design brief

Design Investigation & work based learning

This project is on design investigation and work based learning and I am going to go through the process of where I started off and where I ended up.

For this project I had to look at a designer or an industry that interests me and I have always had an interest in illustration, I don’t like any type of illustration I like illustration with vibrant colours that reaches the eye and also the movement of the flow that is created in illustration, so my chose topic for this brief that I am going to look at more is illustration so I can get a more clear understanding on illustrations.

I started off looking at the definition of what illustration is to get an idea before starting my investigation, and from my understanding illustration is an image presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to explain or dictate sensual information by providing visual representation graphically.

Research/websites

I then started to look at different kinds of illustration for example illustration advertising where it gave me an understanding on how their work was promoted showing their skills and also a breakdown for example target market and relevant illustrations etc.

Then I looked at several illustration websites to help me start my research and also what field to start working at and I was inspired in several ways of each designer on the way they work but out of the illustration designers the one that caught my eye the most was Jitesh Patel and his illustration and it is also similar to the type of work I enjoy looking at and also inspires me in creating the movements like him in his designs.

Design Investigation & work based learning Jitesh Patel

Jitesh Patel is an illustrator who is based in London(Shoreditch which is in East London) and his work is deeply influenced by the world of nature, fashion and design and executed with a flawless blend of hand drawn and digital techniques.

He describes his studio as fun and shared, and also a great environment to work in with different industry professionals where they usually share ideas with one another.

As a designer he is extremely design orientated, he likes to work on new ideas and concepts and also work them through the computer, he enjoys drawing in his sketchbook and this leads to ideas that build up and start to become useful for projects. Jitesh also states that he creates everything from scratch which makes all his work original and he also says it is important for him to build up a library of small design elements.

He personally thinks that it is important to keep your style as fresh as possible and feels it’s a little like science, experimenting with new methods which will improve your work.

Furthermore he is a quite competitive as a person and this is what drives the process.Finally when he is not thinking of designing he is out shopping and also likes fashion a lot, he also likes to travel, which provides Jitesh an immense opportunity to seek new environments which may inspire him in some way. For Jitesh coming from a foreign land he has come away more cultured and mature as a designer, In jitesh’s work he uses in his creation blends of delicate, complex forms and also uses good use of colour together in a matching way.

He has developed a style over the years which is developing constantly where it is also clean and simple in its form. He also likes to create delicate work which is essential to create a feminine touch to his illustrations furthermore he trusts in the composition and weight of his work and it is also well thought through process and he is also pleased that in the process everything is places logically


The style of work he uses in his illustrations are swooping weaving lines which provide a sense of movement. These forms interact with elements in his illustation for his designs He works with floral designs and nature, it’s a fature to his illustrations depending on the brief, and also likes to overlay his work and have different layers come through which adds a fresh dimension.

Jitesh says:“I enjoy what I do as a designer, its something that gives me a sense of pride. I am very satisfied when ever I complete a piece of work and see it used in a commercial way”.

Jitesh includes the following in his designs for clienteles, logo design, advertising, and art direction. The studio that he works in has become successful for clients in England, as well as being commissioned by international clients. “Jitesh Patel launched the Tote Prints blog www.toteprints.wordpress.com to blog about his large collection of tote bags. He uses his blog to celebrate tote bag prints and the talented designers who create digital illustration and graphic design print. The idea is to create a platform to bring together artists and tote bag prints and to showcase them to a wider audience

Jitesh Patel


Back Paker Magazine (USA), BBH, British Airways, Chiristies The Auctioneers, Economist, Fitness Magazine (USA), Galaxy Chocolate, Guardian, Hal & Riney San Fransisco, HSBC Bank, John Lewis, John Murray Publishing, jury & Co, Laurence King Publishing, Marriott Hotel, La Perla, Little Brown Book Company, Macmilan Publishing, MTV, R-Design Tescos, Square One Publishing, Super Drugs,TBWA, Tres Generaciones, The Gild, Vodafone.

(Arcadia Group, Burton, Miss Selfridge), Bench, Bureaux Agency / Kangol, Fenchurch), Boden, Duck & Cover, Esprit, French Connection, Jack Wills, MK One, (Pentland Centre / Kickers, ellesse), Ted Baker, Warehouse.

His work has been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers and books, including the book 300% Cotton by Helen Walters (Laurence King Publishing), IdN Magazine, Computer Arts magazine, The Book of Skulls by Faye Dowling (Laurence King Publishing) and License to Inspire by Central illustration Agency (Pirum Press Publishing)

PublicationsDesign Clients Fashion Clients


After doing my research on Jitesh I have learnt a lot on what style of work he gets into and also he is inspired and influenced by nature and the style of his work too which is movement and blending usung and layers of the same design.

So I started to begin my research by going to Kew gardens in brentford, Kew Gardens is a garden full of plants and flowers and the reason I chose to go to Kew Gardens is so that I could take pictures of some of the plants to influence them in the style of Jitesh Patels work

Research/Kew Gardens/Email designer

We had to then email the design that we are looking at and I emailed the designer that I am looking at and I just asked him briefly that I wanted to interview him maybe asking him a few questions about illustration and his work and he got back to me saying that the studio is busy and was ok for me to email him a few questions and once I sent him the queations he replied late and said he was too busy because he had a lot to do so he just forward his word press which explained what he does etc, I wanted to get a few questions out of him but the word press kind of answered the questions I wanted to know so I was not as upset about that.

Design Investigation & work based learning shapes cut out to make pattern templates/ steps

I have edited a series of photographs that I took when i went to kew gardens and I only selected a few that I thought would look good as shapes of its natural form to start experimenting with.

I went through the steps as it whos on the left hand side showing then image and also the image being cut using photoshop and also I left it black for now to just show the steps of the editing.

The reason I chose to do my style like this is because I wanted to keep the design original using the natural plants and also in the style of my designer.

Design Investigation & work based learning Experiment Influenced based /developement designs

I have started off using my shapes and editing it in the style of jitesh work but i tried to do the opposite by making the moon white and also add the leave that I used several of time to make the tree look busy

I wanted to create an affect for my design so I duplicated the leaves and also creating a movement and also fading it and making it dark too. I think this effect works well.

I then used the same design and added more, also another element and giving it a green background to represent the whole nature theme being natural

For this design I tried to focus on making a symmetric style of design and also creating a faint in the background to give an illusion and the reason for this was to experiment different ways using the images that I edited from kew gardens.

Furthermore I carried on my experiments and this time I used a different style by making the showdows faint around the border to make the center stand out more.

I left the background plain and simple because the black is a dominant colour and also works well as whole

finally I added more leaves that I created because I want to make the image look more busy .

Design Investigation & work based learning Design Proposal/ Final

After experimenting using several designs using different coloured backgrounds and different plants that I have used I have finally chose where I want to take this.

I have created 3 design proposals using a similiar style to the design that I have created this was the first where I have used repetition in using the leaves changing the opacity from dark to faint to give it that extra effect and I also used a hint of green to add an extra spark to the eye.

The second design I kept the same background but I thought I would add the previous design to give a little more to look at because the first design looked a little plain and needed a little more.

The last design I kept the same as the second design but added the same design and duplicated it again but in white to experiment and see how it may look.

I have finally chosen a final for my project after all my research and influence and the reason I chose to keep my design in this style is because I tried to create a similar affect to jitesh piece with the face of the woman and make the background busy too.

I used the green to represent the whole nature theme being natural.