Breanna Shields
Breanna Shields

Merchandise Design

Student Work

The front of the tote bag which shows the design The back of the tote bag which includes information on the designer that the design was inspired by

Brief

The task was to create a visual variant for the front of a tote bag that could be given out as a souvenir to visitors at a fictitious pop-up exhibition. The design needed to reflect the theme of the exhibition: ‘Unfold—A Celebration of Design through Time’. It also needed to be created using the design style/s and mediums of my chosen practitioner: David Carson.

My Contribution

The creation of this design followed a very experimental process, mimicking the techniques of Carson himself. I began by collecting all the paper types I had at home (regular, tissue, baking paper, toilet paper, paper towel, receipts, etc), as well as material and non-stick matting, and painting them with acrylic and watercolour paints, and spray pens for a variety of colour and texture. When I felt that I had enough pieces of work, I photographed everything separately and imported all the images into Photoshop to begin creating a collage. I used the magic wand tool to remove the white (paper) background on most of the works which caused ragged edges on most of the pieces - in line with Carson’s grunge techniques. I then placed the images in such a way that was visually pleasing. The text was placed digitally to blend into the background and overlap itself in the same manner that Carson would use in his works.