pattern book
2023spring
collaboration with astek, participated in ICFF,
textile, pattern, interior
inspiration & color palette
My mood boards consist of vibrant and rich colors. The words I chose are vivid, childish, and geometric to show my taste in style. Vivid describes the colors, and I am more drawn to bright, saturated pops of colors. Childish describes how I like to have looser, effortless, and innocent forms as some illustrations and doodles are shown on the boards. Geometrics describes how I feel like simple, flat graphics that use lines and shapes can very easily and clearly convey emotions and stories. The images I chose show my personal interest in the design side, which includes furniture, interesting illustrations, and Memphis. I also incorporated photographs I took around the world as I love to travel and some that represent my culture and where I grew up.
I started with looking into natural dyes and naturally derived materials. To my surprise, many of them can produce bright, vibrant colors, which fit into my mood board and the overall style I want to go towards. Then, I took elements from mood boards in chapter 1 and created ten shapes that are more abstract when not compared to the images they were originally from. And by playing around with matching the colors, they all gave off different feelings.
abc patterns
I want to go ahead and follow through with the ‘childish’ keyword I had in Inspiration & Color Palette. Thus, with this chapter, I used more simple patterns and colors that are playful and fun. For example, when I was young, I loved to doodle, and chevron and bullseye are patterns that show up a lot. Accordingly, I hand drew them to give them a more doodle-like feel and applied cheerful colors to make them more ’childish’. I can see these patterns being used in children’s rooms or even on statement fashion pieces. Then, I chose Argyle, plaid, and Houndstooth because they remind me of school uniforms and school bus seats. Instead of using the most common red/black/white and dark blue color scheme, I used bright colors to have a more energetic feel. They can be used as fashion textiles or on public transportation as seat covers.
conceptual patterns
I wanted to carry on the ‘childish’ patterns but the application would be more focused at home, in their rooms, or in common areas where children often are. For each topic, I decided to have one that is more vibrant, and the other that is more toned down so that it can be used on a larger scale. I chose gentle retro and digital candy for shape language. I want gentle retro to have a 70s hipster style but simpler and more modern for homes. And with digital candy, I took inspiration from Halloween and jelly beans. Hence, creating the wiggly stripes. With narratives, I chose psychedelic glam and cozy minimalist as the two extremes. I used the faux bois pattern for psychedelic glam because when faux bois are not in their earthy tones, but in super bright, close to neon colors, it can give off psychedelic feelings. On the other hand, cozy minimalist is very calm and soothing and can be used as wallpaper in a room. Lastly, I picked joyful playgrounds and the ocean as places. Honeycomb reminds me of the floor patterns children’s playgrounds will have, so I used less saturated pastels for it to be able to fit into a room environment. With ocean, I want to recreate the waves and the bubbles back when I was little and went to the beach. I used foulard as the pattern for the reason that when on a smaller scale, it looks like water droplets. However, I scaled them up because everything seems larger than children’s eyes.
artist x city
Trina Turk grabbed my attention during research. Her color palette is so colorful and fun that I’m instantly attracted. Since her clothes are very suitable for vacations, it made me want to pick Marrakesh as it is a place I always wanted to go. And quatrefoil pattern fits perfectly with the location thus I combined Trina Turk x Marrakesh using quatrefoil.
Hilma af Klint made a series of artworks that represent the human life cycle which has “letters and numerals, botanical and biomorphic forms, fantasy figures, symbols, recurring motifs, and meditative movement.” Her pieces remind me of the neon lights in Tokyo and how the pace of life has been getting faster. And that the grids of the city can be a great contrast to the curves and contours af Klint has in her paintings. Hence, I decided to combine the artist and the city with an ogee.
With India Mahdavi, some of her pieces remind me of my grandparent’s house in Shanghai, so naturally, I paired Mahdavi with Shanghai using lattice as it looks like the pattern on my grandparents’ chairs.
maze
Taking inspiration from the mood boards, I decided to go with a geometric analog style with the maze. I looked at some bird’s eye view of construction sites and floor plans as the blueprint for the maze. And went around the school to get rubbings of different materials and surfaces with charcoal to get different textures - wood, steel, floors, cutting mats, walls... Then I collaged these texture swatches in Adobe Photoshop to create a maze with a spray paint texture over it.
cutout & overlap
@ ICFF
