Into The 1970s!

Into The 1970s!

The 1970s, at least in the United Kingdom, is always seen as a time of cooling down and taking stock after the riotous things that happened the decade before.

However, there is more to it than that; it was a decade that had its own character and its own version of the styles and patterns of the 1960s. So far as designs went, bigger was better and patterns expanded to fill as much space as was possible. Walls, in particular, had a fearsome expanse of patterning that made rooms appear smaller and much more concentrated.

This pattern, created as a cushion material, would also have looked good as 1970s wallpaper, embodying, as it does, the very much favoured repeated circular motifs. On all of the walls, the pattern is too dark but as a feature wall in the right sort of house it would have looked eye-catching.

If you would like to see larger versions of these designs and my other work then you can do so on my Flickr page, a link to which is here

Mid-Century Teardrop Design

Mid-Century Teardrop Design

Mid-Century Teardrop Design Swatch

Teardrop motifs have been in existence for a good many years, certainly since before the mid-century decades and are usually just an ellipse pulled slightly out of shape.

They are used here with some straight lines to give a simple but very effective look to a wallpaper that was intended to be used in a 1960s room. Here the room is the living room that I often use because the light through the window seems to look so good. Overall the effect is not spectacular, not instantly 1960s, but it is the sort of wallpaper that would have been chosen by many householders in that period to create a pleasant and also relaxing living area.

According to my notes (accuracy not guaranteed because I do change colours and forget to change the note) I used a background of silver gleam, motif colours of brass, montella, clover leaf, poppy red and orange while the stroke is chocolate.

If you would like to see larger versions of these designs and my other work then you can do so on my Flickr page, a link to which is here

Mid-Century Net

Mid-Century Net

Mid-Century Net Swatch

Net curtains were used in almost 100% perfusion during the mid-century years in the United Kingdom and continued to be popular up until the turn of the century when, in many cases, they were replaced with blinds.

I think nets were very much taken for granted and probably not a lot of time was spent on choosing and most of the designs seemed to echo those of the pre-ware days. However, it is fun to make them and try to get them to look real and so I have spent some time designing and modelling to create the net curtain set above. This room is lifted from my 1960s bedroom set which you will have seen before.

If you would like to see larger versions of these designs and my other work then you can do so on my Flickr page, a link to which is here

Cinema 4D Irawan Cloth Shader

Cinema 4D Irawan Shader

Since release 16 (I think) Cinema 4D has had its own cloth shader in the reflectance channel, the Irawan Shader, and I have been waiting for a good time to try it out.

Well, that time has arrived and the post yesterday used that shader for both the material on the sofa and the carpet. For those interested in such things I have posted above (and on Flickr) a detail of the image which shows the effect better.

For both textures I used only the reflectance channel, using a coloured layer mask in much the same way that C4D use for their sample materials. Yes, I know there is some moiré which, if I was clever, I would have got rid of by upping the anti-aliasing but overall, I am pleased with the effect.

Mid-Century 1960s Carpet

Mid-Century 1960s Carpet

Mid-Century 1960s Carpet Swatch

It’s hard to classify carpet textures as mid-century or later (or, for that matter, earlier) since there is so much similarity in the patterns that were used. For the United Kingdom. however, it is possible to say that mid-century carpets tended to more colourful and to have more complex patterns.

This design is mostly my own but I believe it is the sort of design that the householder might have found acceptable in the early to late 1960s. The background colour is bold which would have fitted into a room of that period and the motif is striking enough to have got the carpet noticed! Fitted carpet – although available since before the war – was still quite new to rooms and so floor covering was an important purchase to which a lot of thought was given.

On a personal note, I have to say that I think carpet looks a lot nicer and sets a room off better than the floor boards which seem so common today. OK, so maybe that is because when I was a child the house in which I lived had floor boarding because carpet was too expensive so maybe that colours my opinion – who knows?

If you would like to see larger versions of these designs and my other work then you can do so on my Flickr page, a link to which is here

Cheating!

Cheating!

Cheating Swatch

I’ve cheated a little by using a pattern that was originally at quite a tight repeat in a way that gives it more of a modern look while still keeping faithful to the design.

This type of pattern should be at a much smaller scale and perhaps it ought to be a little less saturated. Looking like that it could be a pre-war wallpaper or perhaps a design that was resurrected after the war had ended but to make it look better, (I think it looks better), I have changed the pattern to use it at a larger scale and this is the result.

Although this is my 1950s living room with its studio couch and old BW TV, the walls lift the room and carry it forward into the next decade to make it more of a 1960s design. Even with the original 1950s green paintwork (oh, they loved green then!) and the dark wood-stained door, the room looks more modern. Maybe you can think of it as a 1965 room that has been partially decorated but which still has the original previous decade furniture. In modern parlance, it is waiting for a full makeover.

It is an interesting exercise because it does show one of the differences between the decades as well as being interesting in itself and for its own sake.

If you would like to see larger versions of these designs and my other work then you can do so on my Flickr page, a link to which is here

Parents Mid-Century Wallpaper

Parents Mid-Century Wallpaper

Parents Mid-Century Wallpaper

An interesting title, perhaps, but when I created this it was in response to several wallpaper designs from the 1950s that I knew would be the sort of designs that parents choose.

It is also, of course, the type of restful and non-confrontational design that many house owners of the time could have chosen because of its simplicity and its charm. The pattern is a classic idea using mid-century colours, although the motifs are my own (in fact, they are more modern on reflection than I intended). The overall look is perhaps a little stately but also a lot restful and I always think that this style of pattern makes the rooms look higher and airier.

The effect, in this 1950s dining room, is graceful and more than a little alluring. To be honest, it is the sort of look that does even today appeal to me.

If you would like to see larger versions of these designs and my other work then you can do so on my Flickr page, a link to which is here