Last November I completed the ‘Ultimate Portfolio Builder’ course with the amazing ‘Make it in Design’ school (you can find out more about their courses here). What a wise decision it was. It truly helped me to consolidate and hone my style and direction in Surface Pattern Design.
The course was absolutely packed with incredible content from beginning to end, all designed to help step outside your comfort zone, and find your unique voice, through a process of experimentation.
One exercise that proved so invaluable to me was the simple process of keeping up a daily sketchbook practice. Thanks to this exercise, I built up a rich bank of motifs which I can call on for years to come in future patterns. The exercise wasn’t simply to draw the things you love (oh yes, we’d all like it to be THAT simple!) but included drawing things you don’t usually draw (for me this was household objects, kitchen utensils and aliens!) and things you find challenging to draw (hands.. and faces). It really taught me that as artists, we cannot simply expect to develop a style without putting in the drawing hours. It is through the process of observation, and sketching that we inevitably build the confidence and muscle memory to eventually stylise and find our voice. Also, it is so much fun to see how many different ways you can draw a dog, a car or … a cup. Here you can find some of my sketchbook pages:
There were so many other priceless exercises that really helped us to push our boundaries and get into unknown territory to find out after all, if that territory might become a place where we could actually surprise ourselves and flourish. I loved the card picking activities where a set of prompt cards would be provided for the weeks theme (such as nature, or animals) of which we would cut out and randomly select 2 -3 to make a pattern from. It was from this exercise that I produced one of my kids patterns collections that I am most happiest with to date, called ‘Lion Fiesta’. The cards I picked were ‘lions’ and ‘people’ (it took a while to think how I could combine the two in a meaningful way but the process of getting there was so enjoyable):
We walked through different styles and genres of patterns , dipping our toes in each one to find out what really excited us. I ended up feeling most energised by the retro/vintage crossover.
A wonderful exercise that highlighted the power of colour, was to make over an old pattern with a new palette from a particular style. I chose a design I had created back in 2017 on Module 2 of the ‘Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design’ course called “Those Magnificent Flying Machines'“ and gave it a new lease of life with a more retro/vintage inspired colour palette. It was so nice to revisit the design after 2 years and see how far I had progressed with honing colour palettes and understanding more about the impact and importance of colour in a pattern. I could clearly see that when I had first started out my designs were quite ‘washy and pale’ and colour had been more of an afterthought than a starting point, whereas now I feel my patterns more considered in terms of colour choices. Here you can see the ‘before (left) and after (right)’ :
The part of ‘Ultimate Portfolio Builder’ that got me producing patterns at a speed that surprised even myself, was the live briefs, provided by wonderful companies such as arts and crafts magazines, or greetings cards companies. Working to briefs for actual companies with ‘real’ deadlines was almost like having an apprenticeship in your own home! I feel this really prepared me well for the reality of working to tight deadlines and more specific criteria and strangely, I quite enjoyed having the pressure valve pushed!
There is just so much more to effuse about this course and its value in really preparing you for launching into a surface pattern design career, I could write for hours! Instead, I will leave you with my video testimonial where you can find out more reasons why this course is so worth investing your time in. Thank you to Rachael Taylor and her incredible support team at Make it in Design. They have helped countless designers break into making a living from doing what they love and I truly hope the next one can be me!