Week 1 - Initial Concept

After learning that the main brief of this unit is self initiated, i was excited to start planning and generating ideas that really excite me and motivate me to work.  After toying with many different concepts and ideas I have finally landed with the idea of  'Comfort and Wellbeing'. The main focus is on designing interiors mainly aimed for the bedroom that will help bring comfort to those who struggle with Mental Illnesses. Unlike many projects that relate to mental illness I really want to stay away from focusing on the negative but more on the positive, to hopefully design a body of that will comfort people and make them happy. 

I know a lot of people find comfort within their bedroom, they see it as a safe haven from the world, as it's their space to be and feel however they want, which is mainly why I am directing my work in this direction. I have also thought about dipping into designing for stationary as I know a lot of people struggle with anxiety surrounding school and university but with stationary it tends to get people excited about going to school, but I think for the time being I will leave this at the side and see how I manage my time later in the project. 

A massive theme of this concept that I am going to be looking into is colour and materials that bring people happiness or bring them comfort in their time of need. I know I want to look deeply into colour theory and how colours can either promote happiness or promote sadness/anger, especially as i see this project being really bright, layered, colourful and textured. My outcome is to produce work that will really bring people happiness by seeing/feeling it. 

As for the live brief, I am struggling to pick which one to chose. I am swaying more towards the John Lewis brief purely for how well it has been set out and instructed. But I need to put a lot more thought into this. Planning out a timetable I am struggling with as I can feel myself already drifting to spend more time on our initial project but I don't want to completely rule out this brief either. But I plan to have researched/started initial drawings for both briefs once we have come back after christmas.

Below: some initial inspiration on pattern/colour.