A CROWDED FIELD // ELEY KISHIMOTO LIVE BRIEF

This project was created during the second year of my degree. The project was a live brief with design brand Eley Kishimoto. The brief was to come up with six final designs as part of a collection that showed what we had been researching and looking at. I started my research over the summer, where I gathered images around the theme of music festivals.

Knowing the bold, graphic and colourful work of Eley Kishimoto, I knew it was going to be a very vibrant colour palette.

I chose the theme of a music festival as the brief encouraged a sense of self expression and personality to come through in the work, and I had just spent the summer at festivals such as Reading Festival and 2000 Trees, which gave me a lot of inspiration.

Mixed media collage

I took a few approaches in developing designs for this brief, drawing a festival literally, looking at the shapes and colours of the marquees, large flags and lights, and through abstract collages where I used newspaper clippings of headlines and simplified the visual research I was looking at.

I really enjoyed this approach and began mark making in the same way, taking the shapes I had identified throughout my development process and simplifying them to abstract marks. I built up a library of these marks, and this is what went into designing my patterns.

This was quite a quick and easy way of creating a number of patterns that I could choose my final six from.

Based off proposed use, contrast and harmony of the patterns together, I came to the decision of my final six. All varying in complexity and showing both the fun and chaotic vibe of a music festival, as well as the edgier undertones of political views and protest that often, also comes with a festival. I wanted the pattern collection to not only capture the fun and chaos of a typical music festival, but also the raw and honest political opinions and undertones that often come with particular Festivals. Some of the designs have Morse code running through it, in which what’s written, expresses my own personal views and thoughts.

Design visuals - Festival cladding, Wristbands and Bell tent

I’ve illustrated a variety of uses with these design visuals. Uses include festival fencing and cladding, tents, festival wristbands and beanbags.

Screen printed wood panels

I screen printed two of the pattern designs onto wood panels to show how the design would work on wood fencing. I consider these two designs the highlight of the collection as they shed the most light on the messages that are being conveyed.

The purple motifs in this pattern represent life jackets worn by refugees, and was inspired by that of Ai Wei Wei, and the use of life jackets within his work.

This body of work was displayed at the Alex Design Exchange, in Swansea, in January 2018.

The exhibited work consists of the six final pattern designs, two of which printed on wood panels, with the rest digitally printed onto fabric. I also displayed three mood/research boards that show the overall theme and concept of my project, visualisations of potential products and uses and my target market/audience.

I learnt a lot working on this live brief. It was interesting to see the contrast between designing for a retail company like National Trust, and a design brand like Eley Kishimoto. The two companies have very different styles and ethos’ as well as target audiences, that has impacted on the kind of designs created. With the National Trust live brief, I was able to research into the brand, current products and properties associated with the National Trust to help inform my design process and content, where as with the Eley Kishimoto live brief, it targeted my own personality which allowed me to design more freely.