i-dott: My first design competition

Early last year I entered a live competition with i-dott (an annual design competition).

The competition was to design a repeat pattern for a wallpaper from one of four categories/ briefs, the category I chose to enter was called "Lost and Found" sponsored by Graham and Brown.

Underpinning the exciting brief was the creative idea of florals appearing from unexpected places; combining florals and manmade textures. My inspiration for the project came from my photography of peeling paint found on the side of a building (which I discovered whilst walking to university). It made me question how peeling paint could peal back to reveal a floral pattern… and so the design process began.

Throughout the project central to my design process was the clientele (who I was designing for) making sure I answered the brief to it’s full potential, but also putting my ‘stamp’ on the design allowing my personality and creativity to shine through it. This was the first time I had been given a brief to design directly for a commercial product, designing an outcome which would be ready to go into the industry. It was an intense couple of months but an experience I learnt a lot from.

My Final Design

I was so excited and pleased to hear I’d come 3rd place in the category!

As part of my prize I got invited to the Gala Dinner at the Witworth Gallery in Manchester.

It was the first time I had been to an event like this, and it gave me massive amounts of confidence to discuss my work and future ambitions with leaders in the wallpaper industry. I really enjoyed the experience to be able to meet and network with industry leaders. A fundamental part of both enterprise and employability is the ability to network and make links with people in the industry; a valuable part of my experience. It's opened my eyes to the benefits of entering design competitions as an opportunity to have my work seen by industry leaders.

It was an amazing experience and was worth every second of all the hours of hard work that went into achieve my final wallpaper design. It was exciting to see my design on other products on the night too, e.g the table cloths used at the dinner! And it made me realise potentially how a pattern can also be used for different surfaces.

The whole experience has given me so much confidence in my work and demonstrated its potential within the interior industry. It’s made me realise just how achievable a career in designing for interiors could be. It made me excited to continue developing strong print designs for interiors alongside my passion for hard materials, giving me the aspiration to design a range of surfaces for interiors featuring my prints and patterns; a fundamental part of my second year studies.

#Idott #GrahamandBrown #Wallpaper #Interiors #surfacepatterndesign #WitworthGallery