Skillshare class - Winter Wonderland Challenge

I recently set a fun challenge in my skillshare class The Art of Typography. I asked the students to design a festive greeting card where the emphasis was on the typography. I was really surprised by the variety of submissions and found it a lot more difficult to judge than I thought I would... 

1st place

Nicola Jones of Gooseberrymoon designed this card that I chose as the first place. What caught my eye was the cheerful nature of the typography. Even though the type colour is dark it works really well against the red pattern. I also felt it could easily be extended into a whole range of wrapping paper and gift tags. Nicola received a pack of 25 of her very own cards printed. 

2nd place

I was torn between 3 designs for the 2nd place... What impressed me most about Mel Paul's (from The Original Thread) design is the process and message. Sometimes, as a designer, I find myself lost for words but I really like the sentiment of the wording here. And also the process Mel went through to design this card. As you can see in the image below she cut out all the lettering to make a stamp. I'm amazed at how well she did this and keeping the kerning in order!

Mel wins a pack of 10 of her cards printed.

As you'll now see from some of the designs below, it was a difficult choice judging!

This stunning card from Bonnie Peters would make a perfect christmas card. Whilst I really liked the hand drawn lettering what really catches my eye with this card is the fabulous photo (that Bonnie took herself). 

I love the simplicity and simple messaging of this design by Danielle Perry. I think it could easily be made into a set of 4 cards using a similar style. Great work Danielle!

Another fun design from Hande Karaaslan. I can see this working on gift tags too. 

This joyful design by Liz Perez used a nice approach of mixing English and Spanish. I wonder if it could be extended to include some more languages.

Happy Holidays by Mark Morris was my husband's favourite (he's a designer too!). I love the way Mark got the word Happy to act like a ribbon around the word Holidays. 

Since launching the course I've found it fascinating to see everyone's different styles and when I saw Mei Ling Chan's design above my eyes really lit up! I think it's such a unique approach to a Christmas card, and whilst it might not be to everyone's taste there's a whole market who would absolutely love this design!

I love the way Sara Fabbro incorporated a Christmas tree shape into her message using hand drawn lettering. Great fun!

I think Sarah Book chose some perfect typefaces for her striking design. I can really imagine this on the shop shelf along with a few more designs in the collection. 

What's your favourite design?

I'll be holding another challenge soon in my class. If you would like to sign up I'm offering 25% off with the code XMAS25, so you can learn all about The Art of Typography for only $15 (about £10). 

Christmas Card Swap 2013

I'll be honest, I got my Just My Type card range printed just before Christmas last year which meant all my family and friends got them for Christmas! I added a new addition to the range this year but I thought it was time my loved ones deserved something different... I could get some of my other designs printed but that seemed too easy and too predictable. So I did a shout out on facebook and twitter and asked if any fellow creatives fancied a little card swap this year!! And I was so pleased with the positive responses I received. I was after 3-4 people to swap with but got 5 which is a perfect number I think. So my family and friends will now be receiving some of these little beauties for christmas...

Striking hand finished cards designed by Made by Mrs M otherwise known as Kate Marsden

Beautifully detailed handmade cards by MissyCards. A good friend of mine has just given birth so Baby's First Christmas will be sent to a good home!

A great selection received from Say It Hand Made. I love the Christmas Tree!

I love Lindsay Bucks style, based upon collage cut outs of shapes that were created with hand drawn elements and digitally arranged. You can purchase her cards here.

And finally Emma Frances's exquisite illustrative cards. Check out her Etsy store where you can also purchase matching gift tags. 

Have any of you taken part in a similar swap or skills swap? It was so nice checking the post each morning to see if I had received a new package. I'd really recommend you trying it and letting us know how it goes :)

The Pin hop story

A whole bunch of my surface pattern design friends are getting together for the first ever Pattern Design pin hop, starting this Saturday 15th June... sounds cool right? I wish I could've taken part!

So here's the story...

Last January a group of designers got together and created a pattern design blog hop, which turned out a great success!  But looking through more than 50 separate designers blogs took ages!

So, after that weekend they started a serious discussion: How to keep the idea and creative input of a blog hop, but make it easier to pick and mix and find just your favorites? The answer was, of course, Pinterest!

Where else can the visitor get a quick overlook and  pick out exactly want they want to see, without going through every link in a chain? And all designs are clickable, taking the visitor directly to the designers blog, to see the whole portfolio. On pinterest you can also make comments, share, like, and save to your own favorites. Perfect for all visual artists!

So here it is, the first ever Pattern design Pin hop! 

On Saturday, June 15, close to 50 designers will pin their best interpretations of 4 different themes from an A/W 13-14 brief (by Patternbank) to this unique board! To see the complete work by any designer that catches your eye, just click on the image!

This board is hosted by Find New Designers, a fast growing directory of independent professional print and pattern designers, found on the website findnewdesigners.com (another great opportunity to find talented pattern designers)

This pin hop is organized by Tina Olsson, who sells her design under the name FYLLAYTA.

The link to the Pin Hop board is here.

Home Sweet Studio

Following on from my recent post about the pros and cons of working from home, today we are going to get nosey and have a look at some home studios. I belong to a group of surface pattern designers who all started sharing their work spaces and I found it fascinating. Probably because my studio/office is the spare room and a bit of a temporary set up until we either get an extension or move house. So looking at other people's lovely studios is a bit of a past time of mine and thankfully pinterest keeps me entertained. But I decided to ask some friends and twitter followers if they would like to share their work spaces - now keep those green eyed monsters at bay!!

Artist and designer, Ruth Parker lives and works at the stunning Abbey Arts Centre

Here's Danielle Somerfield's of Bear Hat Illustrations workspace. I love all the images on the wall.

Vintage and contemporary furniture suppliers, Johnny Moustache, have a fitting office space with a genuine 1950s Worsted rug, an Alfred Cox dressing table and the chair is a steamed beech Ben Chair. I think the wallpaper is fab too!

Designer Sam Osbourne has a beautiful brightly coloured studio which completely matches her design style. Check out those little desk toys!

The home studio of the excellent Clementine Digitals. I'm sure those drawings on the wall inspire a lot of Julie's work.

Katherine Emtage has converted a old coach house in her garden into a home studio to make her wonderful bags! Pretty amazing right? To see the transformation check out her blog post here.

Jennie Ingham is a Woven Textile designer, fascinated by pattern and colour. She draws her inspiration from her travels creating fabrics for all situations. 

My green eyed monster is bursting out now! Vintage sign designers, Potting Shed Designs work out of their lovely shed - you can also see it bottom left, view from the kitchen. 

Breathtaking views overlooking Mont Blanc is what designer Susan wakes up to from her home in Switzerland. Amazing!! Susan make cushions, gifts and scarfs inspired by her homeland Scotland - check out her website www.thepurplethistle.com

Dutch designer, Miranda Mol has a great space for designing beautiful surface patterns - and what a great light!

So I thought it wasn't fair to not include my little space, my notice board is a magnetic world map from The Future Mapping Company and we just purchased this cool Lichtenstein cushion from the exhibition at the Tate Modern last week! There's also a print of one of my favourite photographs - Sunset by Stephen Shore.

Hope some of these studios inspire you... Do you love your home studio? please share any links to blog posts or pictures below in the comments!

Branding - Mums on the Run

I want to share with you a branding project I've been working on lately for Mums on the Run UK. When Leanne got in touch via twitter I was so pleased. As mum to a young toddler I know how hard it is to keep fit with a little one... whether it's finding the time to exercise or resisting eating chocolate every time they cry!! Mums on the Run is a community of females who all offer advice and encouragement - check out that Facebook page here.

Leanne had a clear idea that she wanted to incorporate the Union Flag within the branding. It was important the logo looked sporty without being overly feminine. The middle circle acts almost like a running medal that can be used individually if needs be. 

Talent Tuesday - Onneke

Welcome to the second Talent Tuesday featuring the super cool work of Onneke! I've been familiar with Onneke's work for some time now but after chatting with her it's so evident how much her children have influenced her work. From a personal point of view I can already see how my little boy's interests and likes are starting to show up in my designs and he's only 19 months. I'd be interested to hear who or what inspires you, whether in design work or something completely different... 

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into design and illustration?
My background is in newspaper and magazine design. I studied editorial design and rolled straight into my dream job at a national newspaper in Holland. I loved working on all the supplements and being part of a team of very talented and intelligent people. But I was still very young and had worked at another newspaper whilst getting my degree and so at 26 I resigned and went travelling. I met my other half in New Zealand and that's how I ended up in the UK eventually. First I worked for a year on a new women's magazine, which was great fun and taught me so much. After moving I started to do freelance work but always had a feeling that I should do something a bit different. It wasn't until I had my kids that I started to be more creative. It was a very natural process. My son loved drawing from an early age and so I would sit at the table with him and draw as well. I also started to make things like toys out of cardboard and came up with the idea to give them a handmade present each christmas. The first one I made was an alphabet book with collaged illustrations (pictured below). I loved making it so much that I decided I wanted to be an illustrator, even though I knew I had a long way to go.

It's great how your kids have ended up inspiring your career move into more illustration work. How would you describe your style and do you think your background in editorial design has influenced your illustration work in anyway? 

People always say my work is cute, and I guess it is but I would describe it as bright and clean. It's about celebrating the sweetness of everyday life. I always go through the same process of making something, then adding a lot of elements and colours to it, and then stripping it down again. I think my editorial work influenced me in some ways, if I look back at my old portfolio I can see a lot of the same colours, clean lines and elements that I still use a lot now. I had to battle some demons as I moved into this direction because I used to work with a lot of very talented illustrators and I had to realise that my work fits in a completely different corner. 

One of your corners is a successful shop on Not on the High Street. Can you tell us about some of your best sellers?

I have a few things that sell well in my Not On The High Street shop. All my family trees are quite popular with The Tiny Happy Family Tree being the bestseller. There was a Christmas Fayre on my son's school a couple of years ago and I thought it would be nice to have a little stall with prints and other little things. I thought of the personalised family tree the night before and figured that it would make a nice Christmas present, so I stayed up late to design what was later going to be the Tiny Happy Tree. It sold really well and has done ever since. 

I also sell little birth prints that are personalised with a name and date of birth and that make a lovely present for a newborn. The whole idea behind my print collection is that you can personalise them. When my first child was born, I used to love (and still do) seeing his name written down, or all our names together. I made a Tiny Happy Family Tree with our names on years ago, and it still makes me smile. 

I also sell a little collection of cross stitch kits, with a very popular iPhone 4 cover that you can cross stitch with my designs. The cross stitch kits, started of as illustrations with digital cross stitches. Then I figured that it would be nice to sell them as prints but add little kits so you can make them yourself in a real cross stitch. 

In the same way I have been working on knitted surface patterns and I love the idea that you could have a duvet cover with a fake knit (hopefully I can make this dream come true one day soon...)

Gorgeous work! One last question... What are your hopes and plans for the near future? 

I would love for 'Onneke' to grow into more of a brand. I am planning on adding some more products to the shop in the next months (like teatowels, tote bags and cards) And I would love to spend more time working on surface pattern collections and licensing them out. But I am feeling pretty blessed with the way things are going now. I am doing what I really love doing, it's bringing in some money but I am also still in the school playground every day at 3 to pick up my babies and spend the afternoon with them. 

Links

Web http://onneke.com

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/onneke.uk

Twitter https://twitter.com/Onnekevw

Thanks Onneke for a great insight into your amazing designs... 

Don't forget to share your influences and what inspires your work below! 

Spotted! Print & Pattern Mother's Day

It's been a good week for publicity! Over the moon to see my MUM card has been featured on the Mother's Day round up on the Print & Pattern blog amongst lots of other gorgeous designs! Hope all you mums have a fabulous day on Sunday!

Spotted! Business Boom interview

This week has been a week of firsts and to carry on the theme I am really excited to say I've been featured on the inspiring Business Boom Collective site with my first interview! You can read the full interview here and please feel free to leave a comment on the site.

Talent Tuesday - Emma Frances Design

Welcome to a brand new feature on the blog called Talent Tuesday, where I plan to showcase a designer whose work I really love. This might not happen every Tuesday but I'll do my best for once or twice a month. So it's with great pleasure that I introduce you to recent graduate, Emma Frances Designs who kindly agreed to have a little chat with me about her gorgeous work... 

Hi Emma. Thank you for taking part in the first little chat on my blog... Can you start by telling us your route into surface pattern design? 

Well I've always been creative and loved to draw but didn't realise there was such a thing as surface pattern design until I went to university. I took art and design and textile design throughout school and college, these were focused on drawing, painting and sewing though. All are great skills to have for surface pattern design but I hadn't been taught to design on a computer or make repeating patterns. I can remember the pivotal point where I knew I wanted to go into surface pattern design. In my second year at university while i was studying textile design Rachael Taylor gave a lecture about her route to becoming a surface pattern designer. I was gripped from the moment she started talking and knew from that point on that was what I wanted to do. From there I went into printed textile design through my degree and took part in Rachael and Beth's 'the art and business of surface pattern design' where I met some amazing designer friends and learnt how to make my love for surface pattern into a business. 

So after deciding this was definitely the route for you can you tell us how you went about making it into a business and what a typical day might be?

I am just starting out at the moment so have yet to mould it into a fully fledged business, but I am currently building up my portfolio and will start contacting companies very soon for freelance projects and licensing deals.  My typical day consists of mostly designing at this stage, I work at a restaurant during the evenings so have plenty of time during the day to do what I love, making patterns.

What advice would you have for students about to start a similar degree to the one you did? 

As for advice, definitely get some work experience in your holidays while your at university, you won't have time to gain that experience once you've finished and having to work to pay rent.  Also network and meet new designers, it's been wonderful to have designer friends there to help if you need it, give advice and encourage you to do your best.

How would you describe your style?

I always find it quite difficult to describe my style as I like to keep it varied.  I always like to hand draw my motifs though so have a fairly sketchy style and I like to use delicate colour palettes in my work as well.

What would be your dream brief and client?

My dream brief and client, thats a difficult one, I just love designing patterns and especially like to design for interiors, so probably a bedding design brief, any client would be wonderful though!

What are your plans for 2013?

My plans for this year are to continue to work on my portfolio, to blog more often (which is going well so far!), I'm going to bring out a line of greetings cards fairly soon and look into other products later in the year.  I also hope to contact companies for licensing deals, so a fairly busy year and lots to be getting on with!

Links:

Emma's website: www.emmafrancesdesigns.wordpress.com

Emma's blog: www.emmafrancesdesign.blogspot.co.uk/

Bloghop... Let's fly!

Hello and welcome to my first bloghop! You've probably landed on my page via the wonderful print work of Deborah Velásquez. If I'm your first destination I'm number 47 of 52 so please find the time to go back and check out all the lovely work from the other designers. You can click the bloghop button on the left to start from the beginning or click here.

So what's it all about? 50+ surface pattern designers worldwide are taking part in this bloghop celebrating Pantone's colour of the year for 2013 - Emerald Green, with the theme 'Flying.' Each of us have designed a small collection based on this. 

If this is your first visit to my blog, hello my name is Faye Brown! I'm a designer and animator based in the UK. I love all things design - typography, colour and photography. If you'd like to see anymore of my work pop over to my website Faye Brown Designs but make sure you finish the bloghop first!

My collection, Spaceboy, is taking you out of this world into the unknown. Inspired everyday by my little boy, I've designed a collection aimed at the children's market for use on pyjamas, bedlinen or wallpaper. Using hand drawn illustrations, the main image is a pattern repeat with drawings of flying astronauts, rockets and UFO's around moons, planets and stars. With placement prints using the rocket and astronaut. I like the vintage feel of the design yet using the on trend emerald green brings it up to date. I'd love to see my son wearing pyjamas like these and dreaming of being a space boy!

Initial sketches for the pattern. I decided against using the hand drawn type.

Spaceboy repeat pattern

Rocket placement print - could work well on pillows

Design shown on pyjamas using simple stars and stripes on the PJ bottoms. Along with the repeat pattern, a second placement print with the astronaut is used for the other top. 

The theme of 'Flying' was chosen for the bloghop as we are all reaching towards certain goals and dreams in our careers. My hopes for this year are to develop my portfolio and find an agent. I'd love to see my designs on more homeware, stationery and children's fashion. I also plan to develop my card range further (please see below post). I'd love to produce a few more products based on my signature range and build on my online shop and stockists.

Your visit to space is nearly over and now it's time to fly over to Toronto to visit the talented designer Natalie Alexander.




I'd like to thank you for stopping by and massive thanks to Rosie at Believe Creative Studio for curating this bloghop.

All images in this post copyright Faye Brown 2013