1950’s Printed textile design stands out in its unique design
ideals. Following the sombre nature of
fashion during the Second World War, consumers were crying out for something
more bold, fun and exciting in all areas of design. This, matched with
developments in new screen-printing technologies, and photographic
reproduction, allowed designers to experiment with the use of art and illustration
in pattern design with much less expense and financial risk.
The use of colour, subject, shape and size within these
textiles is wonderfully diverse and takes inspiration from all areas of
life. For me, they were a real
eye-opener in terms of what could be used both to inspire and to construct
pattern designs. The breadth of styles
was huge and ranged from illustrative almost child-like patterns, exploration
of photographic reproduction of textures ( that can be seen as a fore-runner to
the use of photographic prints within digitally printed textiles) to loose
abstract art styles.
Particularly influential to me is the work of Lucienne Day,
which although hand drawn and screen printed, always feels very textural. Her
designs combine imagery from the natural world with bold colours and geometric
shapes, and I feel that this concentration on texture and depicting ‘the real
world’ has strong links to what I am trying to achieve with digital printing.
I was also fascinated by the wonderful ‘conversational’
patterns of the era, which show a great transference between illustration and
inventive textile patterns.
