Gin's journey: realizing my dreams
Hi everyone, I hope you all are well! I'm excited to share with you the next installment of Gin's Journey. And if you haven't read it yet, hop on over and read my first post in this series. Enjoy.
A New Course
The last few weeks have been an incredible learning curve for me as I recently signed up for an eight week online surface pattern design course with Bonnie Christine.
I still consider myself a newbie in this industry, as I am still studying my craft and trying to broaden my skill-set until I feel ready to take the plunge and create my first full collection.
Before taking Bonnie’s Surface Pattern Design Immersion Course I generally made patterns from either drawings or paintings in Photoshop, which is what I learned to do at college last year. I stayed away from Adobe Illustrator (Ai) because it seemed so complicated and I really felt out of my depth trying to make sense of it. I wasted so much time googling how to do simple tasks and became frustrated because I could never find exactly what I needed.
Bonnie’s course was definitely an investment, one that I didn’t think I could justify outlaying money for initially, but what she has created has exceeded my expectations. It has not only increased my skills and knowledge tenfold, it has made me fall in love with Ai.
Course Structure
The course is divided up into four learning Wedges, each containing several instructional videos released weekly over the eight week duration. At the end of each week we were treated to a live call with Bonnie. She encouraged us to ask questions and in turn shared her knowledge with absolute transparency. She is honestly the most open, generous teacher I have ever had. What also made this course so wonderful was the supportive group of women who are a part of our private Facebook group. Bonnie encouraged us not only to talk about the course content, but to provide feedback and support to each other when we posted our work to the group page. What a great community we surface pattern designers are!It has been amazing learning the tools and techniques Bonnie uses for her illustrations.
Even those students who were already familiar with Ai learned something new! Straight out of the gate, from the first class, I learned Ai tools and shortcuts that have helped me work faster so I can focus on creating beautiful motifs instead of fighting the software.
In the course Bonnie highlights the entire design process. She starts from the beginning discussing the technical aspects of building a pattern collection and creating a body of work to the business side of designing work to license. She offered us information and insights that most teachers would not be willing to share. Her class has revealed to us all of the possibilities available to help us generate income and build careers we never imagined were possible in the world of surface pattern design.
I can’t do this course justice by trying to put it into words. It was simply the best investment of time and money I have made in a very long time. To be honest, if this course had been available before I went to college, I would have done it instead and saved myself the angst.
Gin's motifs and color palette
How it's Going
I have been working on the course at my own pace and have been revisiting Wedges to refresh my memory and take notes. Working full-time means I only have a few hours on the weekend to watch the video lessons and work on my first collection.
A few of my big 'take-aways' so far:Take time to build a photo library. I've started taking Saturdays off here and there to take myself out on a creative ‘date’. It has felt so great to leave the housework aside and just venture out to take photos and draw what I find in my immediate environment. I go to parks and the local lake. I take walks down streets I have never ventured down before and have discovered an array of foliage and flowers, textures and forms that made my imagination go wild with ideas. The best part is that I'm now building a massive photographic library of images that I can use for my designs.
Know there is a place for you. Another thing Bonnie emphasizes is that there is room for us…you, me, all of us who share this common dream of becoming surface pattern designers. At times I feel like this industry is so saturated, and that the world doesn’t need another pattern designer like me. You only have to take a quick glance at Instagram to see how many people are creating patterns. It is all too easy to feel overwhelmed at the prospect of setting yourself apart, of being different enough for people to fall in love with your work. Even when I first signed-up for Bonnie’s course I doubted that I could seriously create a career out of it.
Appreciate that you are unique. Looking at the work my fellow classmates have created so far I can see how different we all are despite having done the same course. We all have our own styles, colour preferences, subject matter etc. My own design aesthetic has changed profoundly and I have only completed half the course. The way I use colour has changed. The way I draw has changed. I feel more connected to what I am creating because I am now using the world around me as inspiration.
Also, the idea of creating a collection has made the whole process more engaging. Before I was creating random patterns and nothing was cohesive. One pattern looked so completely different from another that it looked almost as if another artist had created it. Bonnie taught me to be cohesive, to create a brand that people could relate to. This really resonates with me. So much so that I deleted everything I had on my Instagram page and started afresh.
Take your time and enjoy the process. My first collection is coming along slowly, but that’s okay. It isn’t a race and Bonnie’s course is available to me, and anyone else who takes it, for life. I have entitled my collection Beauty Surrounds Us. I always wanted to create a fabric collection with florals and foliage but never knew where to start. Now I have a plan. I'm reviewing all of my drawings and deciding which ones I want to use for my patterns. I'm also deciding what industry I want to design for, whether I want to sell products with my designs directly or license my work to companies. The options are endless and the opportunities are there for me and you if we want them.
Gum Tree Ikat Pearl pattern
Looking Forward
As for me, I made the decision a couple of weeks ago to drop down to four days a week at my day job. I told my boss I needed an extra day a week to work on my own business. And I can’t tell you how happy I am to have that extra time to draw and create and work on my first collection.
I might be losing a day’s pay but what I am gaining is more important than dollars. I am working on my passion. I am creating my future. I have taken and am still taking the steps needed to realize my dream of becoming a surface pattern designer, and I can’t wait for this to become my day job! Thanks to Bonnie for this amazing course and for her generous spirit…it has proved life-changing for me and for that I am eternally grateful.
About the author: Gin Das Neves
Hello! I am a textile designer from Sydney, Australia and have been working with textiles in one form or other for most of my life. I've worked as a designer and costume maker for opera, ballet, film and theatre and am currently a freelance textile designer and maker for my label, The Happy Artisan.
Gin is the author of Gin's Journey, a series that offers readers a glimpse of textile design through the lens of someone new to the field.
Want to know more about Gin? Read this post she wrote on vulnerability in social media.