My Top 7 Things Related to Design That I Love
Welcome to my first blog post! I am so grateful you stopped by to read my blog and check out my site.
Sharing is caring, so I wanted to give you my top 7 things related to design that I love and keep in my back pocket when I am in need of inspiration or guidance.
I love connecting with people, rummaging through aisles at the book store(or Audible), and using my spare time to learn new skills and educate myself on topics related to what I am working on. So here is a short list of things I just can’t live without right now…
January 28, 2023
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator has been my go to for graphic design since 2009. I love taking my sketches and scanning them into my computer and transferring them into Illustrator where I can then create fabric pattern designs, greeting cards, logos, and murals. Once you get the system down, it can be fairly easy to use and a great skill to have for any industry! Right now until January 30th they have a special discounted price for students and teachers. Otherwise, Illustrator is a subscription based tool for designers.
Bonnie Christine’s Immersion and Flourish Courses & Podcast
I first heard about Bonnie Christine on Skillshare many years ago and took her online classes. Then, she came out with her own course called Immersion. I went back and forth for a year or two in deciding whether I should take Immersion because I thought I could just get away with just continuing to follow her and other artists on Skillshare. Until 2022, I decided to invest in myself and joined her Immersion course to see what all the fuss was about after reading testomonials. Like seriously, I wish I would’ve taken Immersion earlier! It has been a game changer because for one, she taught me more Adobe Illustrator skills, and two, the amount of good information, useful freebies, and community has been priceless. I learned more in her course than I did in my college class for graphic design! Her Flourish membership goes even deeper into topics most relevant for professional working artists + designers. You’ll just have to check her courses out yourself if you are truly interested in becoming a surface pattern designer. I would also recommend checking out her podcast first to get to know her better.
Creative Market
Finding Creative Market has been a life saver! If I was in a crunch for meeting a design deadline and needed a few design elements to support a project I was working on, I would head over to Creative Market. It is a site full of digital art, typography, brushes for Illustrator or Procreate and more for anyone to buy and use for personal to professional purposes. It is also membership based or else you can pay for design elements separately.
Skillshare
Skillshare has been around for awhile and it never gets old. So many artists, designers, photographers, cooks, gardeners, and computer geniuses offer classes on whatever topic you are interested in learning! Besides a plethora of other learning resources, I found that the Long Beach Public Library offers 1 free year with Skillshare if you are a member of the library! Usually it is $165 for an annual membership to Skillshare, but if you want to check it out for free become a member of the LB Public Library and access the information here.
Dropbox
If you are looking for storage, I highly suggest Dropbox for storing files on the cloud, or else buy a back up digital storage system to organize and save your assets. What is cool about Dropbox too is that you can add it to your computer desktop, and it also links with Creative Market for when you buy your downloads. I love smooth and easy transitions!
My Human Design, Jenna Zoe
So when I mention design I don’t just mean the graphic arts. Design can also be how you design your life like your daily routine, what you wear, or the overall big picture of what your future looks like from now until then. I never thought about the concept of “designing my life” until Jenna Zoe from My Human Design fell into my lap. When I went to her website I punched in my name, location and birth date for free and was given my energy type which is a Projector.
It was so funny at first reading what a Projector was because I used to tell people that as an artist, I wish I could have a projector (machine) on my head that could project whatever I was imagining for an art piece or design. Sometimes it can be challenging describing or drawing exactly what you see in your imagination, or at least for me the details can get blurry. Anyways…I used to also say I could see in my mind how things would play out, or how things should be organized from a bird’s eye view. I won’t go into detail what a Projector is here, but rather let you explore the energy types yourself and see what resonates. I will say that I totally vibe with the Projector energy type and its’ traits. If you do find out your energy type, email me and I would love to know and chat with you about it! So fun!
Spoonflower
The internet really has given artists the opportunity to reach their audience passed the physical gallery space or studio. When I first started getting into surface pattern design and learning from other designers, Spoonflower kept popping up as source of side income. I checked out the Spoonflower site and fell in love with how easy it was to upload a pattern and have it available for purchase by the rest of world in either fabric or wallpaper. I’ve always had a love for interior design, so this resource was great when thinking of how many things I could make with my own(or others) fabric designs to upholster or wrap a gift with. You do have to have knowledge of creating a basic repeat pattern though, so using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or Procreate is helpful. Once you upload a design, Spoonflower does have you purchase a swatch of your design to see it in person before allowing it to be open to the public for sale. Then, for every sale you make you receive royalities a.k.a. “spoondollars”. You can either save the spoondollars that accrue on your account to use for buying your fabric or swatches, or Spoonflower will cash you out every 2 weeks. I also enjoy that Spoonflower makes an effort to be more socially responsible. They are a print-on-demand company so this saves on the amount of fabric wasted and also donates unprinted fabric. They also print with water-based inks, and source their materials from trusted vendors, and use more sustainable packaging from Noissue for mailers.
So there you have it! Hope you get to check out the things I mentioned above and maybe they can be helpful to you or for another creative person you know. Thanks for stopping by!