Pop Art goes Design

 

Welcome to my new collection 'Pop Art goes Design' - with my subject: 'The Camera'!

Below is a bit of background on what I have been working on these last few months in preparation to launching my new everyday collection @ Maison this September. 

My approach to 'Pop Art goes Design' was through the eyes of POP ART from the 60's – an era when artistic impulse and experimentation began to take hold of the art community – so I approached this collection very much with an open mind, experimentation being key, and a desire to play with paint, paper and photography and screen printing.

' Camera Portraits'

As a starting point I wanted to capture vintage analogue cameras in their raw beauty as the wonderful crafted objects that they are, aware that they are about to become extinct in our fast track digital age ... - ironically these were photographed on my (now considered old but not yet vintage) Nikon D300 with my favourite 60mm Micro Nikkor 1:2.8 D lens.

 'Camera Groupshot'

One of my main influences was Joe Tilson, with his wonderful mix of photography, news print, graphics and paint.

 

'Cut Out and Send' Joe Tilson 1968

The two designs below will launch in stationery products in early 2014

'Pop Art goes Design Model III '

 

 'Pop Art goes Design - Click Print and Paint'

Richard Hamilton was another great source of inspiration for me - there is a quality to his work which I find captivating - the space around his pieces speaks to me and holds my attention just as much as the paint and collage.

 

'Study for a Fashion Plate' 1969 Richard Hamilton.

Here is another design of my collection.

 

'Pop Art goes Design - Cut out Camera'

 

'Look' by Joe Tilson

I love this piece as it reminds me of how I have tended to draw and 'LOOK' at things when I was a child - close up - attention to the graphic detail of things - bold and strong. 

My childhood in the early 80's was spent busily drawing with 'Rotring technical pens' in varying thicknesses, which is in part the inspiration behind my 'Pop Art Circles' design (pictured below), along with old graphics from that era, with an echo of pop music and the camera lens in mind ... and a nod to Lichtenstein's 'Dots' after visiting the Tate this year :-)

'Pop Art Circles': cushion screen printed cotton with neon piping.

Wanting to bring the design into the 'NOW'! I instinctively added the neon accents on the cushion pictured above – neon is present in our everyday lives, both on our bikes and safety wear, and in our fashion with an emphasis on standing out. 


I then continued to play and added the classic Brownie Camera; the coloured filter lenses help form abstract circles for what became the signature design of the 'Pop art goes Design' collection (pictured below) that features on stationery and notebooks.

 

 'Pop Art goes Design' - Notebook cover design

 

Hard back Notebook and Sketch books available from mid September here!

 

'Pop Dots Art' close of up A5 Sketch book

Designing 'Pop Dots Art' was fun as my team & I playfully collected hole punch colours, letters and graphics in order to form an off beat pattern and spell out the words of this collection!

As I mentioned at the top, when I was designing my new collection I wanted to include playing with screen printing as this creates a special feel that is very different from the digital printing we usually do today, so all the fabrics of my collection are screen printed. 

'Camera Stack': Screen printed Tea towel 100% Linen

I hope you enjoyed this little background story about what I have been up to with my team over the last few months, and I look forward to seeing you over this next 'month of Design' both here (in London) and in Paris from the 6th- 10th September.

Bon Jour!

Ella Doran.
Special thanks go out to:
Kaja, Jess, Anne-Sophie, Debbie, Asa and Joelle, for all your support on this collection.