The Design Process: Week 1 - Discover

The Design Process: Week 1 - Discover

Crossness moodboard

In this new unit, the primary objective is to create a visual response to a place/multiple places, and to record my design process that ultimately culminates in that point.

To begin with, I needed to think of a couple of places to get an idea of which one resonates with me the most, and then further engage with these thoughts by researching the one which piqued my interest the most. To do this, I used a variety of sources to gain a better understanding of the historical background and visual aesthetics of my chosen place.

Crossness extracted
colour palette 1

My initial idea was to create a visual response to two places local to me - Crossness Pumping Station and Lesnes Abbey Ruins. I chose these two places because of their local historical significance, my personal familiarity with them, and the varied and unique aesthetics of their respective environments (the former being a Victorian sewage pumping station featuring intricately decorative pipework, and the latter the ruins of a 1100s abbey, featuring centuries old dilapidated stonework). Throughout my discovery process, I found Crossness more intriguing. It was for this reason, as well as a lack of research materials for the other location, that I decided to continue the project using only Crossness - leaving Abbey Ruins as just a brief note in my ideation stage.

Crossness extracted
colour palette 2

To better understand Crossness, I gathered research from multiple sources - starting with the gallery from the official Crossness website, which led me to further research the historic prevalence of the site through their official online timeline. Both of these sources helped me to gauge the intricate shapes and colours of the pipe works, railings, and insignias found throughout the location, and their significance in the creation of the pumping station.
Continuing my research to a broader view of the Victorian period, I found imagery from the publication "Victorian Public Houses" (Brian Spiller), to further my understanding of the typical shapes, forms and textures frequently found in other Victorian builds.

Brief sketches and research of insignias 
found throughout Crossness

"The Prestige" set design and
aesthetics moodboard

I then watched the movie "The Prestige" (Christopher Nolan, 2006), As this was also set in the same time period. This film provided me with useful insights into the typical costume design of the Victorian era - the colour palettes, materials, and shapes used in these outfits, as well as helping me better understand the general colours and tones of the era found through the set design and cinematography of the film - used to convincingly depict the Victorian time period and setting. The balance of the costume design, set design, and colour palettes used throughout both of these, helped to define the overall look of the time period.

Brief sketches of character design elements,
colour palettes, and environments

Throughout this research process, I also created brief sequential visual experiments to generate ideas for what my final outcome could be - moodboards from Crossness and "The Prestige"; extracted colour palettes from the Crossness pipe works; quick observational sketches based on found images of insignias and designs from within Crossness; and initial sketches of character design elements, colour palettes, and environments based on Crossness.
The idea that frequently came to mind throughout these ideation exercises was creating a series character designs to embody the visual aesthetic of the location. This idea has its roots in my own personal interests in using drawings to portray a narrative and/or express feeling through comics and cartooning. The idea became ever more secured when I created these mini visual experiments, encouraging me to visualise how I could incorporate key aspects of the Crossness architecture and interior design into visual design elements for fictional characters.

"The Prestige" costume design
moodboard

A page from "Victorian Public Houses"
(Brian Spiller)

This week has helped me to consider the series of thought processes that go into a design/pro
ject. I am often quick to disregard evidence of my development process throughout all of the work I create - only keeping the final product. This week has given me an understanding of how this entire process is relevant, and can actually be a very reflective experience when looking back through previous and ideas and considering how they have gone on to influence later iterations to lead into the final outcome(s).