Hello 👋

Today I thought I would give a little potted history of my background and a brief outline of my design process.

I started my career in publishing and took a break to bring up my family. It was during this time that I explored various creative pursuits/courses before settling on surface pattern design and in particular fabric design. There's more on this here

My design process always starts with a photo I have taken from either a family holiday or my surroundings. From this I create colour palettes, motifs, designs and collections.

**Fig. 2. A mood board is always a good starting point and helps develop ideas for new designs.**

**Fig. 3. Photograph taken in my garden of our cute little blue birdhouse.**

I create a colour palette from photographs by using something called a colour picker that picks up colour from different areas in a photograph that I then use to create colour squares that will then form the basis of a colour palette. This process is so much fun and I can literally be doing this for hours!

**Figs. 4 & 5. Motif and repeat pattern tile**

I will then spend some time drawing to create a selection of motifs (Fig. 4 - left picture) that I will use for making a repeat pattern. This process can take many days and is always inspired by nature and the theme for the collection. Once I have decided on a motif or a selection motifs I will then create a repeat tile (Fig. 5 - right picture) using software called adobe illustrator. This particular design uses only one motif and is based on Indian block printing.

**Fig. 6. Cushions - 'Hope' Design from our new collection called Sanctuary launching soon**

Once I have tested the repeat and finalised the colours I want to use I will then have fabric printed. Although this particular design is inspired by traditional Indian block printing I digitally print all my designs as this process is kinder to the environment using very little water and environmentally friendly inks. There is very little wastage with this process too.

**Fig. 7. The best part of the process is using my designs onto products - I will never get tired of seeing designs come to life be it on soft furnishings or products such as cushions and accessories.**

This is simplified description of my design process, but I hope it gives a flavour how how it all starts and the various steps that go into creating a new design and a collection.

Bye for now

Laura x

My design process...