In 2018 my friend and design mentor at the time introduced me to surface pattern design. She had a robust and flourishing business with her illustration and hand drawn patterns that she printed through Spoonflower Inc., a local NC company. Her offerings can be found here. While intimidated and pretty certain I had nothing to offer the pattern design community, I reluctantly took her up on the offer to teach me pattern-maker in .ai and I entered into my first competition on Spoonflower’s site shortly thereafter.
At that time, if you would have told me that patterns would be a foundational aspect of my design career, I’d likely have laughed in your face.
While my submission (above) to the Spoonflower competition didn’t win any awards, the experience itself was awesome, and I was hooked. What’s not to like about painting whimsical things that you love and having others purchase them online? It was from there that surface pattern design became a totally fulfilling side hobby for me; it blended my love of painting with the innate “wow” factor of seeing your work repeated an infinite number of times. Printing these patterns on physical items such as wallpaper and fabric was truly the cherry on top of an already robust passion project that had no other purpose except that it truly excited me. As it turns out, that was the reason I was hired at the RNC.
Fast forward a few months, and I’m working at a small desk in the basement of a building on Capitol Hill with a long list of projects in my queue with hot deadlines. Something no one tells you about being a designer in a fast paced environment: the flow of creativity is truly key to your success. In these moments, I surprisingly found myself falling back on my pattern-making ability and integrating it into my finished product. Not only did this allow me to hit tight deadlines, but also create content that was unusual in the market.
From custom painted “MAGA” hats in a Father’s Day pattern, or a low opacity background on a GOTV ad to elevate the finished product, my patterns became sprinkled throughout the RNC’s social channels and creative. For political requests, I even found myself hand-drawing state specific monuments or “isms” to better drive consumer’s interaction with the creative. Not only personally fulfilling, my patterns were performing well and our clients liked them too.
Three years later, I’ve had the opportunity to stress the importance of learning custom pattern work to all of our designers through presentations and feedback. Patterns can add remarkable depth to a piece of creative, quickly moving something stagnant to multidimensional. It takes an eye to strike the balance between busy and finished, but through patterns, this skill in itself can be better honed. As the office “pattern queen,” I have passed on this knowledge in the same way I learned it; hands-on and driven by the simple joy pattern-making brings. The incredible team of designers I’ve worked with at the RNC now understand the value of patterns.
From a passion project to my saving grace, and ultimately the best skill I’ve ever learned - surface pattern design is still my secret weapon. I just completed a hand-drawn DC pattern featured on the RNC’s merchandise page. It soon will be accessed here.