Creating Mini Collections 2023

I am the one myself who when buying something chooses products because of the nice appearance. When I need to buy a notebook, I choose the cover that really speaks to me. Most probably it is with flowers or nice colors. It took quite long to realise that to put together all my artistic urges it could be me who could create those patterns! I have been creative and tried almost every art mediums since I was a child. I have been joking that I could not be an artist because I only like to draw flowers! Well…it took years to accept this could be something.

I think I have made my first “real” surface patterns for a competition in 2013. Then till 2021 I had made about five patterns for several competitions. On summer 2021 I found ready made 3D mockups and made some nice images of beddings ans pillows for my portfolio using my excisting patterns. I felt I was a designer with only technical experience so I wanted to add to my portfolio something to prove my skills as a professional with color compositions and materials. Some proves of my own visual world.

That summer 2021 it really hit me that the surface pattern design could really be the thing for myself

That summer 2021 it really hit me that the surface pattern design could really be the thing for myself. I found the whole world of surfce pattern design online. I started to follow amazing Instagram accounts with designers and licensing artists. Since then I´ve been listening hours of podcasts, spent nights with online classes and videos these talented and succeeded artists share.

On September 2021 I took a part in an Instagram drawing challenge called 30 Flowers In My Style (hosted by Deinki) to develope my own way to make patterns. It was so great experience! My true happiness was on top during the whole month and I was happy in my creative bubble. (And I already took the same challenge in 2022 with new techiques, but I will write about that later).

I wanted to create cohesive collections as I had only made single pattern previously

And now to the headline: After all these studies and brainwork I wanted to create cohesive collections as I had only made single patterns previously. I still wanted to use the earlier prints from the year 2021. I composed patterns in groups until the groups started to look cohesive. I also made some additioal simpler supportive patterns out of single motifs I had in my sketch files.

That’s pretty much how I ended up with 4 mini collections including 6 patterns each. Adding extra colorways I managed to reach 10 patterns per a collection. For each mini collection I created color palettes max 10 colors. When I chose the colors for each collection, I noticed that the color schemes started to remind the color theory commonly known for clothing divided by 4 seasons. I named these collections after these seasons. 

I search for reference images from Pinterest and Instagram and tried to study the core of building up the color schemes for a pattern collection. Which colors and tones work together. In general the way seem to have 2-3 tones of a single color and some accent colors to keep it interesting. Choosing new color palettes to fit different excisting patterns afterwards was not a straight road and took some time and different approaches. But I wanted to to stick to my original theme of the seasons. When I had finished the collections I created mockups to show the concept ideas I have in my head on which kind of products each collection could fit the best. The final names and collection are:

See the collection details via links above. All the pattern are available for licensing. What do you think?