Here we geo

Hello all! Just wanted to share a few geometrics I’ve been working on. I’ve been looking through some old sketches and found some doodles that needed to be worked into proper patterns. And I thought it was a good opportunity to start playing around with Pantone’s 2013 colour — Emerald Green!

My new friends at Dioton!

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you’ve all enjoyed some time off to relax, hang out with your favourite folks and eat way more than you can normally justify! I’ve been having a really lovely holiday so far and I’m keeping this party going until the New Year, heading to Montreal for a few days.

So I have some really exciting news! I’ve been trying to keep it under wraps but am happy that I can openly share it now. A few months ago, the lovely Thomas and Estelle at Dioton, a stationery company in France, got in touch to see about licensing some of my patterns for their beautiful (and I mean, BEAUTIFUL) line of customizable stationery products, including birth announcements, thank you cards, wedding invitations and more. And I was absolutely flattered and thrilled, and I couldn’t be happier to share with you what they’ve done with my patterns. They’ve captured the essence of the illustrations with their type and graphic treatments, and absolutely taken them to the next level. I couldn’t have dreamed that they would be more beautiful!

These two birth announcements will be available beginning January 1st, with three more to come in the early part of 2013. Currently the designs are available only in french, but they’re looking to expand their offerings in the future. Check out their blog post too!

I’m very grateful for all of the amazing things that have happened in 2012 and I can’t wait to see what happens next! I wish you all the best that life can bring for 2013 and hope you’re all ringing in the new year in whatever way suits you best!

Festive Forest for the holidays

I’ve been so thankful to have the time to focus on some patterns this week. Signing up for Surtex has already been an adventure with a ton of planning ahead, so it’s nice to just sit and take a break from logistics and planning and focus on what this whole thing is all about for me — pretty patterns! And since it’s the holidays, I thought I’d whip up some festive spirit by doing some holiday-inspired patterns. I’m also introducing a little thing I’m calling ‘Wouldn’t it be nice?’ — with concept mockups showing how the patterns might be used… in hopes that a buyer will see them and agree. Take a wee peek!

My new studio :: The big reveal!

So as some of you know, I recently moved into a new apartment with my beau and my absolute favourite part is that I have my own studio! Going from working in a small corner to an entire room for all things creative is a big treat, to put it mildy. I honestly smile when I walk into this room, I still feel so lucky to have such a great space to work in. Big, full of light, and has lots of wall space which is now adorned by things and folks that inspire me including prints by Lab Partners, Leah Duncan, Debbie Powell, Rifle Paper Co., and a few other gems. And a cozy sofa for those times when I want to step away from my big beautiful desk. I’m just thrilled, so I thought I’d share! (Click to see larger shots)

AND… In other news, my application to exhibit at Surtex was accepted! So it looks like I’ll be exhibiting in NYC next May! Ahhhhhhhh! It’s all starting to happen. Super exciting, but I’m already nervous! To be honest, I kind of feel a bit sick, but in the best way possible — it’s kind of like when you’re going on a first date with someone you’re really excited to meet. I have 6 months to train my nerves to succumb to stronger forces, like confidence and excitement. I think it’s going to be an absolutely amazing experience.

Magic Hour

You know that magical time of day, as the sun goes down and it becomes dusk, and you can just start to see the moon appear in the sky? That’s where the soft and dusky colour palette came from for this little series, a mix of florals and geometrics. I think they’re fun and playful, and I hope you like!

In other news, I took the plunge and applied to exhibit at Surtex this coming May! I’m nervous, excited, hopeful, terrified, but mostly completely stoked! But first… they have to approve my application. So, here’s hoping that I’ll have some news to share on that soon! Then all of the daydreaming of what my booth should look like can begin.

Finally, I’ve just added a sign-up button for my upcoming newsletters. If you’re interested, please go to the side bar of this blog page, or the bottom of any other page of my site and look for the sign-up!

As always, thanks for looking!

New space, new work

What a month! A great month… but a busy one. We moved into a new apartment which I absolutely adore (but have been somewhat obsessed with settling into) and it’s finally coming together. The new place includes a new studio (!!) — I’ve expanded from a corner of our living room to a whole room and every day I just want to pinch myself… it’s such a treat!! In addition to this, I’ve been working on a commission which I’ll be excited to share when the time comes. January is going to be an exciting month!

I have some new patterns to share, a new floral series, and it felt soooo good to sit down and have some dedicated time for them. Take a look, I hope you like!

A new way to work

As most of us freelancers do, I spend most of my days tied to my laptop. And at the end of that day, when my work is done and it’s time to play and draw and have fun with shapes, the last thing that I want to do is sit back down at my computer to do it. So during my late night doodling time, when I work best, I would step away, grab a pen and my sketchpad, and draw by hand. And this is awesome. Until I see the piles and piles of sketches I’ve accumulated and have to figure out a way to turn them into beautiful, editable, digital artwork — which usually results in way more computer time, redrawing things with my tablet.

So I was absolutely delighted when iDiscovered there is a solution! And it’s called… an iPad. It was a huge splurge but so far, this smart little gadget is changing the way I work on patterns. I bought a stylus pen and an app called Inkpad (which is a lot like Illustrator) and I’ve been doodling away, away from the computer, but my sketches are done digitally and are therefore completely usable and editable and is making me about a million times more productive!

Here are a few patterns that I created using elements I handdrew onto my iPad.

Where’ve you been all my life?

Sometimes I can’t believe that I hadn’t even created a floral pattern until this past spring, because it’s the kind of pattern that I love creating the very most. Lately I’ve been trying to develop other areas, to try designing new things, but coming back to a floral series was like taking a looooong deep breath of fresh air. Using the fuschia pattern that I created last week as a starting point, I developed it into a full series.  I hope you like them!

Vintage Fuchsias

First off, geez, it’s been a while. My officially-designated Sabbatical has wrapped up and I’m back to the juggling game… keeping up with both my graphic design clients and diving into a new career path with patterns. What a treat to be able to just focus on patterns for a few months… it was a productive time and fingers crossed that I can keep the momentum going.

I was recently contacted by Llew Mejia, a super talented illustrator / designer / pattern-creator who has a floral pattern project, 101florals, that he invited me to participate in. It’s a fun idea — we choose a flower, and then each of us has to create a pattern based on it. I was headed to Canada’s National Exhibition — a Toronto fair with all sorts of food and shows and interesting stuff — including a garden show, which I was all over. One of the craziest and most beautiful flowers I saw was the Fuchsia, and was the flower we based our designs on. I went in a vintage-illustrative direction, and Llew based his on Mexican Folk Art, and it’s beautiful.

Fairytale Gardens

I’ve been working on a little series that I’m calling Fairytale Gardens. I immediately picture these patterns in a girl’s bedroom… I can picture the curtains, the pillows, the wallpaper, the bedding.

An exciting month ahead — I just started the third and final module of the surface design course I’m taking, and if it’s anything like the last module, it’s going to be brimming with inspiration and information. Really looking forward to all of it!