Merry Christmas everyone

Hello!

Yesterday I spent the day putting the final touches to my studio in readiness for 2015 - I'm raring to go and intend to make it a really productive, happy, creative and successful year. The rug and some other bits arrived from Ikea... I know it's become a bit of an Ikea showroom but really they are so brilliant at doing great storage solutions and lovely textiles at great prices it makes it hard to resist.

After clearing the desks and moving furniture, assembling things, sorting out drawers and then making it all tidy again I was treated to a delivery of mulled wine and mince pies. Yum! It was pouring with rain outside but with Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald playing and my favourite scented winter candle burning, the atmosphere felt magical and festive and now I really feel Christmassy and ready to celebrate.

Bog Standard make such beautiful candles

This is my last blog post for 2014. So I wish you all the very best for the festive period and I will be back in 2015 with patterns galore!

Love
Frankie x

My work in progress this week...

Hello!
Today I'm sharing a some of my work in progress from this week. I rarely share my work and I'm not sure why, I just think I enjoy sharing and talking about other people's work more than my own!

I'm currently working on some single patterns for a trade show in China. This is the first time I have ever prepared for a trade show and I am really excited. I'm trying to do a variety of subjects but as there is no brief, it's really fun researching trends and experimenting with different styles. It feels a bit strange working on single patterns as I got in the habit of thinking in collections but it's always good to try new things! MATS Part A really helped me with this and I can't wait to be challenged even more in Part B!

So anyway, here are a few screenshots of some of the things I have been working on this week...

I adore the ogee shape - it's so nice to design motifs to fit inside it. 

My motifs were inspired by Scandinavian folk art.

Old bottles and ferns with a mid century modern feel...

These motifs were inspired by old Mexican tile patterns. 

Making patterns can take you on such wonderful journeys!

Hope you have a lovely weekend! 

Love

Frankie x

Essential Christmas Presents for Pattern Designers - Part Two: Creature Comforts

Hello again,

In the second part of my Christmas gift ideas series I thought I would share a few creature comfort gift ideas that you might want to treat a loved one, put on your own Christmas wish list or even just buy for yourself! 

White Stuff Christmas Bear Jumper

I love White Stuff! The patterns on their clothing, the graphic design on their website and branding is so quirky and witty. This bear was a motif that featured throughout their winter magalogue and I'm delighted to see it made it onto a jumper! I love this take on the Christmas jumper trend - it's really understated yet fun.

Ikea Vidstrup Rug

I would have loved to have this striking Ikea rug for my new studio but the dimensions didn't work. I love the mustard and grey colour combo - I think it would look great in a room with white white walls - just making it feel that little bit more cosy.


Tweedmill Purple Sage Mix Wool Blanket

I was given one of these Tweedmill blankets for Christmas last year and I love it - a really stylish way to add some warmth to chilly, winter nights. The hardest part is deciding which colour to choose as they do so many lovely variations. I love my purple sage one. Which one would you choose?

Hope you are keeping toasty warm today,
Love Frankie x

Essential Christmas Presents for Pattern Designers - Part One: Colour Fun

Merry Morning!

I'm feeling very festive today and thought I would share a few of my favourite finds for Christmas with you. Maybe you want to gift yourself for all your efforts over the last year or send this blogpost to the present buyers in your life as a little hint! 

Today I'm focusing on colourful gifts...

Ciate Mini Mani Manor

Ciate Mini Mani Manor

This beauty was a little early Christmas present to myself because I never had an advent calendar when I was growing up. Now I feel like a big kid rushing to open the 'door' every morning! There's a wonderful variety of colours in the calendar and I love the mini sizes - I don't think I've ever used a whole bottle of nail polish up so these are the perfect size for me. The calendar is still on sale and represents good value as a collection even if it's a little late for an advent calendar. It's a great way to have fun experimenting with new colours you might not have instinctively picked. And looking at all the bottles make great inspiration for pattern palettes!

J Herbin Inks

Feast your peepers on these colours... 

J Herbin Inks

Oh la la! These have to be the prettiest inks I've ever seen! I recently purchased Poussière de Lune (Moon Dust Violet!) and it's just so lovely I can't stop using it. Even the shape of the bottle is lovely with it's little pen/brush rest on the front!

Rusty Anchor, Tea Brown, Indian Orange... Such yummy colours and they even do a scented range which I'd love to try! Hint hint! 

Jessica Swift Prints

If you're looking to inject a little bit of colour into your home or studio, take a look at Jessica's beautiful prints. I'm absolutely bowled over by her stunning use of colour. Here's a small selection of her work taken from her website...

Jessica Swift Prints

Swoon! Look how well they read so small too! A testament to her understanding of colour. I love! Imagine having one of those to look at every morning when you wake up - just so cheerful and pretty. I've got one of Jessica's lovely phone cases and it's gorgeous too. 

So I hope that's given you a little a colour boost on this cold and grey Monday morning. I'd love to hear about your colourful Christmas gift ideas! 

Love,

Frankie x

My new studio!

Morning!

I thought I would share a few pictures of my new studio for fun. I'm so grateful to have such a beautiful room to work from at last. For the last couple of years I have been working in a very dark basement room which although lovely and cosy in the winter time was damp and so very cold in the summer - so much so that I had to move out and work at a tiny desk this year until I moved house. 

I always try to be tidy but a lack of space and storage meant that my old room was always a mess and it got to the stage where I didn't want to paint or draw because it just always felt so cluttered. However since I moved house and got my attic room, Ikea came to my rescue! I opted to get a few KALLAX shelving units and I'm so glad. They're really versatile and fit perfectly. 

I also got a chest of drawers called ALEX - which is lovely but disappointing as it's only just A2 size and could have done with being oversized slightly so that you can get paper in and out more easily or comfortably store A3 folders side by side.

I bought 2 MALM desks, one has an extending panel and I wish I'd taken both like this now instead of the cupboard on the other one. The pull out unit on it gives a great bit of extra space when you've lots of stuff on your desk.

As you can see, I went crazy for cactus plants too. I just love them. My plan is to create some terrariums with them some day...

If you're wondering about the candle tins, they are from a company called Pintail and they do the most gorgeous fragrances. One of my dreams is to have my own candle range one day or to have a company use my patterns to decorate their tins. 

The glass baubles in the jar are from Paperchase from a few years ago. It's the first time I could bring myself to take them from the packet!!! I loved the way they were organised in their colours and every one of them is a different colour/finish. But they do look yummy in the jar and it's my take on a Christmas tree for the time being.

I also now have a view out of my window which is a real treat. I'll try to get a good picture of it soon and share it. I love to see where people create and so I thought I would share my space with you! Hope you enjoyed it!

Enjoy your day,

Frankie x

Essential Resources - Jessica Swift's Goal & Intention Kit

Good Morning!

On Monday I woke up really early after a fabulous weekend of fun,  feeling really ready to get cracking so what better way to start the week than with a great big plan for world domination  design delight!

Working for yourself is REALLY hard, especially when you are new to it. Spending many years at school and then working for the man doesn't really prepare you for being your own boss and I find the balance between being really disciplined and losing control of everything is a cause of constant anxiety. I often push myself really hard but don't always remember to reflect on the good stuff - you know, the stuff you did that made you feel brilliant and might give you the confidence you need? So here's a little rescue remedy in paper form.

If you've read my blog before, you'll know what a huge fan I am of Jessica Swift's work. She really switched me on to wanting to make patterns because not only is her work beautiful but she writes in a really nice, encouraging style that says, "you can do it too". And it's not just a touchy feely gesture from one artist to another - here is some actual, practical help in the form of a kit. I used her Goal and Intention Kit in 2013 and I don't know why I didn't use it this year as I feel I would have been way more productive - but anyway I've already started again for next year so no matter.

The kit is a home printable resource costing only $15 dollars - that's less than a tenner in sterling right now. WARNING: my printer is not working properly and my photography skills are not top class so don't be put off by the muddy colours - I'm out of blue! Here's a screen shot of what it should look like:

Mine is more of a crimson and khaki affair but I still love it!

The first page gives you some instructions and then you can dive right in listing all your successes from 2014. Get a cuppa and make this a really enjoyable thing to do, dig deep and try to remember all your brilliant moments from the past year. There's also the chance to reflect on challenges and lessons learned before you embark on your big dreams for 2015.

And here's a small selection of some of the sheets you get to dream big on!

So if you're looking for a boost or just a really effective way of getting your plans in order, I can't recommend this enough. Thanks Jessica.

Have a great day everyone,

Frankie x

Style File - Some really valuable advice I picked up from MATS

Hello!

I recently completed MATS part A - Lilla Rogers' incredible course - I will be reviewing it soon on here but I just wanted to share some valuable information with you that I've found really, really helpful.

A lot of people on the course seemed, like me, to be very concerned about developing their own, unique style. Lots of people asked Lilla questions about this and here I am going to share what I took from the advice she gave. I can't recommend MATS enough if you are looking to up your game in the surface pattern/illustration world. 

Just keep making work

Seems kind of obvious but it does take a degree of confidence and a whole lot of determination to keep going. Making work means putting pen to paper, brush to canvas, stylus to tablet... Going off into your own world of invention and therefore you need to...

...Keep research time to a minimum

The procrastination trap that is 'research' - hundreds of Pinterest pins, trawling through magazines and websites, hours spent 'comp' shopping. Information overload, bored with the subject before you even start to create... Lilla provided a few photos as inspiration to whet our appetites when giving out an assignment and gently suggested that we could just use those instead of spending more time researching and better use our time to draw, draw, draw and create our own unique motifs. And this research rationing can also help you to...

...Stop comparing your work to everyone else...

This kills my creativity if I'm starting a new project. If I start looking at anyone else's work on the same subject I decide that they can do it way better than me and there's no point me even trying... Ouch! So I've learned that...

...Looking at the current work of your contemporaries is not really research

Whilst it's great to admire what other people are doing, keep in touch with current trends etc, I feel it's better to look at the work of others outside of time spent researching for a project. I peruse Print and Pattern etc outside of my working hours in a conscious effort not to let what I see directly inform my work. I feel this to be a really big step in getting to grips with who you are as a designer and developing your style. Look beyond the world of surface pattern for inspiration and that way you will bring your own unique view of the world to your work. So I came up with a plan to...

...Make a style file! Fun task! 

I prefer to do mine on my computer but you could have a scrapbook or journal if you prefer. I created a folder simply called 'Style File' on my desktop and whenever I see an image I like I add it to my file. I don't add anything to it from current pattern design - from designers websites or shops - in fact I try to steer clear of actual surface pattern design stuff altogether though I may look at fashion or vintage textiles. Instead I try to look to other areas for inspiration that interest me. I try to take myself on a little journey looking at things that are unfamiliar  - nature, architecture, vintage design... I also find Wiki Art is great - looking at art can be really inspiring and this app is great if like me you live far from galleries and museums. Look up your favourite museums online - many have searchable catalogues. Basically create your unique collection of images of objects, textures, fonts, colours that you can turn to whenever you need inspiration. Treat it as a journey of discovery and have fun collecting things that make you sing because as Lilla always says...

Thanks as always for reading. I hope this is helpful and I always love to hear from other surface pattern designers so please do get in touch!

Love Frankie x 

I'm back!

Hello! I'm back! And it feels GREAT! I have so much news and can't wait to start blogging again. I've moved into a beautiful new studio, I've been doing some courses and I've signed my first licensing deal! How exciting! 

I'll be sharing pictures of the new and very beautiful studio I feel so lucky to be working from, news about the exciting new company I have designed for, reviews of some courses I have taken over the last few months and I'll be sharing all that's gorgeous from other lovely surface pattern designers too. So I hope you will join me! 

Love

Frankie x