OUGD503 Responsive: Design Process 2: Tigerprint Competition

I have always been interested in contacting Tigerprint, purely because I would love to get involved in designing food packaging for Marks and Spencer. Therefore I carried out some primary and secondary research and then started on my development. 

Having looked at ties from Marks and Spencer and taking some of the patterns found on them, I decided to experiment with bow ties and how I could create a pattern with them on their own or with a tie as well. Below are some rough experiments. I felt as though this idea wasn't progressing very well though and thought the finish of it was a bit too bold and simple.

I then designed some ties, each with a different pattern on them. I wanted them to all look striking and work well as a pattern all together. I experimented using a brush which gave a little bit more of a rustic effect rather than them being crisply outlined, but I didn't like the outcome of this. 

I then had a go at developing a pattern using the ties but turning every other one upside down to make it a little bit more interesting to look at. 

By doing this, I was able to come up with a pattern like the one shown below. Once I had created this pattern however, I realised that the darkest tie didn't fit in with all of the others as the polka dots were obviously too close together and as a result it made it stand out. 

I therefore decided to just use three different tie designs and multiply them. I prefer them all in the right direction as opposed to rotating each row when necessary. 

I altered the size of the pattern as I developed it, as I wasn't sure whether to submit a pattern which was quite small and would encourage the recipient to work out what it was, or whether it should be obvious straight away. I came to the conclusion that I wanted it to be as obvious as possible so that the ties were recognisable. 

Now that I am happy with the outcome of my work I am ready to submit it online. I added a brief description with my submission and decided to only submit one, as I am still concentrating on other briefs as well. 

Evaluation

Overall, I am really pleased with the outcome of my submission. I submitted the work and then found out within the following week who the winner was. Although I didn't win, and I wasn't a runner up, I am still glad I participated as I was able to try out something new and revisit pattern design which is something I really enjoyed in first year. 

One thing I did notice is the way that Tigerprint announced the winner and I didn't like the way they wrote about how they have experienced designers on their team and so it was a tough competition to enter. I didn't think this was very modest of them and actually found the written response quite unprofessional. It is all a learning curve though and is interesting to see how different competition briefs respond to each individual designer.