HP #3: Design Decisions

Harry Potter

18 May

Welcome to my third post chronicling the creation of my Harry Potter Stitchbook. Find the first part here and second part here.

This post is about making design decisions and how I use a collage method to decide on my designs rather than drawing them out in advance.

The way I like to work is very visual and tactile - basically I find all of the basic elements I think I want to use and lay them on the page, then move them around until i think they look correct! ⁠

⁠This method in practice:

This page from my Harry Potter book is about a collection of wands, and I had the idea to use gold and silver ribbon to symbolise the flashes of light that emerge when casting spells.

Firstly I sorted through my box of fabrics and ribbon that I put together at the start of this project and pulled out all of the silver and gold ribbons I could find. Throughout this project I am trying to just use the fabrics and embellishments that I have pre-selected, to focus my attention and keep a cohesive look (If I don’t do this I will be rummaging through every box of fabric I own every 5 minutes and trying to use pieces of rainbow tie-dye that definitely have no place in this book!). But luckily I had included a lot of usable metallic ribbon in the project stash!

The five images below show my process of working through the idea and trying to decide on a final fabric and layout choice. ⁠

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Trial #1: I started off using the blank background of the book and laying the ribbons down diagonally across the page, crossing over each other. I hoped it would give an effect of movement, and was pleased that at the way they zinged across from side to side. However I didn’t like the plain background, and thought it should be darker so the ribbons could be seen more easily.

Trial #2: I tried the same arrangement on a dark grey background, and although it looked much better, I still wasn't happy. I thought it looked too busy and not particularly related to the photo, as if the photo was an after thought.

Trial #3: To create a layout that was more connected to the photo I decided to abandon the diagonals and create a radiating pattern with the ribbon coming out of the ends of the wands in the image.

I decided that I preferred this, it has less movement but definitely draws the background and the picture together. (And I like that all of the wands are shooting out spells that look and behave slightly differently, like an individual signature).

Trial #4 and #5: The last two images are me trying to get the exact background fabric right. It’s a matter of trying to find a balance between the background, the ribbons and the photo. The background couldn’t be too interesting, with a strong pattern, as you would focus on that rather than the photo, and the colour couldn’t be too close to the ribbons as then they wouldn’t stand out from it. The final image is the one I got to in the end.

Although this seems a long winded process, because I'm not sketching first, or pinning to the background, it's quite speedy to move things around, and easy to get a good idea if the colours and shapes work together.

Below is an image of how the page looks after everything has been stitched down and I added a title and some applique details. Do you think I made the right choice?