OUAN503 - Feathr, Bacteria & Fungi

This was the first pattern I made and I went into it with a good amount of visual research and references based around my theme of bacteria and fungi. I wanted to interpret the shapes, colours and randomness of these natural organisms and portray that in the work I was creating. I wasn't quite sure of my starting point, but I had a few ideas about different materials that could be used to pursue this particular avenue of design. I first attempted some paintings on wood but they didn't go as planned and so I went back so a much simpler method of pen and paper. Using some of the images I had found, I decided to draw circles similar to that of examples of fungi that I had seen. The idea to me about a collection of tightly packed objects in this way also reminded me of the way cells or bacteria look in Petri dishes or under a microscope.

I produced a relatively quick drawing of circles consisting of various line weights using pens with a 0.1, 0.3 and 0.7 diameter in millimetres. I tried to create a natural looking amount of randomness and variation within the arrangement of the circles using some of the references I was using. Once I decided I had enough to create a motif from and had a good amount of variation within the drawing to work with I scanned the drawing in. I opened the drawing in Photoshop and turned the levels up so the image was a lot darker. I did this because I intended to use the live trace function in Illustrator to create a smoothed version of my drawing - essentially cleaning it up in a time efficient way. I opened the vector image back up in Photoshop and offset the image. In Photoshop this is incredibly easy - the option to offset an image is in Filter > Options > Offset. Once the option is selected you can offset the image by any number of pixels. I wanted to offset it by half so I simply had to half the number of pixels the image was both horizontally and vertically and then enter them. In this case it was 780 pixdels because the square I was working in was 1560 x 1560 pixels. This dimensions I was working in was based of the size of the pattern you have to submit to the competition being 1560 pixels wide and one repeat down. I continued to fill up the image and offsetting it, modifying the arrangement as I saw fit and making sure that there were no visible separation lines within the image. Using the stamp tool made with process a lot easier and really straight forward, it was simply a case of taking the time to adjust the different sections and fill areas of the canvas otherwise empty. Once this stage was complete, the image is interpreted or 'defined' as a pattern. To define a pattern from the image using Photoshop I went to Edit and then 'Define Pattern' which took the image and stored it as a pattern. The pattern can then be tested in another document for any inconsistencies and mistakes that I may have made. Fortunately Photoshop makes this whole process very easy and by going to Fill > Custom Pattern, and then selecting the pattern previously saved. Due to this pattern being quite complicated I made sure to check it worked before adding colour. I chose a colour palette based on some of the images that I had been looking at and adjusted them at the end to try different combinations and also playing around with the colours by altering the hue, saturation and by overlaying colours and changing the layer settings. Eventually I came across some patterns that I really liked by using these methods, and below are the four that I've choosing between to submit, I'm currently choosing between the first and second but if I don't create any more that I like I can submit them both as due to the competition guidelines you can submit up to five entries.

I encountered a minor set back with the colours and due to my inexperience I forgot to realise that of course the colours need to line up as well as the lines in order to make the pattern repeat seamlessly without being able to distinguish where patterns begin and end. Because of this, I had to go back and alter colours using a method of trial and error until they all matched up. It wasn't a particularly difficult task but it was a nuisance and a mistake I will make sure not to make again - especially with a pattern with as smaller details as this one. After this was eventually completed by design was finished and the pattern was a success, I now had my first finished design to submit to the competition. So far, this is my favourite brief I've attempted, the design has felt quite instinctive and I like that I've produced. It was a big learning curve at first but I feel my next design or designs will be produced a little bit quicker as I'm now familiar with the process.