Monday, May 31, 2010

7th Pattern


I just found out that I can create collections in my Spoonflower account. It let's me group similar designs together and gives me a discount when ordering swatches. Might as well add this stripe since it goes with the two patterns of the same colour below. I created this at the same time as the others, just didn't post it at the time.



Sunday, May 30, 2010

6th Pattern

I tried to put my birds in a tree, but I wasn't happy with how it turned out. The birds were from a different planet than the tree. I worked with them a bit and it turns out they want to be in a nest. I'll have to figure out how to get rid of the white border around this image. But, I'll work on that another day.





Saturday, May 29, 2010

Today

This is where I am at so far. I am glad I posted these, it's neat to look back and see what I've done. We'll see where it goes from here! Nervous and excited all at once.

5th Pattern

I originally sketched these birds in my orange Moleskine using coloured Sharpies!! Nothing says inspiration than a blank Moleskine and coloured Sharpies. Anyway, scanned them in and created them into outlines in Illustrator and created this.



4th Pattern

Same feel and colour, but with dots. The nice thing about Spoonflower is that once you upload your design you can have the pattern repeat a few different ways. Same pattern here, just repeated differently.





3rd Pattern

Using that same leaf shape I started to play with colour and layout and came up with this.

2nd Pattern

This is one I just started playing with. I picked up one of the leaves from the 50s pattern (top left leaf) changed the colour and created some kind of plant with it.

I few of these images are screen shots from the designs once I've uploaded them to Spoonflower. It's easier to show how they would repeat.

First Pattern

This all started from a weekly fabric print design contest put on by Spoonflower. The contest was to design a 50s inspired pattern within a restricted pallete. I HAD to enter. So, I created a pattern, entered and got 21st place out of 116 entries. I've created the same pattern in a few colour ways and am still anxiously waiting for my fabric samples to arrive. Once they arrive (I can finally see my print on fabric) but I will then be able to start selling them on Spoonflower, fun.

Here is the fabric design, I entered the red version, since I could only enter one.



To blog or not to blog

As I start to write this, I really don't know what I will be doing with this blog. I am setting it up to document my creative exploration in print and pattern design. I've recently discovered the world of print and pattern design, it feels like a locked door has been open to a world full of visual candy.

I want to give myself about a year (probably less since I am impatient) to learn more about the industry, but more importantly create patterns!

I've been creating them about one a day. They seem to come to me at time when I am no wear near a computer, but I take a mental picture and try to sit down for 10 - 15 min here for brief moments when my children are happy and occupied with something other than me.

For my own interest and curiosity I am going to start to post my designs as they are created. I might have one a day, 10 another or nothing for a few weeks. This is how I work, so this is what I am going to document.

Here we go...