Surface Pattern Design

A Thought or Two About Surface Pattern Design Courses
Surface Pattern Design · 01. March 2024
In the world of surface pattern design, where creativity meets business, the excitement of art licensing courses promising lucrative opportunities can be hard to resist. But among the hype and promises of substantial income, it's important to ask whether these claims are genuine or simply a marketing move.
New Trade Shows I visited in January
Surface Pattern Design · 01. February 2024
In this blog post, I'll tell you about my visit to 3 different trade shows and some of the trends I saw there.

Industry Trade Shows for Surface Pattern Designers
Surface Pattern Design · 14. November 2023
After the pandemic, one of my goals was to visit as many different trade shows related to surface pattern design as possible. Over the past two years, 2022 and 2023, I've been fortunate enough to visit many different shows throughout Europe, and there are still many I'd like to visit. Initially, the intention behind my visit was to see first hand what the show was like, who was attending (because, spoiler: each show is attended by a completely different audience), who was exhibiting, and if it...
Pantone Color of the Year 2022
Surface Pattern Design · 10. December 2021
It's here... That time of the year... No, not Christmas! Well, that too. But I'm talking about the first week of December, the time of the year in which Pantone announces the Color of the Year. Many designers and color-lovers start analyzing, making guesses and bets the days prior to the announcement. And since color is so subjective and personal, many will love the announced color, many will hate it.

Patterns and Alleys
Surface Pattern Design · 16. November 2021
Creating a balanced pattern can be quite challenging. Especially when the repeat is obvious or we see "alleys". What are these? In this blog post, I'll tell you a bit about them and show you ways of fixing or avoiding them.
Patterns & Scale
Surface Pattern Design · 10. November 2021
Scale is another big aspect you have to consider when you see, create or present patterns. It's also a pain point for some, taking us back to those dreadful math lessons at school. And don't even get me started with inches and centimeters conversions! There are several factors to consider before you set the scale of a composition though. Nothing is written on stone, as always, but here are just a couple of things to know about scale.

5 Ways to level-up  Patterns (Part II: Composition)
Surface Pattern Design · 23. December 2020
In this blog post, I show you some ideas to work with the background such as background texture, filling gaps, adding shadows, a simple and a complex pattern-in-pattern technique and why not, combining some of them.
5 Ways to level-up Patterns (Part I: Background)
Surface Pattern Design · 16. December 2020
When I first started making textile repeating patterns, I was just happy when they repeated perfectly. After a while my expectations got up and wasn't happy anymore with "just a pattern". I decided to experiment different ways of adding something *extra* to the pattern to make them more special and eye-catching. Here are 5 ideas worth trying.

Pantone Color of the Year 2021
Surface Pattern Design · 09. December 2020
It's here... That time of the year... No, not Christmas! Well, that too. But I'm talking about the first week of December, the time of the year in which Pantone announces the Color of the Year. Many designers and color-lovers start analyzing, making guesses and bets the days prior to the announcement. And since color is so subjective and personal, many will love the announced color, many will hate it.
How to complete a pattern collection with prints and embroideries?
Surface Pattern Design · 18. November 2020
Let me show you how prints and embroideries can complete your collection with an example: a Baby Clothing Collection.

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