I often reflect on how I came to be a creative practitioner. I was a web designer and content producer in my past life, and I blogged on this website. I fell into the art world, more specifically, participatory art, in 2017. It gave me a funnel to channel my activism and creativity. It’s been a mostly great experience. Yet, raising awareness of the lived experience of Dwarfism and all that it brings has been a heavy burden at times.
It’s not been all doom and gloom. One practice I have turned to, especially over the past few years that brings me joy and love is surface pattern design. And I realised I have been having a quiet love affair with this for a while now.
A hoarder of pretty notebooks
You see, I am a hoarder of notebooks; I especially love a pretty ditsy one or a plain cover that I can cover with colourful stickers. Did someone just say ‘MT Washi Tape’? I was sad when I had to stop a stationery subscription last year due to tightening our belts. Paperchase and Cath Kidston’s shop closures made me sad, too. Do you know how some people get excited by jewellery gifts? My husband knows how to woo me with beautiful stationery – it’s true!
Starting of a surface pattern love affair
I first encountered surface pattern design in 2010, before marriage and children. I remember trying to create repeating patterns in Corel Xara X and Inkscape (free vector graphics software) and being very frustrated with the results. I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn’t figure out how to repeat unless it was a cute daisy single repeat. I’d also taken the Make It In Design course but lost my confidence when I realised my drawing skills were not at the level of the rest of the cohort.
Surface pattern design took a backburner for another few years while I married and concentrated on setting up a home and raising our daughter until I took a subscription with Skillshare and found a wonderful class by Sketch Design Repeat’s, Shannon McNab and one or two related classes on Domestika.
The Pattern Recipe class shows you how to lay your patterns on the page/canvas, unlocking another piece of the puzzle of the pattern design process. Coupled with taking out an Adobe Illustrator subscription, meant I could begin to practice more.
Developing a style
I’d also been following Bonnie Christie with the launch of the Immersion course and gathered tips from her process. I began to follow Kristina Hultkrantz after taking her ‘Anyone Can Start a Sketchbook! How to Draw Happy Florals & Botanicals‘ class on SkillShare. Last year, I took Polina Oshu’s – Pattern Camp – which I attribute to helping me begin to develop my style.
I’ve learnt about the different types of repeats and colour theory and am having fun experimenting using paper, pens and digital forms.
The Surface Pattern Dream
I would love to set up my own surface pattern design brand. I would love to see my designs on notebooks, pens, washi tape, and even tea towels or clothing.
Over the years, I have set up websites in anticipation of doing this but have always fallen short.
Why?
As Bonnie Christie has outlined in her journey as a surface pattern designer, the first year or so is about developing your signature style. I’m still at that phase, but I know I need to build my Illustrator and drawing skills more to feel confident enough to create and publish a collection. I need to build that community as well, and as I’ve learnt over the years as a sole trader – these things take time, and I’m here to enjoy the experience.
So, is Hello Little Lady all about surface pattern design now?
No. But this is something I’ve struggled with for a long time now. My lightbulb moment came recently when I was reflecting on my Instagram feed. Seriously, if you want a hint about what you should be sharing and writing about, look at your feed. I have a fair few patterns on mine, so the answer I sought for where I should home my patterns has been there all along. Doh!
As I mentioned above, I’ve set up a few websites here and there to silo my surface pattern work and keep it separate from my creative practitioner art and activism here. I worried that it was relevant to my artist and activist work. I worried that it wasn’t the same audience. Would people get confused about what this blog and myself are about? Would people think I’m abandoning my creative artistic practice and activism? Was it something I was hiding behind so as not to continue with my activism work?
Yet, surface pattern design is part of what makes me, Steph, the person behind Hello, Little Lady. I realised I couldn’t separate the two things. It’s not to say the surface pattern design practice won’t grow into its own brand in the future, but this is the space where I can experiment and share what I’ve learnt on the journey of this practice.
I’d love for my patterns to become a well-known brand, but for now, I’m concentrating on developing my style and learning all I can about the industry, and I can’t wait to see how this part of my practice will grow. I feel it will enrich all of my practices in the long run.
I am excited!
Here’s a short video of some of the patterns I have already drawn.
Surface Pattern Design Courses
If you’re curious about surface pattern design, below are some courses I’d recommend if you are starting out. These amazing ladies help break down the learning process to create a digital or paper pattern. It’s lots of fun too!
-
- Pattern Recipes: How to Create Pattern Templates You Can Reuse – Shannon McNab (Skillshare)
- Botanical Patterns in a Sketchbook: Conquer the Blank Page – A course by Polina Oshu (Domestika)
- Anyone Can Start a Sketchbook! How to Draw Happy Florals & Botanicals – Kristina Hultkrantz (Skillshare)
- The Fundamentals of Pattern Design by Michelle Parascandolo (Domestika)
— Michelle also has a gorgeous book called ‘Petal to Pattern’ which is definitely worth a look.
Subscribe to the Hello, Little Lady SubStack newsletter
Hello – thanks for reading this blog post; I appreciate it. Did you know you can also keep in touch with me over on SubStack? I would love it if you could support me over there, too. Subscribe here »