Online courses

Skillshare courses

Over the summer I subscribed to Skillshare who have a many useful courses for surface pattern design, amoungst other subjects. Skillshare courses are purchased via a monthly fee so I subcribed when they had a special offer on in August and September. I completed the following courses:

Introduction to surface pattern design: creating and mixing patterns (Jenna Fry)
Introduction to surface pattern design: learn AI: create patterns (Bonnie Christine)
Surface pattern design 2: design a collection (Bonnie Christine)
Design and bind your own creative portfolio (Bonnie Christine)
Pattern design 1: creating inspiring repeats (Elizabeth Olwen)
Pattern design 2: a creative look at a full collection (Elizabeth Olwen)

These courses consist of up to 20 modules, with lots of video content and are taught by lecturers (Jenna Fry), and established surface pattern designers.

Scarf samples printing

I found another printer called RA Smart (who I discovered when talking to a silk scarf seller in Borough) who sent me a whole batch of samples which are suitable for scarf printing as the design shows through on the reverse of the fabric. Other printers I have found were not able to provide this, even though they used the same method of printing, and said that they could, but their samples showed otherwise.

From the dozen or so fabric samples I received from RA Smart, I chose to try printing on 100% wool, 96gsm. I chose the wool because, unlike the silks I was considering, the weave is slightly uneven, providing some texture and shading to the design. I also prefer the feel, as it does not feel cold against the skin like silk. It will be interesting to compare them with similar prints I have on silk.

RA Smart's costs are much higher than other companies, with a separate price for printing, for the substrate and for file set up.  In one metre of fabric I have managed to get 2 full sized scarves plus 10 samples.

The designs I uploaded are shown below.

Scarf samples

I have received back my sample designs printed on three different fabrics, at different saturation levels. Despite assurances from the printing company (BeFabBeCreative), and the fact that they use reactive dyes, none of the designs showed through totally on the other side of the fabric, and are therefore not suitable for scarves. I'm going to try another company.  I have also learned that some designs are going to need to be enlarged quite a bit to look effective, and some colour combinations don't work successfully when printed onto fabric.

Skillshare course - Intro to surface pattern design

I have spent a few days following the Skillshare course, Intro to Surface Pattern Design: Adobe Illustrator: Create Patterns.  It takes you through all the tools you need to produce patterns from scans, photos, drawing, etc, and how to use the various tools in a lot of depth. It also helped me with my Wacom tablet, and finally getting to grips with the Pen tool.

There is over 3 hours of videos to watch, created by Bonnie Christine, who is a successful surface pattern designer. Some of the information was the same as another Skillshare course I did previously - Intro to Surface Pattern Design: Creating and Mixing Patterns, but it was still really useful as a recap.

I created many patterns, 2 are shown below. Again, they are not finished pieces, I just used them to practice the techniques being taught.

Pattern collection lookbook

After working through online tutorials and e-courses on surface pattern design, I have created a lookbook which features 4 designs in 3 different colourways. I will be ordering samples printed on cotton lawn, cotton habotai and silk habotai.

Patterns with photos 2

The original photo, taken in Shad Thames, with the reflected and rotated tile and and resulting pattern. I can't stop making these....

Patterns with photos

Photoshop patterns

I have been experimenting with making patterns from photos and scans. This one is of Pussy Willow, reflected, rotated, and merged with various layer blends. I really like the fact that you can still make out what it is, but the image looks totally different and the colours blend in a really interesting way.

The pattern tile:

The pattern:

The original scan:

Surface pattern design

Colour story and colour way

I have been working through a Skillshare surface pattern design course which teaches about designing contrasting pattern tiles, developing a colour story, creating neutrals that blend with your dominant colours, and making fabrics in colour ways. The course explains about Itten's and Alber's theory of colours being perceived differently depending on their surroundings. I think the most successful are the first two colour ways, but I know the actual designs need a lot of work, but I wanted to learn the theory behind it more than produce excellent designs. I will be learning more about pattern design over the summer.

Textile design

I'm working my way through a Skillshare course on surface pattern design, and at the same time making a quilt for my daughter. I couldn't find a fabric with both colours from my palette in a ditsy floral, so I designed one (top) and printed it off on inkjet cotton at home. The bottom fabrics are the purchased ones. The colours on the printed fabric came out very close to the screen colours, with the correct ICC profile selected.

Career map

This ABC of graphic design careers was created for the Professional Practice module and was designed in the style of Uppercase Magazine's editorial layout.

Professional practice - interview with a designer

This article was created for the Professional Practice module - an interview with a designer.

Momento Mori and Vanitas

We were shown examples of art using skulls, in particular Momento Mori and Vanitas. Momento Mori means remember one day you will die, and Vanitas is an art movement that highlights the objects you can't take with you when you die. Both use skill imagery. Skulls can be a signifier for pirates, poison, death, danger, rebellion, Day of the Dead etc, and are found in many areas of art including popular culture, band art and tattoos.

This image is called Vanitas by Antonio de Pereda y Salgado and features skulls together with all the valuables that the person collected during their lifetime.

The above image by David Bailly (1650) is meant to communicate the stupidity of spending money on consumerist items and hobbies and is a reminder that you cannot take these items with you when you die. Most of this style of painting are dark and sombre and are easy to recognise as Vanitas.

We had to design two images, one reflecting a positive use of skulls, and one a negative.

For the positive I produced a pattern, which unless viewed closeup, is not clear what the imagery is. It could be a flower motif, and works quite well, I think.

Teal flowers pattern

Another fabric pattern...

Yellow flowers pattern

Another hand drawn pattern, scanned and designed in Illustrator.

Gordon's patterns

These patterns were created in Illustrator and are loosely inspired by Art Deco and will possibly used for the 4 varieties of Gordon's Gin. I referred to pattern books and books on art history to give cues for the designs. I have also read a lot of books on digital pattern design recently, and spent a lot of time learning how to create different types of pattern in Illustrator.

Hand drawn flowers pattern

This pattern was produced in Illustrator by scanning in my hand drawn flower motifs and using image trace and live paint.

Patterns

I've been playing with creating flower patterns... Colours inspired by the cherry blossom in my garden.

Fabric

Surface pattern design on fabric

These are some of my fabric designs mocked up onto cushions. I'm really pleased with how my first attempt at pattern design worked out. I have noticed that in Illustrator the edges of the repeat sometimes show as thin lines, although when they print they are fine. I'm not sure why this is, because I made sure my artboard was exactly the same size as, and exactly underneath, the tile. And when you zoom right in, the lines disappear.

Surface pattern design

Fabric samples

I received my 20cm square printed swatches back from wovenmonkey.com today. I'm really pleased with how the pattern translated to actual fabric.  I like the fact that the ink roller texture shows really well on the larger motifs, but is still evident on the medium sized ones too. The best texture is cotton drill, which has a slightly ribbed effect. I think I will stick with a grey and white palette, but go for the largest pattern as the design is for a hanging panel in a window display. I will use the smaller motifs on other items in the window display.