60th Birthday Commission.

A fellow creative in fashion commissioned me to produce a bespoke scarf for her Aunties 60th birthday, which for me is a big compliment!

Her Aunty is an abstract artist, who's work is very different to my style and approach to art, which instantly made me question my own ability.

But I couldn't resist the challenge.

I started by having a look at her lovely work, and picking out a piece

that most appealed to me, this piece being:

I liked the layered, unusual detailed shapes, along with it's simplistic colour way.

As my customer is a follower of my work, she had noticed my more recent

designs which involved a combination of feminine,

delicate watercolours along with bold geometric shapes.

It was these pieces that were to inspire her bespoke commission.

I started with choosing some of these shapes to paint with my watercolours, and then playing around with geometric versions of their form and my more usual stylistic approach. As the watercolour motifs were a definite in the final design,

I scanned them in, and proceeded to experiment with geometric shapes

that I felt would compliment the watercolour forms.

I wanted to replicate her layering, which is an aesthetic I have used a lot in my own work, but create an overall shape that looks more precise and thought out, rather than random and expressive. It is this quality that I feel puts my own stamp on this piece of work. A perfect balance of my own aesthetic, and hers.

After having nothing but positive feedback from my customer on this final motif,

I was then able to work on the final design.

Staying true to the overall unsymmetrical aesthetic of her Aunties artwork,

I made sure this design possessed the same quality.
I decided to have parts of the motifs overlapping the constraint of the scarf border, again representing the balance between random form and order, as well as organic growth and structures, which is the main inspiration for her Aunties work.
My customer wanted to add a final touch to the design, to personalise

the scarf even more. I was to use her Aunties signature,

which finalises each piece of her own artwork.

This was another challenging bespoke project, but one I am very grateful for. Challenging projects that have a different aesthetic to my own work, only allows me to be more open minded to my own approach and style. As cheesy as it may sound, they enable me to grow and improve as a designer, and there's always room for improvement.