Rachel Wintemberg

This project was inspired by a visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, where I saw flowers created by artists Yayoi Kusama and Dale Chihuly set in outdoor garden installations.

Spring break had arrived, and the wildflowers and gardens were in full bloom. Like many art teachers, I take photographs of flowers wherever I go, and I’ve amassed quite a collection on my phone. Admiring the works of Kusama and Chihuly, I wondered how I could incorporate an original flower design project into my digital art class. We hadn’t yet covered package design, so a flower seed packet assignment seemed like a natural introduction. What about asking students to invent an imaginary insect to pollinate an imaginary flower and then design a seed packet to sell to gardeners?

Tissue Box Template
Speaking of flowers, we were experiencing a horrible allergy season. One afternoon, as I sat at my desk and turned the third empty tissue box of the week over in my hands, an idea occurred to me.

I carefully pulled apart the glued tabs to create a flat box template, divided it into two pieces to fit on two 8½ x 11" (21.5 x 28 cm) sheets of card stock, and scanned the design. I opened the file in Photoshop, added a layer, created a clean line version of the templates, and printed and assembled a sample box.

It’s important to me that my students see themselves as designers alongside other artists and not as imitators.

Satisfied with my work, I invented a narrative for the project: Design an imaginary flower, the insect that pollinates the flower, the seed packet to sell the flower, a box of tissues for anyone allergic to the flower, and a greeting or get well card that uses both the flower and the insect in its design.

Starting with Symmetry
Insects and flowers are fantastic subjects for exploring bilateral symmetry, rotational symmetry, and reflection. On day one of the project, I introduced and demonstrated the symmetry tools in Adobe Photoshop. Then students looked through my photo collections and experimented with creating symmetrical flower and insect designs.

Artist Inspirations
I saved my Kusama and Chihuly presentation for later in the week, after students’ designs were well underway so they could draw initial inspiration from the natural world without feeling obligated to mimic the artists’ styles. It’s important to me that my students see themselves as designers alongside other artists and not as imitators.

The works by Kusama and Chihuly showed students that designs don’t have to be realistic to be beautiful. An imaginary, whimsical design not found in nature can still be inspired by nature.

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