Hello! Welcome to the almost-last post in this series on Design How-to. This one’s on the concept of Unity.
Unity is the overall approach to the artwork. Stand back from your work; take a look at it as a whole. How well does it “hang together” (both visually, and as a concept/idea)? How well do the colours sit together? And the shapes? How well does it flow as a visual idea?
I love this pattern! It’s so crazy, but it works. Lots of different colours, lines, and shapes. Why does it work? The main thing tying this design together is the scale of each of the ‘island’ elements – but you really have to look for other unifying things. There are small particulars that are repeated through the design, such as the boxy details inside each of the islands, and the unifying dotted circles of the background. The repeat is not too large (far apart) either; but is given added interest with a reversal – check the light purple islands and you’ll see what I mean.
The concept behind this clock is what makes it both interesting and joyful. We can all relate to ornately carved wooden clocks; we’ve all seen them, they are a familiar item. This beautifully rough drawing is a cartoon of the real thing, which gives a nice sense of disconnection from its origins, and the idea is enhanced by using a clean face with modern, square hands. It is not symmetrical, but looks like it meshes the designs of two or more different, yet similar clocks. I love it that something that would have been so carefully carved and polished has been parodied in such a deliberately sketchy and inexact way.
And yet it is still beautiful, and I would most definitely hang it on my wall. I love the spaciousness of the clockface, after all the busy-ness of the decoration. The hole at the bottom is a quirky and humorous touch; it lightens the whole up too, and stops it seeming like a big slab.
These large scale cross stitch furnishings by Charlotte Lancelot work on several levels. Firstly, they are wonderfully reminiscent of the faded and threadbare furnishings from your grandmother’s couch. Inspiration from traditional floral tapestries and other furnishing fabrics has been enlarged and pixelated, before being hand-embroidered on a perforated grid in industrial felt. They are both charmingly nostalgic and warmly modern, and it’s such a great mix of technology-meets-handmade. They work so well because there’s that bolt of recognition, that familiarity with old and worn textiles that we’ve all come across somewhere in our lives, and yet that familiarity is mixed with something new, making it more than just a little bit intriguing.
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I’d love to get some more feedback on how useful this series has been for you! Please do let me know in the comments below.
As always, if you’ve got a project that you’re proud of, that you can demonstrate any of these Elements and Principles with, I would LOVE to hear about it. If you’ve got a pic of it up online somewhere, please add a link in your comment, so you can show it off!!
Cheers, Julie xx
i really really really like that cross stitch. xsx
So do I, Soph. So do I. 🙂