Sneaky Peek - Birch wood veneer trays

Last week I spent some time photographing these beautiful trays which have my patterns on them. The trays will launch at the Hong Kong Houseware Fair on 20th - 23rd April 2015. 

Made using single sheets of Birch wood veneer (renewable forest and eco friendly!), they are also dishwasher safe, heat resistant and food contact safe. So as you can see they are an extremely high quality product and it gives me great satisfaction to have my designs on them. Please enjoy the preview I hope to be able to show you more soon.

New stuff made from old stuff!

Hello everyone, it's been a long time, 2015 started off on the wrong foot for me and so far I have only been surrounded by illness and sadness... and stress. I believe that life dishes out a lot of hurdles on the way, and sometimes they all appear at the same time! We just have to take everyday as it comes and life will eventually go back to some normality pretty soon.

So to calm my spirit and get back on track again and I have been designing like mad!!! It annoyed me that I had no new work to show but lots of motifs and unfinished stuff which has been around for sometime. So I have taken a lot of old designs (well old to me) I have put some into repeats, changed colours and finished things off nicely, and now I have a lot of new work to show off and more importantly... sell!

Here below you will find tiny snippets of 'new stuff made from old stuff', if you get what I mean. I know it's called recycling but it has had some surprising results, almost all the designs I have reworked have taken on a totally new aspect, brighter, newer and better. More than anything this exercise has given me lots of pleasure, and most of all, new confidence to start off all over again. The great news is that I have managed to license 15 new designs for home products and also submitted lots of patterns and designs which I hope to sell at an important trade fair in April. 
All this in just two weeks. 

Life already feels much better, many of the hurdles have been smoothed out and I feel able to tackle things again. New patterns are waiting to be created and I now feel up to the challenge, so watch this space!

Keka Cases... from me to you!

I am pleased to announce the launch of 10 designs licensed with KEKA of San Francisco, USA. It is a project I have been working on for months and now it is all official and up and running it is quite exciting for me to finally see my designs on-line. This collaboration is my very first licensing experience it has been quite a steep learning curve. 
To celebrate this new collaboration with KEKA I want to share this 'special launch' offer below of free shipping which you can use to order one of my cases for your phone or ipad.  

Enjoy free shipping on snap-ons and a 25% discount coupon code: SNAP25. This expires 10/31! that is tomorrow!  From 11/1 the promotion is Buy any 2 products and get 1 Keka Classic Snap-on Phone Case free - a $34.95 value!  
Use FREESNAP at checkout.

Happy to share this news with you all after months of keeping 'Mum's' about it :)

My profile piccie for KEKA

Please take a closer look at my designs for KEKA HERE

70's inspired designs

Today (for what seems like the first time in ages) I have managed to set by a little time to myself to design patterns. Experimenting with 1970's icons and colour palettes I am pleased with the results of such a productive afternoon. I don't want to bore with too many words but will just give you some goodies for your eyes! :)

A New Identity - Sneaky peek

Hi all.

A few changes are going to happen around here. I know I have'nt been around much lately but I am so busy trying desperately to organise my "Surface Pattern life". This does'nt exclude normal life which carries on simultaneously, and, quite honestly speaking gets in the way a bit! Some snippets of good news are in the pipeline but I can't share until all the details are sorted and secure.

One bit of news I can share is that I have changed my Logo, it is the beginning of a few identity changes which I know will help me promote my work and create a more professional base for me to launch new projects. 
So here it is...

It could be considered a bit of a corporate logo, well that just shows off my background of 20 years working in graphic design! I also know this logo is not particularly quirky or original but it is what I have had in mind for a while. I have created a symbol which includes my initials and a pattern, as simple as that! It's not advisable for me to have a complicated identity which may compete with the viewing of my patterns as obviously they are more important! The pattern will come in handy as a watermark and DC can be cut down as small and as insignificant as it may need to be in some situations. Below you will find a couple of examples of how my identity will adapt to cover different needs. Obviously colours and such might change a little but the base of the identity is here. Please let me know what you think? ... any comments are welcome.

 

 
My new website (coming soon I hope!) will be www.dawnclarkson.com, and my whole identity will revolve around my name or initials. I'm afraid cute names like 'nice and fancy' might be getting the boot... but thats another story.
To complete the identity change my business Facebook page is now Dawn Clarkson - Surface Pattern Design and not Nice and Fancy as before... please feel free to like my page :)

Sneaky peek - inspired by architechture!

As promised a 'sneaky peek' of a new collection I am working on at the moment. It is still without a title but has been inspired by architecture.

Buildings, castles, churches, windows, doorways, tiles and patterns, clocktowers and staircases. The patterns seem to have a medieval feel to them, should I add a knight in shining armour?

 

Please let me know what you think... I look forward to reading your comments.

Sneaky peek 3

This is an example of one of the designs you will find in my new Islands collection.The original motifs yet again were inspired by details taken from one of my doodleboards! I can't believe how much inspiration I get when I refer back to my A1 sheets, I just spread them over my studio floor and in no time at all I have ideas for patterns. I still need to find a work process which will help me with my colour palettes... but I am working on that one.

 

Next week, apart from a new Dream Designs post I will be sharing more sneaky peeks, perhaps of my new logo or maybe a layout or two from my new website, so stay tuned. Until then Happy Weekend.

Sneaky peek 3

Well this is yet another 'Sneaky peek' post. Below you will find my latest design which is also being worked into a collection (I hope). I have called it Doilieaves, a mix of doilie and leaves... hee hee. I am still working on colourways and co-cordinates so it is still far from finished but I wanted to share it with you :)

Sneaky peek 2

Believe me I am working hard... but that also means working NOT so hard on my blog, if you get my drift. If anyone is missing my posts (fine chance) here is a little snippet to last you until next week.

I am working on some 'collections' which will be part of my new website. Hoping to have lots of patterns to chose from I am leaving the choice until the very last minute.

This design is part of my 'Pretty in pink' collection. It originated from my doodleboard scribbles and I have surprised myself at how pretty the finished design is. For now it has been included in my Iconemesis Love Illustration collection of iphone 4 cases... but I have bigger dreams for it!

Hope you like it. Happy weekend to all x

Sneaky peek!

Lately I have been working very hard on my portfolio so as to be ready for when I launch my new website! SOON I hope. Well, I have been experimenting with motifs and shapes which come from my doodleboards... if not what do I doodle for? I have left myself totally free with no rules about colour, subject or brief. I surprised myself by coming up with quite a few floral designs and all repeat patterns, no placement prints this time round. The lovely flowers you see below are one of the 'experiments' using doodleboard bits and a large dose of imagination. I quite fancy this design on a rug, it would look just great in my studio which has yellow walls!