181: The Art of Fabric Design: My Proven 30-Day Workflow

Hi there. Welcome back to the Professional Creative Podcast. I'm excited to talk to you today about the process of creating a fabric collection. Now this is on my mind because I just had a brand new fabric collection release and so I'm all back in the feelings and the thoughts that I had while I created this collection.

I'm Bonnie Christine and this is where all things creativity, design, business, and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer.

Fast forward to today.

I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and

experience the same success.

I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

The collection is called A Year in Petals. It's for Art Gallery fabrics, and I designed it roughly almost a year ago. And the whole concept of this collection is so special to me. I set out earlier that year to very intentionally plant every single flower that I was going to illustrate for this fabric collection. So every single one is something that I grew from seed in my garden and photographed and sketched from and then finally illustrated for this entire fabric collection. That means that every time I look at it, it just kind of transports me back to the summer in my garden where everything became possibility. I. I started to really look at everything with a different light. It really, I don't know, like, this might sound funny, but it almost, it almost like increased the intimacy that I had with the garden because now I was looking at everything through a different lens, like really studying the different ways that the plants grew and the petals fell and the veins on the leaves looked and that kind of thing. And so I consider it a bit of a study and, and also just something that I absolutely adored. Now, I've talked about creating fabric collections before. In fact, in episode number 93, you can get really like a day to day breakdown of my journal entries as I created this very collection. And so you'll be able to kind of really get a deep dive into exactly what I did every single day. And I wrote that not quite as much in from like an education Perspective, but more so, like, truly, this is my journal entries of what I was doing every day as it pertained to designing the collection. So it's kind of a really close look at what it looks like to do something like that. Now, this episode today is going to be more from an educational perspective, how I look at breaking down something as big as creating an entire fabric collection. So I typically say set apart 30 days to do this. However, I've designed many collections. I've been doing this since 2012. I've designed roughly 20 complete collections. And so I have the process, the systems kind of down. Down to a science, if you will. And so if you are earlier in your journey, you might want to just schedule in some extra time. 30 days is actually pretty tight to get go from concept to finished collection, and so safe to maybe double that or even triplet if you're still, like, if you're still learning Adobe Illustrator, you need to count that as part of your time involved as well. But if you're super proficient and you think that you're ready to kind of run with it, you can. You can pare it down to, let's say, 30 or 45 days. Okay. So whether you are seasoned or you're just starting out, I hope that this approach will help you focus and really build momentum and help you create a collection that you're really proud of. So I want to start at the very beginning. We're going to literally start at day one. But I do want to share that before day one. I do feel like I have some time where I'm kind of simmering on an idea. I am mulling it over. I'm thinking about it. I'm paying attention to the things in the world in a different way. Potential inspiration, potential color palettes. I'm not. I'm not starting yet, but I am absolutely kind of mulling over the idea. And so that makes me feel like I'm ready to begin on day number one. So day number one is really all about kind of setting the stage. I like to clear, literally my space. I like to clean a space and get it set up for the process. I also like to clear my mind. I think it's nearly impossible to dive into such a big project when I have clutter, either physical or mental. And so whether it's on your desk or in your head, I like to take the first day of a fabric collection to get organized and kind of just make space for what's coming. I like to gather the tools that I'll need. I like to tackle anything that's kind of lingering. I like to close any open loops that I can. And I think you'll find that once your space, your physical and your mental space is clear, you can really jump into the creative process with way more clarity and excitement. Okay, so that's typically an entire day. Now day number two is when I really begin pulling together all of my inspiration boards. Inspiration boards are going to be your absolute north star for the entire collection. Now, you cannot skip this, this stage because you'll see later on there is a messy middle. There always is, expect it, it's coming. The messy middle is when you've lost your way. You don't really like what's, what's coming out of you. You're concerned that your vision is not going to come to fruition. You are thinking about scrapping the entire project. Okay. So know that it's coming. Know that it happens to every single person no matter what. And your initial inspiration board and the work that you do before you begin really sketching is so incredibly important because it's something that you can come back to. It verifies that you do have enough ideas, that you did have clarity that you can move forward. It's idea validation. And it's so important to be able to come back and reflect on it when you feel like maybe you've lost your way. So it's typically for me, a physical board where I've pulled together, you know, bits and bobs that I want to reference during the inspiration phase. It's typically also a digital inspiration board. So taking pictures, organizing them on my iPad so that I can quickly kind of get them to get to them in an album and flip through them. And then it's pulling together anything that you want to build the collection from. You don't really have to overthink it. You just have to have your idea kind of fleshed out. So a part of this very established beginning, this stage takes about three to five days, is that I do a five step process. Now, this one is explained in more depth back in episode 93, but I'll go over it quickly here. So I like to tell the story of the collection. Now, this can be just a paragraph, but it is the why. Like, what is this collection about? Why are you doing it? You may never show this, but it's for your sake of really establishing why you want to design this collection. What is it about? Right. So, for instance, a Year in Petals is all about the flowers that I grew in my garden from seed. And I want to Tell that story what it looks like to be in my garden for an entire year. Now, the next one is something that I call 50 words. I like to write down 50 words that really reflect the collection. Collection. And this comes in so much use. It will help you generate ideas for patterns, for motifs, will also help you name the patterns later on. And again, it's part of the foundation building part. So, for instance, words that could go into a urine, petals would be things like seeds, seed packet, shovel, gardening tools, sunshine, birds, soil, all of those. All of those things. It's going to help you kind of flesh out the edges of your idea. And part of what's really helpful here is to imagine yourself walking onto the scene and then imagine what you see, what you hear, what you smell, and start thinking about all of those words to help kind of bring your vision to life. And I think you can probably do this no matter what. Like, even if you are designing a collection about aliens, like, consider stepping into space. What do you see? You probably don't hear much, but maybe you do. And then work on the words from that perspective. Now, the next part is a thumbnail sketch. So typically, a collection for me has somewhere between 10 and 15 patterns at this stage. We'll later refine it down to probably 8 to 10. But I like to work with 10 to 15 ideas. And so I'll do a thumbnail sketch really small, like 2 inch by 2 inch square. And I'm just jotting down the ideas that I have for the patterns that I'm going to make before I get to the sketching phase. This is another really vital part of this foundation setting, because you're going to want to validate that you do indeed have enough ideas for the patterns. We typically break down patterns into three categories. Heroes, coordinate, and blender. So a hero pattern is kind of the winner pattern of the entire collection. You can have more than one, though. So sometimes I have two or three patterns that I consider the hero of the collection. They're typically the most ornate, but not necessarily. But they typically are kind of the grand prize patterns of the collection. Now, coordinate patterns support the overall theme. They may be a little bit simpler, but they're still on theme and they still work to tell the story. And then blender prints are things that really work to tie the entire collection together. Here you can think about things like polka dots and stripes, so they're blending the rest of it together. So work on your thumbnail sketches. And now you are ready to actually begin sketching. Now, typically, this is around day Six or seven for me. So I've taken an entire week to set the stage before I put pencil to paper. Now days six or seven through about 12. So almost the next week is all dedicated to sketching, painting, really just making marks. So anything and everything that you plan to kind of bring into the computer and work on, any motifs, any, any supporting kind of, kind of pieces that you want to play with in your patterns are going to be created during this time. I very much like to work in batches. Once I am in the mindset and in the physical flow of creating artwork on paper. This stage is completely analog. So I'm not looking at the computer at all and I'm only creating marks. So for me, I'll typically paint, I'll sketch, and then I'll also, in this phase, typically find things that I want to scan in but out in nature. So like leaves or ferns or petals or different things like that as well. But it's the analog phase of making the marks that you want to use when you get to building patterns. So I like to take just as much time here as you need. I would say a good seven to 10 days in creating the marks. And you can never have too many. I think for a year in petals, I had something like 300 hundred different, what I would call motifs, but they weren't necessarily like finished and illustrated, but different marks. So like a set of leaves counts as one and I did over 300. Now that's a lot. And my work tends to get really kind of detailed, so you may not have that much. But I just want to make my point that you can't have too many. And if you leave this phase with not enough, it's going to feel like there's a lot of friction to go back to this stage. Once you've exited the mark making stage, it feels like you're on to the next part and it's a little bit hard to go back. So be just prolific in your mark making. Now the next phase is when you start to pull everything in, get it digitized and start making your motifs. This typically just takes. It's pretty quick. It takes like about two or three days. And this is when I'm documenting what I've created, the marks and like transferring them to the computer and getting them digitized. So typically I use a scanner. If you don't have a scanner, you can also use a phone and take pictures of it, then get them all into the computer and start digitizing them in Adobe Illustrator. Now the next phase is when you Start creating repeating patterns so you get to just explore and dream and have fun. I'm not fussing too much over color yet. I am focused on building out the repeating patterns to flow exactly like you want them to flow. So you want to have just this bank of motifs and illustrations that you can pull from and then start creating your patterns. Now, you probably have a pattern that you're most excited to make, and likely it's a hero pattern. And trust me on this, don't start with that one, start with another one. Get kind of warmed up before you go to the most intricate or the one that you're most excited about. Start with a simple one, maybe even two or three of the more simple ones so that you can really get your hand and your mind working in Illustrator as you go to the pattern making process. Then you'll work on the more complicated ones. So this is about seven to 10 days again, which means that we're coming close to the 30 day mark work. It's at day, let's say, 26, that I begin that all my patterns are done and I begin finessing color. So I really focus on making the colorway sing. I am reworking and reworking, reworking the colors on each pattern. I want each pattern to really stand on its own, but I also want the entire collection to really, truly sing as one complete collection as well. So I'm building color palettes, I am considering what they look like overall. I'm testing different colorways, and I really want to kind of land on the combination that really evokes the mood that I'm going after. Now we're coming to the end. Okay, so this is day 28 to 30, and I'm kind of bringing it all together. I'm stepping back, I'm looking at the collection as a whole. I'm looking at it with fresh eyes. I'm asking myself questions like, would I buy this pattern if I saw it in a store? If the answer is not yes, I'm going back in to tweak and rework as much as I need to, then I'll prepare. Once I'm happy with it, I'll begin preparing the collection for submission or production. If you're not submitting it to an art director, you may be doing your production files. So this means really taking each pattern and formatting it at 100% scale, pulling out the pantone colors, getting them organized in each individual document. At this point, they're ready, they're ready for your portfolio, they're ready for submission, they're Ready for production, whatever it is that you want to do with them. So incredibly exciting. Now, of course, you can always come back and readjust. And you might notice that I didn't really talk about scale much. Scale, like the size of your pattern, one of the easiest things to change. And so it's typically getting finalized right there at the very end. So I would love to know from you, is this something that sounds exciting? Are. Are you dreaming of designing fabric? Are you dreaming of designing anything? Because the same skill set, right, can be used for anything from fabric to gift wrap to wallpaper to stationery to rugs and pillows and home decor and kitchen textiles and all sorts of different things. It is so incredibly fun to learn how to. In fact, this year I kind of had a moment because I started to wrap my Christmas gifts last week and I'm just working with what I have, and I. It dawns on me that I'm using gift wrap that I designed, masking tape to close the packages that I designed, ribbon that I designed, and sometimes even the products inside I designed as well, especially if they're fabric or made with fabric. So, like, what? Just an incredible opportunity. Okay, so if you are excited, if you want to learn how to do this, I have a couple of free mini classes that I would love to invite you to come join. They're completely free. They're also brand new this year. So I have three that you can choose from or you can take all three. So the first one is Starting simple in Fabric Design. The next one is called Start simple in Gift Wrap Design, and the next one is called Start simple in Wallpaper Design. So they are all really complimentary if you want to take all three, or you can choose just one. But in these classes, they're five lessons and you can come in with no experience, never working in Illustrator, not feeling like an artist, and leave that fifth lesson. The lessons, by the way, are only about 20 minutes long each. You can leave that fifth lesson with your artwork on a product. I'm telling you all my favorite places to get fabric wallpaper gift wrap ordered and designed all by yourself. You can do small batches here as well. It's so incredibly fun. I would love for you to come join us. I would also love for you to invite a friend or maybe a sister or a daughter or anyone who you would love to do this with. So come join us. You can sign up for any of them at BonnieCristine.com forward/startSimple. So again, you can sign up for one or all three. You have instant access to the step by step process. And now that you've listened to this episode, you'll really kind of grasp everything along the way that I just talked about. So again, BonnieChristine.com forward/start. Simple, my friends. Create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world. And remember, there's room for you. Bye for.