OUGD503: Feathr- Evaluation

I chose the feathr brief because it was simple, it required very little in the way of context or concept and it was something I could have a bit of fun with it. I managed to get the brief done fairly quickly and spent only a couple of days sketching and digitising the idea. Although they asked for an artistic wallpaper I still drifted towards a more design based response, this may have been why I didn't get too many votes, despite this I still think it's a very cute design and I would personally have it up on a wall somewhere. If I could repeat this brief I think I would've liked to do more than one design and perhaps push the boat out a bit, create something more abstract as opposed to literal. That being saidmodernising a traditional decorative style I still feel was a strong concept to base it around, it may have been good to produce a set of modern coat of arms so the range could appeal to a wider range of audiences.

OUGD503: Feathr- Final Designs

OUGD503: Feathr Brief- Digital Development and Submission

As far as developing this design went- it was a pretty straight forward process. I had a very clear image of how I wanted the final design to look and so all I had to do digitally was outline my sketches and align everything neatly. 

I had wanted to add some dog based items for decoration but decided against this as I feel the strength of this design comes from it's simplicity and bold lines and adding too much detail would ruin this.

For the motto I wanted to use a friendly hand drawn looking font, but something that remained a san serif and not script like. Just like with the line work the font needed to be bold, simple and friendly as an overly detailed font choice would've ruined the design; it needed to match the illustration as much as possible. Looking on Behance I found the profile of one James Lafuente, and his creation Parker. 

Although the font Parker can only be used in all caps, and I had initially wanted something in all lower case, I really felt like Parker was suitable for the design. The soft edges and bold lines accompanied the drawings well and didn't over power the image despite it's all caps design.

I submitted my design and chose the style of repeated tile it would use and overall, I like it, I really do. The one problem I found whilst browsing the vote section of the Feathr competition was that a lot of people had opted for complex patterns and very detailed designs which look great as single tiles but, in my opinion, produce quite blurry eyed epileptic feel when repeated across an entire wall. If I were to walk past these designs too quickly it would make my eyes feel very funny. 

So for my design I felt it was important to me to produce a large simple tile that when repeated produced a nice looking pattern but also one that wasn't 'too much' for the wall. It has to be interesting yes, artistic, certainly, but also not over the top, and that I feel I've achieved with my Pug Coat of Arms. It would work on a feature wall or covering an entire room. The neutral black and white colours means it could work in many different ways with many different types of rooms.

I like it, I just sincerely hope others do too.

I also did what I hate doing the most, forceful self promotion, I really want to win this thing so I need to push people. Hopefully it will work out, I may not win, but as long as someone loves my design then I'm pretty successful. 

Click here to vote for A lot in a Little Package

OUGD503: Feathr Brief

Project Rational

More Fucking. Less Fighting

More Reading. Less Watching

More Good Shit. Less Shit Shit

More Art. Less Decoration

Feathr released a competition to design wallpaper that is artistic rather than decorative. The brief is a fairly open one with no requirements other than making a design for the wall that will become a repeat pattern. They call out for any style and any kind of designer.

I knew I really wanted to do this brief, however I spent about two weeks drumming my fingers and uselessly staring at a blank piece of paper- I had no ideas.

I wanted to produce a modernised version of the family coat of arms. I felt this was appropriate as throughout history coats of arms have decorated the walls of high born homes so why shouldn't the people of today cover their walls in it as well. The theme I based the designs on was pugs- they’re incredibly popular creatures in all forms of design, as well as being a dumpy adorable little legged creature, in great contrast to the graceful and sleek stags and lions that usually adorn family crests. 

To begin with I needed to get down how to draw a pug, and many reference pictures and a few more 'awww' later I got the gist of how the side of a pug's face looks (as well as how a pug would look as a loaf of bread, [top left] which I think is the achievement of the century)

I then went on to sketching the basic shape of the coat of arms (COA) and what would be included within it.

If you can't read my writing it says: Motto, Side on pug face, front facing pug face, side on pugs, pattern, detail and name.

I then switched back to perfecting my side on pug drawings, and gauging the kind of style these images would need; detailed and realistic or simple and cartoony.

After drawing my first pug (on the left) I was pretty damn pleased with myself, I asked for some feedback from the girls I share my table with- 'it's really creepy' 'yeah, something about its eyes' wasn't there response I was looking for. And so I produced the second third and fourth drawing making it simpler as I went, only then did I get a smile as a response instead of internal flinching.

It was agreed that with making this thing cute simpler was better and so I went on to develop the simple stubby armed pug with different expressions and some forward facing faces.

The next lot of feedback I received suggested that I maybe make the stubby armed pug a little more detailed and play around with the crouching pug as it was very cute. And so I did, I lengthened the arms but kept the simplified face, drew a pug sitting down and begging (as opposed to standing like the classical COA design)

After agreeing that the crouching digs looked best I mocked up the simplest shape of them with the shield used in all COA designs. It was also put forwards to me that the front facing pugs looked like teddy bears- I ignored this and carried on anyway as they were wrong and the designs most definitely looked like dog faces. I also drew out a banner and found a suitable motto for the design from a pug lovers website stating that this was the official, unofficial motto for the breed. 

Multum in Pravo: a lot in a little package. 

I also drew out some extras for the embellishments; dog collar and lead, dog bed, tennis ball etc, to surround the COA with for final details. I then scanned all my final sketches in preparation for digital development.