Transcripts
1. Trailer: Hi, I'm Elizabeth Olwen. I'm from Toronto Canada, and I'm a surface pattern designer. Which basically means that I create patterns for all different products. You may have taken my Skillshare class which is a more technical look at how to build a repeat pattern in Illustrator. In this class, we're going to look at the more conceptual aspects of building out an entire pattern collection. We're going to start by developing a really strong theme, working with that theme to develop theories of repeat patterns and spot graphic. Ultimately, learning to tell a beautiful story around your collection.
2. Introduction: Hi, I'm Elizabeth Owen, I'm a Toronto-based surface pattern designer, which basically means that I create patterns for all sorts of different kinds of products. I have always loved pattern from a really early age and have always collected fabrics just for fun and collect old wallpapers and stuff like that. So yeah, patterns have a really special place in my heart. Some of my products include fabrics including like quilting weight fabrics, upholstery, corduroys, stuff like that and I also do quite a bit of work in the stationery, so that can include like these little gift bags, the stickers and gift wraps, and greeting cards and all sorts of other paper products. I also do gift, some home decor, stuff like bedding. So basically, possibilities for surface pattern design are pretty much endless. A little bit about collections before we dive into the class content. You may have taken my first-class in sculpture which is all about building a repeat pattern in Illustrator from scratch. So I was talking about building one pattern. In this class, we're going to talk about building a series of patterns that can mix and match and coordinate together. So, I remember like whenever I started learning pattern design, I was a little confused about the concept of collections and I didn't know like why or like what they're used for, like how the prints come together, what they should do, what they shouldn't do. So, I like to think about collections in terms of an analogy of like decorating your bedroom. So, if you're going to redecorate your bedroom you're going to find a really amazing duvet cover, it's really going to have like this really bold print on it, and then you're going to want different curtains, the different pattern for the curtains, you want a different print for a rug and maybe the sheets on your bed will be slightly different print. So you want them to all mix-and-match together and to coordinate beautifully. So that's how I like to think about collections. I thought I'd walk you through one of my collections to explain the concept of it a little bit further. So this right here is my first fabric collection of Cloud9, it's called grey abbey, and of shows you the breakdown of your collections. So generally, a collection is comprised of some hero prints, this would be considered a hero print. So it's got a larger scale, it's got a lot of motifs going on in it, it's got a nice variety of color, and generally, it's just an engaging prints and it invites you in to spend some time and get to know all the different elements and motifs that are happening. This would also be considered a hero print. So again, wide variety of color, lots of motifs, really engaging and fun and interesting to look at. So, those are your heroes. In addition to this, you have some secondary prints which helps to tell the story, but don't require quite as much attention or focus. So, this would be considered a secondary print. A slightly reduced color palette, it's got a great design and still stands on it's own, but it's not quite as much of a show stopper as the hero print and this would also be considered a secondary print. So again, reduce color palette, really great to look at, but takes a backseat to the hero prints. In addition, you have some blender prints. So these are both considered blender prints and they basically do what it says, it blends the whole collection together. So usually, it reiterates the color story or the style of the pattern. So in this case, picks up on, kind of rounds out the color palette so you can pick up more of the coral and the mint and everything. It just blends it or glues it all together. Whenever I'm working on my collections, I also like to add some spot graphics, so that's like standalone graphics to go with it, and ultimately, I'll give it a great name and learn to tell a story around my collection. So yeah, that's a look at collections. In the next video, I'm going to walk you through the project brief and what we're actually going to be doing in this class.
3. Your Project: So, in this class, we are going to build out our own pattern collections. So, we're going to start by gathering our inspiration and choosing a theme. We're going to build out some mood boards and start drawing, and then ultimately, we're going to work on some hero, secondary, and blender prints. In addition to that, we're going to spend a little time working on some spot graphics which are just stand alone graphics and help give the collection a little bit more flexibility. Then ultimately, one of my favorite parts, we're going to name our collections and learn how to tell the story behind your collections. So, you may have taken my first class in Skillshare which is all about building repeat patterns in Illustrator. So, if you haven't taken that class, I really highly recommend that you go back and take it as a primer for this class. Or if you already know how to build a repeat pattern in Illustrator, you can hop right in and join up. So, I'm really looking forward to seeing all the collections in the project gallery, and we're just going to hop right into finding your inspiration and choosing a theme.
4. The Moodboard: So, let's talk about inspiration. I like to surround myself with all sorts of pretty things that got me excited and inspired. So, my studio is filled up with things that I have collected along the way from flea markets and antique shops. I have really great collection of books that I like to look at and it just gets my head thinking in different ways. I've always collected fabrics and old wall papers and I take lots and lots of pictures just on my phone when I'm out and about walking around or if I go camping. So, that I have this catalog of imagery that I can refer back to whenever I'm starting a new collection. So, in terms of choosing a collection, I think it's a good idea to choose something that instantly gets you excited. So, if you start thinking about it and your head is already like I'm going to swimming with ideas for different prints and motifs, then that's going to be a great collection for you to work on it. You want it to be broad enough that you have all those ideas but narrow enough that it's still going to seem cohesive and tied together, so it's about finding that little sweet spot. So, if I were to use an example of say a vintage kitchen. So, maybe, I can think of beautiful pots and pans and dishes and utensils and all sorts of beautiful ingredients like maybe herbs and spices or little tea cups. If you just start thinking about it and your ideas just come to you instantly, that's probably going to be a good basis for building your collection. Once you have that idea, I think, is a really good idea to work all of that into a mood board. A mood board is just like a little visual touch point for you so that you have everything at your fingertips. So, whenever I build a mood board, I throw in all of the images that are really inspiring me around that theme, I start to integrate keywords as well so that it just keeps my head in that game. I like to also choose like a rough working title or mood or something. So, for this collection that we're developing for this class, I'm going for a vintage floral kind of look. I've got a mood board with references to William Morris and old liberty prints referencing certain textures or motifs. I was thinking about simpler days whenever we all had so much time and we're frolicking through the meadows. I was also thinking about Timotei commercials. All these things are culminating in my head and creating a vision that I want to carry through in this collection. So, it's great to have this mood board on hand so that anytime I jump in to do new prints for the collection, I just have to look at it and I'm instantly like get my head back in the game. So, it helps me avoid a creative block and yeah, just gets my head in that game and it allows me to touch base with it and make sure that all the prints I'm developing are within that theme stall. So, yeah, now that we have a great mood board, we're ready to start drawing the motifs that are going to ultimately build out the prints in our collections.
5. Drawing: So, let's dive into drawing. I would really recommend keeping your mood boards by your sides, so they can check in with them and make sure that you're drawing to your theme. It can inspire. It should inspire what you're drawing. So, in terms of drawing, I personally like to get away from my computer and go back to the good old fashioned pen and paper for this. I just sit down with my notebook and I just draw and draw and draw a ton of elements. Then hopefully, I can see certain like motifs start to appear that connect to my mood board and answer those questions or check those boxes. So, I might notice like a certain, like shape developing, certain commonalities like line, quality or a certain texture. In this mood board, I was really talking about these organic shapes. So, I start to look at this and I integrate these fat, floral shapes into it. Yeah, those I think, I look at this and I'm like, I think that would work really nicely for hero print. Maybe, this guy right here would work really nicely for a secondary print. So, start to think of the collection as you're drawing and see making sure it connects back to the mood board that you've developed. In terms of next steps after that, you're going to need to digitize your artwork somehow. So, again in my first class, I went more in depth on how to do that. But for me, just to recap, I like to take a picture of my drawings, import it into my iPad, and use an app called InkPad, which is a lot like Illustrator, in terms of all the tools. The great thing is that you can export a PDF, into Illustrator. It retains all the vector qualities, so you can edit it once you get it into Illustrator. So, in my first class a lot of people actually ask me what kind of stylus pen that I use. It's a short answer is not fancy. I just get my stylus at the dollar store. So, it's crazy cheap. I like this one because it's really small and has really fine tip. So, I don't think it's really necessary that you go and spend a lot of money on something like this. This one works just fine. On the same theme, people were asking me what kind of tablet that I use, and I have a Wacom Bamboo Tablet, and this guy is really cheap. It's pretty inexpensive and it works totally fine for what I needed it for. So, I don't think you need anything really fancy to do this. Speaking of the tablet, another way to get your drawings in is you can scan them, and retrace them with your tablet. Or you can just draw directly in Illustrator just with a mouse. So, it depends whatever feels good for you, just go with it. So yeah, we've got all of our motifs now, and we're going to be ready to start developing our hero prints. Which is what we're going to talk about in the next unit.
6. Hero Prints: Okay, so now you've brought all of your drawings into the computer and now it's time to start assembling a hero pattern. So, before we dive in I'm just going to do a quick recap on great hero patterns. So, here are a few that I think are good examples and generally they have a nice wide variety of color and they have lots of different motifs in them so it's visually exciting. I like to think that if someone spend some time with your pattern they might pick up on something new every time they look at it. So, yeah, it should be really dynamic and exciting and ultimately it's going to be what inspires the rest of the collection. All of the other prints in this collection are going to look to it for direction. So, I like to almost think of it as like head cheerleader like everyone's going to be like looking to that main one should know what to do. So, these I think are great examples of hero patterns, really dynamic, and engaging, and fun. So, we're going to hop onto the computer now and I'm going walk you through how I built a hero pattern. We remind you that I actually taught a whole class on this my first Skillshare class about building repeat patterns. So, that's how really good technical look, how to build a repeat pattern. So, I'm just going to have for this class just quickly walk you through how pattern will come together for me. So, first of all, you're going to want to bring all of your motifs and design elements that you've drawn and onto the pasteboard of a new document and ultimately you're just going to start pulling things, then placing your little motifs within the given space. I usually start with a square and just pull things in and see how things start to fit and the relationships that they play with each other. So, yeah, maybe you go there. I don't focus too much on the color at this point. I really focus on the bones of the pattern, and getting it working and turns out the actual design of it, and then at the very end, I will work on developing a color palette. Often, patterns are developed in multiple colorways, so I like to really focus on the design first and then worry about the color later. So, as you can see this is coming together nicely. Just fitting everything in, and finding like nice little nooks and crannies for everything to fit, and ultimately I end up with a lovely little hero pattern. So, what I love about this hero pattern is that it's really dynamic. It's got lots of variety and scale, so big flowers, small flowers. It's got some nice flow going, flower was going this way, flower is going this way, so it's got a nice rhythm to it, and yeah, it's just like really peaceful. It's got a great color palette, a nice wide one, so that in your other prints you'll have something nice wide variety of colors to choose from in your other prints. So, yeah, to me that's an example of a really successful hero print and will be the star of the show, and will inform the rest of the collection. So, now we've got that established, let's move in to developing your secondary collections.
7. Secondary Prints: Okay. Now, we're going to talk about our secondary prints. So, now you've got your hero print established, some of the questions have already been answered in terms of color palette and things like that and overall direction and mood. So, your secondary prints should really pick up on that same vibe. They don't necessarily have to have the same shapes specifically, but they should have, yeah, communicate the same mood. So, I think it's a great idea once again to keep your mood board on on-hand and look back to it and see how that hero print answers that mood board. Then think about how you can extend it again. I would recommend going back to your drawings again and seeing if anything new pops out for you or even continue drawing if that hero print inspired something new in you. I think it's, yeah, a great idea to like check in and make sure you're still going in a great direction that you're happy with. In terms of secondary prints, I always sometimes whenever I start working on them, if I really loved that hero print, I almost feel like I'm done. I'm like, "Oh, it's perfect, I don't need to do anything more." But sometimes, you get stuck because you're just like really happy with it. So, I think it's a good idea to give yourself some extra tools to work with. One thing that I think is really successful and as a collection, is when there are different varieties of prints within a collection. So, it's not just like say this is a good example. Say you have this all over prints called a tossed print. So, it's going every which way? There's no up, no down, no left, no right, it's just an all overprint. So, it's a nice idea to integrate different type of repeat pattern to coordinate with it. So, in this case, I've used what you call a one-directional prints. So, you can see that it provides a really nice contrast to this oliver print in providing a little bit of extra structure. So, yeah, one tool you can use is the one-directional print, one-directional print is what it says it is. It can just go in one direction. So, there you go. Another type of pattern that you can use is a two-directional print. So, this would be a good example of a two-directional print. So, you can turn it this way, you can turn it this way and it's going to work either way. So, that's a nice little thing to have in your tool but, this is another two-directional print, actually this is more of a one-directional print the leafs only go up. This is an example of a four-directional print or an old, yeah, it goes in every which direction, goes up, it goes down, goes left, and it go right. So, it's nice to have those extra like tools in your toolkit to derive ideas for new patterns. So that if you create a collection that's like all all over prints that are going every which direction, it doesn't have a lot of contrast and you don't know what the most important one is. So, yeah. Great idea to integrate some different types of patterns into your collection. So, let's move on to the computer and I just kinda walk you through my development of another secondary print. So, I was really inspired by these shapes here. So, these really orby shapes I think they'd really compliment my hero print really nicely in terms of mood, in movement and shape. So, I'm going to use these drones to bring on the computer and develop a secondary print. So, great idea. I always like to keep my hero print in my pasteboard. So, I can check in with it and make sure it's still fitting the theme. Yeah, I just start grabbing my elements that I've imported from my iPod or redrawn in Illustrator and pull them into my art space and get things going that way. So, just going to quickly walk you through how I put this one together. Just finding a nice place for everything and a nice little relationship between all the different motifs. Again, the color palette is going to be slightly less varied. So, you're going to pick up from the hero palette but usually use slightly fewer colors. Okay. So, now we've got a nice secondary pattern developed, I really recommend again keeping your hero print right on your pasteboard right beside it so, you can check in and see if it's fitting the theme, fitting the mood, and a good idea to just check-in about those kind of principles like a secondary print having a few less colors and ultimately is there to help support that hero but might have fewer motifs thing. So, yeah, just check in with your hero pattern and see if everything studying. If it's fitting, I would recommend moving on to creating a few more secondary prints for every collection that I do. I would say I do two or three secondary prints to compliment that hero. Okay. So, if you're in good shape with all of that, now we can move on to developing our blender prints.
8. Blender Prints: So, let's dive into creating our blender prints. As a little recap, a blender print, is what it says it is, it helps blend the whole collection together. So, I like to think of it as the glue that holds everything together to create a really nice cohesive collection. So, for blender print often, it's really a simplified version of something else that's happening in the collection or just a really nice smaller scale pattern maybe, with a more reduced palette. So, if we were to look at this little gift set as an example. Here, we have our Hero patterns, got lots going on, really dynamic, going every which way, which informs the secondary pattern on which has a further reduced palette, and is a one-directional print, so you have that nice contrast. Then, we have our blender print to add to the mix. So, in this particular case, it's really basically just one color, is this kind of pink. I looked to my Hero pattern to influence the design of this. In this particular case, I really loved this cute little flower that really didn't shine so much in this pattern, but I really love it just the same. So, I just simply extracted that little flower and I built a new pattern around it. Picking up on some of the leaf shapes as well on the Hero pattern. It's just that really nice simple coordinate that helps pick up on some of the colors going on Hero, and helps tie the whole thing together. So, in terms of the collection that I'm building for this class, I'd like to build a few different blender prints. Again, I'm going to pull in my Hero print and my secondary prints that I've already developed, put them on the paste board and see if they can inspire a new idea. So, if I were to look at this one and you look at the Hero pattern, and I love this little tiny flower, just with like polka dot top on it, and I also love the little sprig beside it. So, I think that would be a basis for a nice blender print. So, it's not really complicated. It's really quite simple and it's interesting to look at, but it really just helps like backup that Hero print. So, feel free to change the color of everything. It's really nice that within a collection to have a nice variety of colors and backgrounds. So, some of my secondary prints, the background's been like a white color, so maybe I'm going to want to have a dark background color or utilize that palette in a different way. So, that's one blender print that I developed for this collection. I'm going to do another one. So, if we were to look at that pattern. I really like this fat blobby shape that's present in that secondary print. So, I'm just going to, again, just extract that element and start building a new collection around that. This one it's really working its way into a nice structured one-directional print, but it really compliments the whole collection really nicely. Again, I'm going to use a darker background to help provide some extra contrast within the collection. All right. So, we've got our Hero print, we've got our secondary prints and now, we've got our blender prints. So, all of the prints are complete within our collection. We're well on our way to a full collection. So, the next step is we're going to just focus on developing a few spot graphics to add to the mix.
9. Spot Graphics: Okay. So now I'm going to dive onto the computer here and show you how I would build a spot graphic. So, usually I would start by looking at one of my hero patterns, or my secondary patterns, and start looking for motifs that are really interesting to me. So, maybe pick out some of my favorite little elements. So, I was really liking this, and this guy is nice too, and maybe one of these, and one of these. I would just open a new document and just pop those in. Basically, just start playing around, and seeing how things fit together, re-scaling things, stuff like that. You want create a new shape with the elements that you brought in, something that'll stand alone as an illustration. So, something like that might seem to work, and feel free to draw new elements to add to the mix. It doesn't have to be exclusively from that pattern, and feel free to mix and match. You can grab a lot of elements from a secondary and mix them in with some elements from the hero pattern. It's really wide open, big ideas that it just should suit the mood of the collection that you've developed. Then just think about it, it may be used on a sticker, or something like that. You just play around till you are getting something that you think is looking good. Maybe I don't like that there, I don't like that there. You can just go for a really highly symmetrical look. Possibilities are really endless, and it's whatever you think would be a nice way to complement the pattern you've developed, the patterns. Okay. So I got that going, and this is looking pretty good. I'm going to do that. Okay. There and there. Maybe I will put these little guys in. All right. So, that's a pretty good example of what a spot graphic may look like. So, it's just, fit the theme, and stand alone. So, I could see that play nicely on the back of a greeting card, or on a pillow, or something like that. I would recommend doing maybe one or two spot graphics for the collection that you've developed today. It just helps give it that extra flexibility for use on different products. So basically, all the artwork has been created for our collections so we are in really good shape, and in the next unit, we're going to give this collection a name, and learn how to tell the story behind your collection.
10. Naming and Storytelling: Okay, so, we have developed a beautiful collection and develops in spot graphics to go with it. This next little section is a bow like tying it up with a pretty little bow. So, I like to add a collection name to all of my collections, and in basically something that describes the feeling of the collection, almost like adding a bit of a brand to your collection. I also like to add a story or a blurb that helps explain it. Usually, how I'll do this I'll just take a look at the whole collection and pull it into Illustrator, and some like just into an art space here and look at everything and see how everything's working together, and feel free now that you see everything the big picture, see everything altogether, feel free to make any adjustments to get everything working as a group. In this case, for instance, I think that pattern is far too large to go with the group and stealing the show a little. So, we're going to reduce that and maybe we're going to make this one a little bit bigger because it is the hero pattern of the group. Those of you who took my first class will recognize a familiar pattern, I integrated this print here as a secondary print because I thought it really fit the mood of what I was developing. So, yeah. Just make any final tweaks that you think would be helpful. I added another blender print to the mix that picks up on the kind of orangery coral color that's become part of the palate. All right, so we've got our Spark graphics, we've got our patterns and so let's start naming. Basically, what I do for this process is, I look back to my mood board that developed in the first place and I'll often have integrated a lot of keywords that can really be helpful for guiding this process. You don't have to use any of the same keywords but it just might help set the mood. Then, think about how the collection has evolved and if anything else is come into play, any new factors, or new feelings, and moods, or anything like that. I noticed that when I was working on this collection, I kept getting like imagery in my head, almost like I kept picturing myself walking through a field of tall grass, and plopping myself down, and reading a book of poetry. I was just maybe me craving a simpler life, was thinking I was in the winter, I was thinking about spring,and I kept thinking about those soft morning light the pores through the window and my kitchen every morning, and just cast this warm glow over everything and just that feeling that goes along with it. The feeling of whenever the bird starts to sing in the spring, and yeah, just this really romantic meadows vibe. So, I like to just start by writing everything out, and revisiting it. So, some of the things I wrote down were, yeah, the feeling of the fresh spring year, rebirth. The freedom to wander, meandering through soft romantic meadows, tall grass and fields of wild flowers, warm golden sun, birds in their sweet songs, and yeah. I started to put that together as a story and listen to what was appearing as maybe some collection titles. One thing that I was talking about was poetry. So, I started looking at different poets and was looking at Keats and ultimately settled on a poem by Sylvia Plath called Morning Song, which I felt like really related to my collection. In terms of the morning glow, the sweet sound of birds, and poetry. It all came together really nicely for as the name of a collection. I felt really, yeah, it encapsulated that. So, I decided to name my collection Morning Song. In this process, you will have started developing this narrative and I would just recommend yeah, just diving in. I'm not a writer but I do like to rate and I really feel like it adds value to my artwork whenever I can give the statement, and helps people connect to it too. So if you go to an art show for instance, a lot of the time you know you'll look at the artwork and you might think like wow, it's totally beautiful, and can admire in that way but sometimes when you read the artist statement, you can make that extra connection with it. It tells you something about it that you didn't know and helps you engage and connect with it. So, it's the same process with developing a story around fabric collection, or a pattern collection. So, in this case, for Morning Song, the love that I ended up coming up with I will read to you. "Morning Song is inspired by the feeling of spring. When the earth comes back to life, the morning is lit by warm golden sun, and the birds sing their sweet morning songs. It speaks to simpler times, and days spent frolicking through the fields of wildflowers and meandering through soft, romantic meadows. Each print in the collection is like a little sonnet dedicated to these charmed and beautiful landscapes." So, I think it's like adding a little bit of poetry to your own collection and yeah, just helps people connect with it. Also, the great thing about coming up with a little story behind it is that oftentimes it'll help inspire like even more ideas really related to the collection. So, this particular collection, Morning song is going to be my next fabric collection that comes that with Cloud nine. Every time I do a fabric collection I have to design a quote. So, the quote for this collection I have named sonnet, and we integrated some- so it's actually like little pages, you can see in the quote sign here. It's actually like little pages of poetry that are like flipped from different angles and really showcase the collection really beautifully. If you turn the quote over you'll see that the quoting is actually done in almost like a little script font. So, it really picks up on the theme and like drives it even further. I think developing a great name and greet story just like the full package, and not only will help you connect with your work even more but it will definitely help other people connect to it too. So, we've got a big beautiful collection. I hope you're really proud of all of your work, and I'd really love to see them uploaded into the project gallery.
11. Spot Graphics: All right. So, now we've got all of our prints develop. So we're on the home stretch. So, in this little section, I'm going to talk to you about developing some spot graphics, which can help round out your collection. So, to explain, spot graphic is like a little standalone illustration and that is not in a repeat format. So, think about maybe a spot graphic on a pillow. You don't necessarily want to repeat pattern, but you want one stand alone graphic. Again, if we're going to look to this little gift bags set, I've developed a series of spot graphics that coordinate with it, and ultimately got worked into sticker design so I can mix and match and coordinate with the bag set. So, this is a really nice example of spot graphic. So, all of the elements within the spot graphic are simply derived from the hero pattern in this case. So, I took one of these flowers, I made it as a feature flower in this, grabbed some of the leaf shapes and some of the other motifs, and I worked it into, in this case, a little circle shape. So, it can be the spot graphics that you create, it can be in a circle shape, they don't have to be. They can be a little banner like this or they don't have to have a specific shape at all. Another way of thinking about this is like say if you think about like kids pajamas or something like that. Often the pants will have a pattern on them but the T-shirt might just have one element on it. So, maybe there's a star pattern, a repeat pattern on the pants, but they're just one single star on the T-shirts that matches. The reason why I like to develop spot graphics is it does give your collections so much more flexibility, with so many of the projects that I work on a client will be using my repeat patterns and that's great, but they always want that little extra thing to add. So, maybe if it's a greeting card there might be a pattern on the front, but on the back they just want that extra little bit of art to use to round it out. So, it gives them more flexibility. It also really shows your versatility as an artist. So, you don't get cornered into just being that person who makes repeat patterns. They can see that you're capable of doing other things including spot illustration type thing. So, great idea to get in the practice of doing that. So, now I'm gonna dive onto the computer here and show you how I would build a spot graphic. So, usually I would start by looking at when my hero patterns, or my secondary patterns, and start looking for motifs that are really interesting to me. So, maybe pick out some of my favorite little elements. So, I was really liking this, and this guy is nice too, and maybe one of these, and one of these, and I would just open a new document and just pop those in. Basically I just start playing around and seeing how things fit together, re-scaling things. You want to create a new shape with the elements that you brought in, something that will stand alone as an illustration. So, something like that might seem to work. Feel free to draw new elements to add to the mix, it doesn't have to be exclusively from that pattern. Feel free to mix and match. You can grab elements from a secondary, mix them in with some elements from the hero pattern, it's really wide open. Big ideas that it should suit the mood of the collection that you've developed. Then think about maybe it's on a sticker or something like that. So, you play around until you getting something that you think is looking good. Maybe I don't like that there, I don't like there, you can go for a highly symmetrical look. Possibilities are really endless and it's whatever you think would be a nice way to compliment the pattern that you've developed. So, I got that going, and this is looking pretty good. I'm going to do that, and yeah. Okay. There and there. I don't know if these little guys in. Alright. So, that's a pretty good example of what a spot graphic may look like. So, it should fit the theme and stand alone. So, I can see that playing nicely on the back of a greeting card, or on a pillow or something like that. So yeah, I would recommend doing maybe one or two spot graphics for the collection that you've developed today, and it helps give it that extra flexibility for use on different products. Basically, all the artwork has been created for our collections. So, we're in really good shape. In the next unit, we're going to give this collection a name and learn how to tell the story behind your collection.
12. Final Thoughts: So, that concludes our class on building a pattern collection. I hope you guys have had fun, and I'd really, really love to see what you come up with for the class. That was one of the best parts about the first Skillshare class, seeing all the amazing patterns that everybody came up with for the class. It's really exciting and it's also a great way to share your work with other students. I really do encourage you to do the projects and upload. It's kind of like the best way to learn is actually by going through all those steps. Yeah, I hope you really kept your handy little mood board at your side the whole time. It's such an important thing, from my perspective, to have a really solid concept behind a pattern collection. It'll help direct the whole process for you and guide you through and ensure you end up in a place in the end that you're really happy with. Yeah, take that extra step, give it a name, give it a story, and it's going to help everyone kind of connect with that pattern collection not much more. So yeah, thank you so much for taking this class and I really hope you have a great time on your pattern journey.
13. Explore Design Classes on Skillshare: way.
Elizabeth Olwen, Surface Pattern Designer
