I Want to Design

Whatever project you do, it's always easier

if you have the right tools for the job.

The same goes for design.

Now, no one would expect you to have all the tools that a designer

might ever need, but I like to keep what I call my design box,

so whenever I go to make or design something,

I know that I've always got some essential tools to hand.

Let's see what's inside it.

I always like to keep two sets of scissors - one big and one small.

I've got the larger scissors for any time I'm cutting through

card or paper and I want to make some nice straight lines.

Just works really easily.

You can also use the larger scissors for fabric.

I've also got some smaller scissors which are really great

if you're cutting round smaller shapes

and you just want to make it a bit more intricate and detailed.

These are great for cutting round corners

but they're also good for cutting threads.

So, also in my toolbox, I've got some measuring tools.

I've got three sets here - a large tape measure,

and this is great for when you're measuring really big spaces.

I've also got a small ruler which is really useful

for if you are measuring around card or paper.

Then I've got a measuring tape which is brilliant

because it's flexible so it's really useful for around fabrics.

Put these back in. Next, I've got two sets of glue.

First, a glue stick and this is really useful

for sticking bits of card and paper together

but then I've also got a craft glue.

This is great for sticking things onto your material

and you can get this from any craft store.

Next up, another really important thing for me is a sewing kit.

In here, I've got loads of different coloured threads which

are really, really useful and also different sized needles, so when

you have different thicknesses of fabric

you can choose which needle to use.

I've also got some safety pins which are really great

if you want to hold something in place before you sew it.

Another must in the design box is some pens and pencils.

I've got some marker pens here which are really great

for marking on to fabric but also a pencil -

really simple and really great for sketches.

Don't forget a rubber as well, just in case you make a few wrong marks.

Lastly, one thing that I really like to do

is collect pictures for inspiration.

Whenever I'm just sat down reading a magazine, I'll be looking

at pictures of colours and textures, anything that really catches my eye.

If I really like it, I'll just rip out the picture

and put it in my design box for later.

Now, you can get everything in here quite cheaply

but you don't need to get it all in one go.

The thing about a design box is that it grows over time

and the box doesn't have to be expensive.

Why not recycle something like an old shoe box?

You can personalise it in any way you like. What about using coloured card?

You could stick that all the way around your box

or you could even use fabric, different types of fabric.

Stick that all the way around.

You can even customise it with ribbons

or get some felt-tip pens and crayons and draw your own special design.

At the end of the day, it's your design box

and you want to decorate it with whatever you think looks good.

A lot of people think to be good at art and design,

you need to be good at drawing and painting.

This isn't always the case.

Collage is a great example of a different way of making art.

The name comes from the French, coller, which means "to paste,"

and that's it.

To make your design, you simply stick and paste objects

and images to create a brand new picture.

That's exactly what Lydia and I did

to create a new picture for her bedroom wall.

What I've done is to get a piece of board, some exciting glue

and I've printed loads and loads of pictures.

What we're going to do is when we've got a lot of these together,

we're going to cut around them and layer loads and loads and loads

to get this mad picture of everything we want.

It doesn't have to be board. You can use a piece of card instead.

You will need paper glue.

Remember, you can use anything to create your collage.

Pictures from magazines, old family photos, or like I've done here,

print images from a computer.

First, decide the layout you want and then stick the pictures down.

There's no right or wrong way to do this because it's your picture

and you're in charge.

To get some tips, you could look at the work

of some famous collage artists such as Kurt Schwitters,

a German artist who was a member of the Dada school of art.

Henri Matisse, a French artist who was a leading member

of the modernist and impressionist schools of art.

And Julian Trevelyan,

a British artist who followed the surrealist school of art.

Once you have your images stuck down,

don't be afraid to add to your picture.

This is looking great.

I think we're about ready to make it a little bit extra special

so shall we add something to it?

I have made you some stencils.

What I've done is got a piece of card

and I've drawn with a ruler some letters to make these words.

Then I've got a craft knife to cut them down,

so get your mum and dad to help you, then we're going to get a brush

and this lovely bright red paint

and we're going to paint really carefully in the gaps

and when we peel it off, it should say "Lights, Camera, Action."

As well as stencilling, some artists add buttons and even

leaves and stones to their collages.

Well done. Phew.

-Good work. What do you think?

-I love it. It's really nice.

And it looked even better hanging on the wall in Lydia's bedroom.

The thing I love about design is that it's great fun

and something that's actually quite simple to make can look amazing.

For example, mask making.

It's thousands of years old but it's still really popular today.

Just think of Hallowe'en. Grrr!

Now, masks have always been really popular in theatre,

from the time of ancient Greece...

..through to Japanese Noh...

..right up until the modern day.

Now, some of the simplest of these have been used to convey

different emotions, such as comedy and tragedy or happy and sad.

If you want to make your own mask, all you need is some coloured card.

You could also use plain card

and colour it in with you felt-tip crayons or pens.

A paper plate for stiffness on your mask, some glue for sticking,

scissors to cut out the eyes,

some string or elastic to fix the mask around your head, and then

loads of different accessories to decorate your mask with.

Just make sure they're not too heavy otherwise they'll fall off.

I thought making masks would be a great fun project

for Catherine and Susie, who both love the theatre.

Now, basically, I've done these as examples.

If you're doing a lion-based performance,

you could make something like this.

Or I've done an elephant as another example.

They're really, really simple to make so do you fancy having a go?

-Yeah.

-Cool.

So, Catherine, what kind of thing do you fancy making?

Maybe like a theatrical mask.

Brilliant idea, and perhaps you could do some type of veil on it as well

because we've got loads of different colours of material here.

-Suzanne, what do you fancy doing?

-Alien.

First of all, choose your card and then we can draw out some shapes.

In the centre of your mask, you're going to have two holes

for the eyes so just make sure the shape is nice and large.

Now, in the centre, you're going to do two eyeholes.

You're going to have to judge

where you think you're going to be seeing through.

Obviously around the centre of the mask. Do two.

If you have a look at this one and this one you can see

the shapes that I've done for the eyes but be creative with it.

The alien, you might want different, crazy-shaped eyes,

so just have a go and see what you can come up with.

We've got your basic shapes now.

What you're going to do next is cut out your template.

So grab some scissors and cut around them.

Try not to cut too much into the template.

You want to make sure that it's still nice and big.

Third thing is, we need to reinforce the masks so if you see on this one,

all I've got is a paper plate

and stuck it to the back of the cardboard.

It just means that when you actually hang it on your face, it stands up.

It's nice and sturdy.

You're going to get your mask and put it on top of the paper plate

and just flatten it down.

What I'm going to do is grab a pen

and draw around the inside of the eyes like this.

When you take this away,

you're going to need to cut out these circles so that you can properly see.

Once you've cut out the eyes,

stick your paper plate to your mask using a glue stick.

-Are you happy with that, Susie? Is it all stuck down?

-Yeah.

Do you want to try it out, see what it looks like?

Right. Let's go on to the next stage which is the fun part - decorating.

It doesn't matter how you decorate your mask because

it's all down to your personal taste, and what you think looks good.

Oh my gosh, I love those antennae, they're brilliant.

So, the very last stage of the whole process is sticking on

the elastic so you can properly wear it.

I've got just some normal elastic

and what's a good thing to do is measure it around your head.

I've got quite big hair so mine will probably be a lot bigger than yours.

I'll do it around your head. From your eye to your other eye.

It's probably about that length and what I normally do is add

a bit extra because you are going to tie a knot on each end.

If you cut there for me. Brilliant.

If you're with a friend, ask them to help you measure your elastic.

Then, poke two holes in your mask with a pen

and thread the elastic through.

Finally, tie a knot at each end.

Well, the only thing left is to try the masks on.

Let's see what they look like.

They are brilliant.

When you're not wearing them, they look great as wall art too, hung up.

Whenever you start a design project,

it's useful to draw out a plan of what you want to achieve.

That way you can see what you'll need and also alert you

to any problems that might come up during the design process.

I was recently asked to redesign a bedroom.

This is a three-dimensional plan of what I wanted to achieve.

I've decided to have two wardrobes either side of the window

and a bed at the opposite wall.

The good thing about a 3D plan is that it not only gives you

a sense of the height and the width of the room,

which are two dimensions,

but also the depth of the room, which is the third dimension.

I created this view on the computer

but you can draw this type of 3D plan.

All you need is a pencil or a pen, a ruler and some paper.

The 3D room is based on perspective and perspective is based

on a vanishing point and a horizon.

A straight line across the middle of the page.

Then you draw a line straight down to the middle.

That middle point there is what we call a vanishing point.

If I draw two diagonal lines, equally spaced apart that meet

at the vanishing point,

it gives it the sense of going into the distance.

This vanishing point

and these perspective lines will be the basis of our 3D room.

So, keeping the vanishing point in the centre at all times,

draw these lines up to make a square which is the front of my room.

These are the walls and the floor and the ceiling.

Now, to make the back wall, I need to do a small square,

keeping the vanishing point in the centre.

The perspective lines are there as your guide, so always draw to them.

The first thing I'm going to put in is the door,

which is on the right at the front of the room.

The door frame appears straight, as it is

the same distance at the top from the wall as it is at the base.

Now, in order to make it in perspective,

I'm going to draw the top of the door towards the vanishing point.

Then draw it straight down parallel with the other line.

This is what gives it the 3D look.

Next, I'm going to add the wardrobes to my plan.

To draw the wardrobes, I want them to come out

a little bit from the wall because they've got a bit of depth.

And finish the front of the wardrobe.

Now, to put it in perspective, I'm going to draw

the side of my wardrobe leading back to my vanishing point again.

So I line up this edge with the vanishing point, I can draw

a little line to the back wall where I want the wardrobe to sit.

And again with the top.

Now, if I join these two lines,

that creates a 3D effect on the wardrobe.

I'm now going to do the wardrobe on the other side

which is the exact opposite of what we've just done.

That gives me two 3D wardrobes going straight to my vanishing point.

Now, to draw the bed at the front of the room is exactly the same.

Draw the front of the bed parallel with the front wall.

I'm joining the side with my vanishing point to create depth.

And again on the other side.

And join these two lines.

This gives me a 3D bed at the front of the room.

3D wardrobes at the back of the room.

It doesn't always have to be a 3D room.

A lot of designers use what's called a plan,

which is a bird's-eye view, as if you're flying over

and looking at the room from above.

We are going to draw what we can see which is the square of the floor.

My door was on this side.

To do that, I'm just going to draw a little box that shows

where my door is from above so you can just see the frame.

It opens this way.

I need to draw the wardrobes and I'm seeing them from above

so I'm only drawing the top,

so if I draw a rectangle here.

All I can see here is the top of the wardrobe.

Then on the other side, the same.

Now, I had a bed at the front of the room so this would be over here.

I'm going to draw the bed from above.

Again, just a little bit away from the wall.

That's the floor plan and the 3D room

and you can use whichever suits you best.

A great design and craft skill to have is sewing.

You can sew by hand or machine and once you've mastered it,

there are endless possibilities from creating something simple

like a present for a friend

or designing and making your own clothes.

If you haven't sewn before, it's best to start by hand

and you'll need some needles, some material to sew and some thread.

What people like to do is match the colour of the thread

with the material, which creates what we call an invisible stitch

and that basically means you can't see the join.

I've made my own mobile phone holder here.

If I pop my phone out,

you can see inside that the colour of the thread matches the material

so you can't see any join.

There's also what we call a feature stitch

and that's where you use a contrasting coloured thread

to your material, so I've used blue material here,

and I've got a bright red thread, and I've just sewn it all the way around

and it just creates a really nice design touch.

These are really simple to make

and it doesn't have to be for your mobile phone.

You could use it for your MP3 player

or even just a pocket to keep your loose change in.

To make one of these, all you need is some material.

Choose any colour you like, some needles, different coloured threads,

a marker pen, scissors and a ruler.

The first thing you need to do is grab your material.

I've got some red felt here and I'm going to measure it against my phone.

Just place my phone in the middle and then wrap the material over it.

It's almost like you're wrapping a present.

Then grab your ruler and your pen and about a finger space away,

just mark a nice straight line.

One on that side and one on this side.

Once you've drawn your lines in, you can take your mobile phone out

and then all you need to do is cut either side of these lines

about a finger away.

The same on the other side.

Brilliant. Now, it's time to thread my needle.

As I've got the red material, I'm going to match it up

with some red thread and that's going to create that invisible stitch.

I'll just thread my needle.

It's always good to make sure that you've got plenty of thread,

more than you think you'll need,

as that way you won't run out halfway through sewing.

To make sure that the thread doesn't go straight through the fabric,

you need to make sure that you tie a knot right at the end.

It's really simple. Just make sure it's nice and wet at the end.

Wind it round your finger and then just squeeze it

so all the thread sticks together and pull it taut.

There you have a knot.

Next, you need to sew all the way up the line that you drew earlier.

You need to push your needle through the back of the material

and then pull the thread all the way along until you feel a tug.

If you look on the other side,

you can see that the knot is secure at the back.

Then you're just going to follow the line

all the way along the stitches, going in through the material

and then back down along the line.

Once you get to the end of your material,

just double over your stitches and then this means that

the thread won't fray and your material will stay nice and secure.

Now you just need to do the exact same thing on the other side.

Once you've got all your stitches along the line,

you can turn it inside out which will end up being

the right way around.

Just push it all the way through, right into the corners.

Just like that, and then you can try your mobile phone in it for size.

There we go. It fits quite nicely.

That's the invisible stitch, but to give my cover a bit more detail,

I'm going to add a feature stitch.

For that, I'm going to choose a contrasting colour of thread

which will really stand out against the red material.

Again, I'm just going to thread my needle and on

the top half of the material, I'm just going to sew all the way along.

As this is a feature stitch,

you don't want to see a knot on either side of the material.

A quick little tip is to put your needle inside the cover

and then bring it through and as you can see, the knot is sitting inside.

Then, like before, you're just going to follow all the way around.

When you're doing your feature stitch, it's important to try

and keep in a straight line,

as you haven't got those guidelines that you drew with a pen before.

Again, I'm just doing a double stitch to secure the thread to the material.

This is just on the inside of the cover so that you can't see it.

Once you've done that, you just need to cut your thread. Brilliant.

There you go.

You've got a neat little mobile phone cover

with an invisible stitch and a feature stitch.

Don't worry if your first attempt isn't that great.

Just make sure that you persevere with it

because the more practice you get, the better you will become.

It's great fun experimenting with loads of different material

and different threads.

Give it a go!

Design is used in almost everything,

from the design of a light

to the design of the logo on your sports gear.

Logos are a key part of the identity of a business.

As the company becomes more well-known, so does the logo.

Many logos are based around a name or the initials of the company.

Others are more abstract shapes, symbols or pictures.

These logos don't actually say what the business does,

or even what it's called,

but they look good and are easily identifiable.

All successful logos are distinctive and memorable,

and designing a logo for yourself can be relatively easy.

I'm using a basic word-processing document and by using

some colour and shapes, I can quickly put together a logo.

Firstly, I'm picking a shape so I'm going to go for a circle.

Then I'm going to choose a bright colour for the background.

Then I'm going to type in my initials.

Line it all up and there you go.

But you don't even need a computer.

You can use coloured pens and paper like Alex.

Alex is a budding entrepreneur who wants some help

designing a logo for his business.

The first task is to come up with a company name

and he's thought of one that's right up his street.

It's going to be the second name of the road that I was brought up in

and it's called Grove, so the streets are named "something Grove"

and that's where I was brought up

so that's got a lot to do with the title.

Alex has chosen a great design method to make his name stand out.

I want it to be bold, 3D, if you know what I mean, so 3D.

Shall we draw that?

Three-dimensional lettering not only helps a word stand out

but it can look great too.

Write out the word in capitals or lower case.

Alex has chosen capitals.

-Cool. Are we making it 3D like it's really blocky?

-Yeah.

Then make the letters blocky by drawing a line inside.

Then another line following the shape of the letter to the side.

Just imagine you're drawing the letter's shadow.

Off-centre, so it's just behind it to the right and up like this.

Adding colour can help give it the three-dimensional look.

Do you think a really modern green

or is it like a really old-fashioned kind of logo?

I did want the thing to be like a light green with yellow,

all mixed in, like light colours.

I think that looks really good.

Then maybe an orange and red and then red going around

because that's the darker colour, isn't it, out of the two.

Then the orange again, just a pattern.

It would be green, orange, green, orange, green, orange.

Are you happy with this or is there anything you want to add?

I would like to add a computer and then maybe that into 3D as well.

Cool. Does it have to be real or can it be like a line drawing?

I wouldn't actually like it to be real.

I'd like it to be 3D but like a cartoon.

Again, Alex is showing great designer know-how.

Logos should be simple but effective and drawing an object

with just an outline makes it straightforward and clear.

I think this logo's going to look fab in your office.

A print company have converted Alex's logo into lettering

so that we can stick it onto the front of Alex's desk.

His logo can be used on stationery, badges or even a T-shirt.

Design comes in all shapes and sizes,

like designing a big room to designing a small fridge magnet

and fridge magnets are really, really fun to make.

You can make a big one, like this.

Or you can make them really small, like this one.

And if you've got lots of different words,

you can even make up your own sentences.

When I was helping to design a room for Jaya, who loves writing,

I thought magnetic words would be perfect to add a bit of fun

and creativity to her room.

-Give me two of your favourite words then.

-Funfair and park.

Funfair and park. Which one should I do and which one should you do?

-I will do funfair and you can do park.

-OK.

What colours are you going to use then?

I might use some red and maybe some gold.

I might go for a basic green

and then funk it up with some glitter afterwards.

Why do you like these words so much?

You can get a lot of stories

and inspiration from these kinds of places.

You can even cut out letters from newspapers

or magazines to make up your words.

-Are you happy with that?

-Definitely.

-Cool. Shall we cut them out?

-OK.

Remember, when cutting out your card,

it will need to be big enough to cover your magnet.

All we have to do now is stick the magnets on the back.

You can get rolls of adhesive magnetic strips

from most craft shops.

Let's take a look.

-They look great. Come on, let's go try them out.

-OK.

-They look great, don't they?

-Definitely.

But why stop at the fridge?

We've painted a wall in Jaya's room with magnetic paint

so she can have a paragraph of word magnets.