Popup Collection

Toys

For my popup collection project I decided to focus on toys and the idea of development and play. I choose simple children’s toys ones that would teach children about shape, size, and the idea of stacking, letters, numbers and colour. The simple geometric shapes of these toys help children learn not just about shape but size and texture as well as height and building.

I focused on these things as I wanted to create a playful attitude within my work / collection as my popup collection would inform me for my technical blocks (Knit, stitch, print/ cad and weave)

5 words to describe my collection best

Playful

Colour

Shape

Childlike

Bright

 Day 1:

From this I was instructed to draw my objects in a number of different ways to get me going with my project. This also got me looking at my objects in a slightly different way. I looked at the ideas of dot to dot, blind contour, looking at colour, line, form, opposing positive and negative space and I also considered the opposite e.g. a smooth surface ruff / angular.

I found trying to consider my objects in such a way was challenging at first with my objects at times being basic I felt they weren’t translating well on to the page in some of these methods. Weakness fell in the idea of looking at contours and line as I felt they just looked lifeless on the page and didn’t represent the playfulness of the toy. However when looking at blind contour, dot to dot and colour they began to embody a childlike nature as if a child had done them and this concept really appealed to me.

Day 2: wrapping and winding

I began to see my objects within association to colour and colour proportion and how this could be translated. So I consider my objects carefully and created some wrappings.

Day 3:

After observing the colour within my collection I moved onto the idea of texture and how it could be translated onto a page. I found this difficult as most of my objects are made from plastic and have a very simple form. L looked at using acrylic so create a plastic feel and used blocks of this from my colour wrappings. But to create the texture and feel of the object I decided to use the object itself and recreate it on a page. I felt this more beneficial as it showed the childlike nature of the object itself.

Day 4:

Today was all about looking at our objects and creating patterns ready for CAD. I looked at them in a number of different sizes 10x10, 5x5 and 2.5x2.5. All of which had to be in positive and negative ready to scan in. I looked at using the objects themselves to create patterns as well as taking aspects of the objects and creating them myself. I also considered texture and scale to create interest and a new direction to my objects. I feel my collection lends itself well to the idea of pattern print and I will look forward to using these swatches in my print / cad technical and seeing how they progress in the near future.

All of these consider drawing will now help me with my technical blocks, which first entails knit, I am interested to see how my project evolves, and will keep you updated.