UnBlink Studio by Jackie Tahara: Print and Pattern Design and Illustration

My Entry for This Week's Spoonflower "Playmats" Design Challenge! Kawaii!

4/25/2019

Fresh off my Top Ten placement in last week's design challenge, I've decided to enter my "City Kids" design (a bit revised) in this week's Spoonflower "Playmats" Design Challenge! How fun would this be on a child's floor?! Even better, there are several kawaii co-ordinating repeat patterns to go with this in my Spoonflower Shop as well (I'm thinking duvets and wallpaper!?) Check out all the fantastic designs on the Voting Page (voting ends April 30 at 3:00 EDT)!

Top Ten Finish in Spoonflower's "Australian Flora" Design Challenge!

4/25/2019

Big THANK YOU to everyone who voted in last week's Spoonflower "Australian Flora" Design Challenge! The RESULTS are just in and my "Eucalyptus" pattern design in this Orange colour palette (check out my Portfolio-Flora page to see two other palettes) squeaked into the Top Ten (I'm listed at #11, but thankfully there was a tie for #9) out of 602 eligible entries! So this design is now available for purchase at Spoonflower on many different fabrics, wallpaper and giftwrap. And see below...you can now buy it on wonderful home decor products at Roostery as well! Again, thank you for your votes! On to the next Design Challenge...

This Month's MATS Bootcamp Assignment: Wabi Sabi!

4/23/2019

This month's MATS Bootcamp assignment was to illustrate a magazine article about the Japanese concept of wabi sabi which celebrates transience and the beauty of imperfection. I decided to show the Japanese maple leaf in a changing cycle of seasons, Summer to Fall to finally, blowing away in the wind. I also tried to keep the colours a bit subdued (it started out way brighter!), to give it a more quiet and calm feel, and maybe with a bit of Japanese kimono colour too. BTW: I decided to try out the spot gradient tool in Adobe Illustrator for the first time, and boy, is it fun! In a way, it felt very wabi sabi to me (even though digital) because you can add these spots of colour here and there and the resulting gradations and interactions of the spot colours resulted in some surprising colour gradations which I thought were kinda beautiful, so in a way using this tool felt a bit wabi sabi because you never knew quite what was going to result!

This Week's Spoonflower Design Challenge: "Australian Flora"!

4/18/2019

This week's Spoonflower Design Challenge is "Australian Flora". Being Canadian, I wasn't that familiar with Aussie flowers (although I did visit there and stayed for quite awhile many years ago), but when I did some research of Aussie plants, I just loved the flowers of the eucalyptus. So I designed my stylized "Eucalyptus" pattern and tried it out in several different colour ways. I love all the colours, but finally decided to enter the orange/pink/green one into the challenge. Did I choose the right one? What do you think? Check out the Voting Page to see all the other designs and vote your faves! Voting ends April 23 at 3:00 EDT.

The Wonder of Colour!

4/11/2019

One of the things we talk alot about in The Colour Gang is, obviously, COLOUR: where and how to get inspiration for colour palettes, what colours are on-trend (or will be) and why, what colour palettes do we like to work with and are characteristic of our unique styles, and how different colour palettes can change the look of a design completely. So one of the things we love to do is try our pattern designs with different colours, for example (which do you like best?!)...

OH and I thought you might like to see some of the photos of flowers from my garden that inspired this collection!

Wallsauce.com Wall Mural Comp! Sneak Peeks...

4/11/2019

Wallsauce is an online wall mural and photo wallpaper company and they have a new comp in association with Rise Design & Shine! The brief is to design 2 wall murals based on the theme of Nature. The designs must relate to each other and may form part of a new collection! I chose to design for kids rooms. Wallsauce will shortlist designs, and then it will be put to a public vote! Wish me luck! Here are sneak peeks of the folk-inspired designs I submitted!

This Week's Spoonflower Design Challenge is "April Showers"!

4/11/2019

I use this pattern, called "Sunny With Cloudy Periods" as my phone’s wallpaper because it’s so happy and always makes me smile. Its now available on fabric, gift wrap and wallpaper (how fun would this be in a kids room?!) at Spoonflower and on home decor items at Roostery Home AND I just entered it in this week’s Spoonflower “April Showers” Design Challenge! Check out the entries on the Voting Page (voting ends April 16).

It's Here! The 3rd Edition of the UPPERCASE Surface Pattern Design Guide (Psst: I'm In It)!

4/10/2019

It’s here! Issue 41 of Uppercase Magazine which has the 3rd Edition of the UPPERCASE Surface Pattern Design Guide featuring 100 of “the best in up and coming surface pattern designers”! I’m very excited to see my work featured with the 99 other amazing designers (including some of you whom I now know personally!)...Thanks to Janine Vangool for her wonderful magazine! Time to start flipping pages...

This Week's Spoonflower Design Challenge: "Pollinators"!

4/5/2019

I just entered my "Butterfly Breeze" design in this week's Spoonflower "Pollinators" Design Challenge...Although not as effective as bees, butterflies are still very good pollinators! Check out the Voting Page to see all the amazing entries!

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