Pattern Collections and Portfolios: Dos, Don'ts, and Myths

This is a lecture-based class that focuses on the Dos, Don’ts, and Myths of pattern collections and surface design portfolios.

Hi! I’m Melissa Lee, an illustrator and surface designer who has the great joy of working with Riley Blake Designs as one of their fabric designers! I first learned how to make a technically repeating pattern in Adobe Illustrator back in 2015 right here on Skillshare. I now have about seven years of experience at making patterns and pattern collections, about three years of experience at submitting a surface design portfolio, and two years of experience at being a licensed fabric designer.

Lesson Overview:

1. Class Introduction
2. My Surface Pattern Design Timeline
3. Part I: Pattern Collections
   1. Why Design in Collections?
   2. The Dos, Don’ts, and Myths of Designing in Collections
   3. Collection Size
   4. Is Having An Industry Focus Important?
   5. Collection Complexity: Heroes, Coordinates, & Blenders
   6. Should You Avoid Repeating Motifs Across a Collection?
   7. Color Palettes for Collections
   8. Collection Colorways
   9. A Quick Note on Pantone Colors
4. Part II: Surface Design Portfolios
   1. Physical or Digital Portfolios: Is It Worth It To Send Both?
   2. What Should You Include In Your Portfolio?
   3. A Quick Note on Trends
   4. How Do You Get Your Work Noticed?
   5. Portfolio Presentation Best Practices
   6. A Quick Note on Print on Demand (POD) Sites
5. Some Words of Encouragement
6. Closing Thoughts

Want to learn Illustrator? This class takes a step away from the more technical side of learning and focuses on everything that I have learned over the years regarding pattern collections and surface design portfolios. If you’d like to learn Adobe Illustrator and the art of designing repeating patterns, check out my other Skillshare classes on pattern design:

1. Surface Design In Adobe Illustrator: A Beginner's Guide to Pattern Building - A comprehensive introduction to surface design in Adobe Illustrator.
2. Character Design Crash Course: Characters for Surface Pattern Design - I cover things to consider when designing characters specifically for patterns, as well as demonstrate my personal process for creating a repeat pattern tile in Adobe Photoshop.

Through demystifying pattern collections and portfolios, this class can help you to avoid the sort of stagnation and loss of momentum that I experienced on my own journey to becoming a surface designer. My hope for you is to leave this class feeling motivated to share and submit your work and to continue creating patterns! 

So let’s get started!

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