Thursday 21 August 2014

Make it in Design School - Tribal Pattern


I have been an avid fan of all things to do with surface pattern for along time and been following many artists and illustrators on blogs such as Print and Pattern and Rachel Taylor's The Art and Business of Surface Pattern.  For a while now I have fancied participating in a course but have been too busy with other commission to do so.

I have had a go at making patterns in Photoshop with the help of tutorials and YouTube so I decided to bite the bullet and signed up for the Make It In Design - Summer School.  It's been such a lovely feeling being part of this creative community and I love how everyone's designs I have seen are so different from each others.  


I missed the first tropical brief but I have just submitted my entry for the beginners second brief: Tribal.
I decided to base it around the tribal warriors and african symbols and keep it child-like rather than being more abstract and geometric.  I have used a few of my animal characters before to create a simplistic pattern so as I only started the design yesterday I decided to do something similar.  I created a couple of warrior children and used flowers and their love of white dotted face makeup as my inspiration.  I then incorporated the symbols meaning: abundance and greatness as the flower-like and radial symbols worked well with the dotty face paint.



African Symbols

I felt a bit nervous submitting my final design as I know it's not a seamless pattern and a bit random but in the end I just thought it's something slightly different to what I usually do and I feel quite proud I managed to get it done really quickly. I am going to develop the design further and make some cushion and bedding mock ups.

Work in Progress
My final submission - Little Warrior


I am so glad I have participated in this brief and look forward to the third one.  I will definitely participate in more online courses and community-based projects now I have dipped my toe into the water.  I fancy trying out Mail Me Art, The Draw and Cook and Minted.com. 



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