We decided to visit Sealife Centre on our final day in Birmingham, while we drove up late on Wednesday night, and I spent all of Thursday in the Enactus training, we had some hours on Friday after checking out before we had to get going, so we walked five minutes over to the building.
I loved the penguins and all the different ways you could view them as you walked around their enclosure, and the fact you could see them swimming under the water too. They were clearly used to contact and were happy to put on a show when you were watching them which I loved. I think penguins and sealife could be translated into patterns for particularly young children as I feel like it could be very attractive to them.
I loved the variety of fish and sealife on show, I feel like any of these could make really interesting patterns for children but also by creating them in my more patternwork style, like the shark in a previous post I did, I think these could be quite classy and make for a nice pattern for young adults as well.
I loved the range of texture I found within the tanks and habitats of the animals, the corals in particular were very pretty and I also found the lights in the tanks made really unusual colour combinations. This could be used to create an interesting background to the patterns and also blenders.
I thought the more ugly or feared creatures could be something interesting to look into, crabs to me remind me of spiders which I do not like, although I am getting braver with handling them when I go crabbing. I could imagine an interesting pattern with crabs, especially as they can be very colourful and textured as well. The piranhas as well are given a bad and dangerous name, however I think they are very interesting looking creatures with the large teeth, but otherwise are quite normal looking fish. Again this could be an interesting collection showing off some of the weirder species that the sea has to offer.
Jellyfish I think are capivating, they are so unique and weird and have this floaty weightless look about them. They can also be very brightly coloured and would make for a lovely pattern that I think could be used throughout a range of interior or stationary products, I think it is a very versatile design.
I loved the 360 degree view tunnel, the sea creatures were completel surrounding us and there was such a variety in there. The old turtle in particular was beautiful, and I loved seeing the sharks as well.
Overall it was a really good visit and very useful for research whether I decide to go this way or not, I have ideas for things I could do in my future.
Tahlia Paige 