came up with some good ideas and produced some interesting and fun ideas that we think children would enjoy and like to do. I think that this brief has prepared us for the real working life and how we would have to work as a group and team in a company, it also highlighted how important combination was. 

Geninne's Art Blog

Today I bought a set of water colour blocks because although I have used water-colour for work in the past, it is a technique that I want to get better at, and want to use for my next project. So for some inspiration I was looking at other artists who use watercolours in their work, and I came across an art blog called Geninne's Art Blog and fell in love with it immediately. I think that her work is beautiful full of colour, shape, and pattern, her work mostly uses watercolours and sometimes ink. I think that her work appeals to me because like me it looks like she is obsessed with birds, who seem to pop up on nearly all of her works, but each one is a different colour, shape and has different feathers giving each one it's own personality and uniqueness.
Her work has really inspired me to become better at using watercolours, hopefully I will upload some of my watercolour work soon.
Here are a few pictures of her amazing work:

Here is a link to her blog: http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/ 

The Exquisite Book

For Christmas I got a book by the artist's Julia Rothman, Matt Lamothe, and Jenny Volvovski called the Exquisite Book, when I asked for it I thought that it would just be work by the artist Julia Rothman however when I opened it, it was a pullout book with work from one hundred various different artists and illustrators. They all were given one of ten different themes, such as ''In the forest", "In the Ocean" or "In the City". And then they had to draw an illustration or picture of what that theme meant to them, they would then send this piece to the next artist and they would draw the next section of the picture with the same theme. They either had the option to look at the previous piece of work or they could just follow on the line from the previous piece. Each artist worked very differently for example some would look at the previous work and then follow it with the same colours, shapes or themes, however others made up their own versions. 

Although this book isn't what I expected I really love it, it has opened my eyes to lots of new artists and illustrators, and has shown to me how differently each artist works and how they can collaborate together in different ways. 

Julia Rothman

As part of my last brief I was introduced to the work of Julia Rothman, who is an illustrator, and I liked the style and feeling of her work and thought that it was very interesting and uplifting.
Her work has been used on papers, fabrics, and stationary, using a technique of hand drawing and also digital drawing  giving her work a difference in line, shape and texture.  Her work has also been used as illustrations in a lot of different books.
I love the colour palettes that she uses in her work and think that they work well together and complement each other and her work.

I really like how she draws the same item such as shoes and draws them in different styles and shapes but still uses the same colours, in each of the drawings.

Shop Windows

Last week I was given a new brief, we had to choose form three different briefs, all very different from each other and different to any thing that I had done in the past. I decided on the brief Enchanted, this was to design a shop window display for a toy shop near Stockport College, I thought that this brief would be great as it would give me the opportunity to really use my imagination and think like a child and what they would like to see in a window display. We have to work in groups of between two and four, I have gone in a group with two other surface designers and an illustrator, I think that the mixture of the two pathways will be good as they are quite closely linked together so we can bounce of each others ideas.

As part of the brief we have to present our ideas and designs to the shop owner and workers and the design that they like the most will actually be put in the shop windows, I think that this is a great opportunity to have our work in a public place, and also give us some experience to presenting to potential clients for the future. 

I think that to make a good window display we really have to think like a child and what they would like and what caught our eye and imagination when we were growing up.  

As part of my research I went out and took some photographs of shop windows around Manchester, although none of these are toy shops, instead they are mostly of clothes shops I feel they still give a good idea of the imagination and creativity that goes into a good shop window display, and they are a good point to start my work from.