I was thinking about what to do with the power supply over the weekend (I already painted it white) and thought it might be cool to put a japanese themed pattern on it - something that would add a nice contrast to the "scene" of objects in the rest of the design... almost like the mod design aesthetic ("60's" mod not "case" mod :p ) of pairing small busy prints with larger design elements. Then I ran across this pattern via google image search, which reminded me of an almost hippie-style paisley, but with that japanese lotus print you might see on a kimoso or decorative fan:
Despite the daunting copyright protection via istockphoto watermark (/scarcasm) - I wriggled the design around into this via photoshop. This was actually more difficult than you'd think because the design is not actually along a grid that is a replicated pattern - or at least if the original pic was, this is only a portion of that pattern. I need something that can be tessellated next to itself around the whole cube and still look randomish. I ended with this:
Then I made the stencil and sprayed it up (yes, inside a cardboard box inside because it's daytime). This project is inherently difficult to photograph due to the UV and lighting conditions, but it came out quite well. Perhaps I didn't put as much tacky spray on the stencil as I needed because there was more fuzzing than I expected, so I ended up going back with a paintbrush and edging out parts of the design with the same white spraypaint. That's the slight finish difference that you can see in the non-lit picture. I think that if I had put another base coat on the power supply initially, you probably wouldn't have seen the re-touch at all. And truthfully, you can only see those brush strokes when the light hits at the right angle and you're close up, so I'm not so concerned about it. Oh well.
The pattern is a little shifted to the right so that I can wrap the pattern around the left edge so the whole thing is seamless. Overall, I think this was a fun, kind of whimsical touch and a good way to do some final testing before tackling the main design (which is kind of scary).
Also - After checking up on how some of the other projects on TBCS are coming (which are all amazing, duh) I realize that my ... uh ... procedure ... is very different than others. Of course, if you are planning on hooking something up to a very specific place with a specific outcome intended, you'd better have a plan from A to B to C. Buuuut - that's not really how I roll. I tend to start in the middle and work my way out to both ends in a really flexible way. I have an idea of what I want in the end, but I tend to get there organically and change my mind half way through. It's my process. So please don't think I'm crazy disorganized or not obsessive about minutia of my design, but ... uh ... it's the journey not the destination?
Ok, back to work.
amberella