A closeup of the 'hero' or main pattern that I had created for my surface design project for my illustration class.
March 16th, 2019
Welcome back readers! For this next project for my illustration class, we focused on repeating patterns and how they are used in context with surface design. Our assignment included creating a mood board that focused on the aesthetics we wanted to achieve within our seamless pattern. For this specific project, I wanted to focus on different inspirations I find from everyday life. I wanted to focus on my sense of humor and various oddities that I find amusing. I wanted to take a different direction within this assignment and play along with natural creations such as doodles you would find in a notebook. I heavily enjoyed creating a mood board because I was able to focus on what exactly I wanted to feature for my surface design pattern.
The mood board that I created off of my sense of humor and abstract illustrations that I enjoyed that I found on Pinterest.
Based off of my mood board, I went towards what went natural when it comes to doodling. I was inspired by character design and shapes and how to make a shape more look like a little character. When working on my character design, I started working with iPad to sketch out my ideas and then worked with Astropad on my Macbook and my iPad to work in Adobe Illustrator. By playing around with techniques from what I already knew from my graphic design major and the Skillshare videos. I was able to play around with the key features I wanted to include in my pattern. I was able to repeat my patterns seamlessly to achieve my desired pattern.
I wanted to work with patterns that complimented the main hero pattern that I had created. The process of deciding what patterns to work with and making endless edits to create my product mockup was very beneficial to who I intended my audience to be for my product.
These photo grids above contain roughs based off of my ideas that I presented in my mood board. I had a lot of fun playing around with my iPad and coming up with various ideas on how I can I incorporate my moodboard into the beginning of my sketches.
Another variation of a pattern that I was working on during the duration of this project.
The basic shapes that I included in my hero pattern.
Located above are the two variations I created for my main pattern and they are being repeated seamlessly.
For my mockup for my products, I stumbled across RedBubble, which is a website that you can apply your own art and patterns in order to make a profit. I was looking for templates that featured white cases for iPhones and computers and stumbled across various products that one can actually buy with this pattern I created. Various products that I was interested in looking at included two different styles of iPhone cases, a simple laptop case that could work for various devices, a pouch, that could be in this instance used for pencils or charging cords/headphones, and a spiral notebook. I included the notebook into my mockup because I thought it would be a good reference for size.
For this mockup, I focused on the ‘on the go college students’ aesthetic and drew inspiration from my favorite coffee shop, Luna. In these selections, you will see my hero pattern, both the original and reversed, and then two complementary patterns that I created off of my theme I selected from my mood board.
The mockup I created with the various products I was focusing on for my intended audience.
After finishing this project, I really enjoyed making the end product and seeing how an illustration can be made into anything. I now have a greater understanding on how I can play around with illustrations with my art during the rest of my college career and into starting my career after I finish school.
Stay tuned for my next entry!
- Madeline