This Tuesday was probably the first time I had picked up a pen to draw with in a very long time. I signed up to help rework a website for East Asian Fashion that my tutor and previous students had worked on, which had after a year or so, lost its way in terms of both design and organisation. I was put to the task of reworking the logo and producing some kind of background, to at least start thinking about making the whole thing a little bit more cohesive. We were given a whole bunch of materials to work with, to give up a little bit of a starting point, but otherwise really beginning from scratch.
Imme, Olivia and I came across photographs from the project of a workshop making buttons for Chinese garments, using silk knots. We thought that would be a good starting point for some imagery to work with. We wanted something fresh, clean, and most importantly something that wouldn't be an immediate stereotype i.e. embroidered dragons. I started looking at Japanese, Chinese and Korean garments, especially how they were fastened, and found that knots were a key part of the coming together of a garment. Whether its the way an obi is tied, or how a hanbok is finished with a knotted accessory, the knot seemed to be a small detail we could use to bring the subject together. Rather apt really!
As an East Asian subject, it gave me an excuse to go back to ink. It is my automatic, go-to material, but I felt like I had an excuse to indulge. Although I wanted something bold and strong, I also wanted to make sure there was a sense of natural, ethereal flow. I wanted it to be neither overtly feminine or masculine - although the logo is like a ribbon, I think that it is off-centre enough to disrupt the feminised and child-like connotations. The red is quite centred between orange and pink, which is reflective of a colour that is valued in E Asia, but also helps to de-gender a little.
Then, I got to have some fun with surface pattern. I decided to repeat the silk buttons, which come across as almost abstract. I felt like I needed something to give some texture and depth, while also not taking away from the text that will come later. I couldn't help but put together some really bright and daring colours...its too tempting. But for the practicalities of the website, I used a two very pale greys, which works very well with the red, but also is quite sophisticated... I'm hoping it won't end up being too corporate. It's still all work in progress, but I think I'm pretty happy with this first result!
