Part 2: Ideas - Using reference - 1950s illustration

At last I've finished my 1950s illustration. I've taken far too long on this piece of work, but I did enjoy it!

I started off by researching all the areas indicated in the brief and printing the images for reference.

As I started to get into the 1950s I decided that not only would I like the illustration to depict a 1950s room, but also to be in 1950s style.

I began by using my sketchbook.


I attempted to draw men and women, furniture, objects and textile designs of the time.






I started to think about the layout of the room and whether the character would be male or female. Being female, I decided that it might be easier to understand a woman's outlook. What would she be doing?

After many attempts I decided that my drawing of people wasn't going to be adequate for how I envisaged the finished illustration and decided to use collaged figures of both a man and a woman.

Once I had planned the layout of the room, I drew it in pen, then scanned it into the computer. I took the scanned image into Adobe Illustrator.


In Illustrator I traced over the hand drawn lines to make them bolder. I placed images of textiles, downloaded from the internet, for the curtains and the rug. I designed my own fabric for the cushions. I also downloaded the images for the man and the woman and the magazines.

I coloured the rest of the illustration using Illustrator. I tried to make it look 1950s in appearance by looking at textiles from the time and trying to emulate the style.



I included lots of 1950s objects -

• light wood shelving unit with sliding doors
• Penguin books on the top shelf
• family photos and ceramics on the lower shelf
• television
• Roberts radio
• task light
• plant in striped ceramic pot
• light wood unit with tapered legs

• patterned rug
• sofas with clean lines and light wood tapered legs
• patterned cushions
• atomic magazine rack with magazines

Part 2: Ideas - Using reference - 1950s short review

Short review of the 1950s from a visual perspective

The 1950s was a time of post war optimism and renewal. It followed the sobriety of the 1940s, a decade of world war and its immediate aftermath, and preceded the cultural and political volatility of the 1960s.

In the UK, during the Second World War (1939-45) and shortly afterwards, manufacturing output concentrated on production of munitions, restoration, food production and goods for export. With limited raw materials the home market suffered shortages and rationing.

Posters commissioned by the government were displayed prominently in public places to boost morale, encourage industrial production, to promote health, safety, savings and austerity and to raise public awareness of national security. The designs were simple and direct.

second world war posters

Throughout the war women had gained employment in occupations that had previously been male-dominated. But as men gradually returned from the war and back into their former jobs, many women relinquished their positions.

Advertising in the 1950s reflected this return to the domestic status quo that had existed before the war. Families and homes were represented as warm, happy places, where the mother was seen caring for family and home, and the father taking responsibility as the breadwinner. Girls were depicted helping their mothers and boys their fathers. Dress was more formal than is seen today, and families were shown looking healthy, well-scrubbed and cheerful.

New and improved technologies and manufacturing production introduced goods like radios, televisions and refrigerators into the marketplace and into the home, and generated a wealth of newly available materials including Formica, fibreglass, rubber, melamine, aluminium, pvc, vinyl and plastics.

Designers, inspired by the rich palette of materials, and the possibilities that they offered, created chairs, tables, shelving units and accessories in new shapes, textures, colours and patterns. Many have become iconic and are still manufactured today.

1950s chairs - Eames glassfibre reinforced plastic chair (1950) and wiremesh chair (1951-53), Jacobsen moulded plywood series 7 chair (1955), Saarinen tulip chair (1956) and Jacobsen egg chair (1958) - all still manufactured today

There were also significant advances in science and technology. In particular, there were two major developments in scientific research that had a widespread effect on design: x-ray diffraction photography in the UK and space exploration by Russia and the USA.

By studying x-ray diffraction photographs of crystals, scientists could determine atomic structure within the molecules. A partnership between scientists, designers and manufacturers was established, known as the Festival Pattern Group, using crystallography as their inspiration, as part of a unique project for the 1951 Festival of Britain. The collaboration produced 80 designs inspired by atomic structures including glass, ceramics, metals, plastics, textiles and wallpaper.

Graphic imagery of atoms, starbursts, planets and galaxies, combined with abstract geometrics, began to appear as stylised motifs repeated across the surface of textiles and in the shapes of furniture and accessories. Colours were clean bright and contrasting in vibrant yellow, electric blue, orange, red, black and white, or pastels of bubble gum pink, turquoise, pistachio and pale blue.

1950s textile designs

1950s accessories - clock, Eames 'hang it all' coat rack and atomic magazine rack

The countries of Scandinavia were also recovering from the war. Together they organised a travelling exhibition to promote Scandinavian design. Their design philosophy placed great significance on function and comfort, the use of natural materials and low cost mass production. This philosophy had been established in the 1920s and 1930s with modernist designers like Alvar Aalto, whose experimentation with bent plywood produced furniture in simple organic shapes that received international success. The 1950s tour was similarly successful. The Scandinavian style gained worldwide popularity bringing a tranquil palette of clean lines, organic shapes and natural materials.

Alvar Aalto bent wood chairs (1931-32)

The 1950s was a decade of responsibility and prudence. There was a make-do-and-mend attitude: clean living and family values were promoted, and wastefulness was discouraged. The 1960s brought instability as groups fought for individuality, and consumerism and cheap mass production brought about the throwaway society. This was represented in the work of pop artists such as Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol consumerism paintings from the 1960s

The environmental issues and financial upheavals of today have brought a more responsible and sympathetic approach to life. Maybe this is why many of the present-day designs in furniture and textiles are reminiscent of the 1950s.

sketchbook project 2012

I've been working on my sketchbook project 2012 and have now posted it off to the Brooklyn Art Library in New York.

I really enjoyed taking part and gained such a lot by having a go at different artistic styles.

I've uploaded the pages onto my blog - click here if you would like to view it.

I've also uploaded this image onto Illustration Friday for this week's word - forward - click here to view.

Other links you may like to visit are the sketchbook project site and Illustration Friday.

Part 2: Ideas - Words to pictures - Making a moodboard

For this exercise we were asked to select a word from the same list as for the previous exercise and to make a moodboard.

I thought it would be interesting to use the word I had chosen before - kitchen. And so picking up from my earlier kitchen explorations I searched in magazines, catalogues and online for images and text.

I sorted them into categories and started to paste them into place. This in itself was an interesting process. Just by moving images and words around the board brought new ideas and thoughts about the topic. For example, by placing a laptop image, representing using the kitchen as a place of work, alongside an image of kitchen scales, made me think about home/work balance - so I pasted those words onto the scales.

Something that was evident was the amount of stereotyping in advertising - I know it's not necessarily a bad thing - it can be used to great effect and with great humour.

This was an enjoyable and playful activity - but also proved to be a useful tool.

Part 2: Ideas - turning words into pictures

For this exercise we were asked to select a word from a given list and to draw everything that comes to mind without concern for the accuracy of the drawing or the prettiness of it.

These quick drawings at the early stage of the design process are for ideas generation and not generally for others to see.

I chose to draw the word kitchen.

I started the first page of drawings too carefully I think - trying to make each one look right. But I managed to become less meticulous and drew quick ideas rather than accurate drawings, and started to group similar ideas together.

I had a look at some learning blogs of other students to see what they had done for this exercise.

It was very interesting to see similarities between theirs and mine, plus I discovered some good ideas to try. One student had done some textural rubbings from their kitchen - so I decided to have a go at that.

Using a kitchen material (cooking foil) I rubbed the surface of items such as cooking utensils, the textured surface of a non-stick baking tin and wall tiles which achieved some kind of a 3-dimensional effect.

One student described this exercise as creating a visual spider diagram - I think that's a good description.

I then went on to create a second page of kitchen drawings.

This time I think I was more successful. The drawings were made more quickly and simply as I moved about the page to record and expand on ideas as they occurred to me.

Part 2: Ideas - generating ideas - spider diagrams

Firstly, please let me apologise for the images on this blog!

I don't know how many times I've tried to upload them, but two of them just will not go the right way round. I've tried using different sizes and layouts, but they will not co-operate.

So, if anyone can help, please let me know. The same thing happened when I was uploading the images for the 'say hello' work. In the end I had to change the images to portrait format to get round the problem.


Anyway to get back to this exercise.


I found the spider diagram for 'seaside' by far the easiest. I suppose it's because it's an actual physical thing. Also we went on lots of seaside holidays when I was a child, so I have those memories, plus I live by the sea, and always have done, so it's something I know well.

All the other words I found quite difficult.

The next one was 'childhood'. I based some of this from personal memories, but obviously, I had to think more generally. Although my memories are of a safe and secure time, many children are not so lucky.

'Angry' is difficult because it's an emotion plus I'm not a particularly angry person. The idea of angry as inflamed came to me, but I had to resort to the dictionary for relating angry to the weather or the sea.

'Festival' was very difficult and I didn't do it justice at all. It would probably have been possible to fill several pages of associated words for even a handful of religious festivals. But I didn't think about that at the time!

Once I had done the spider diagrams, it was interesting to work alongside another person - for which thanks for taking the time to assist! Many of the words coincided with mine, but there were plenty of additional ones (marked in red) and extra ideas that evolved as we discussed them (shown with asterisks).

After reflecting on this exercise, I think the use of spider diagrams for ideas generation is effective. It takes ideas beyond first thoughts, and co-operation with one or possibly several others, takes them even further. It's good to have effective tools!

Part 2: Ideas - the brief - writing a brief

For this exercise we were asked to select an illustration and to try to write a brief that would have led to the creation of the image.

I selected the new packaging for the range of Mornflake cereal products, created by illustrator and printmaker Clare Curtis.

It was interesting to work backwards from the finished illustration and to try to place oneself in the position of being the one writing the brief.



Here I have shown some sketchbook work for this exercise:

Writing a brief for Mornflake packaging




The old style packaging together with the new style.

Background of the company Mornflake have been milling oats in the south Cheshire countryside since 1675, and now 15 generations later, it is still owned and managed by the direct descendants of the original miller. We are the longest established millers of oats and cereal in the UK.

The brief We would like a fresh new modern look that is consistent with the long-established and traditional nature of our business and products. It must embrace the ideas of - nature - sustainability - health - high quality - purity - reliability. We would like the illustrator to have substantial creative input and liaise closely with our in-house team.

The audience

• food shoppers browsing in store and online wanting pure, natural, high quality cereal products
  
• consumers interested in buying British products and supporting traditional British manufacturing methods
• an existing base of consumers already aware of our products

The context The illustration is to be used across our range of natural cereal products - in stores and online. Additionally for advertising in magazines, newspapers and other media.

The content The illustration must be appropriate for a range of natural cereal products and packaging types including boxes, bags and sachets. The packaging will include text:

• manufacturer's name
• name and short description of product
• tagline 'Family milling in Cheshire since 1675'
• plus possible additional text for special promotions, awards, etc.

The illustration and text will be separate, but text space must be included as part of the overall design, and must allow for easy identification of the product. Some boxed ranges will also have a cut-out window to display the product inside. Space must also be allocated for this within the design layout.

The role To decorate, whilst conveying the combined messages of the product and the company: modern - traditional - natural - sustainable - healthy - wholesome - high quality - pure - long-established - reliable - down-to-earth.

The colours Earthy and natural - the palette must be restricted to 3 or 4 colours.



The flavour Traditional, handcrafted eg. wood cut/lino cut prints, simple lines and shapes, organic. Good examples are shown here in the prints by Edward Bawden and Angie Lewin.



The timetable:

• initial ideas: in 2 weeks
  
• visuals: in 6 weeks
• finished artwork: in 3 months