My current research explores: "How can a breadth of creative skills, acquired and developed through working with analogue textile processes, coexist with contemporary digital textile design and production?"

I have interpreted my personal "Digital Encounter" as an on going investigation in the relationships between traditional and contemporary textile print methodologies. One-off and mass production methods are also explored in the work.

The traditions of quality and the historical value of bespoke hand made furniture are a timely reminder of the current revolution in textiles production and how we encompass contemporary design and production methods. In the production of the two-seater sofa I worked with the Upholstery workshop, a craft based bespoke furniture company, based in Kent. The Upholstery workshop team have not previously worked with a textile designer who uses digital engineered print formats. This project also represents an opportunity to explore the similarities between fashion pattern cutting and engineered print for interiors.

My research into computer aided design programmes has yielded surprising similarities to the hand crafted screen-printing techniques that I have developed for over twenty years. Adobe Photoshop affords the ability to think in layers and this is an inherent part of the screen print process. For printed textile production the need to colour separate and think in layers is an essential part of the translation of design concepts into textile prints. In this respect, I explore the application of computer-aided design from a craft perspective.

In the "Digital One-off" pieces I explore the relationship between the three-dimensional form of the object, pattern cutting and the two-dimensional digital printed image. The sofa and triptych are designed as digital one-offs, a carefully crafted balance of the hand and the digital.

• http://www.crysalis-network.eu/en/neil-b...
• http://www.research.ucreative.ac.uk/1826