Design Process - Part One

My design process tends to be quite organic, it all starts with the artwork for me, I never have a product in mind, it is all about the painting, and just sometimes the images just lend themselves to other uses, and once my mind starts working around the possibilities the ideas just keep growing.

Most of the product ideas I have never make it past the design stage, time to do research into some of the weird and wonderful plans knocking around in my head is a major stumbling block. And financial viability is another. I don't have the resources to mass produce items, and to be honest I don't really want to. I like the idea that I can sell limited edition pieces, that my buyers are getting something special that can't be bought anywhere else. But creating items in small quantities is expensive and quite often not cost effective . . . . so that is where many of my ideas die, simply as ideas.

If you are familiar with any of my paintings you will know that some of my pieces are based on traditional wooden Japanese Kokeshi dolls, usually on the larger scale to create statement pieces. The eight miniature designs shown here really came about because I was bought a pack of very small canvasses (7x5inch) and I decided to see if I could recreate the Kokeshi doll image in its simplest form without losing any of the character of the dolls . . . . you will have your own opinion on whether or not I succeeded.

Individually the paintings are bold and fun, but once all were complete I realised that it was bringing them together that really gave impact . . . . leading me to consider using these designs for a new product range.

Many an hour was spent playing with the images, removing backgrounds and creating images using different combinations of dolls. The pictures featured here are of the original canvas paintings, I will show you some of the design ideas in my next blog . . . . .