Surface-Pattern Design

Creating My Folk Art Pattern

This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on the link and buy certain items, I will receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) to help keep the lights on in the studio.

One of the creative exercises in Module 2 by Make it in Design was to look to our own culture and use its influence in a design of our own. I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch Country and even have some Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. I have never been particularly drawn to Pa Dutch folk art but was surprised when I researched it to find many similarities with my own drawing style. I created a pattern that uses colors and motifs influenced by Pa Dutch folk art while adding my own flair.

I created a mood board with some of the Pa Dutch folk art I found in my research.

Then I drew some motifs, scanned them, and traced them in Adobe Illustrator. I chose colors from the designs on my mood board.

This is the final pattern that I created. While it has the same colors and similar motifs to the images on the mood board, it looks very different because I added my own flair and style.

Finally I uploaded the pattern to my Redbubble shop and added it all sorts of products.

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Creating My Waves & Triangles Pattern

I created this pattern for Module 2 from Make it in Design. Because this design came to me as an image in my head, I skipped the mood board and went straight to creating the motifs.

Color palette & motifs for my Waves and Triangles pattern

I created the color palette by choosing 3 of my favorite colors. I drew the wave shape and the background texture by hand and traced them in Adobe Illustrator. I used Illustrator’s polygon tool to draw the rectangles.

This is the finished pattern.

Products with my Waves & Triangles Pattern

I uploaded the pattern to my Redbubble shop and added it to all kinds of products.

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Creating my Create, Explore, Inspire Design

This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on the link and buy certain items, I will receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) to help keep the lights on in the studio.

Create, Explore, and Inspire is the motto for my life and business. I thought those words might resonate with others, so I created a new design.

I found one of the Art Cards I made a while ago and decided it was perfect to use as inspiration for my new design.

Create, Explore, Inspire, color palette and motifs.

I hand-drew the doodles and patterns, scanned them, and traced them in Adobe Illustrator. For the color palette, I used the Art Card colors and added some darker ones for the text.

Completed Create, Explore, Inspire design. — The Final Design

You can tell the world that you Create, Explore, & Inspire with all kinds of products in my Redbubble shop.

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Creating My Yellow, Coral, and Gray Floral Designs

Creating My Yellow, Coral, and Gray Floral Pattern

My Yellow, Gray, & Floral designs started as an exercise in Module 2 from Make it in Design. The brief was to create elegant coordinated patterns for a stationery collection.

I decided to use this stylized flower I had sketched in my art journal as the basis for the designs.

Color palette and motifs for my yellow, coral, and gray floral pattern

For the color palette, I started with one of my favorite color combinations: yellow and gray, and then added the coral. I hand-drew the flowers, scanned them, and traced them in Adobe Illustrator. I use the rectangle tool to create the diamond shapes.

Concept board for my yellow, coral, and gray floral pattern on stationery

I added color to the floral motifs and used them and the diamonds in different combinations on each piece of the collection.

The yellow, coral, and gray floral pattern

For my Redbubble shop, I changed the name of the collection to Yellow, Coral, and Gray Floral Designs. I tweaked the design from the letterhead to fit the products better. I will be adding the rest of the stationery designs to the shop in the future.

Yellow, coral, and gray floral pattern on products in my Redbubble shop.

The design is available on wall art, phone cases, home decor, stickers, and magnets.

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Creating My Tropical Birds Pattern

I created my Tropical Birds pattern for Make it in Design’s Winter School 2021 Exotic Canopy brief. The brief asked for a moody, warm, and elegant design inspired by the tropics.

I decided to use tropical birds and ferns in my design and created this mood board.

I created the color palette from my mood board photos and drew the bird, fern, and leaf motifs by hand. I then scanned them into Adobe Illustrator and traced them to create vector shapes.