Introducción al diseño de patrones de superficies y textiles: ¡tu camino único!

1. Class introduction: I can't do Hi. My name is Daria Krinsky. I'm a United States based professional textile and surface pattern designer. I turn illustrations like this into fabric and wallpaper designs like this. I live in the Boston area, Massachusetts where I graduated from college in textile design and Fiber arts. And I have over eight years of combined experience as a full time in house product development designer for apparel, home decor and stationery, freelance surface pattern designer and watercolor painter and illustrator. I have a Youtube channel where I share my passion for textiles, patterns, color and knowledge I've collected over the years. Tips and tricks, professional insights, laughs, rent, and so much more. In this course, you will learn about the exciting industry of textile and surface pattern design. A fun and vibrant subdivision of graphic design. How repeating patterns are created, where they can be applied, and how to choose the right fit for you. Among the many opportunities we will discuss supplies needed to become a surface pattern designer. The adjacent industries such as commercial illustration, textile design production timeline, where do we start designing prints and where they can end up software and hardware used to create repeating patterns. How to choose the perfect market for you and whether you need to niche down. We will also discuss important copyright points and how to protect your artwork from unauthorized use. Why is this course special? I personally don't like it when I'm given only one option, one path to follow, one software to learn, one technique to use. If you're like me, I would like to lay out all the possible options in front of you so you can make a conscious choice what works best for you and what brings you the most joy. This class is based on my real life experience in a bustling design world, on a variety of markets and different sides of the spectrum of the design process. Important note, this is an introductory overview and it will not teach you the technical aspects of how to create repeats. I will be recording separate classes to dive deeper into those topics. But don't you worry, this class is packed with valuable industry knowledge and insights that are absolutely crucial to getting started in surface pattern design. Sounds exciting. I'll see you in class. 2. Class project - craft your unique journey: Welcome to the class. I'm so excited that you're joining us. Here is your class project. As a result of this course, you will select a market, or markets you will design for a style to work in and materials to use at the beginning stages of your surface design journey. Your interactive sheets are attached in the class project section. Feel free to look through the sheets beforehand, but I think you will most benefit from the activity pack after watching the class. And please don't stress out too much, remember to have fun with it. The material also includes a lot of product and market categories where patterns can be applied so you can make the best selections for yourself as a designer. Are you excited? Let's get started. 3. What is textile design and surface pattern design: What is textile design? In short, it's any design activity related to fabric. But when we talk textile design nowadays, we usually think of repeating pattern design, digital pattern design, or surface pattern design. All those pre repeating pictures on fabric and your phone case, bedding, wallpaper. And this is what this class will mostly focus on. But textile design is more than repeating patterns. In the course of this class, I will mention more fields within textile design that might appeal to you. It can be things such as weaving, block printing, screen printing, dying of the yarn and fibers, kneading and more. Our textile design and surface pattern design the same. While I wouldn't fully equate them, because the field of textile design encapsulates more things that I've just mentioned. Fiber arts and weaving. Very often we do use the two terms interchangeably. You can hear terms like textile design, digital textile design, fabric and wallpaper design. All these are united by the idea of creating a single repeat, which we will discuss in the next lesson very shortly. Now you may have heard people saying surface pattern design or surface design. Are they the same? In most cases, they are used interchangeably again, but if we are being really picky and proper, the term surface pattern design first of all goes beyond the realm of textiles. That is fabrics, right? And also describes solely the use of repeating patterns, whereas surface design does not always imply repetition. Compare these two examples. On this product, the pattern is stepped out and the repeat is used multiple times. Whereas on this product, the design is merely placed and cropped on a product. It is not necessarily a repeating pattern, although it may look so. When does a pattern have to be in repeat? On larger products like wallpaper, fabric, and table linens, you absolutely have to use a correct repeating tile. You can step it out multiple times on big surfaces, but on smaller products, such as a phone case, a kitchen towel, a plate, or a napkin, it might be enough to use an illusion of a repeating pattern. If you look at this not my design, this most likely is not a repeating pattern. It's just a placed rectangle with a pretty design. Although having a proper repeating pattern tile is always helpful for the manufacturer and makes things so much easier. 4. What is a repeating pattern: What is a repeating pattern? What a textile or surface pattern designer makes is called a repeat. A repeating unit is the special skills required to make this unit is what makes the job. A repeat is made out of separate motifs or elements arranged in a nice layout. These are my motifs that I use to create this repeating pattern. A repeat is usually a square or rectangle that is designed so that all elements on all edges connect seamlessly. I will show you some examples. When you learn surface pattern design, you will acquire the necessary skills to arrange your repeat tile using computer software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or ipad software code procreate. When you have a stepped out repeat and know the repeat dimensions, it does not matter where you place your repeat bounds or frame. Everything will line up perfectly. While the magic is purely mathematic, don't worry, you don't have to be super gifted at math. The math used in textile design is very basic. I'm personally not good at math, and I have successfully created many, many repeating patterns and so can you. When you learn how to create repeat units, you can then upload them to print on demand companies such as Punflower or Society Six. Or send it to a manufacturer who will use printing machinery to step out your designs on fabric, wallpaper, or any other surface. I will talk about how to make money being a textile designer in one of the following lessons. Let's talk about the difference between print and pattern. Again, in many cases, what we are creating is called prints. Especially fashion designers like to use this term, but it's not 100% correct. The term pattern reflects the idea more generally because there are a number of ways repeats can be made. Printing is only one of them. I will show you some examples where we have patterns, but they are not prints. They're not printed, they are woven, They are knitted and so on. But nobody will go after you if you call a woven fabric a print. 5. Pattern layouts: Patterns can be arranged in several layouts. Let's discuss the most common ones. The first one. The most common one is the straight repeat is the most basic layout where the tile repeats directly in a horizontal line to the left or right of the original tile. The second most common option is a half drop repeat. This layout occurs when the tile is repeated halfway down, vertically from the original repeat unit. When the same process happens horizontally, we get a brick repeat. This is way less common than the first two, but there are other more exotic repeat options, such as hexagon or mirrored repeat that you can see in some of the software for textile design. For example, in Adobe Illustrator pattern making tool, we can see the hexagon repeat. But I suggest that you stay away from these if you are working with a commercial manufacturer, which you most likely will be in all my professional experience, the straight and the half drop repeat have always been the two preferred options. The reason is because they translate well to the manufacturing process of screen printing, where a roller is used to print the fabric or wallpaper. It's a good idea for a surface designer to learn to create both straight and half drop repeats. Straight repeat is definitely the most beginner friendly option, in my opinion. When you already feel comfortable doing straight repeats, you can study tutorials for half drop. Half drop repeats are very popular in home decor because they present a nice flow and rhythm and also the repeat tile can be smaller. I personally prefer working with straight repeats because they are easy to work with, to step out with automation tools in Photoshop and Illustrator, particularly in Photoshop, and harder to screw up. What I mean by that is when you, for example, upload a half drop to a website like spoonflower or red bubble, you have to remember to check the box that it's a half drop repeat, otherwise it will print wrong. I'll show you an example of how this can happen. So here is a design of mine which is a half drop repeat. And this is a swatch of wallpaper. And if you look closer, you will see there is an error here. See, it doesn't line up. This happened exactly because I forgot to check that it's a half drop repeat. I did it on fabric, but you also have to do it separately on wallpaper. Spoon fall printed it as a straight repeat, stepping it out side by side, just like this. Also, when you as a customer purchase half drop wallpaper, you have to remember to paste it in a special way, aligning and half dropping the print. I'm not saying half drops are bad, They are definitely a great and necessary skill for a surface parent designer to have. You just have to remember that little extra step every time. Besides the way a parent tile is situated, there are also a few layouts that we need to discuss. We have all over prints, where the pattern covers the entire area. We have half drop prints, where a motif is just dropped half the way vertically or horizontally. A pattern can simultaneously be an all over print and a straight repeat. We also have one directional, two directional, and four directional prints, where the fabric can only be used in one direction. Or two directions can turn it upside down. Or four directions where it doesn't matter. It depends on how the pattern designer place their motifs. These prints are also called directional and nondirectional, Where the four directional would be non directional. Which means they can be rotated any which way. The choice depends on the product you have in mind when you are designing. I personally normally don't worry about the direction at all, and my prints are normally one directional. You can't turn them upside down or rotate them, but I have heard feedback from some makers that they prefer to have four directional prints for certain products. For example, quilts where you also need to have very small scale, right? For quilted blankets, some fabric tots or tablecloth. Imagine if a tablecloth is spread on the table and the motifs are tossed all the way around. It doesn't matter where you sit, the print makes sense from any angle. There has recently been a four directional wallpaper challenge on spoonflower following the popularity rise of wallpapered ceilings. And I designed this poppy print for it. It works in any which way direction. Wherever you rotated, it still looks the same. While it may seem like four way prints are the best, I wouldn't necessarily jump into turning everything nondirectional because some prints make way more sense when they are directional. And like I said, it has never been a problem for me as a designer. It's just something to keep in mind. Now let's talk a little bit about panels and engineered designs. In some products, such as wallpaper, quilts, pillows, the design is made as a panel. For example, beautiful interior scenes with trees and birds on them. Where the panel repeats only horizontally and vertically, the design goes all the way up to the ceiling. As for engineer designs or placement graphics, it can be centered or placed design. That is not a repeating unit. I will include some examples here so you know what I mean. 6. Pattern categories. From polka dot to toile de jouy: This is a really exciting topic. There are many common pattern categories or topics. I will mention the most common ones. Knowing the categories helps you pick your niche as a designer and can also be helpful if you are working at an interior fabric library. For example, we have florals, the ubiquitous florals, which is a seemingly easy category, but it's not as easy as it seems. Florals can be done for multiple uses, right? And apparel. Florals are very different from quilting florals, for example, or baby florals, or pet florals here we can also include botanicals and tropicals. You know, these pattern categories merge together and flow into one another. And sometimes it's really hard to put a pattern into one category, just be aware of it. We have botanicals, which would probably be like vintage botanical style, like some of these paintings. Behind me we have tropicals, which is especially for swimwear. And hot zone prints, we have novelty or conversational prints. These are prints that tell stories. These are animals, these are objects and things realistically. Holiday designs also belong, usually belong in this category, but holiday designs are usually put separate. Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Father's Day, Mother's Day, and so on. You can have a print that is a novelty print with Santa Claus, but that's also a Christmas holiday pattern. We have stripes, which is a giant category, and stripes are super versatile as well. You can have cabana stripes, you can have ticking stripes, super thin stripes. We have geometric designs including dots or polka dots. Multiple uses, multiple categories. Paisley has quite a history. The original Persian droplet like motif is called bot or buta. It's a representation of a stylized flower or a cypress tree, a zorestrian symbol of life and eternity. The name paisley itself comes from a town in Scotland where the pattern was imitated after the imported silk shawls with a motif took Europe by storm. We have lattices and trailes. You can explore the difference. I will mention some good books in the project section. Damask, which is a specific kind of pattern as well with elaborate scrolling botanical motifs arranged in a diamond or lozenge shaped medallion grid. But originally, damask is a type of woven jacquard fabric which uses really complex weaving techniques. Medallions are often mixed with damasks. They can be more of a truly round shape. We have Ogis which are less celebrated, less known. Ogi is a pattern with two continuous S shaped curves, narrowing and widening. We all have seen them, but not many people know the actual word for the ogi shape. It is a less known term and they are often combined with medallions. There are ditz designs, particularly dis florals called also Milli Flores, right? Which is like thousands or millions of little flowers. We have to or ti de, ti de ju. Patterns feature bucolic scenes with pastoral landscapes and village dwellers with strong French country vibes. These days, in addition to the classical Twas, artists borrow the monochrome linework technique to interpret a variety of modern topics. For example, I made a pattern with swimming pigs in this technique after visiting the Bahamas and seeing wild pigs swimming in the ocean. Jacobians, Ar Giles, many of these are historic patterns that came to us throughout the world history of craft, not just via printing, but through beautiful weaving and dying techniques such as a She boy, popularly known as tie, houndstooth, damask and Arabesque. I put everything together, the weaving patterns, and the printing patterns. There are a lot of gorgeous books in textiles where you can see the examples of prints. You can get inspired, you can borrow them from your local library or purchase if you need some inspiration. I often buy used books on ebay, Thrift Books.com so I can save a little money on those purchases. In the project section, I have included some of my favorite books on prints. Here is one of my favorite books that I use for educational and inspiration purposes. I will link it in the class project as well. And here you can see all sorts of patterns organized by categories, different kinds of designs. Lots and lots of categories. Checkerboards are back in style. Again, books are sort of out of style. Now people are like, we have internet, we don't need books, but I love books still. Yeah. 7. Where can patterns be used - markets, seasons, products.: Lesson seven. Where can patterns be used? This is another super fun lesson, all right? Say you've learned how to put together a repeating tile that flows seamlessly when stepped out. But what is next? Where can you apply this useful skill? Let's put the surface in surface pattern design and discuss where repeating patterns can be used. Your patterns can be applied to fabric for sewing, including quilting fabric, clothes and accessories such as handbags, scarves and socks, or home decor items such as bedding sheets, blankets, curtains, table linens, rugs, upholstery fabric, and so much more, repeat patterns can be used on paper, wrapping paper for presents. Table napkins have some here, wallpaper, stationery. Look at this beautiful folder. Cardboard storage boxes, different sorts of packaging. Phone cases are a popular category. All sorts of drink were from tea to coffee mugs to water bottles, cooler bags, computer, mouse mats. Here I have one with William Morris, unfinished design kitchen place mats, you name it, pet beds, collars, bows, bandanas, clothes. And many different products for dogs, cats and other pets are often covered with pretty patterns. You can see patterns on rain, rubber boots, book covers, bus seats, hotel rugs, and the most unexpected products. I always think about pattern design. When I go to the doctors and wait for them, I look at this boring curtain with the most basic pattern that gives you some privacy. It is still a repeating pattern. Right? Your project pack contains a super extensive list of possible pattern products. 8. Surface design job opportunities: Where can you work as a textile and surface pattern designer? Perhaps you are wondering what your career options are as a surface pattern designer. I have good news for you, you have many, many options. Look around all sorts of fabrics and pattern surfaces surround us. We wake up in the morning in a bed with cute sheets, wearing coffee, pajamas with prints. We can probably see curtains or window blinds with patterns. And we haven't even left the bedroom yet. So just like there are many uses of patterns, there are numerous ways to make money. As a surface pattern designer, I am not saying it's going to be super easy to find a job in the field still, it's not the most common profession in the world. But these days with the Internet, there are more options than ever. Let's look at the most popular career paths as a surface pattern designer. If you want a serious full time career option, you can work in retail product development next time. When you go shopping, pay attention to the stores and brands that sell products with patterns, be it clothing, dinner wear, table clothes, or whatnot. These companies most likely have in house designers who work on the art. Product development is a long cycle and creating patterns is only one step of the process. As a self employed pattern designer, you can either freelance working for the above mentioned companies. Or sell and license your patterns on your own, be it via print on demand companies such as Spoonflower Society, Six, Zazzle, Red Bubble, and so on. Or sell your own products with your patterns. Then you have to find a vendor to produce your product. Or perhaps buy fabric printed with your designs and sew something like pillow covers, kitchen towels, and then sell them either through your own store or to the other retailers. You can also work for print studios companies working on producing repeating patterns for the apparel, home decor, and stationary industries. Or go to print shows, professional affairs, where manufacturers, artists and licensing agents meet several times a year. Pattern Bank is another popular online print studio microstock website. I will make a separate class on making a living with repeat pattern design, but in the meantime, I have a great Youtube video on this topic, which is absolutely free to watch and packed with knowledge. 9. Two ways to approach surface design. Inspiration first or market first?: Lesson 92, Ways to Approach Surface Pattern Design. Here is how the technical process works. An artist creates motifs, separate elements of a future pattern in a preferred medium. The artwork is then scanned, cleaned up in Adobe Photoshop, and put in repeat via Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. You have your repeating pattern. In a nutshell, that's the process, it works for any way of creating motifs, digital or traditional. I like to see the process this way. As an artist, when I'm painting, I'm not thinking of where this pattern will be used. I'm enjoying the process. That's the first out of two ways to approach creating surface patterns. First, you make your motifs, then you put them in repeat using the software, then you find usage for your pattern. The second way to approach pattern making is from the back end To first study the market, the trends, learn the specific tools for specific use. For example, you want to create patterns for baby products. And you have found lots of designs in very soft colors and with super simple motifs. If you know what market you want to apply your knowledge for, it can be very useful. I know it's not easy to make all these selections on the get go, but you are not required to make your choice once and forever. It's just something to think about. I will also include some medium to market sequences, so this can help you make choices as a designer for the pattern design direction you want to go in. It will be included in lesson 19. 10. Motifs for the future repeat. Traditional and digital art.: Lesson ten, Creating Motives for the Future. Repeat. You can sometimes hear this opinion that you don't need to know how to draw. To be a textile designer, Yes and no, you need to create some kind of imagery, right? So you do need to know how to draw a little bit, but it doesn't have to be super complicated. Minimalist patterns can be very cute and attractive, and extremely versatile. I will show you some examples of those if drawing is not your strongest suit. For now, you can focus on creating minimalist patterns. Creating motifs is an easy and fun beginning stage of making a future pattern. You don't really have to decide straightaway where this pattern will go and so on, but it's always a good idea to keep marketability in mind. Marketability is key for us designers. It means that we need to think if a design can be sold. If a design can be used somewhere by someone, we cannot create something that is not applied to a product. If you are an artist, you can turn the art you are already creating into repeating patterns. Of course, it's usually something concrete, such as flowers or animals, or geometric shapes, scenes or objects such as stars, for example. If you are an abstract artist who creates moody washes and abstract paintings, there are ways to turn those into repeats as well. But always think about marketability. You can paint separate motifs that you will later on scan and move around. In Photoshop or Illustrator, you can make the motifs touch or overlap as well. You can paint in clumps or fill in an entire sheet. I will show you examples later. You can also pre plan your repeat right away. It's especially common for half drop repeats made in procreate on ipad. You can create your motifs digitally or using the traditional mediums. Digital mediums include drawing directly on ipad, using software like Procreate or Affinity Illustrator for ipad or Adobe Fresco, drawing on the computer in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. If this method speaks to you, I encourage you to study digital resources further. I am personally a traditional artist. First and foremost, I will teach how to turn traditional art, such as painting into repeating patterns. But I'm open to discussing digital art later on as I also use digital tools. From time to time, I play with procreate on ipad and I make vector artwork in Adobe Illustrator. Digital art can be subdivided into two classes, roster artwork and vector artwork. There is another subclass of roster artwork, which is called indexed art. I will discuss all of this in further detail in the next lesson about software. Traditional mediums include painting with guash watercolor or ink. That's what I mostly do, drawing with all sorts of tools such as pens, markers, liners, block printing with a block or a stamp. And you can block print the paper and then scan it and turn it into textile motifs. Or you can also block print the fabric and this will be your final product. Let's look at this fabric with watercolor tigers. This is the final product and these are my motifs. I painted six tigers in different angles. As I'm painting, I'm thinking of the layout. You have to think, because some of the tigers are vertical like this, and some are more horizontally oriented. When you are creating motifs, you have to think about it, how you are going to arrange them. I also included a lot of flowers that I painted separately. As you see, flowers were used to fill in the gaps. This was quite an elaborate pattern, took quite a lot of work. You can see here, that's where the repeat happens, right? This is the end of the repeat horizontally. And if we go a little bit down, we'll see the vertical. This is a big repeat tile. Here is another fabric from the same collection, the watercolor floral animals collection with kangaroos. And here are motifs I did. 1234 kangaroos. Some flowers, there are also some flowers, you know, not present here. I wanted to have this like packed full layout and that's what I did. I did some Australian flora here as well. So a good number of motifs to paint is usually around five, it's an approximate number and always do several angles. You know, as you see some are like front facing, some are more horizontal, so you have a more interesting layout. This is one of my personal favorites. I love this warm color scheme and it was created in a similar way. But see the colors are completely different. I changed the colors on the computer and you can definitely do that. So it was painted in watercolor and then I worked in Photoshop to see change the color completely. Chiefs can be painted in clumps like this, as opposed to having separate elements that you move. You can paint an entire layout right away like this. And this is my final product, the wallpaper. The same design in a different scale and different color way. This is sage and this is blue. A different substrate of wallpaper as well. I also recently turned this guy into a repeat. I will include a digital image somewhere, probably here. Here are some drawn motifs, not painted but drawn. These are the drawings. I just make these little notes for myself and I scan them. I used all the words and everything. This was about mythical creatures and here is the fabric again. See that's the original color. There was no color at all. I added color in Photoshop, which is a lot of work to be honest with you, but I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and I did monochrome first. That's a little bit easier then adding the color in takes a little bit longer, but that's always a possibility. I also added this little asterisk behind. That's also quite a lot of work, but I just want to show you different ways to work with motifs. There are some pencil drawn motifs for a change, so you can create motifs in any which way. That works for you as long as it is marketable and, you know, trend forward or has a good application. A market application. Some procreate designs. So these were drawn digitally on the ipad using some stipling and nice texture brushes. Here is another design, I don't use procreate a lot, but it's probably the most popular program right now. Now let's look at some vector art. As you can see, crisp and clean edges. Same design, different colors all change digitally, different scale as well. Here are some fabrics with Vector art as well. This was drawn directly in Adobe Illustrator. See very simple shapes, nothing crazy, no texture. This works best for Vector. These are some Halloween fabrics with Vector designs as well. I drew them directly in Adobe Illustrator. 11. Software for textile design. Ilustrator vs. Photoshop, vector and raster: Software for textile design. The two main available options to create your repeat tile out of the pre created motifs are Adobe Photoshop that produces roster art, and Adobe Illustrator that produces vector art. What is the difference between raster and vector artwork? Rasta art is pixelated, made with little squares, and cannot be scaled indefinitely without using some of the quality. It means whenever you rescale something, you lose some of the quality and the line work can get fuzzy and blurred. It does not mean that Rasta Art and Photoshop are bad, it just means there are some specifics that you have to know. For example, do not create your art super tiny when you are painting, paint or draw a decent scale, don't make it super tiny. For example, eight a by ten or this size is good size. The second point, while scanning your artwork, choose higher DPI. Standard high quality DPI is 300. But if your motives are particularly small, scan them at 600 or even at 1,200 PI. Just be aware that it will make your files big. I would personally just rather paint a little bit bigger than paint tiny and then scan at 1,200 DPI. Vector artwork is handled by Adobe Illustrator. Its advantages are crisp lines, indefinite, resizing without losing the quality, Easy recoloring when vectorized properly, don't just mindlessly push the button. There is an oil trace command in Adobe Illustrator which seems very convenient, but then it produces some messy results. You still have to put thought behind vectorizing. Why don't we make everything vector you might ask. It sounds amazing. While of course, you as a designer can choose to work only in the whole world, cannot switch just to vector art. Because Photoshop and Illustrator Raster and Vector. I used to offer completely different looks and styles of art and it would be boring if all art would just be the same crisp and clean color separated. Let me show you some examples of my roster and vector art. I'll show you here some of my raster artwork where I chose to keep the texture. It could have been vectorized and then the color would have been reduced, the color number. But I chose to keep the texture because I thought it looks good. I wanted to keep this beautiful textured look. Whereas in this example to, because I felt like it's not bringing in enough to the design to get rid of the texture. The software you will use depend on how your motifs were created. Generally, if you painted in watercolor, you will end up in Photoshop. If you have used textured brushes and gradients in procreate on the ipad, you will also end up in Photoshop, you could flatten your artwork and make it vector, but what's the point? Using those textures was the point and the beauty of the method of procreate. If you've created clean shapes where the number of colors can be easily counted around 12 colors if you drew it with ink markers or pay garage. So these would be good candidates for being bacterized in Adobe Illustrator. If you feel like the texture is not worth keeping. Sometimes you have the option of taking the same artwork, scanning it, and deciding whether you want to make it flat and vectorize it, and have, you know, those awesome possibilities of rescaling things indefinitely, or keeping it in Photoshop with all the lovely texture effects. It is your choice to make as an artist and designer, what will make the design shine the most. And these choices are made all the time by in house designers and freelance designers. Are the texture ingradients worth keeping? Are they really bringing in something special? I'll show you some of my examples. I already briefly mentioned this, but this is how I treated the same artwork in different ways. So all of these animals were drawn with markers. I drew them with markers, but some of them I made flat, and some of them I chose to keep with texture. Do I have to know both programs you might ask Photoshop and Illustrator. Definitely not right away. You can only choose to work in one program for your entire life, if you would like. If it lends well to the market you have chosen to design for. Stay in Adobe Illustrator if you'd like. If you are looking to work as an in house designer, knowing both applications is a huge bonus, Huge advantage. But you can get a job knowing only one program and then learn the other one on the spot. Knowing both applications is definitely an advantage. It's like having multiple ways of transport. Yes, you can take the train to that destination, but going by plane or boat would work better for this particular location. I hope it makes sense. I want to make an honorable mention on the index mode in Photoshop. This is the third option after raster and vector. Although technically it is still raster, it is less commonly known on Youtube and skillshare, but very common in professional textile design circles. The idea of index mode is that every single pixel of color is controlled via what is called the color table. It is very convenient because you know exactly how many colors your artwork has. It often goes in line with screen printing where artwork needs to be separated into color. Screens index mode is not something you need to be familiar with if you're only planning to work on print on demand websites such as Spoonflower. But it's very helpful in color reducing for manufacturers if you're working for hire for example, I do use index mode quite a lot. It is my secret weapon in cleaning up and color reducing artwork. It can be seen as a hybrid between raster and vector art because you get a limited number of colors and you can also keep the textures. But that is already advanced territory. There is also industry specific software which can be used by professional textile cat designers called Net Graphics, Calido Point Care, and Euphoria. I think used to be one more. I don't know if it's still on the market, but this is definitely already in house design territory. And you don't need to know this right away. And if you ever get a job where you need to know those programs, you will be trained there. I know it's a lot of information and I hope your head is not spinning yet. In Lesson 19, we will talk which software to choose depending on your particular circumstances. 12. Supplies for textile design - from brushes to iPad: Now back to something fun and easy to digest, supplies. First, I will talk about supplies for a traditional artist like me, someone who paints and then turns the motifs into repeating patterns. Number one, paper, paint, brushes and drawing mediums. Anything you will use to paint your motives. Be aware that some mediums are not trend forward in textile design. For example, oils and colored pencils are not the best choice for textile design. It is possible to turn those into repeats and sometimes this look comes back in style. But I would say stay away from those generally. Perhaps you already have art supplies that you can use. Watercolor, guash, acrylic paint markers, ink used in liquid form like watercolor or as a drawing medium with a deep pen. Anything goes a couple of words on paper. You don't have to get the most expensive paper with liquid medium such as watercolor. Just make sure it's 140 pounds or 300 grams. It can be student grade paper because you will put it on the scanner and work with your digital files and you don't have to keep the originals. But of course, you know, the more expensive, the better the paper, the more satisfying the results are. But I think if you're just starting out, play with student grade paper, it's not going to bite you. Also, if paper is a little bit worse quality, you can use it with. Gas is more forgiving. Number two, ideally, you need a scanner and I highly recommend getting one. If you choose to get a scanner, think of what size paper you will be using and make sure it fits on the scanner. My scanner is Epson F77 hundred 20. The scanning surface is 12 17 " and it also prints large format 11 17 tabloid prints. I don't print that much now, but I got the printer when I was graduating from college and was printing my portfolio out. I'm not saying I recommend buying this printer. That's the best scanner printer in the world. It's been okay for me, it's a great scanner, but the printer has issues from time to time. Cartridges, turns out get clogged if you don't print often. You might also want to look into flatbed scanners if you are going to buy a scanner. I included information about my scanner because people usually ask like, what do you have, what do you use if you are potentially planning to sell art prints? You might also consider that when buying your unit. Alternatively, if you don't have a scanner for now, you can take pictures with your phone. Just make sure to do so in good lighting and be careful with the angle. Do not tilt your camera. I totally understand that a scanner is an investment and you might not get one right away. But eventually, I do recommend getting a scanner. That's the way professionals do work. Number three, a computer or a laptop. It can be a Mac or a PC. It's your call and your preference. Just make sure it has enough memory. Mine has 40 gigabytes. My husband installed additional memory on it because graphic programs eat up a lot of processing memory. And at some point, you might not be able to do anything if your computer is not powerful enough. I know many designers use a laptop for designing. I just got a laptop as a Christmas present very recently. So for now, I like working on the large screen. And the screen size is huge for design, because imagine you are going to be looking at stepped out repeats of a comforter or wallpaper. Something blown up larger than you see it on the screen, you might want to see it as big as it can get. My Mac screen is 23.5 ", and we had the same computers at my in house job too. Yes, it is an investment, but it's an investment in my future career and probably the most important one. But when I was starting out, I had a Dell computer that wasn't as big or powerful. And that was okay too. It's not about being fancy, it's about choosing what works for you, your purposes, and your budget. If you are unsure when getting a computer, tell the sales associate that it will be used for design work. They usually know that it requires certain characteristics and will help you choose the right one. You can also read forms and Facebook groups for designers and ask what people have to say. Number four, welcome, tablet and computer mouse. I did look up the pronunciation. It's welcome. Sometimes people say welcome, wacom. So I looked up the pronunciation. And it's welcome because it comes from Japanese war, which means harmony. I think it was a video on Youtube from a former welcome employee. So it's not wacom, right? It's welcome. Like walk the dogs back to serious stuff. Walcum tablet and computer mouse. Many designers use a walcum tablet and I do too. But I know some professional designers who only work with a computer mouse. I actually use the mouse, probably just as much as I use the tablet. With the mouse, I click the buttons, choose menu options, and commands. It is definitely possible to do without a wocum tablet, but things get tricky when you need to actually draw a lot trace or Lass or something. Welcome tablet can also be used instead of the mouse, which takes some getting used to you treat it as your virtual screen. But like I said, I use both and I like both, so I would never get rid of the mouse. It comes with a pen that you can use to draw. As for the computer mouse, you can use any mouse that you're comfortable with. But be aware that you are going to be spending a lot of time designing. Some computer related problems can arise. For example, carpal tunnel. I do not have carpal, but I have tennis elbow and neck and shoulder issues. Tennis elbow is when this area hurts because of my prolonged computer use. So please pay attention to all your gear ergonomics, including a decent computer desk and chair. I have a desk that can lift up so you can work standing. And also an ergonomic computer mouse that I will show you. But just between us, I often neglect using the mouse. And, you know, just use this regular apple mouse, which is not the best for your wrist. Number five, the next thing necessary is an Adobe Photoshop and or Adobe Illustrator subscription, even if you are a traditional artist, because we will be taking our pre painted motifs, scanning them, and manipulating in one of the two programs. Number six is external storage drives, Not something you need straightaway, but as you build up your portfolio and working files, you are going to need some additional storage space and also a backup disc. I have three external drives, 15 terabyte disk that I use as a time machine for my Mac. Another one, I move files to the ones that I don't use that often, but still need to store somewhere one more just for photos such as reference photos of landscapes to paint, or photos from museums and nature walks and so on. Having cloud space or Dropbox or any other service subscription for storage can also be helpful. That's all for traditional art. And now let's look at the supplies for the digital art path. Number one, if you choose to design on the ipad, then you need one. Make sure it is the right version that supports Procreate, which is an app that you buy once for 12 99 as of November 2023. Procreate is a world of its own. It's a super powerful tool and it completely dominates the commercial art and illustration world. Right now. That's the most ndy look, I wonder if it will change. You can use hundreds of brushes that imitate different materials. You can buy those brushes on places like Creative Market. You can create your own brushes. The possibilities are endless. Number two, Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator subscription. Many procreate artists like to finish up their art created on the ipad, on the computer, or laptop. I also do it whenever I use procreate, which I do sometimes to play and have fun and keep up with the modern trends. But it is possible to do everything entirely on the ipad. It takes some learning and figuring out and work around, but it's a possibility. With all the wonderful possibilities of ipad, I still choose to paint and draw my art motifs on paper. And I'm letting you know that it's also an option. You can be a digital artist on the computer without working on the ipad. Procreate software will not be available on the computer. It only works on ipad specifically, not even on Windows tablets, just Mac ipads. But you can directly create roster art in Photoshop with a Walk tablet and or vector art directly in Illustrator. This is my set up as a surface pattern and textile designer. This is my computer. The monitor, the large format printer that I mentioned before, some things that are waiting to get scanned. It has a large scanning surface and I also put some cardboard on top so the paper stays really flat. Let's look at the computer. So it's a pretty large monitor. And that's the Walk tablet that I mentioned. It's a large one, but previously I had this small guy and it's still working perfectly fine. I just got a larger one. The tablet has a pen, which I misplaced somewhere. So here's the pen. Let's remove this one. Like I mentioned, you can use your tablet as a mouse. And whatever I'll be doing here is going to be mimicking on the screen right here, can you see my cursor? And my hand is moving over here, but I do use the mouse quite a lot. I use both the tablet with the pen and the mouse. And this is the standard mouse, which is really bad for your wrist, but I do use it a lot, and in this case, sometimes I also use one of these pads. This is the ergonomic mouse that I mentioned. It is better on your arm because the position is slightly different, Like this. You're also going to be using your keyboard quite a lot because you are going to be pressing combinations with your fingers. So the right hand uses the pen, you can draw, oh, if your left hand, it's vice versa, but the left hand presses different combinations all the time. A good keyboard is also very important. And I also got this bigger one with the number pad, because sometimes you have to key in a color hex code and it's just more convenient than pressing here. I also have a little sticker here because I have an action setup where, where I press five and it fills things with a pattern. You can set it up in your Photoshop or Illustrator, whatever works best for you. As you see, my keyboard is above my pad, and this is the way it works for me. I have seen other designers using the welcome tablet right here on the side, which for me personally, wasn't convenient. Let me try to show you how it works. So it would look something like this. For me personally, it wasn't comfortable. But I guess it depends on how much you used the mouse and how much you used the keyboard. You know, if you are maybe in a more senior design position, you don't design as much, you don't draw as much, but you need to type away more. But like I said, for me, it works best when this is placed below the keyboard, because I use both and I use the mouse as well. Here I also have my three external drives where I save, you know, my files and photos, Photos that I need to store or even, you know, working files for the business. There is another important instrument here, and it's the ruler. It's very helpful to keep a ruler on your desk because for example, you are looking at this pattern and you see, you know, that's 2 ". And I want to see in real life how much that is. So you know, I look at my 2 " and I'm like, oh, okay, that is too smaller. That is too big. So that's that. 13. Beyond patterns. The world of commercial art: Lesson 13. The World of Commercial Art. Markets, Seasons, holidays, Beyond Patterns. Now let's look at the big wide world of commercial art that you are entering. While it's possible to stay entirely in the pattern realm, which I would really love to do, sooner or later you encounter other adjacent categories. You can probably see your favorite artists working on greeting cards, children's books, illustrations, and so on. In addition to cosmetic cases with patterns, you can offer graphic T shirts in your print on demand shop and so on. It's great because it offers us more opportunities to make money with our art, but it can also be overwhelming at times, especially when we are trying to do everything at once. I just want you to be aware that some of the skills can be cross used. For example, in many elaborate patterns. Each motif is an illustration of its own. Many art directors look at our art the same way they might look at your boy's pattern collection, for example, and think, oh, this dinosaur would make a really cute placement graphic. Or a particularly chubby and rosy cheeked Santa Claus can be pulled from a pattern to be the main character on a gift bag on the front. Think of adjacent skills that can come in handy. One lettering is always a bonus. It is still very popular in greeting cards, reusable bags, wall art, and whatnot. Two illustration skills have many uses. Books, magazine illustrations, wall art, and so on. Three, if you're a painter like me, you can look into the art print market and make something like this that you can put on the wall as an original or as an art print. Clay art print four. If you are a quilter, you have special knowledge of what is in demand on that market and so on. Remember at the beginning of this course, I promise to mention some other textile design kinds beyond the realm of repeating patterns. If you like a more hands on experience, you might get interested in things like weaving on a floor or table loom. You can then sell your crafts on Eds, local fares, or your online shop block printing. When you carve a block from wood rubber or linoleum and either print the fabric directly or print the motifs on paper, scan them and put them in repeat. Here is an example of some block printing that I did in college. And I included these in some of my brand materials on my website and so on. So these birds are block printed. Block printing is a really exciting kind of craft with roots going back centuries. As I'm recording this video, there is currently a spoon flower design challenge happening devoted to block prints. It is called block print inspired, so you can emulate the technique on the ipad. But many artists actually decided to do some block printing. And I have used my design that I did in college. I cut the block print back, then rubber, you can get the rubber in craft stores for artists. I printed some paper and fabric, and now I have scanned the motif and processed it in Photoshop, put the repeat together and made some colis. Next screen printing, it's a process of squeezing the printing paste through openings in the screen onto the fabric or paper or any other material. There are two main kinds of screen printing. Rotary screen printing and flat screen printing, or flat bed screen printing. You use a special cool tool called skuiji to push the die through the screen. I will include a short video of me screen printing in college, but on an industrial scale, of course, it is done much bigger with giant screens. We also went to a textile factory when we were in college. And I might find some videos to include and show you guys as well. Some artists screen print their own designs on fabric totes, T shirts or even paper, and then sell the goods. You can also work at a local screen printing shop where they do the same on a larger scale or find an overseas vendor if you think big and would like to start a production line. Screen printing is a very popular manufacturing method for big box stores. It is now replaced by digital printing sometimes, which is more environmentally conscious but is more expensive. That's just a side node on screen printing. The realm of fibers offers a lot of exciting opportunities too. Dying of yarn and fibers is a cool subdivision of textile design. There has been a huge interest lately to hand dyeing techniques. There are a lot of inspiring Instagram accounts out there where artisans experiment with dying with plants, herbs, and other natural dyes. Fiber can also be hand spun, and this is a popular product on Etsy as well. Let's not forget about felting, Needle felting and wet felting, which can be used to produce decorative products such as felt dolls, Christmas decorations, felt paintings, as well as installation art for the museums. Knitting and Crochet is another exciting kind of textile design. I recently discovered this local Boston area company called Misha and Puff. Take a look at these needed masterpieces, embroidery, and embellishment. You can be an embroidery artist with an Etsy shop where you sell your work or even downloadable embroidery diagrams. Or you could also be an embroidery and embellishment artist at an artisan Atelier. Have you ever seen those breathtaking videos, for example by Or Or Chanel, where they show how a team of artisans embellish couture gowns for days or even weeks. And then a celebrity wears a gown at a movie festival. There is always more to discover in the world of textile design beyond surface patterns, if you feel like it. Now let's get back to our primary goal of designing repeating patterns. Following the calendar is a great way to start. Whenever I'm out of design ideas, I just think of what the next upcoming holiday is. Some holidays such as Christmas and Halloween are particularly big and offer lots of opportunities for art making. I worked as a stationery designer at a global company and we spent nine months in a year developing Christmas art. Nine months, think about it, and only three months to cram in the rest of the holidays. It was of course, because we were designing wrapping paper, and Christmas is the biggest gift wrapping holiday there is. Special and everyday life. Occasions also require art and patterns. Birthdays, graduations, weddings, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Teachers Day to name but a few. Having Christmas art in your portfolio is absolutely mandatory and I can't stress it enough. There are lots of subdivisions within Christmas such as kids, elegant Christmas wrapping paper again, and so on. Check your activity pack for a larger list. In lesson eight. We have already discussed where patterns can be applied. Now that we have started looking into the commercial art world, remember once again where artwork can be needed. Major categories are home, including bath, bed, kitchen stationery including cards, notebooks, wrapping paper, fabric for quilting, for interiors or for clothes. Adult baby Swim, sporty or teenager. Different kinds of plastics like phone and ipad cases, wallpaper and so on. These all are often completely different kinds of patterns. But sometimes a pattern can be used across multiple categories with minimal or no changes. Such universal patterns include stripes, geometrics, polka dots, plaids, stars and botanicals. 14. Should you niche down as a designer?: Now with all the wonderful possibilities you might be wondering if you should settle down on one topic, one product category, and or one medium. The answer is, you can do either of the two. It will depend on a few factors. First, on your preference. Second, on the market your patterns will be for if you have a specific market in mind. Third, on the way you will be making money with your patterns if that's your interest. There is a phrase saying riches are in the niches. If you are strictly business minded and first and foremost are interested in making an income with repeating patterns, picking a niche might be the shortest way to go. It is one of the most common pieces of advice given in different art and design courses. It is also the shortest way of creating a recognizable artist or designer style. But I would also like to leave some space for people who might not want to settle on a niche. I'm one of those people. I enjoy making patterns in almost all possible ways and for different markets, I'd say if you see yourself happily making patterns in one style for one market, good for you and that's the way to go. That's a great venue to become a licensed artist, to collaborate with brands who will know exactly what to expect from you by looking at your portfolio. It also works if you create more than patterns, for example, card designs or illustrations. The other scenario on the other hand, where you make patterns in several different ways and mediums can work out. If you work for hire, that is, do pattern work for different businesses, work as an in house designer or a print studio artist. Because larger companies acquire artwork from multiple sources and in all the different styles, you can also upload to microstock websites and print and demand platforms. This scenario works in this case as well. If you're going to be making different kinds of artwork, you need to be mindful of how you present your work online, on your website and social media, and also how you pitch to different companies. Because we don't want to create a hodgepodge of designs that don't go together. What I'm trying to say in this lesson is that it really matters what you want and what you enjoy to do. I like putting artists first. It doesn't always happen in commerce. I think it's a good idea to give yourself some time to play, experiment, and try different mediums, and then decide whether you want to settle down in a niche. 15. Print development process: Okay, you are inspired to create your very first pattern. But where does it all begin? Where is the starting point of the design process? There can be several starting points. Once again, we can start with what product you are designing for. For example, one of my first design jobs was bedding design for adults. The next thing we do is we look at the calendar. Designs are often developed a year ahead. If it's January 2024, now, it means we are designing for January 2025. January is the time when we are over the hill with Christmas and we're thinking about coastal designs. Are you surprised to learn that I was? January through March is the time when many people in countries such as the United States and the UK go on vacation to hot zones such as Florida, South American countries, or warmer European countries like Italy, Greece, and so on. Design responds with an offering of swimwear, meaning tropical prints for Us pattern designers cover ups, beach accessories, and so on. Many people also buy coastal bedding and home decor with starfish, sea gulls, seashells, perhaps for their second home in warmer climate zones. As an independent designer. On the other hand, your production or design cycle can be shorter than a year. Large manufacturers, big box stores, take an entire year because their product is often made overseas. So they need time to order samples for quality control, and then order, produce, and ship those huge quantities of product to their global or local networks of stores. But if you are selling designs online by yourself, you can have a quicker turnaround. But it's still a good idea to design at least several months ahead. Because imagine you sell your designs on spoon flour. And your customers are small businesses who sell products such as dog bandanas or decorative pillows. When they are planning to update their shop for the season, they need to select, for example, Halloween products ahead of time. Order the fabric, sow their products, and offer them for sale to the customers. Always design your prints ahead of time. Some categories of products are less dependent on seasonality than others. For example, wallpaper is not so bound by Christmas. Everyday patterns are way more important in this category. Also, more expensive things like wallpaper or quilts, any kind of blankets, are an investment for buyers. Hence, there are stricter requirements to design than, for example, to some disposable or short lived products like wrapping paper or greeting cards. The cheaper the product, the faster the turnaround. And you can neglect some little details which cannot be neglected in designing bedding. For example, let's imagine we are creating a tropical print collection. We roughly have in mind that it's going to be used for swimwear or maybe tropical home decor, such as outdoor pillows on a villa. Now we need to gather some inspiration and do trend research. What does it mean? We can go to stores that sell similar products and see what patterns are on swimsuits or other products. We can look through online shops and do similar research. That's why it's helpful to design a year ahead. Because if you're designing now for the next year, the product is in stores of the category that you need to look at. We can also go on Pinterest and search for tropical prints. You can make screenshots and make a digital mood or trend board, or even cut photos out of magazines and clip them together on a foam cork or felt board, something like this that I have here that I can clip on. This is made of felt. In large design companies there are usually form core boards up to the ceiling where people pin things. It is very important not to infringe copyright while doing this process and not copy designs exactly, and we will talk about it in our next lesson. Moot boards are not mandatory, but are definitely a very helpful step in designing, especially if you are planning to create collections. At this step, you can also contemplate on your color palette and compile some pretty color palettes, either by using color chips from paint stores or pieces of fabric if you have any. But of course, these days, things are often done digitally. Having a cohesive color palette can be very helpful in building a strong collection. Palettes can also be compiled a little bit later when you start creating your motifs using one of the mediums we discussed in lesson line. After you have settled on the topic and medium, such as painting or digital art, selected a color palette of your choice and have a rough or concrete idea of the target market for your future print. It is time to make art. I will show you some examples of the motifs that I drew and the final fabrics and wallpaper. There are different approaches to creating motifs. You can draw separate ones. You can draw clumps arrangements. For example, right here, these are the motifs for this pattern on the silk scarf. Let me show it to you closer. So this is the final design. As you can see, motifs were painted separately and I arranged them in Photoshop and put them together and move them around, and that's very common. Sometimes motifs are as simple as one and you have a simple half draw pattern like I mentioned. You can paint separate clumps, you can overlap the motifs, like in this floral design. Here, like I said in the introduction, this course does not cover putting things in repeat, but I will definitely be making separate classes on different methods of doing so. 16. Collections, hero print, blenders, placements: While you're working on your designs. It's a good idea to think of a collection. You don't necessarily need to always work in collections, especially in the beginning. As you're learning all the specifics, it's okay to create one of designs. I often do it as well. You can always develop a print into a collection later as well. But sometimes as you're sketching ideas, it might strike you that, oh, this would be a really great idea to add a little go or a little stripe and so on. A collection usually includes a hero pattern, which is the most intricate and eye catching design And blenders. Stripes, dots, geometrics, stars and so on. Geos, geometric, same thing, right? Let's discuss some of the most common pattern design collections. A quilting fabric collection is made of very small scale designs that include a variety of florals, stripes, ditzy geometric designs. They are not necessarily matchy, matchy, but they work together. A collection might also include several colorways of the same design. Colorways are different color palette versions of the same design. For example, these three fabrics, they are not my designs. They are by keepsake quilt fabric. Calico design, as you see, they are very small scale. So it's quilting fabric, it can also go even smaller than this and the same design in beautiful shades of muted, earthy colors. I bought these at Joan Fabrics, Baby and Kids collections can be similar to quilting fabrics in these terms, but the scale can be a little bit bigger. In general, it's a good idea to think of scale in relation to the product the design is intended for. If the end product is a baby outfit, we want the motif smaller because the baby and vice versa. Take a look at Little Calico website to explore some really well designed fabric collections by contemporary designers. I will record a demo and included here another great website to study is Hawthornsupplycll.com some really, really well made and thought out collections out. An interior collection is something different in terms of scale and arrangement. We can also have a hero print here and blenders. But in this case, think of designing interior decor, for example. Your hero print could be the gorgeous wallpaper, and the blenders would be upholstery fabric, curtains, table decor, rugs, and so on. We can't have all hero prints all over the place. That would be too much, right? We need some calmer and simpler designs. Do not neglect your blenders when you're designing. You can also approach home decor collections by a specific product. For example, a printed quilt, which is an imitation of a traditional quilted blanket, has printed front and back, sometimes a cool trim or a border. You can also have matching sheets or decorative pillows. So keep that in mind when designing for beddings, and I will definitely include examples. As always, designing collections for bath can mean thinking of the shower curtain towels, bath mats. Bath is often adjacent to beach and swim Textile designs can be applied to beach towels and blankets, cool bags, beach chairs, and so on. Now let's talk about a collection for licensing or outright sales at print shows, a artist, agents or directly to a retail customer. Meaning a big company that produces retail products. Big or medium company or small company. If it's a strictly pattern collection, it will follow the scheme that I mentioned when talking about quilting and kids collection. So you will have a hero print blenders and colorways when the customer produces a variety of products beyond fabrics. It is very common though to present a sheet to them where you have a placement graphic, a hero print, and 23 additional blenders. For example, if you're pitching to a pet company, you can have acute smiley dog and some lettering as a placement. Then an elaborate hero pattern with dogs and flowers for example. And then acute bone or dog toy toss and a stripe. Apparel prints don't seem to follow the collection rules that strictly. They are rather organized by category. For instance, tropical flowers, plaids, cots, always lots of flowers and clothing. The scale will definitely be a bit bigger as we're designing for a grown person. Now the size is bigger, but this prints can be used on buttoned down shirts. And we can have really jumbo scale designs on clothing. For example, me mako prints are really go big or go home. Pay attention to men's and particularly young men's prints. There can be a lot of fun in men's socks, Hawaiian and everyday shirts and underwear. In men's category, there will be also a lot of stripes, small geometrics of full Ards, checks and plaids, and ginghams. If you're interested in print on demand companies look at Pattern Bank. They are really focused on apparel prints, wrapping paper collection with pattern designs. You might have seen multi packs of wrapping paper where you can have a hero Christmas print, a diagonal stripe, and a polka dot wrapping paper prints in a collection. Don't have to be matchy, matchy, again, like quilts, but they are still united by a theme. Always think of marketability in everything you do, even if it's in the back of your mind. Learn to look objectively at the designs. In the beginning, we have a disconnect of skills and taste, what we like. We are not capable of producing yet. Sometimes we like a print, but we don't know how to get there yet. That's why the activity sheet that I have included here has a print scavenger hunt. Look for prints everywhere you go and try to understand how they were created. Also, learn to appreciate things that don't align with your taste. You don't have to love all the artwork in the world. But if you want to make an income, you should learn to appreciate different things. Of course, ideally we should create things that we absolutely love. But we can't always be guided just by our own preferences. Artists can be selfish. Designers have to think of other people quite often. If not always, it is possible to combine the two, and I think it's one of the most fun parts of this job. For example, I don't share the overall enthusiasm for Christmas or Halloween, but as a designer, I often had to work on those topics. And I have learned to appreciate them and find little things about them that I like. And if I approach a topic now as an independent designer, I will infuse my personality in it and create designs that are my style. When you have a set of motives and maybe some placement graphics, only if it's applicable for your intended use. You will scan your art and manipulate it into a repeating tile using your software of choice. When you have a repeating tile or a set of repeating tiles in a collection, you are ready to venture into the world of commercial art. I will be making a class about making money with this wonderful profession as well, because there are a lot of little details to explore. 17. Art ownership, inspiration, plagiarism: We have one more important topic to discuss when we gather inspiration before starting to make art. It is crucial to understand that artworks have owners. And as we get inspired and borrow some elements of the artwork, we don't want to copy the design too closely, as we don't want anybody else to steal our designs either. How can you create original artwork while gathering inspiration and pinterest in magazines, books, or while shopping and looking at products out there. A simple rule of thumb to tell if a design has been plagiarized is by placing them together side by side, the original and the new design. If you put your reference photo next to your new design, and you can tell right away that one stems from the other, this is not good. Here are some tips to avoid plagiarism while searching for inspiration from reference images. Number one, do not take other people's images and use them as yours. You cannot download pictures from Pinterest. They are not free. They have owners and belong to other artists, designers, creators, photographers, bloggers, and so on. So I know it might seem like everything on Pinterest is for everybody. It's not exactly like that. Number two, start simply especially if your drawing skills are not there yet, Draw simple versatile motifs such as stripes, polka dots, stylized botanicals or something like that. Behind me, you know that OG design number three. Do not trace other people's images in any software. If you need to trace something, if you know your drawing skills are not there yet, use your own photos. For example, take pictures of flowers and you can trace them in procreate. But I also encourage you to practice drawing. And like I said, do not start with very complicated subjects right away, such as horses or city scapes. Start small and start simple number four, combine and alter your references. Do not copy other people's designs just as you see them. Make alterations, change up the colors. For example, if you like this Ogi, you can make it bigger, you can make it more spaced out. Change up the color palette number five instead of tracing. Draw from observation, meaning look at the reference photo and replicate what you see. The old school method with slight changes. I can guarantee you almost 100% that if you are using this method, your new design will look different enough because it's very hard to copy something exactly. That's great because we do not want to copy something exactly. Number six, learn to simplify and stylize. There is no need to draw every single detail. It's especially easier to draw baby and kids designs because they have those cute, simple faces. And even more complicated things like flowers do not have to be botanically correct all the time. I'll show you some of simple designs that I've made, which are very easy to draw. Number seven, you can lose the reference altogether. Don't use a reference. If you know how to draw, just go with the flaw. For example, if I see a pattern with yellow stars on a black background, I don't need a reference for that. I will draw yellow stars and put them on a black background using software number eight. If you are inspired by a pattern, specifically change the layout like I mentioned. For example, the original is a busy overlapping pattern. Turn it into a half drop or a spaced out pattern with, you know, maybe clumps of flowers. Bring in elements that are not in the original. Bring in more flowers or stars, little hearts. Maybe take some elements out and rearrange the layout. Because the easiest thing to tell if a design has been stolen is by outlines. Even in lawsuits, if you search like art theft lawsuit, you will find some examples of art theft. And you will see that the outlines are exactly the same. Which amazes me because it usually happens to the big companies and I'm like they have all the resources to create new art, To buy new art. Why would they copy files so directly? I don't get it. Number nine, find inspiration across categories. Don't just look at fabrics. Look at ready made clothes, ceramics, woven baskets, floral arrangements and whatnot. Look at the color of the sky. Learn how to carry over ideas into surface pattern design. For example, find inspiration in woven baskets or ceramic tiles. Or look at the way bird feathers are colored. It is very important to respect art ownership and to understand your rights and obligations. As a designer, art ownership differs according to the market and usage. If I'm making art and patterns at home by myself, they belong to me. I am the owner. But as I start looking for opportunities to sell my patterns or make products with them, I need to be very clear on who is going to own or use my art and under what circumstances. It is nothing scary, it's just something to know about and it's an important topic. As a commercial artist, you have three main options. One, license your designs, which essentially means letting companies borrow your artwork for a set period of time in a certain product category or categories. The second option is sell your art outright. It means selling the rights to the art in case you no longer own it. Number three, you can work for hire freelance for a company which also transferred art ownership. For example, I work for hire for a large corporation and I'm signing a contract. I should read that contract very closely because it is very likely that everything I make for this company will be owned by them. In many cases, I'm not even allowed to mention that I'm the artist. It is quite a common scenario, so don't be alarmed, The brand wants all credit and wants no association to the creator. That's why we have no idea who painted the stunning Gucci prints and so on. Always read the fine print. It is nothing super skated, like I mentioned, and it's definitely a possibility, every artist decides for themselves how they want to use their art. It would be awesome if we could just license everything, but unfortunately, many companies prefer to buy and own artwork and don't license anything at all. If you are comfortable in design and prolific selling outright might be a good option. Many artists do a combination of selling and licensing. You decide that this artwork was too painstaking for me. For example, I'm not ready to sell this one. I only want to license it. But those pieces on the contrary, have been sitting in my portfolio and spot flower shop and are not selling at all. So I'm open to selling them for the right price. You decide as the artist, you just need to be aware of what rights you are granting to other people and entities. And selling on microstock websites and print on demands is also a kind of licensing. If you are uploading your artwork to Spoonflower Society, six Tea Public, and whatnot, read the licensing agreement very closely as well. You've probably seen many artists sell their designs through multiple platforms. It's because those platforms do not require exclusivity. You can upload the same art elsewhere if those other platforms do not require exclusivity. Pattern Bank, for example, is an online print studio that requires exclusivity for most of their designs. You as an artist cannot upload the same designs. Artists can choose how they want to make money with their art, through licensing or lending their artwork for reproduction, or by selling exclusive designs or taking commissions. Everything is okay as long as it works for you, because some people are super quick and prolific and have no problem producing tons of new exclusive artwork, while others might not be so prolific and would rather make fewer designs at a higher cost. I think it's important to stay flexible and explore all the options because you might decide, oh, I only want to license my designs and never want to sell anything outright. I don't want to sell rights to my art, but it might not be possible and sustainable and no one might want to buy or license those designs. For example, your art is really elaborate and painstaking and you're better off taking expensive commissions or finding an art agent. It's all quite a journey and it will take some figuring out for sure. Now, you may be aware that recently a new player has entered the scene of art, making artificial intelligence art, AI art, those websites where people can generate art and designs using text prompts. It is still a very new tool and it is not currently happily accepted in the world of commercially licensed art because there are still a lot of open questions regarding the ownership of this kind of art. At the same time, we need to be aware that AI is not going anywhere, no matter how we feel about it. And it might be worth exploring as a new tool. There is still a lot of controversy on copyright, or rather the absence of it. And if you are going to be using artificial intelligence for pattern making, please study the usage terms closely. There is also the ethical aspect, saying that artificial intelligence creates images by collecting content from other creators online. And it cannot even be called art. It is a debatable point and I am not currently using AI in my work. There are so many wonderful and satisfying ways to work on patterns and textiles and they are too good to give up. So I'm staying, you know, in my traditional lane and I keep doing what I have been doing this past seven years. 18. How to protect your artwork from being stolen: Let's get back to our traditional art and design making. First of all, what does unauthorized use, stealing designs mean? It means offenders find ways to download your repeating tile or crop it out of a design that you posted online. Sometimes it can happen due to the negligence on the side of the platforms where people post their designs. Hackers find a way to grab the design and then open shops on Amazon, Red Bubble, and so on, where they post products with knockoffs or downright stolen designs. There have also been cases of textile factories overseas grabbing spongwower and Raspberry Creek designs, for example, and selling them as their own. It might sound very scary, but hear me out, it is important to take care of this. But as a beginner designer, it should not be your number one headache. Because very often, when you start out as a rule, beginner designs are not commercially viable, they are not up to standard. Please do not get offended. It is still very important to protect your work. What I'm saying is, don't stress too much about it and don't make it your top priority. And here are some tips to protect your work before posting it online or sending e mail pictures to clients. Number one, watermark your art in the center. Not in the corner, but in the center. So it's not easy to crop out, but it should not take away from the beauty of the design. So try to incorporate your logo stylistically and colorwise. Number two, don't show the entire repeat crop the image you are posting so that the repeat bounds are outside the frame. Number three, when stepping out your repeat, rotate your pattern slightly a couple degrees. I will record a demo so you can see how it's done. So this is the file that I often use for Instagram. This is a four by five template. It's now recommended, the recommended format because it takes so much space on your phone. As you see, I have this pattern fill layer here and that's exactly where we are going to rotate the pattern slightly. I have this premade template with my logo with a layer underneath so it doesn't ruin the design aesthetically. In order to create this layer, imagine you don't have this layer here. We are going to click on this Ying Yang sign, as my manager called it, and choose pattern here. And see this little window pops up here. And it's asking you, which pattern do you want? This is the little tile that I previously created as a pattern fill. Say I want to use this pattern and see it's really, really big. Right here, you can, there's a slider here, you can do this, but I like to just put it in manually. 34 is too much, so I'll do like 25 maybe, maybe even less 22, That's still too big. 19. See now there is no angle here. If I hit 45, it's going to be crazy, right? We don't want that, but if I just want to protect my repeat from being cropped out by hackers, I will do a very small number. You can try doing negative two or just two and see what looks better. So what it does here, here is my repeat tile, right, roughly. And it's going to be way, way harder to crop it out now that it is rotated because they can never know exactly the angle that it's rotated at. And I often switch it up, you know, and never use the same angle everywhere. And yeah, that's how you do it. And see my logo is in the center. I can pull it these two layers I created previously and they are connected by this little sign. So whenever I'm moving one of them, the other one is moving two. And I just see visually, you know, where it looks better. And it also has a color overlay on top of it. So I can change the colors easily. I usually do this background color so you can read, you know, the letter is a little bit easier. And for the text, there is also a color overlay. Let's try green. I think it looks fine, right? I just look at the shapes and I don't want anything cropped out. I also don't quite like this happening here. So I might go back to my layer and maybe do 20% just slightly bigger. While you're here, you don't have to close this little window. You can keep moving a pattern. That's what I like in Photoshopping, doesn't let you do this in Illustrator, I'm looking at all the edges and seeing if it looks visually pleasant. So I can post this on Instagram, for example. So these are some of the easy ways to protect your patterns. Of course, there is no guarantee, 100% that hackers won't figure it out. But I always say if they are really determined to steal your design, they will. But at least we can do these little things as for color overlay, for this layer, for these colors, whenever you have this layer, you go down here, click on the function icon and choose Color Overlay right here, And then it pops up right there. And as for getting your pattern inside, That little window right here, right? So this is done by, you know, this is my repeat tile that was done before, you know, going to the rotation and everything. So it is done by clicking Edit, Define Pattern, right here. And this little window pops up. You can change the name. I never touch anything here, but if you want to, you can, and you click okay. And now it is going to be in your little pattern box. Let me see where are we here? So this is right here. The last one. Number four, you might also consider using mock ups rather than flat art. When a pattern is applied on a professional mock up, the fabric is warped and the texture is present. And it is almost impossible to steal the design that way. Mock up files can be purchased on Creative Market, Etsy, Graphic, River, and other resources. Before purchasing, make sure the files work for your Photoshop version and your computer read the technical description. Number five tip is to applaud lower resolution or include lows in pitches that you e mail to the clients. I use 72 to 150 DPI resolution. I make the files smaller too. For example, do a 45 inch file, not 30, 40 ". You might have to play with different formats in different settings a little bit, so you see what works best for you. Number six, consider where and what you upload. Do not upload valuable art to microstock websites such as Shutterstock or 123 RF, where the commission for licensing is $0.10 It is your decision to make. You might want to stay away from certain platforms altogether. But just think what files go where. Number seven. As a community, we all need to educate people that they cannot take art from Pinterest. We should explain how it works whenever we can because sometimes people just don't understand they are doing something wrong. It is way worse when people do understand what they are doing but still choose to do it though. Number eight, you can do an image search and see if your art is used somewhere without licenses and your permission. The most notorious platforms for this are Amazon and Ts. People steal artists designs and then open shops where they sell products with ripoffs. In this case, you can reach out to the platform and report the offender and or send a cease and desist letter. The number nine, another option is to look into a password protected website. I wouldn't recommend doing it as a beginner designer, but if you are already confident that your designs are really valuable and marketable, if you have a really well put together portfolio, you can look into your website providers, options for creating some password protected galleries, many print studios do this as well. Let me search and see if I can find an example to show you. And number ten. Finally, you can register copyright on some designs and or a trademark for your business. But unfortunately, it does not always guarantee that the design will not get stolen. But it is still another level of protection. 19. Where do you even start? Approximate paths.: I know I have shared tons of information with you. It is okay to feel overwhelmed. You are not expected to understand and remember everything right away. I remember myself being a beginner designer, graduating from college with my head spinning from all the classes and data. It might happen that you will never need some of the info I've shared here. Or perhaps later on as you start exploring the world of surface design, something will ring a bell and you'll think, oh Daria, I was talking about this. Now I understand what she meant. I've put together a few scenarios or approaches to begin tapping into repeat pattern design. These are some imaginary personas of surface pattern designers. And of course, they are not precise. It's just an example you love drawing on your ipad. Procreate is easily your most used app. You just can't get enough of all the fun brushes. Plus you appreciate how you can take your ipad everywhere you go. You often sketch on the train or at the local cafe. You love drawing cute, almost kai characters, and you can totally see your designs used on baby and kids products. Your funny characters would also make killer stickers. You'll definitely order some for your laptop and also some for your bestie. In your free time, you draw motifs on the ipad. And then take the files to your laptop to put them in repeat in Photoshop. But you have also seen some cool skillshare classes on how to create the repeat in procreate right on the ipad. You're definitely checking them out soon. You like the freedom of uploading your designs to print on demand platforms such as Red bubble and Zazzle. You don't just make patterns. You use some of your cool graphics as T shirt and mug prints. And your style is perfect for both of these platforms. You are also looking into society Six, there are tons of great artists there who you admire. And you've also heard that brands reach out to artists for collaboration. The commissions on PODs are small, but you know once your portfolio gets bigger, the income's going to grow too. Past number two, you are a classically trained painter and are really into home decor. You could look at pillows and upholstery fabric in your local design center for hours. You also really enjoy all the classic patterns. Damasks til scenery, tropical leaves. Your style leans really well into interior design. You paint your motifs using scan them and put in repeat in Adobe Photoshop. You know that home decor is not really about the quickly changing trends, but rather about standard categories every day. Geometric prints, interesting stripes and medallions, gorgeous chinaserie with tree branches and birds on them. You're also really into antiques. You've been studying local interior designers and are ordering some of your fabric swatches on spoonflower to set up appointments about potential collaboration with local interior designers. You are developing thematic collections to show to your potential customers. Path number three. Your quilter, visiting fabric stores is your passion and you have been curious about making fabric designs for a while now. There are also some categories that you cannot find anywhere. So you're really excited to try and design your own fabrics. Tiny ditzy repeats like Liberty fabrics are your favorite. You know what makes a good quilt. A mix of florals, tiny geometrics and stripes. You've taken Adobe Illustrator classes and are now drawing simple motifs with a black liner to then scan them and vectorize in the program. Vector art is the best, clean cut, easily recolored and resized. You are researching quilting fabric companies online to send them a pitch of your designed collections. Designing for holidays is one of your favorite things. You would really love to license your collections to quilt fabric companies so you can receive royalties on the fabric yardage sold in big stores. Pass four. You are an illustrator and you make intricate illustrated patterns with characters doing things, scenery full of gorgeous detail. You are also good at hand lettering. You think that working with an art agent is your jam. Agents love a skilled illustrator who can make lush decorative designs that go on a variety of products from greeting cards to all sorts of packaging, from cosmetic to chocolate boxes. You have a strong recognizable style and knowledge of software, such as Procreate on the ipad and Adobe Illustrator on the computer. The agent will take your work to print shows such as Surtex and Print Source, where they can meet manufacturers and offer your artwork for licensing or buyout. Whatever works for you, you are looking at both options. Past number five, you just like it all. Drawing in only one style or topic is boring for you. You switch from Water college, to Vector Art, Exploring new mediums, and getting back to acrylic painting, block printing, weaving, and pottery. In between, you have solid computer skills. Because you love learning and doing what you haven't done before. You are freelancing for multiple print studios, creating original artwork that they later sell and license via print shows and their online shop, enclosed galleries. You also work for hire for two corporations. In the meantime, performing computer work on their art, such as cleaning up the scans, putting things in repeat, and creating callas in free time. You also submit your personal artwork to micros, stocks and PODs, hoping to build a passive income path. Number six, you are retired and explore patterns just for fun. You have no intentions of making a career out of it. You submit your patterns to spoonflower for others to buy as fabric, wallpaper, and home decor. And also buy some of your fabric to sew pillows, tots, and kitchen towels in your Etsy shop. And also local fairs and Christmas markets. I hope you understand that these are not precise scenarios and you don't have to work with interior designers if you paint and garage and you don't have to sell stickers if you do procreate art and so on. I just wanted to show you all the different points through which people realize their passion for pattern designs. Here is an approximate roadmap for you, but remember, every person is unique and what works for your friend or for me might not necessarily work for you and vice versa. So before you even begin designing, I want you to consider these things first. What kind of art do you like? What speaks to you as a person? As an artist? Is it watercolor or anime or comics? Traditional home decor, tattoo style outline, gory, Halloween cute, baby stuff, and so on. You need to sort of think of the technique and the market here. Are you attracted to a certain technique and then maybe it also leads to a certain market? For example, traditional painting works best for home decor. But again, it's not set in stone. The second thing to think about is what skills do you already have that could be useful? Do you have any software knowledge that is helpful? Any previous art making experience is a plus. Because remember we paint or draw motifs and then put them in repeat. That's the general idea. Or maybe you are really excited about doing everything on the ipad, or vice versa, never doing anything digitally, but everything traditionally, ipad art is currently dominant. But there are still artists like me who would rather start on the paper, and for me, it's a matter of principle. The third thing to think about is how comfortable are you using technology? Do you already have an ipad or are you a confident Illustrator user? Adobe Photoshop and procreate, in my opinion, are easier to learn because they imitate the actual process of making traditional art. Whereas Adobe Illustrator, while being a great program, is operating differently, it is a slightly different thinking process. Which of course, doesn't mean that it's a bad software. There is no bad software and there is no bad art making, it just needs to work for your purposes. The use of the software will also be dictated by how your motifs were created. Because some of the artwork should not be turned into a vector. For example, I do not recommend turning watercolor into a vector. It's going to really, really slow down your computer and it's just not the best thing to do. 20. Project summary - do it your way!: You have learned so so much about surface pattern design and the adjacent industries and art categories. Now let's take a look at your project. I have designed a questionnaire for you to navigate the new exciting adventure. Take some time to look through the questionnaire with a cup of your favorite beverage. Do some fun and easy activities like Prince Scavenger Hunt, sketching and career planning. Share your project in the project section if you feel like it, and let me know your thoughts on this class. Like I previously mentioned, I will be making separate classes on income streams and techniques for textile designers. Stay tuned. Check out my Youtube channel where I talk about textiles, patterns, colors, and artwork. Follow me on Instagram Pattern Underscore talent. This is my surface design and illustration account, and Daria Karensky is my new painting account. Thank you so much for joining this class and I'm so excited for you on your new design journey. Welcome to the Patterns are everywhere. I hope this class was helpful. If so, please consider leaving a positive review so that others can benefit from this too. If you have any questions or suggestions, please send me a note via Daria at Pattern Talent.com You can also write me a message on social media. Thank you so much. I hope you have a lovely day and I hope you enjoy all the pattern activities ahead of you. Bye, see you next class.