Phew!

Well, that is the Creative Interaction module finished...just have to wait for my grade now! Fingers crossed. I'm feeling totally exhausted, I think the adrenaline rush, caused by finishing everything off and presenting my work today, has faded and I think that it will be an early night tonight. 

I almost had a total disaster though, I hadn't noticed that we also had to submit a 500 word reflective report about what we felt that we had learnt from teamworking - so I had to write one in an hour - no pressure at all!!! Anyway, it's all done, and hopefully I was sufficiently reflective.

So now I have a little break before starting the Realisation module, although I will start making notes and preparing. I'm going to be having an operation next month and may get behind whilst I'm recuperating, so it will help to be a little bit ahead to start with. I think I will begin by looking at a logo design for Whimsy & Quirk.

Anyway, my bed is calling to me so I will say 'Goodnight, sleep tight'

Almost finished!

Well, that has been a 'full on busy' 2 weeks! I present my project and submit my work on Tuesday afternoon. Fortunately I am more or less finished. My report is written, its bibliography and appendices have been added, it has a front cover and has been ‘pdfed’ ready to be printed and bound first thing on Monday morning. I have put my portfolio of evidence together. My sketchbook contains 165 pages and is ready to be copied on to a cd on Monday, along with a copy of my report and presentation. The only thing left for me to do now is prepare my PowerPoint presentation. I have decided to create a template background in Photoshop so everything looks unified.

I have been doing some fabric stencilling this week and added some appliqué to it – the results have definite potential for development.

In addition to this I have also been working on some mobile phone wallpapers too – this is all experimentation at the stage. I use the same design over and over again but with the mobile phone wallpapers I have been experimenting with textures. These images are 960 x 720 pixels. This is larger than most phone screens but, my phone crops images for wallpaper so if I make the image 320 x 240 pixels I lose a lot of definition. Anyway, just experimenting as I say – what do you think?

I am feeling exhausted at the moment and am relieved this module is almost over – I need to spend a weekend with my husband instead of my laptop!

Drat!

Ho hum! I’m feeling a little bemused at the moment and so have decided to start writing my report in the hope that by preparing and sorting everything in my mind and on the screen I may understand what is needed to complete this module to my satisfaction.

I had decided that I was not going to continue with research of acoustics because of the size and depth of the subject – but Michael feels that I need to continue with it and carry it on through the Realisation module. My confusion arises, partially, because I already had a commission to design a ‘vintage’ style wallpaper for a friend’s tea shop, in Australia, as the main part of my realisation.

Now I am panicking a little, because the subject of acoustics is so immense, but hopefully my plan of sorting and compartmentalising everything as I prepare my report will help me to re-focus and regain calm.

In fact, writing this down has already made me feel more calm and in control. I think my next research issue is acoustic fabrics and foams and also acoustic wadding – what are their functions? Do they all do the same thing? Can they be bought by the metre like textiles? Right, time to get on with something constructive!

The next step

Having cast the knitting off, yesterday, I decided to take some photos of it today – oh dear! The knitting was curling up so badly that I couldn’t get any pictures of the design, so I ironed it. Now it looks like a deformed rag. I’m very relieved that I didn’t waste any more time on this.

I am excited about designing my mobile phone wallpaper. I think that I will design this initial wallpaper for my phone model, then when I have made it and uploaded it I can also get photos of it on the phone. My phone is a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini, so I went on to the Sony Ericsson website http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones?cc=gb&lc=en  consulted on 9/1/11 to check the pixel size of the screen – it’s 240 x 320 pixels. Once I have developed a first design I can then re-make it for different screen sizes, so that it will be suitable for other phone models.

The next stage is experimenting with textiles to see which ones photograph best – I need to be able to capture their texture. My camera isn’t spectacular though – which is a worry because the photos will have to be good. Anyway, onwards!

Another change of direction!?

Since last writing here I have expanded my acoustics research to include Restaurant and bar design and the acoustics requirements for those environments, the books that I am using to research this aspect of the subject are Successful Restaurant Design by Regina S Baraban and Joseph F Durocher, Restaurants, Clubs and Bars: Planning, Design and Investment for Food Service Facilities by Fred Lawson and Hospitality Design for the Graying Generation: Meeting the needs of a growing market by Alfred H Baucom. I included this last book into my research because I feel that any hearing issue that we may suffer in a restaurant would be increased for a diner with a hearing problem too.

At the same time I have been continuing with my research into the history of applying decorative surfaces to interior walls and alternative methods of applying my designs to surfaces. I have also been working on converting my design into a knitting pattern (and knitting it at the same time), cross-stitching the same design onto ‘aida’ and I have also experimented with 3d appliqué!

I went in to university on Tuesday 4^th January and had a tutorial with Michael. During the tutorial Michael gave me several ideas to consider. At the end of this consideration I have made some decisions.

·         The knitting pattern and knitting can be stopped – my design is not translating into knitting successfully, so I am wasting precious time.

·         My plan to design a sound absorber is good. I wish to continue with it – but as I research the subject I realise that there is a lot more research to be done, far more research, testing and development than I could possibly achieve during this module. So, this is a subject that I will study and develop into a side line within my business. It has potential and merit.

·         I have failed to consider the most obvious ‘Applications’ of all – computer and mobile phone applications. Why do I need to stick to wallpaper design for walls? Couldn’t I also design wallpapers for mobile phones and computer screens? This is something that I am very excited about – but I am running out of time with only 16 days left before final presentation of work! So I need to get on with some thinking and designing.

So, thinking about mobile phone wallpapers, mainly because mobile phones are so popular and personal, I have been trawling through Google images looking at wallpaper designs that catch my eye…

  

  http://www.screentreats.com  consulted on 8/1/11

   
http://vi.sualize.us/view/bdeepu/2afb35f63fdfe2bf244cfb737ff7f899  consulted on 8/1/11

http://www.neudesignmedia.com/wallpaper.html  consulted on 7/1/11

I find all these images exciting due to their tactile quality – I want to touch each one to know what it feels like and maybe how it was made. Are the Christmas trees and owl make with pieces of fabric (yes, I would think so) or are they cleverly made Photoshop images? Certainly the two lower images are, to some extent, the sort of images that I would like to produce – an interesting or attractive image with a tactile and/or 3d quality, but preferably with a hand-made element added to the mix. Almost as an antithesis to the fact that it would be associated with such cutting edge technology as the latest mobile phone!

Panic Stations!

Well it is a long time since I wrote anything here! The presentation did not go well - mitigating circumstances affected the content and my performance (this included delays in transport) - and I was very disappointed with myself.

I have continued researching but have expanded my research to include acoustics - this will be vital if I wish to seriously consider designing something that will look good and also reduce the amount of noise bouncing around hard walls and floors in restaurants. The books that I am using for research are mainly about the science involved in ‘room acoustics’ so I do not understand the equations, but I am following the basics of the text. The two most promising books that I found in the University library were Room Acoustics, by Heinrich Kuttruff, and Acoustics and Noise Control, by B J Smith, R J Peters and Stephanie Owen.

At the same time I am continuing with my research into the history of applying decorative surfaces to interior walls and alternative methods of applying my designs to surfaces. I am also still working on converting my design into a knitting pattern (and knitting it at the same time), cross-stitching the same design onto ‘aida’ and I have also experimented with 3d applique! I really need to get as much research done as possible, soon, so I can think about how I would design my unobtrusive wall application that is able to absorb sound and write a report of how it all works together.

Submission for this module is 25th January so I am running out of time!

Snowy Week!

Sunday 5^th December 2010

Well there hasn’t been a lot of change since I last wrote here, the tutorial session for last Monday was cancelled due to snow, and in fact most of the week was written off due to snow!

I have continued with my research, alternating between the ‘history of applying ornamentation to surfaces’ and ‘alternative methods of applying patterns to surfaces’. At the same time I continue to put spots on to the design and I have also started writing a draft knitting pattern, and knitting it at the same time! This cold spell that we have recently had inspires me to focus on knitting my designs into wall hangings – once I have perfected the pattern I can move on to using chunky wool and massive needles. I feel that it would be possible to design a wallpaper as a background and then knit large hangings that work with the wallpaper design. Obviously, this would be a feature wall design.

 

During the snowy weather I went out to take some photos of how Bedale looked with the application of some snow and ice… some of my photos are really great and would be lovely on Christmas cards… but my main 'inspirations' were to continue with the knitting and also that, snow on the branches and blown against one side of a tree trunk look like a negative photo or reverse shading – I wonder if I could do something with that?

We plan to have a team meeting this week, it is only a week until our initial presentations and we need to discuss how we intend to make our presentations.