Sian’t talk about how we put together a collection was very useful . I actually wish we had it as part of our first year modules, I feel it could have benefited me and improved my practice. In fact it was the first time I came across the terminology of ‘Hero Design’ for the main design, Secondary design and ‘Blender Design’ for the coordinates.
- Hero Design – is the main design that incorporates all or most of the elements and motifs of our collection
- Secondary Pattern – is a less elaborated pattern than the hero. Normally it is composed by some elements of the hero design rearranged in a new layout
- Blender Design – is the simplest design of the collection. It is normally composed by one or two simple motifs, (or part of them) of the secondary or main design
To create a successful collection there are some important consideration to be made such as:
- balance
- negative space
- direction
- scale
- layout
- variety of motifs
While most characteristics can be nowadays applied to each area in the same way, there are some things to consider when specifically designing for a certain subject area, such as stationery, fashion or interior. An important example concerns the direction of the motifs on the surface we design on. A rigid-like unidirectional pattern would be mostly considered for wallpaper or stationery while it would be more difficult to deal with in the fashion industry where everybody involved in manipulating the fabric would always have to pay extra attention to the exact direction of the pattern when creating the garment.
An important aspect to consider when designing is having a wide range of motifs to chose from. This will help chose the most appropriate ones to create the ‘more visible’ part of our collection. There are times when only these motifs are enough to create a successful design with just a flat background chosen from the colour palette. More often it is important to add that extra texture or motifs that can give the background more interest and the whole design dept. This can be created with motifs or mark making, or a combination of both. Mark making it is also key in developing a personal and distinguishable style. As it can be a certain way of designing the motifs or a certain choice of colour palette.
The first and fundamental step in developing a successful collection remains the Research. Given one or more of the elements, it is what defines the rest of the Theme, Client, Colour Palette, Market and Competitors. All of which can then be easily assembled into one or multiple Moodboards that will help us stick to our chosen path every step of the way in developing our collection.
We received a task to research into various collections and so I did, finding many inspiring designs and useful information:
Anda Avramescu 