Rae’s Surface Pattern Design Process

My process of creating surface pattern designs really begins with my love of travel. When I travel there is usually a beach involved, as I thrive on and derive inspiration from the sun, sand, waves, and sea creatures.

A recent trip I went on was to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, which is abundant in washed up ocean materials on the shoreline. Just walking along the beach I found many pieces of beautiful green sea glass, plenty of coconuts in varying stages of decay from fresh and green, to brown and papery, and so much more. The fallen trees and rocky tide pools along the shore were stunning, yet were only semi permanent fixtures; solidly in place in the sand to my eye, yet slowly, constantly being changed and eroded away by the wind, waves, and sand.

I gathered so many photos from this particular trip that I of course have to design a collection around the beautiful, rugged nature of this island.

My first step is to review all of my photos from the trip. I not only look at the individual item I intentionally photographed, but I look at where the forces of nature have naturally left this item, and the nature items that surround it, and how they all lay together.

From there, I sketch out some (very) rough thumbnails of what most of the patterns will look like. These always change quite a bit from the initial sketch to the finished pattern, and I also inevitably create new patterns in the process, so some of the first thumbnails don’t make the cut to the finished collection. The page from my sketchbook below is from my collection “Pink Everglades.”

Next I begin by either tracing my own photos in the Procreate app for iPad Pro, or by hand drawing sketches with pencil and paper and scanning in. I then vectorize either method in Adobe Illustrator, and begin creating my pattern layout from my initial sketch thumbnail.

I then compile all of the patterns in the collection on one sheet, where I play around with scale to create a balanced mix of large, medium, and small patterns.

From there I photoshop patterns from the collection onto various mockup templates to create a clear visual of how these patterns would be used on fabrics or products in the real world.