So our wallpaper is finally being exhibited at the design dept corridor there and here is feeling like a big load off my mind do bother yourself go checking it out right in front of the main staircase 2nd floor, as it’s different from the pics u see in this blog

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“Isn’t life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?”

– Andy Warhol

Marylin Monroe by Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, the pioneer artist of Pop Art, made us encounter the quote whilst we were going through researches for our mindmap which was the very initial step of our wallpaper design (c.f. Final Outcome of Mindmap). As the most recognisable feature of common wallpaper designs is that they make use of repeated patterns, we were inspired to design something that can represent this quote in a different approach from the stereotyped one which we consider is the style that follows the above image, one of the most significant works by Andy Warhol.

As you have a close look to our wallpaper, you can notice that each of the patterns consists of many retro elements starting from the car, half-toned lip, records, filmstrip and gramophone. We have our reasons for putting these elements.. which isn’t merely for the sake of making it look retro >.<

The car represents momentum. It is in a motion, leaving behind the other retro elements. The retro elements represent retro era, and this shows that the car is proceeding for newer generations. But you can see that as you follow the direction of the car, the car hits into another car and then to the retro elements again. All these rotated patterns together represent the circulation of generations, or the flow of time: it repeats as it changes, or vice versa.

Initially we were planning to work on horizontally repeating patterns with the same concept (c.f. Playing Around with Composition). It’s with a car leaving behind retro stuff behind as well, but heading into the same retro stuff again as the pattern repeats. But as the wallpaper had been confirmed to be portrait and not landscape, we considered of backup plans and this was one of them. But we think that in the end this version appears to be better with supporting the concept, as we succeeded in showing the 360 degrees rotation, which enhances the whole “time flow” concept.

We tried applying manymanymanymanymany many different colours which you can scroll down to see in a few posts and have fun finding your favourite version The original version is rather colourful because we initially planned to use colours to enhance the time flow as well. However we ended up with this version, as the colourful versions were aesthetically not satisfying enough, especially when they were repeated to form the whole wallpaper. The colour scheme we settled on seems more soothing and grungy at the same time, with the washed-out kind of impression it gives, which we thought could make it even more retro and cool

We tried some of collages for the filmstrip, lips and the beads to join two patterns. This was because as we proceeded on silkscreening we thought that our design appeared rather flat with the consistent textures and repeating patterns. The beads can support the whole victorian look as well. It is a little form of interaction with the audience that the wallpaper gives victorian-ish atmosphere when you see from a distance but as you go have a close look you will have lots more of discoveries!

For all three of us it was the first time experiencing to create a wallpaper design and to silkscreen something. What we gained from this project is not measurable and as this project was practically the first group project we were assigned to do in this semester, the project helped us getting to know the new classmates better

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This group consists of:-

Zumra Mohamed Waheed

Kee Poon Heng

Koyuki Inagaki