 Congratulations to Karen Mattingly! She is our April Featured Member. Stay tuned to our site to see Karen's promotion launch next week! If you missed the chance to enter into our April Featured Member drawing, please be on the look out for the next call for entry at the end of this month. Add Comment 
The call for our April FEATURED MEMBER is on! The SPDG Featured Member program is a monthly promotion in which we display swatches of a member's surface pattern design work throughout our web site in the header, along with a credit and link to his/her online portfolio or personal web site. We also dedicate a page on the site to further spotlight him or her, including additional samples of work and an interview. If you would like us to include your name in our drawing for April, please reply in the comments section of this blog post by Friday, March 30, 1:00 PM Pacific Standard Time. We will select at random from the list of entries and announce the lucky winner later that day on the blog. In order to qualify for this promotion, you need to be a member of SPDG and you must be able to provide a minimum of 8 different digital images of your surface pattern design work to choose from in order for us to build your feature. If selected, you will be contacted with further information and instructions. Being the SPDG Featured Member is a wonderful way to gain exposure for you and your work. Let us help promote you! Kiera  Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design Techniques, Tutorials, and Inspiration Laurie Wisbrun Chronicle Books 2012 US RotoVision 2011 SA
The information on understanding patterns and the fabric industry provides a good overview for beginners, though it is not as in-depth as someone who is more advanced would want it to be. However, the tutorials really shine. That alone is worth procuring a copy for your bookshelf! -Karen  Ladies and Gentlemen, let us travel back in time and open the surface pattern design vaults of yesteryear for a little educational exercise. Our guide today will be "Commercial Art and Design: Design and Decoration" by Art Instruction Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota, an art education manual from 1953 that I found at an antique store. This booklet was a major score for me. Not only am I a surface pattern designer who is always on the lookout for new sources of education and inspiration, but I adore mid-20th century design! And, where can I find a more appreciative audience with which to share my second-hand find than right here on the SPDG blog? Excuse me while I do the Snoopy dance . . . Let's get started with today's lesson. As most good instruction should, this manual starts out with a definition. "Design: the adaptation of forms to space, objects and materials; artistic invention." To help us turn our wheels of artistic invention, we are presented with the following fun little challenge. Begin by creating a very simple mark, like the arrow that is pictured in the image below. Copy that mark at least ten times, then add different types of lines around and over each of the original marks to create entirely new motifs.  Be sure to use one color for the original mark and a second color for the added lines so that it is easy to follow your progression. It is also recommended that you snug your new lines in close to the original shape, so as to prevent them from looking "stringy" or "vague." My advice from 2012: play with it. Do both and see what happens! Either way, you should now have at least ten new motifs on your page that you can then arrange into an even bigger, super-motif or a pattern. This concludes our brief sojourn back to the Fifties. There is more to share from this art instruction booklet, so stay tuned to the SPDG blog for the next installment. Now, off to doodle! -Kiera On April 9, we’ll be featuring an interactive critique night with industry veteran Teliha Draheim of Image West Designs. Teliha has been involved in the textile industry as Designer, Art Director, and Marketing Specialist. As a Designer Licensing Agent for 14 years, Teliha has established relationships with major Bay Area and Fortune 500 companies. She also creates her own design work, offers seminars in the business of surface design, and provides consulting services to designers. Teliha will be reviewing surface design work brought in by participating members and providing her professional opinion on each piece regarding its marketability. Although the number of participants having work reviewed is limited, there are still a few spots left!! If you would like to have your work reviewed, contact info@surfacepatterndesignguild.org with a brief message saying “I would like to have my work reviewed on April 9” (no need to send artwork). Sign-ups are for individual pieces of artwork only. A “collection” of designs shown together (and that clearly go together) qualifies as a single piece. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to have your work evaluated in a supportive, non-business setting and to see the work of your peers. It will be a great learning opportunity for everyone in attendance. ~Sarah  Surtex's web site has some short, insightful interviews with long-time exhibitors and attendees of the show. Find out what's been changing in the industry and what to expect from artists at the 2012 event. -Kiera  Did you miss our meeting on Monday? Well fret not! Videos of the live tutorials have been posted in the members-only archive available from our Members page. In addition to the seven live recordings by Monday’s presenters (Sarah Schwartz, Jill Turney, Ben Corrales, and Ruby Geisler), there are two bonus videos from Will Tait. PLUS there are some supplemental notes too! If you don’t remember the password that was emailed to you when you joined, please email info@surfacepatterndesignguild.org If you have additional questions about the techniques demonstrated, please use the members-only Forums to ask the presenters. ~Sarah  Have you started planning summer vacation yet? If you're looking for something beyond the typical tourist experience and want a little creative inspiration, check out artist/DIY guru Jill Bliss's luscious-sounding artist getaway in Portland, Oregon this July. Using Jill's popular Drawing Nature journal (Chronicle Books) as a reference, you will expand your drawing skills in a series of workshops and put them to use on guided explorations of local nature areas, as well as the charming neighborhoods of one of America's most inimitably quaint cities. In addition to the workshops and excursions, the 3-day retreat includes home-cooked organic breakfasts and lunches, a copy of Drawing Nature, an illustrated guide to local eateries, and a more goodies yet to be announced. And, if you want to stay in the historic building that houses Jill's studio, beautiful guest accommodations are available. The retreat is limited to 10 people, so it promises to be an enriching and engaging experience. For more information about this unique opportunity, please visit Jill's site. As she so perfectly puts it on her web site: "You've seen 'Portlandia' - now come see the real thing!" -Kiera   "What we use every day can be beautiful, creative and friendly to the world." –Waste Not Paper We've talked a lot about fabric in the Designing Green blog series, so I would like to turn our attention to another huge market for surface pattern designers: paper. Much like the textile industry, the paper trade is one of the most damaging to the environment. From the ruinous effects of deforestation, such as habitat loss and the massive reduction of carbon dioxide-absorbing trees, to the air and water pollution that is caused by manufacturing, the pretty paper items we designers want to bring to the world have a side to them that's not so much…well, pretty. So, what's a surface pattern designer who wants a gig in the paper industry to do? For one, you could work with a company like Waste Not Paper in Chicago, Illinois. Waste Not Paper is the wholesale division of the popular paper and gift retail chain Paper Source in the US and its mission is to supply beautiful, environmentally friendly paper products at a reasonable price. A green ethos permeates just about every aspect of Waste Not Paper's business. Their products are sourced from within the US, keeping it local for American retailers. They work with paper mills that meet sustainable forestry and energy-use standards as well as with artists making paper items by hand. Many of their paper lines contain recycled content and are manufactured without the use of elemental chlorine (PCF), and if printed, are done so using printers with reduced volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. Waste Not Paper even strives to maintain a green work environment. Their office promotes recycling and creative reuse of scraps and packaging materials, participates in Chicago's Bike-to-Work-Week, and is situated near public transportation. Waste Not Paper: Thank you for proving that gorgeous, creative design and protecting the earth do not have to be mutually exclusive! -Kiera P.S. I am available for hire as your next designer. Have you been wanting to expand your knowledge about using computers in your surface pattern design work? Next Monday, March 19, we will have an experienced panel of members presenting tutorials in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Live demonstrations will show techniques in creating line art from a photo, how to use the “draw inside” technique in Illustrator, making custom art brushes in Illustrator, using the color replace tool in Photoshop, Creating Repeats in Photoshop, and using the Blend Tool in Illustrator. Join us and pick up some great tips related directly to surface pattern design! Not to be missed! ~Sarah | Do you have surface pattern design related news, information, or tips to share? We want to hear from you! ArchivesMay 2013 CategoriesAll |
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