Deck Chairs Surface Pattern Design
Deck Chairs Pattern
Summer Holidays
What could be more evocative of British summer holidays than deck chairs! Since my early pattern design of Mid Century Modern Chairs, I have been thinking of a pattern using another chair, so with memories of summer holidays in Southport or at Butlins, deck chairs seemed the ideal subject.
Shooting The Deck Chair
For the Deck Chairs pattern I started with a new deck chair, bought from the Deck Chair Shop in Cornwall. Shooting it from over 20 different angles meant I could create a more interesting design rather than reusing just one or two images. From these images, I created a rough design. So that I could make a selection to cutout using clipping paths. One of them would also be used flipped too.
Colouring The Deck Chairs
The stripes on the real deck chair are blue. I wanted to also be able to change their colour. Using Illustrator I traced the four images and reduced them down to just 5 colours. It was then easy to select all the blue stripes and recolour them. I only used red or blue colours for the stripes as I wanted the design to be as graphic as possible.
Creating The Pattern
It was a challenge to arrange the chosen deck chairs. I wanted them to look as if people had left them where they were. They are positioned in pairs or threes with one of two single ones. The deck chairs sideways on are actually larger than the other shots to give more depth.
More Stripes
I experimented with changing the pattern of one of the chairs by adding more stripes and making the stripes thinner. Although it seemed a good idea the odd chair just made the pattern too fussy.
Colour Combinations
The stripes on the deck chairs are all blue or white. For example R-110 means red deck chairs only on colour #110 which is bright cyan blue. Designs with mixed blue and red deck chairs are coded with RB at the beginning.
Jubilee Tribute
For Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 I created a set of new deckchairs each with red white and blue stripes.
Buying My Designs
Products featuring my pattern designs are available to buy from my shops hosted by Spoonflower and Contrado. As well as fabrics by the metre, they can produce my designs in a range of home decor items including; tablecloths, bedding, cushions, wallpaper, cushions and wrapping paper / gift wrap.
For more information about the history of the Deck Chair see Wikipedia
