Third year
at massey university
Chromaphilia collection
screen printed onto cotton
challenging chromaphobia (the fear of colour usage)
For this assessment I chose to focus my collection on colour. More around the discredit of colour within design.
I am challenging the generalised fear of colour usage within Western design, also known as Chromophobia. By utilising expressive artwork and the power of opposite colour combinations, I am embracing different colour interpretations and promoting the relationship of colour between designer and client. I want to revitalize and ask designers to rethink aspects of colour theory in design, inviting both visual and emotional responses to create a personal connection with each colourful design. ‘Chromaphilia’ aims to consider the multi-faceted lens of colour in art through connection to design development, expression, application techniques and reversing colour theories.
Design one focused on yellow. When undertaking an anonymous quiz around my university I found that young designers found yellow to be the least attractive colour, therefore I went against common colour choices and applied it to this cotton fabric through smaller scaled large brush strokes found on my final HERO design. The second print is based off milk and dye colouring, inspired by the organic shapes and mixing of colours the milk and dye created. This screen print was made using three screens (blue, red and yellow) the overlay of red and blue creates purple and the overlay of red and yellow create orange. I chose to combine these colours together based off an artist who focuses on opposite colours combinations to the colour wheel. My third design is based off breath painting, inspired by an artist who uses his breath to capture the moment through paint. Combining yellow and blue screens to create a green overlay. The last design is my hero design, inspired by synthesia, using alpha waves and large brush I was able to mimic the movement of music through large brush strokes. Using a red and blue screen to create a purple overlay. This design creates a glitch like effect which makes it harder to look at, resembling the issue of those finding colour overriding and ugly.
Here is the video of my final Hero design getting printed by myself and a class mate. We used 2 screens to print this three coloured design. Applying the red screen first, then drying with heat, then applying the blue screen, drying and heat setting. This took a whole days work to print 6 metres for my final hero design.
We learnt this technique thanks to the lovely technicians at Massey University. We exposed two large screens with our chosen designs on tracing paper. This process allows us to print through the pattern that washes out of the screen once exposed to UV lights. This way you can expose each layer onto a different screen and create a multi coloured design. In our case we were allowed two screens, which restricted us to 2 colours, but because I chose primary colours I was able to get three solid colours within my final design.