Essay: Role of Inspiration in Creating Textile Design

Abstract
In design-making process, Source of inspiration has a vital role, both in defining the characteristics of a new design and in informing the creation of a distinct design. This study was based on the idea to promote creative and original textile designs by using source of inspiration. The purpose of the study was to create some original and innovative designs for textiles by using natural paintings of William Morris as an inspiration and incorporating modern elements in the design. Several designs were made and three were selected that were innovative and suitable for textile designing. This study marks the significance of source of inspiration in textile designing.
Key Words: Design; Creative; Textile; Inspiration; Innovative; William Morris
Introduction
Textile is a board term referring to any material that can be made in to fabrics by any method of construction such as weaving or interlacing, felting and knitting. Textiles play an important role in our life. Everyone in the world is surrounded by textiles from birth to death. (Haye & Wilson, 1999) Textiles; their function and meaning can vary considerably from culture to culture. But in every culture the way in which a person is clothed _ the type of fabric used, its color and patterns speaks to the identity of the wearer, including to his age, gender, social position and role within the community. (Phipps, 2011)
The textile industry is a functional area in which an understanding of design and its management is required to be successful.. Textile design plays a critical role in creating innovative products for various end-user applications which range from fashion to automotive to sportswear to medical textiles. (Studd & Rachel, 2002)
William Morris was born in Waltham Stow, Essex on 24th march 1834. Designs which Morris used were always for surface decoration, wallpapers, textiles, and the like, he always design it all by himself. Morris taught himself embroidery, working with wool on a frame custom built. In 1868, he designed his first pattern specifically for fabric printing. As in so many other areas that interested him, Morris choose to work with the ancient technique of hand wood block printing in preference to the roller printing which had almost completely replaced it for commercial uses. His textile designs are still popular today. In this study, his various natural paintings will be picked up to make new textile designs. (Tames, 2008)
This study was aimed to create textile designs inspired from an artist of 19th century; William Morris, and it threw light on his work and used it as a source of inspiration which would revive his work consequently. Source of Inspiration plays very important role in any design process. It helps in the illustration of design concepts, in learning the important design features, helps in determining color schemes and coordination of an overall design. (M??kirinne-Croft, Godwin & Saadat, 1996)
As source of inspiration helps to produce attractive designs made by the artistic arrangement of motives in one or more colors, so some elements from the natural paintings of William Morris will be used for creating new textile designs. The Objectives of this Study was to determine the effect of source of inspiration in creating textile designs and to innovate new patterns for textile designing by using William Morris’s natural paintings as a source of inspiration.
Method and Materials
The productive journey from concept to end design- always begins with a process of researching and accumulating ideas and the textile designer views and analyzes the world around them very keenly.( Steed & Stevenson, (2012)
This study was an Experimental study which dealt with the development of textile designs with the help of source of inspiration. The population of the study was all the artists who had done their work based on nature. The sample of the study was natural paintings of an Artist William Morris. From his natural paintings, textile designs were created and printed to determine the effect of source of inspiration. To attain this purpose following plan of work was chalked out:
1- Development Of Research Board
A research board is a useful way to assemble the many inspirational components of a collection. Research board is an important part in design development process to illustrate designs and ideas. The research board is a collection of ideas around a particular theme on which researcher has researched. In research board not only pictures but different type of mixed media and different qualities of paper provide an effective and original look of the theme. Designers collect tear sheets from magazines, swatches of colors and textiles, photographs etc. related to their source and place these all on a bulletin board or a foam making a research board (Calderin, 2013) In this study, different images of the source were collected that was William Morris natural paintings and a research board was made out of it. (Stone, 2014)
2- Development Of Design
Design ideas are developed through in different ways depending upon how an individual designer likes to work upon the product being designed and upon the manufacturing processes. (Bond, 1996) The designs were extracted from the research board. For this a method was used which was by cutting a window out of a paper and positioning it to different areas on the research board until the eye is pleased or gets the desired design. After the extraction of a motif, the design was recreated by adding different motifs to a design. From these further important design ideas and elements were added. (Bond, 1996)
3- Selection of design
Many sketches of the designs were made with different details and variations. With the help of the supervisor the best three were selected for the study.
4- Collection and Analysis of data
A questionnaire was developed by using Lickert scale invented by the psychologist ‘Resins Lickert’. Lickert scale is a five point scale. Three expert designers from Crescent Lawn (Faraz Manan) and two senior teachers of Textile and Clothing Department of College of Home Economics who are expertise in Textile and Clothing were consulted to fill these questionnaires. Thus, the data was collected. Each filled the questionnaire by analyzing the samples and choosing the options best suited according to the work and returned the questionnaire.
After the collection of data, analysis was done. All the responses were taken and a percentage and weighted mean was calculated. Weighted mean and percentages were interpretated with the bar chart and pie diagram respectively.
Results and Discussion
After conducting the research and analyzing the collected data, it was found out that the source of inspiration is very helpful in developing textile designs. As the source of inspiration help designers to create features of individual designs so it plays a powerful role in the beginning of design process and in communicating design ideas. These developed designs determined the effect of source of inspiration and it also help in developing creative designs for textile designing as the designs reflect the elements of the source being used to develop it.
From the study conducted it was also determined that the created pattern/ motifs for textile design are more suitable according to source of inspiration as the design was made out by combining different elements of the source and adding new modern motifs in it.
From all the selected design, the study reveals that the developed pattern of design 3 was more innovative because of source of inspiration as it greatly reflects the theme of the source in that design than other designs whereas the design 1 and 2 was more creative than design 3 because of source of inspiration. The study found out that the design 2 was more suitable for textile designing then design 3 and the design 3 was more suitable than the design 1.
Table 1 Effect of source of inspiration in creating textile designs.
Statements 1 2 3 4 5 Weighted mean % Mean Interpretation
Is the source of inspiration helpful in developing textile designs 0 0 0 4 20 7.7 77% SA
Do the developed designs could determine the role of source of inspiration 0 0 0 12 10 6.5 65% SA
Does the source of inspiration help in developing creative designs for textile designing 0 2 0 8 10 5.7 57% SA
Note: SA=strongly agree, A=agree, N=neutral D=disagree, SD=strongly disagree
Figure 1. Effect of source of inspiration in creating textile designs (Percentage)
Figure 2. Effect of source of inspiration in creating textile designs (Weighted Mean)
Table 1 shows that 77% of the designers believed that the source of inspiration was helpful in developing textile designs where as 23% declined the statement that it was not at all helpful in developing textile designs. 65% designers thought that the developed designs through source of inspiration could determine its effect whereas 35% people believed that the developed designs could not determine the effect of source of inspiration. 57% people believed that creative designs for textile designing could be made with the help of source of inspiration but 43% designers declined the statement that the source of inspiration doesn’t help in developing creative designs for textile designing.
Table 2 Innovate new patterns for textile designing
Statements 1 2 3 4 5 Weighted mean % Mean Interpretation
Does the created pattern/motifs for textile designs suitable according to source of inspiration
0 4 0 4 10 4.9 49% SA
Does the source of inspiration makes the developed pattern of design 1 innovative
1 2 0 4 10 4.7 47% SA
Does the source of inspiration makes the developed pattern of design 2 innovative
0 6 0 4 5 3.5 35% A
Does the source of inspiration makes the developed pattern of design 3 innovative
0 2 0 12 5 5.1 51% SA
Is the design 1 creative because of source of inspiration
1 0 3 8 5 4.4 44% A
Is the design 2 creative because of source of inspiration
1 0 3 8 5 4.4 44% A
Is the design 3 creative because of source of inspiration
1 2 0 8 5 4.1 41% A
Does the innovative pattern of design 1 suitable for textile designing
1 2 0 4 10 4.7 47% SA
Does the innovative pattern of design 2 suitable for textile designing
0 2 3 0 15 5.8 58% SA
Does the innovative pattern of design 3 suitable for textile designing
0 2 3 4 10 5.2 52% SA
Note: SA=strongly agree, A=agree, N=neutral, D=disagree, SD=strongly disagree
Figure 3 Innovate new patterns for textile designing (Weighted Mean)
Figure 4. Innovate new patterns for textile designing (Percentage)
Table 2 shows that 49% people believed that the created patterns for textile designs were suitable according to the source of inspiration and 51% people thought that the created patterns for textile design were not suitable according to the source of inspiration. 47% believed that the source of inspiration makes the developed pattern of design 1 innovative but 53% thought that the source of inspiration doesn’t make it innovative. 35% people believed that the source of inspiration makes the developed pattern of design 2 innovative and 65% people thought that the source of inspiration doesn’t makes it innovative. 51% people believed that the source of inspiration makes the developed pattern of design 3 innovative and 49% people thought that it doesn’t makes it innovative. 44% designers believed that the design 1 was creative because of source of inspiration and 56% people thought that the design 1 was not creative at all. 44% designers believed that the design 2 was creative 41% designers believes that the design 3 was creative because of source of inspiration but 59% thought that the design 3 was not creative at all.
About 47% designers believed that the innovative pattern of design 1 was suitable for textile designing but 53% designers decline the statement that it was not suitable for textile designing. 58% designers thought that the innovative pattern of design 2 was suitable for textile designing but 42% people decline the statement. 52% designers thought that the innovative pattern of design 3 was suitable for textile designing but 48% people decline that it was not suitable.
Conclusion
This study was carried out to determine the importance of source of inspiration in creating textile designs, to develop creative and innovative designs with the help of source of inspiration for textile designing. The judges carefully analyzed each and every sample; the design composition, the resemblance of the created design to the source, the placement of the design on to the fabric the paper work and its detailing and the color schemes used in the design
After careful analysis, the results were compiled and tabulated. The results showed that all the created designs were more close and resembled to the source of inspiration and the third design was more innovative and according to the source than other designs where as second design was more suitable for textile designing then the other two designs. The placement of the designs on to the fabric looks more creative. The designs created were new and innovative and were suitable for textile designing.
The results evaluated showed a positive response by highlighting the importance of source of inspiration in making designs. This study created innovative textile designs with the help of source of inspiration. The designs that were developed were inspired from the source, so it shows that an inspiration from something can help in creating or developing different ideas and combining them in a systematic order would create something very creative
Recommendations
The findings of the current study have theoretical as well as practical implications. Following were some of the propositions:
a) Further studies should be done to create patterns for upholstery by using William Morris natural paintings. It will definitely give beautiful results for upholstery.
b) The current study can be conducted for designing and constructing a pleasing line of garment using developed motifs from source of inspiration
c) The textile designs using William Morris natural paintings could also be created by optical illusion art method, which will give it a 3-D effect.
References
Bond, W.T.F. (1996). Design Project Planning: A Practical Guide for Beginners. London; Prentice-Hall PTR.
Calderine, J. (2013).The Fashion Design Reference & Specification Book: Everything Fashion Designers Need to Know Every Day.USA: Rockport Publishers.
Haye & Wilson. (1999). Defining Dress: Dress as Object, Meaning and Identity. UK; Manchester University Press.
Phipps, E. (2011). Looking at Textiles: A Guide to Technical Terms. California: Getty Publications.
Stone, M. (2014). How to make a fashion Mood Board. Retrieved April 17, 2014, from http://www.ehow.com/how_8085410_make-fashion-mood-board.html
Tames. (2008). William Morris: An Illustrated Life of William Morris.UK; Shire Publications Ltd.
Studd & Rachel. (2002). The Design Journal: The Textile Design Process, Vol:5, pp. 35 49(15) ; Bloomsbury Journal.
Steed. J & Stevenson.F. (2012). Basic Textile Design 01: Sourcing Ideas: Researching Color, Surface, Structure, Texture and Pattern. A&C Black Publishers.
M??kirinne-Croft, P., Godwin, W., Saadat, S. (1996) A Conceptual Model of the Fashion Design Process, Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education.