Skip to main content

Surface Design: Research and Implementation

 

  


"Surface Design encompasses the colouring, patterning, and structuring of fibre and fabric. This involves creative exploration of processes such as dyeing, painting, printing, stitching, embellishing, quilting, weaving, knitting, felting, and paper-making."  - Surface Design Association, Candace Edgerly 

It is a technique commonly used by artists to manipulate any form of surface. In this week project for OBDF 210C, we would be briefly looking into surface design and some artists that utilize this process in their works.


Painting

A recent example of a surface design I recently had an opportunity to witness was created by Simone Elizabeth Saunders. Her diasporic art series entitled "unity", was featured at Contemporary Calgary from Nov 2021 - Jan 2022. 

Unity is a series of uplifting portraits of black women illustrated in a manner similar to tarot cards evoking ideas of magic and empowerment. visually appropriating Alphonse Mucha's greater arcana, but remixed in tufted paintings. 

 


Notice their arrangement of values in this section of the tufted painting above. We have a simple repeating pattern of Arcs but coloured with blue values receding into black. This creates the illusion of depth in a 2d surface, allowing the image of lady justice to pop out in the foreground.


Simone employs a creative application of surface design to compose visually striking portraits, we can see this in her complex arrangement of tufted fabric cleverly sculpting the subject's bodies, clothing, and intricate halos accompanying them. 

Chiyogami

The graphic, repetitive designs used on paper throughout the Edo era are referred to as chiyogami.
These patterns were initially woodblock printed for use in manufacturing paper dolls and minor accessories. Silkscreens were first used to apply these designs in the 20th century, and they are being used today.



Both titles are now used interchangeably as Yuzen textile patterns join the classic Chiyogami ones on paper. Simply because "Chiyogami" was first used to refer to paper, we have picked it (-gami means paper). (Washi Arts 2015)

Pattern Design Consumer Goods.

The next few examples are from Kangan Arora a Graphic Designer based in London known for her work in IKEA, TATE, Urban Outfitters. 

Her designs were used for textile prints, clothing, and ceramics. 

Svallerup and Majalotta IKEA spring/summer 2019





In this project, I would be developing a textile pattern I hope to eventually print into a sheet of fabric.

As seen below I've decided to recreate patterns slightly inspired by Kangans Aroras designs, and camouflage stripes mainly utilized by cuttlefish. But really I just wanted to design a decorative pattern that optically appears animated due to contrast. 




The striped pattern also appears to emphasize the bio-morphic shapes of the cuttlefish (above).



For my final design, I decided to play around with the initial patterns on the top right and mirrored it a couple of times to develop some variation. 































works cited:

Edgerley, Candace. What is Surface Design, Its All Around you. Interview by The Art League. April 

    2015, https://www.theartleague.org/blog/2015/04/02/what-is-surface-design

    -its-all-around-you/.             Accessed Sep 28, 2022.

Washi Arts. Yuzen and Chiyogami: Whats the difference? March, 2015. https://www.washiarts.

    com/blog/2015/5/19/5fnd1zwagufhl96w1d2oilmrhqakfl



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REPLICATED/REMEDIATED: MOLD POSITIVES & MATCH PLATE

                   Last Supper 2023                  Medium: Optimistic Students, Instructor, Acrylic, Plaster, Tape                  Site-Specific Performance     We reached the end to this project and were building plaster mould's and finally some traumatic experiences with slip casting and lots of waiting. Good soup <3 We agitate plaster in water to facilitate an exothermic reaction that would lead into it solidifying. Its a great experience like making chowder or adding starch into boiling water except the water is freezing. Finishing this plaster mould.  Before slip casting ensure that the mould plates are fully dry, once that is complete start pouring up to the rim and wait for the clay to precipitate.  On the first try the clay did form around the plaster, mine but did not really dry but the first once is always di...
Post a Comment
Read more

PO1 : Final Installation

  Black River Media Installation Audio & Video Sculpture Black River is a media installation exploring displacement and the longing for a deep connection towards a kind of homeland. At its center is an Inflatable Crocodile—a puppet trapped in an unending karaoke performance, forever singing a song about its life. Though it has no voice, its presence suggests an eternal loop of longing, echoing unheard stories of loss. The work humanizes this fictional creature, evoking empathy and prompting reflection on our own connections to land. It investigates shifting ecological baselines—the way in which each living generation perceives nature’s decline as their “normal.” As ecosystems collapse, what we consider natural keeps shifting, obscuring what we’ve lost. Within this narrative , the crocodile longs for its polluted homeland and to be with other mutated crocodiles. Dwelling in a post-climate apocalypse where remnants of human industries remain and pollution becoming our final lega...
Post a Comment
Read more

Milestone Projects

 First Definition                         Creating solid shapes from curves using loft Animation Attempting to animate 3d models within a specific track/path/curve Stacked Slices Creating a Sliced model of a penguin and experimenting with reductions in overall form Boundary Surfaces Patch Replicate/ Remediate Preparing a Model for 3d Printing and using it as a Master for Slip Casting and of course making the clay object through repetition.   Surface Morph Patch
Post a Comment
Read more