Tropical Fusion BlogHop 2014

The Surface Design Process explained in pictures:

  pantone color of the year 2014 radiant orchid 

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.

Foot prints inspiration for print in blog hop 2014 for tropical fusion

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.

orchid inspiration for blog hop 2014 tropical fusion

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".

Tropical fusion blog hop 2014 pattern called “Zig Zag highlights”.

Here is "Tossed Orchid Mania".

Tropical fusion blog hop 2014 a pattern called "Tossed Orchid Mania".

Here is a pattern called "Tickled Vibrations" 

Tropical fusion blog hop 2014 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!"

25 thoughts on “Tropical Fusion BlogHop 2014”

    1. 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.

    1. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. Great to see your work process & how you came up with the collection. Love the ‘Tossed Orchid Mania’ print!

  3. 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!

  4. 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.

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