I have never really tried to do a surface design with actual effort. Everyone has made a shape and made it repeat on the side of their notebook paper, but creating a concept and elements for a pattern was something I had never done before. My vision for this project was to create something that had a soothing, relaxing vibe to it. I took inspiration from the K-pop/rap artist RM. His recent album was a source of inspiration as well as his outlook on life. I wanted to reflect that in this surface design.
I have only ever done a few mood boards so I just took images that I felt fit my vision for these designs. I relied on my mood board to figure out what colors I wanted and the overall vibe of my project.
I started by sketching out all of the elements in my sketchbook then taking photos with my phone and transferring them to Adobe Illustrator. In Illustrator I used the pencil tool to trace my sketches to get vector images. Arranging took a bit of time because I wanted to make sure I got enough over the spread. Making sure the edges of my work were connected was a challenge because I sometimes had to rearrange things because elements would overlap one another. Once I got the idea behind the edge arrangement it became less of a struggle to create a smooth pattern.
Doing the mockups was difficult but intriguing because I have only done mockups with books which can be easier to manipulate than what I did for mockups in this project. I did mockups with fabric which was difficult to make sure the pattern laid on there naturally instead of looking like a flat plane.
Here is my Ad Copy for this surface design:
Inspired by RM’s album INDIGO.
“Gonna shine across that sky
Light a flower, flowerwork
Flower, flowerwork” – Wildflower (RM ft. youjeen)
This is a subtle fanmade pattern for K-pop/rap fans. Three distinct patterns include a silhouette of RM, bicycles, bonsai trees, wildflowers, and fireworks. A great way to show interest in K-pop without being overly obvious about it!
It was a lot of fun to play with patterns though, it would be interesting to see how I could improve my surface design skills after this.
