Advent Challenge 2014 Showcase

I've been so blown away with everyone's responses to Advent Challenge 2014, I just had to do a post showcasing some of the amazing talent taking part...

For the last few years I've run an Advent Challenge, starting with Advent Doodle in 2012. This year I wanted to go bigger and better suggesting anyone could enter from artists, musicians, poets, dancers and film makers... To be fair, it's mostly been artists - but the level of artistry and creativity is pretty astounding. 

Here's a selection of some awesome people taking part and their work... Sit back, put on the Christmas music and enjoy this feast for your eyes!

I love Mary's (aka Groovity) bright folky style - check out more of her work here. I also need to thank Mary for asking me to do another challenge this year!

Rebecca Stoner's illustrations are just lovely, love the colour palette too!

I love seeing what Meg (May I Design) comes up with each day - her embroidery is amazing!

Melissa Iwai is an illustrator and children's book author. I'm so in love with her magical illustrations - I'd hang most of them on my wall!

The best thing about running something like this is meeting new designers and illustrators mostly on Instagram using the hashtag #adventchallenge2014 

Katherine Lenius is one of those people! Her style is so fun and fresh

I also saw Kayleen West was taking part via Instagram, she's a children's book author and illustrator from Australia. I'm loving her cute illustrations, especially the penguin!

Lindsay Buck (aka Slumbermonkey) is an Advent Challenge veteran, having taken part since the start! She's used the prompts to create a series of awesome patterns and illustrations. Lindsay also set up a pinterest board collating some of the designs from people taking part. 

It's great to see the challenge go global, Jessica Phillips is an illustrator from Canada. I love her characters and the colour palette gives her illustrations a really fresh festive feel. 

Christine Gardner has used the prompts to create a collection of patterns and illustrations that all look amazing together - I can imagine a whole range of greeting cards, wrapping paper and tags!

Bley Hack has also used the prompts to create a series of fabulous patterns. It's hard to choose but I think my favourite is the Nutcracker top right.

Other artists have picked a couple of prompts to illustrate. Suzanne Washington (Suzy Spellbound) illustrated this beautifully intricate tree decoration for Day 3. 

Anne Bomio from Switzerland created this striking pattern, I really love the cute illustrations and colours. 

Julie Hamilton (Artistically Afflicted) created this stunning illustration for Day 7 - Winter Wonderland. Julie was brilliant at spreading the word about the Advent Challenge, helping it to go truly global! Thanks so much Julie, it's been a massive success!

I can't wait to see what everyone ends of doing with all their new artwork. I'm hoping to see some on the shelves next year. Make sure you check out #adventchallenge on Instagram to view all the amazing work, by many artists. And if you have taken part and would like to be included in this or a future blogpost please email me one jpg. 

I'd like to thank all the artists who have taken part. It's honestly a joy to open up instagram each morning and see the new illustrations, just like opening an advent calendar each day! 

Summer of Design - Project #3 - Interior Design

In the third project of Summer of Design we will be looking at Interior Design! Haven't you always wanted to redesign your bedroom? well now is your chance... 

If you are new to Summer of Design why not take a look at Project 1 and Project 2.

Project #3 - INTERIOR DESIGN

You will need - if you have access to a computer you can do a lot of this online. But if you find yourselves at a hardware store pick up paint swatches / catalogues and wall paper samples - anything you can get your hands on!

Intro

Designers come in all shapes and forms and interior design is another big industry and career. This week you are going to 'pitch' an idea to your parents / grandparents or friends. They will be your client.  

The project

Pick a room in your house or a friends house that you would like to redesign. It might be your own bedroom or might be the kitchen or the bathroom. Your job is to come up with some ideas and designs for that room and then pitch them to your parents / friends. We will break this project down into steps – all these steps are part of a process you would take with most design projects.  

Step 1 – Create the brief

Once you've decided on a room answer the questions below. You may need to ask your 'client' these questions.  

* What's wrong with it at the moment?

* How would you like to feel in this room? (example - homely, warm, playful, fun, fresh, calm, hungry, cool)

* What colours do you think would help make the room feel this?

* What furniture is needed in this room? 

* How would you accessorise this room? curtains? cushions? wall art?

* Any other thoughts or ideas that come to mind?  

Step 2 – Moodboard and ideas

Look on the internet and in magazines and start collating the ideas that grab you. Think about what colours your room should be. What furniture would work well? A great website for finding inspiration and creating online moodboards is www.pinterest.com

It's good to have an idea of what you are looking for before searching. So if you search 'bathroom' you will get all sorts of bathrooms. If you search 'monochrome bathroom' you will have narrowed down your search to a more specific requirement. Don't pin everything you see!! only what you really like or feel could work within your project. Also don't be too narrow in your search - so for monochrome bathroom you might also search - monochrome art, monochrome patterns, black and white photography etc. 

Moodboard for a monochrome bathroom

Moodboard for a colourful children's bedroom

Start collecting physical items too, next time you go in a hardware shop pick up paint swatches and wallpaper samples – and the catalogues or magazines for accessories like cushions, pictures, vases etc. Or take photos of items you like in shops. 

Create either a digital moodboard like the ones above or create a physical one like the one below. This approach is especially better for younger children. Encourage them to cut things out, placing patterns and colours next to each other to see what works.

Physical mood board for a baby girls nursery. 

As you can see these don't have to be works of art. You can help younger children explore colours. In this example it's quite obvious the dark grey jars against the soft pink and lilac tones - talk to your younger children when creating mood boards like this and ask them what colours they think go well together.

If you are finding yourselves getting stuck for colour inspiration - check out this fabulous website Design Seeds.

Step 3 – Time to pitch

Set a time for your pitch meeting, sit down and pitch your ideas and moodboards to present to your 'client'. You need to convince them this room needs this makeover. Take a note book and write down thoughts that were discussed in your meeting. Ask your client for feedback, maybe you can go and add to your ideas or change certain things. 

Step 4 – Budget

In a real life design project you would probably have been given a budget upfront to work to... but if you get to the point where your client is considering the make over for real, it's a really good exercise to work out a budget – how much does paint cost? How much wallpaper will you need? This is particularly good for older children to work out the maths behind it all. This is usually an area most people assume designers are not great at, but you'd be surprised how much us designers use maths!

And if your client decides to go for it – great!! make sure you help in the process as much as possible and get your hands dirty. 

What are we learning here?

This is mostly a fun project to get you excited about interior design and colour but there's a lot to learn within this brief... from the importance of mood boards, how to present to a client and how to budget. I've used all these skills in almost every design project I've worked on from designing a logo to title sequences.
For those of you who would like to know more about colour theory you'll find some good links here on my Colour Theory board. And for some inspiration on colour combination you can also look here.

Liked this project?

There are lots more rooms! or if you are looking for a mini project to add on to this one, why not think about designing a print to hang up in the new room? There's a few examples in the pinterest mood boards - have a go at designing your own wall art! Maybe you could look at incorporate something from Project 1 or Project 2 into a print...

Modifications for younger children...

This is quite a grown up project. For younger children approach this project as a fun way to explore colour and pattern. By placing cut out paper next to each other. Another fun option is to create some art for their bedroom. My son and I had fun recently cutting up all his old Thomas the Tank engine magazines and making a Thomas collage for his room (this is a great way of getting rid of all the magazines too!) 

Keep updated

If you would like to be kept updated with the projects please like my facebook page and I'll be posting reminders there. I will also let you know what materials might be needed for the following weeks project.
Also if you would like to send me any of your projects to feature on my blog please email them to me hello@fayebrowndesigns.co.uk with the subject SUMMER OF DESIGN

Summer of Design - Project #2 - Photograph the alphabet

In the second of our Summer of Design projects we take a look at photography and typography. If you missed the first project take a look here.

Project #2 - PHOTOGRAPH THE ALPHABET

You will need - a camera, any camera - it doesn't have to be special!

Intro

Photography plays a big part in the designers life. Photography is often used to help communicate a mood and emotion. We can also use photography to help us record ideas and capture inspiration thought out our daily lives. So with this project we combine photography with typography. Typography is the study of letters, words and arranging them. We could go into this in much more depth but let's start of in simple terms... 

The project

As you go about your daily lives this week take a camera with you and try to capture every letter of the alphabet. Mix this up with making your own letters using various items you come across from stones, twigs or coins. Get your friends involved too!

Collate all your photos of letters and if you can, print them out and display them on a cork board or make a poster of the whole alphabet.

What are we learning here?

This project not only helps you notice everything around you, it also gives you a good introduction into letterforms and typography. You'll start to notice all the different typefaces and maybe start to think about how each typeface has it's own personality. 

Liked this project?

Why don't you try numbers next or extra symbols like ampersands(&) and pound signs? Another good photography project is to pick a colour and start snapping everything you see with that colour. This will come in useful for the next project #3 Interior Design.

If you have an interest to learn more about typography then you can get 40% off my Art of Typography Skillshare course by clicking on this link.

Modifications for younger children...

My son is almost 3 and doesn't know all the letters yet so this might be a tricky one for the really young children. What you can do is use it as an exercise to learn the letters... maybe focus on 1 or 2 at a time. One morning maybe you could set the challenge to find things around you that are S shaped, and take photos of them... for example. Or how about potato printing?! Or you can set a letter and try creating them out of different objects. My son loved helping me recently on the button alphabet... 

Keep updated

If you would like to be kept updated with the projects please like my facebook page and I'll be posting reminders there. I will also let you know what materials might be needed for the following weeks project.
Also if you would like to send me any of your projects to feature on my blog please email them to me hello@fayebrowndesigns.co.uk with the subject SUMMER OF DESIGN

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Summer of Design - Project #1 - 50 things

Firstly, a quick introduction to the Summer of Design! Over the next 6 weeks I'll be posting a design related project each week which will keep your big kids and little kids nice and busy and get their creative juices flowing... so even on a rainy day they can't complain about being bored!
At the end of the 6 weeks your kids will have worked on a range of fun projects that will have hopefully ignited a passion for design... whatever their age!

Project #1 - 50 THINGS

You will need - mixed media... whatever you can get your hands on!

Intro

This is a great project to get those creative juices flowing and to open your mind. I was set a similar project to this over a summer before starting an Art Foundation course and I really enjoyed it. I was 18, you are never too old for these projects!

I had to illustrate the sun in 100 different ways using any materials I wanted – pencils, paint, plasticine, photography, computer programmes – there were no limitations.

This is a great project to start at the beginning of the holidays and keep coming back to, some of the other projects might even make up some of the solutions.

The project

Pick one of the subjects on the image below and find 50 different ways to illustrate it – using whatever materials you like. If none of the words grab you, decide on something else. Or if you can't decide, print out all the words and pick one out of a hat. (double click on the image to see it bigger to print)

There are no right or wrong solutions – just have lots of fun with it and try to use as many different materials as you can. You could record all your ideas on a big A2 board or maybe photograph each solution instead.

What are we learning here...
Whilst the projects are all set to be fun there is also an element of learning and how this would help in the real world of designing. This is more relevant for older kids and teenagers who are really thinking about pursuing a career in design. What this project reveals it that in design there is hardly ever one correct solution to a brief. Let's say there was a brief to design a company logo but it must include a reference to a fish... this project helps you realise there are so many ways to draw or represent a fish (for example!) You will also find that the further down the 50 you get, the more and more you are thinking creatively... you are forced to start thinking of what new ways you could illustrate an apple or a sun. This boosts the thought processes and creative thinking.

Liked this project?

Why not pick another subject and try doing 50 more?!

(At the end of each project I'll make a suggestion for how you can carry on creating if you really enjoyed it)


Modifications for younger children
Occasionally some projects might need to be modified for younger children - see how you get on. My suggestion for children under 6 or 7 would be work with them and help them come up with 10 different ideas for say 5 of the subjects. Encourage them to use a mix of materials - you could even make a robot out of cardboard boxes! Or maybe bake heart shaped biscuits!

Keep updated

If you would like to be kept updated with the projects please like my facebook page and I'll be posting reminders there. I will also let you know what materials might be needed for the following weeks project (next week - a camera is needed - any camera!)
Also if you would like to send me any of your projects to feature on my blog please email them to me hello@fayebrowndesigns.co.uk with the subject SUMMER OF DESIGN

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Summer of Design

Every week during the summer holidays I'll be posting up a design related project to keep your kiddos busy and get their creativity side buzzing with ideas... Each project will be aimed at kids of all ages (even adults!) Obviously younger kids will approach it differently to teenagers and may need more parental supervision. 

The projects will be fun and open ended so there's no excuse to ever be bored!

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