Last year (2023) I got totally hooked on pattern design. I’ve always loved making patterns but I never really took it further after university. I had made patterns from Liquorice Allsorts and Jelly Babies in my second year at uni and one lecturer was very encouraging of my skillset but I didn’t act on it unfortunately. I could only see a surface pattern career in making laminates and curtains at the time and it didn’t really pique my interest. It was the early 2000s and social media didn’t exist so it was difficult to position yourself for jobs (certainly outside London) for that type of work.
The closest I got to making patterns again was for a limited run of promotional dog bandanas when I worked for an auto company. It wasn’t exactly haute couture but the dogs seemed to love them! Again I wasn’t entirely enamoured with doggy fashion design but it was a good laugh within the marketing team and I forgot all about it until, well, when I started writing this blog post!
It wasn’t until last year that I discovered the #52PatternsAYear challenge on Instagram. A fantastic creative idea sparked by Océane Meftah (@papergraphie) and Liz Mosley (@lizmosley). Every month, 4-5 weekly prompts were given around a theme and you had to create a pattern from them, showing 1 per week on Instagram. If you want to really find your drawing or artistic style, this is a great way to do it. I found that I went very detailed with my first few designs and then ended up making quite colourful and bright patterns by the end of September.
I haven’t continued the challenge into 2024 (yet!) as I have been busy including patterns in all the visual identities I design for clients. I feel like the #52PatternsAYear challenge just gave me the inspiration and skillset to do more pattern making around the brands I work with. I now include a pattern as standard with my entrepreneur logo package as they are perfect for creating packaging and merchandise which my clients love!
A new Instagram pattern challenge started in the new year (2024) but with 2 themes mashed together (eg. balloons and daisies or music and umbrellas) which adds a new creative twist to the challenge. If you’re looking to flex your creative skills and wish to join in, you can follow the challenge with Océane or Liz on their Instagram profiles or look up the hashtag #52PatternsAYear to see all the lovely designs that get submitted.
As for the patterns I created for the challenge, I decided to give them away for free as wallpapers for your phone. I’ve started adding a few to the collection on my Freebies page and hope to add more as I create them. Enjoy!
