The Path Of Totality
This month's theme is the solar eclipse and all things round
Ohio is in the path of totality which means the solar eclipse will be 100% viewable. So the entire state is making plans for the event. Hotel owners are booked, restaurant owners are extra staffed and the news gives daily tips for all residents who are planning to stay home. Eclipse glasses are being sold everywhere, schools are cancelled and people are making plans to get together.
When it comes to pattern design there are lots of ideas to prompt our inspiration.
1. The solar eclipse as a motif.
2. All things celestial
3. All things round
4. Overlapping motifs
5. Glasses, Sky
6. Transparencies & Blending
Try working with transparencies in your pattern. Watch how things look when you overlap transparencies. Try using the blend tool or the blend mode in the properties panel on the iPad.
Here's an example of a simple pattern using the transparency slider on the iPad.
Design using the transparency slider in Illustrator on the iPad.
When I begin to make a pattern I start with the freeform board because I can cut and paste and drag and drop my elements and my thoughts into one place without complicated program tools.
Vision board
So freeform acts like my vision board but not in the way we tend to see vision boards. Usually we see a poster type document that could either look like a collage with cut out magazine pictures and words all with the theme of your goals or vibe you're trying to achieve. Or we might see a neat and crisp layout of the colors, inspiration photos, fabric swatches with one word or phrase of the theme that captures everything.
Both of these styles are nice to look at and give me positive energy for designing, but they don't work for capturing all the elements I need for fabric design. So I'm creating a board that both shows you my process and becomes a working document for me to use in my design workflow.
I need a a place to drop ideas that I might not have time to work with now but I want to use when I have time.
I need a place to write out my thoughts so I don't have to reinvent my brainstorming process.
I need something that works with all the creative software I use, eg. Illustrator, Photos, Canva, Capture.
I need the ability to reorganize my elements as my theme becomes more clear to me.
Freeform does all those things. So I will be sharing a freeform board with you each month. Please make a new board and grab the elements you need on your board. On the one I sent you are welcome to collaborate with me, but you will also be collaborating with everyone who has access to this pattern prompt board.
My Pattern Prompt board will have these elements:
Solar Eclipse Vision Board
This is the vision board template I sent out to new blog subscribers. Here’s a link:
Theme with short description
Color Palette
Motifs
Photos for inspiration
Possible patterns or WIPs
Inspiration exercise
Sometimes (like this month) I'll share some screen shots of my work flow. This month I'm sharing a few pics of blend mode, the blend tool and transparency settings from Illustrator on the iPad.
This is my repeating pattern design, From Cincy to The Land - that’s the path of totality in Ohio.
I’d really love for us all to have a place to create and work shop ideas. So I’m sharing this Freeform board with you. April Pattern Prompt Freeform Board
Your creative exercise is two fold:
Drop your design elements into the Canva vision board template.
Add your filled vision board to this Freeform doc.
Freeform can be accessed on any device that uses Mac iOS. If you don't have a Mac device, please invite me to your Canva vision board.