Responsive // Feathr: Winner announcements

My flamingo design for Feathr was announced as one of the 100 to be featured and sold on their website! This means that for every sale I will get a 5% commission. 

I was then asked to send personal information and a high quality file to them with a bleed, which I did (and found quite a difficult process with having a seamless pattern).

This was followed up with requests for colour variations - something I took on board straight away. They sent moodboards featuring on trend colours palettes - I looked at them, but I decided to take my own route - the colours were completely up to the artists.

The staple design is the red flamingo, so I decided to make a version with an off-white background to give customers more flexibility. I understand that a grey background will not go with everything, unlike white. I didn't choose pure white as that would be a little too bright, making the flamingoes too harsh against it. It may be 'art' but it still has to be on somebody's wall permanently!

I then chose to completely change the colour of the birds - choosing pink and blue, giving the design versatility. The blue gives it a completely new feel and style, which will let the flamingoes attract more than one type of customer. I wanted to give a range of colours because red will not necessarily go with everybody's home interior. Hopefully this makes the design more appealing and I get some sales.

Responsive // Feathr: final wallpaper designs

This is the total ratings each of my designs received by the end of the voting period.

My flamingo design was ranked 4th out of nearly 800 designs by the end of the competition, which I'm very happy with.

During the end of the competition I watched it bounce back and forth between the first few pages so I posted it on a few social media sites and sent to some friends for further support. However, most of the votes I received were not through me asking people to, which is why I am surprised I got this far.

I am still awaiting the results, which are not entirely based on ranking of votes, so it is unclear who the winner may be.

Responsive // Feathr: wallpaper development

I came up with this illustration of joined facial profiles just by sketching whatever came into my head. I wanted to create something personal and I think this is an interesting and original idea that I haven't seen done before.

It is quite easy to turn into a repeating pattern, which I did by rearranging many times to make sure the lines could appear continuous.

I have tried out many colours, trying to create a design that isn't too overwhelming. The colours above are nice and quite appropriate for wallpaper, but I'm not happy with them entirely because they seem too normal.

I have been quite tentative about using a lot of black but I used an off-black background and a few different colours for the lines and I think the design is much more unusual and eye-catching.

Responsive // Feathr: Flamingo development

There are many wallpaper designs that feature birds as seen in my research, so I want to expand on this.

Flamingoes are very vivid and majestic animals, that are quite different to other birds. This makes them a different feature to other generic wallpapers.

Using acrylic paint, I have painted one using an orangey red palette. This colour is very vibrant and adds something new to the wallpaper scene!

I scanned it and made some changes to it in photoshop to make it neater. Feathr's submission page lets you view how it will look on the wall which is hugely helpful.

At first I have gone with the simple option of putting the flamingo on a white background without using a seamless pattern (they are not overlapping). I experimented with different sizes to try and judge how they will be viewed from certain distances. I found the first size more appropriate and more suiting for any wall size.

I tried lots more variations.. but I found that the simpler the better - let the flamingoes speak for themselves! Multicoloured is just too much for wallpaper.

I then moved on to overlapping the flamingoes to create more of an ongoing pattern - this was pretty hard as it meant I had to learn how to do seamless patterns in photoshop. It is straightforward but a long process to get it perfect.

In the end I chose a grey background and the flamingoes overlapping in a seamless pattern. This is simple but quite vivid. They look like they are doing the conga in diagonal lines so I've named it 'Flamingo Conga'!

Responsive // Feathr: wallpaper development

I have started off by doodling on a piece of paper to ignite ideas. I have drawn whatever comes into my head, while trying to think in terms of continuous designs. It has taken me awhile to come up with something that I like.
Themes I have touched on:

• geometric continuous shapes
• skyline
• faces and profiles
• leaves and plants
• cat eyes
• birds
• spirals

From these sketches, I've taken the plants and faces and drawn them with more detail in illustrator, still trying to come up with ideas.

I like the flowers and leaves, but I'm not really inspired by them to create a pattern. I want to create something that isn't usually seen in wallpaper.

The faces I have drawn are very simplistic and eery, I feel they have a unique and artistic touch to them. I've tried two different layouts, when facing each other it signifies two people communicating in some way; I like the context this could bring. When laying them other each other as seen on the right, it creates an interesting shape. However as a wallpaper this may seem unclear from a certain distance.

I made the background black to make an unusual wallpaper, with blue scribbles for an artistic aesthetic. I don't like how the colours look together, so this hasn't been successful. Black is quite dark for a wallpaper, realistically it is not sought after and would make a room very dull.

I tried using lighter colours that would be easy on the eyes in a home setting. These work a lot better but they seem quite boring to me; they don't stand out enough.

This is another experiment I did with colour, which is too bright and clashy.

I have decided to pick some colours that are a mixture of bright and neutral, so I've made a stripe pattern of 4 colours. However they are quite clashy being as bold as they are, so I've lowered the transparency levels to make them blend a little better together as a pattern:

Responsive // Feathr: Pattern design research

Research

Firstly I have browsed illustrations and patterns that I think would be effective as wallpaper.

Chwala by Sofia Noceti

I am inspired by the colours used in these illustrations, and I've always wanted to explore my ability to illustrate aspects of nature eg leaves and flowers. Wallpaper is often linked to natural things, and plants are calming and popular in peoples' homes.

Colección de Libros - Editorial Pringles Press

Aves de papel para armar

Birds are often used as a decorative feature, which is what drew me to these prints which use a more modern take on a bird pattern. I really like it, however I think I want to take a more original take on wallpaper.

Colours Papers by Cocolia

This illustration has inspired me to be loose with my ideas and create some artistic patterns. However I do not like the colours, they clash too much.

Guts Zine Buffet by Tatiana Boyko

I really like the colours used for this pattern, and the illustrations are pretty and fit in well to eachother.

The Jungle Book cover by Tatiana Boyko

Book cover design by Wenjia Tang

I like the overlapping of images in both these designs, which creates a forest like appearance. Something about them is calming and not overwhelming.