The Surface Design Process explained in pictures:
Remember the year that Radiant Orchid was the color of the year? Well it inspired a textile design process from hand sketch to digital results. See photos of the entire process below. SCROLL NOW!
Hello and thank you for visiting, you landed on our blog hop. For those of you that do not know what a blog hop is, its a collaboration of bloggers (and designers in our case) that blog about the same topic and create a loop that you can follow. This blog hop is a group of 40 international designers and spread out over 4 days. You can follow along on our design and thought process journey and see how the same color and inspiration will result in many completely different designs.
At the bottom of this post is the link to hop to the next designer's entry, or if you would like to start at the beginning of the blog hop you can click here and visit surface designer Mary Tanana's blog
Update as of July 2018 the loop is not longer functioning all the way around. BUT MARY TANANA has a list with all the blog links.
More...
If you feel like it.. Do the entire loop... (see update above)
I started creating patterns for textile prints while working at a smaller lingerie company. Here at this family owned business there wasn't a budget to purchase prints and I had to create everything from polka dots to rose prints. The blog hop is a great creative exercise because there isn't really a client or a certain market or a boss that one has to design for. The freedom that comes with this exercise can be intimidating and freeing at the same time.
For this blog hop we were all inspired by the Pantone color of the year called "radiant orchid" and as a group we came up with the visual inspiration name called Tropical Fusion.
First I brainstormed anything to do with the theme, especially carnival in Rio, and floral inspiration. I doodled items, lines and patterns that are found on costumes, and floats. Finally while out on a walk, I found footprints and leaves that worked with my initial brainstorming session and I started sketching them up.

I also wanted to create a texture that worked directly with the themes color inspiration. I used water color pencils and sketched the pattern found inside of this lovely orchid.

Once I scanned all the sketches it was time to layout the prints and layer them. I used a combination of Photoshop for clean up and Illustrator for coloring and creating seamless tiles.
Here is a pattern called "Zig Zag highlights".

Here is "Tossed Orchid Mania".

Here is a pattern called "Tickled Vibrations"

After reading my entry please visit Bethania Lima's blog a fellow designer, specialized in Surface Pattern Design, for whom creating patterns is a passion.She loves to see her patterns applied to home decor items. That´s why she wants her "patterns to make you feel at home!"
Love to see your process, Ludmilla, Congrats!
Thank you Bethania, I am just so over the moon I finished it. I got sick last week out of nowhere and was worried. Your work is very lovely.
I love seeing how you work Ludmilla. Beautiful!
Hi Onneke, Thank you for your kind words. I am sort of okay with it, because I know why it was rushed.. and I am really more exited about everyone else’s work.
Very nice…nice to see how you worked.
Thank you Maike. Hope to make the loop, feeling much better this evening.
Love how you shared your process, very unique.
Thank you Leska, we all do so many of the same things and then some little things differently.
very cool!
Hi Faye,
Thank you and thanks for stopping by.
I love the pull out prints.. that is exactly what we do in our business. We design pj sets and blankets. Always in need of a main print that we can pull out a lot of other things.
Fabulous Ludmila! Love seeing your step by step 🙂
Great to see your work process & how you came up with the collection. Love the ‘Tossed Orchid Mania’ print!
Love this step by step and the footprints integrated with the striped petals… This kind of movement & flow makes my mind travel and feel the energy of the design. Fabulous Tropical “FUSION” designs, thank you!
Lovely work and super colours
Really good to see how you get your inspiration. Lovely work!
Great patterns and loved your process too.
Love your process Ludmilla. Great work x
orchid mania is great…almost like an animal print too….good fusion 🙂
Great to see your process. . Lovely work
I love seeing your sketches and process. Tickled Vibrations is very special.
Ellie
Fun and beautiful! Loved to see the idea banks!
Hi Ludmilla, Great designs and I love the orchid texture! Thanks for sharing your thought process too. It was very interesting to read about it.