It’s always exciting to work to a brief and to have a project. I have spent the past few weeks researching my topic. While I have usually had a natural leaning to painting and drawing florals I was asked to design a range featuring chickens. They are such a delight to watch and fortunately my brother has hens. So after numerous, photos and sketches here is my collection which are available on various products through Redbubble.
A great way to get your work noticed is to enter design competitions, of which there are loads. I recently participated in an Instagram challenge to create a floral a day for 30 days which was posted by Print Fresh a Philadelphia based design studio. I was only able submit 6 designs because I started late and I work full time, so weekends are my painting time. I had loads of fun and thoroughly enjoyed creating the florals and seeing all the work of other participants. I would have loved to have been doing it everyday for the 30 days.
There are many arguments for and against entering these design competitions, this one written by Neil Bennett for DigitalArts for example and its worth finding out what designers think.
I enter because it’s an opportunity for me to take on a design brief – to challenge myself and my ability to meet a brief, to improve design skills and to do something that may not necessarily be about my own design preferences. Posting publicly also gives me some excellent insight into which designs are popular and I must say I am usually very surprised. Designs that I have spent considerable time on and that I quite like are often the least favourite.
So here are some recent posts I made for the Print Fresh Instagram. Which one is your favourite? Enjoy!
Lazy Daisy
In the Pink
Daisy Chain
Gabbie
Retro Rose
Petal
I am so fortunate to have the opportunity travel. My favourite place is textile heaven – India. Apart from the most extraordinary range of textiles in the world, everything a textile designer could possibly desire is there – India is a visual feast.
The colours are mesmerising and full of joy, texture and pattern abound – everything from the architecture to fragments of debris scattered on the street or the remains of posters layers on the walls bordering major roadways, beautifully painted trucks and finely painted henna to celebrate a wedding , huge bundles of flowers at the flower markets ready to be strung together and taken to the temple. I find it so inspiring. The images below were taken in Chennai, Kolkata and Jaipur.
Orange, fuchsia, turquoise, purple joy ! Take me there………………
Have a look at my Rebubble portfolio- you can shop here too. Great thing is, this is a sustainable way of producing textile and other products. Designs are only printed to order, so no speculation production. Use it and keep it forever or until it is totally worn out.
I love Friday… it is the day I have the time to work at home on design ideas. I am currently working on florals for the latest Tigerprint floral wrapping paper competition. You have the chance to upload 5 designs and I had already loaded three last weekend. But, I did this one today and think it’s much better than the last one I posted, which reminds me of wrapping paper suitable for my Grandmother rather than the Target market customer at Marks and Spencers.
A range of coordinate designs using two main design motif – floral and a spot. Simply by changing scale, repeat structure, layout of motifs and colour it is possible to create endless options.
Julia Raath 