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When you think of a "serene" wallpaper design, what comes to mind? For me, it made me think of curving shapes, organic forms from nature, soft colours and neutrals, simplicity, rhythmic layouts. So with all these in mind, I designed my new "Stones" pattern design to enter in this week's Spoonflower "Serene Wallscapes" Design Challenge! Do you think this design would make your space more serene?! You can vote at the Voting Page HERE and voting closes next Tuesday December 5. . This new abstract design is now available in my Spoonflower Shop on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor and it comes in several sizes too! Click the images below to see the Walllpaper (Medium-Scale) in my Spoonflower Shop! OR if you'd prefer (especially if you're located in Europe), you can also shop this design on Wallpaper in my new HappyWall Shop too (which is based in Sweden)! 
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I recently had the good fortune of spending two fantastic weeks in Taiwan. Although my time there was too short for such a fascinating and varied place, I did manage to spend time in the capital city of Taipei, Hualien on the picturesque East Coast, including the nearby Taroko Gorge (a natural wonder), historical Tainan and arts-filled Kaohsiung. Rather than simply outlining my travel itinerary, I wanted to show you some of the things this surface pattern designer found particularly inspiring, and that I’m sure will inspire some new pattern designs! I hope they inspire you too! Here they are in no particular order… The 15000 Temples of Taiwan Yup, apparently there are 15000 temples in Taiwan devoted to Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism! We visited famous Longshan and Bao’an Temples in Taipei, of course, and numerous others, including small neighbourhood temples that are absolutely everywhere. It’s hard to walk any distance without passing a temple, and you will always spot several in every town you pass by on the high-speed rail. The bright colours and shimmering gold, large-scale paintings, tilework, glowing lights, carvings and sculptures of gods, heroes and animals, and hand-embroidered robes and banners (more on this below) are jaw-dropping. See more Temple pics at my Instagram post HERE. Artisan Hand-Embroidery I searched out one of the small shops that still hand-embroider the magnificent robes and banners that embellish Taiwanese temples. Here are pics I took at the Tainan Kuang Tsai Embroidery Shop, and an example of a finished robe spotted in a temple. Common motifs include temple buildings, dragons, Chinese calligraphy, clouds, animals and flowers, and are often “3-D” and wrapped in glittering silver and gold threads. Wow! See more pics from this Tainan embroidery shop at my Instagram post HERE. Taiwan Glows at Night Taiwan's fantastic cities REALLY come to life and sparkle at night...From modern architecture lit up in bright colours, including Taipei 101 (once the world's tallest building) and dusk views from its 91st-floor Observatiory watching the city lights blink on; to public sculptures that light up arts districts (sometimes with music!); to glowing temples and historical shops open late; to bustling night markets and neon-lit places to eat, drink and socialize...Fantastic! You can see more Taiwan At Night pics at my Instagram post HERE. Characters Everywhere Taiwan is so FULL of colour and charm, evident in all the characters I spotted around Taipei, Hualien, Tainan and Kaohsiung...Some of these are honest-to-goodness "public art", while some are "just" storefront or restaurant mascots. But whether they're art pieces commissioned to be installed in Taiwan's numerous "creative and cultural parks" or temples, or cute kitsch designed to attract customers to a shop or restaurant or to endorse tourism, I LOVE THEM ALL! There's more Character pics at my Instagram post HERE. Colourful Paper Lanterns Just SOME (and I stress, SOME) of the paper lanterns I spotted while wandering the streets, small traditional shops and magnificent temples of Taiwan. See more of these colourful Paper Lanterns at my Instagram post HERE. Jimmy Liao: Taiwanese Children’s Book Illustrator The huge Jing Si Hall in Hualien has a wonderful bookstore, and it was here that I discovered the Taiwanese children’s book author and illustrator Jimmy Liao. On further research, I’ve learned he is an internationally-acclaimed illustrator. Even though the 3 books I bought are all in Chinese, I couldn’t resist his beautiful sweet images. I’ll just have to fire up Google Translate! Check out his beautiful illustrations on Instagram at @jimmy_liao_official. The Colours Of Taiwan When I return to the studio after a trip (especially one as colourful as this one!), I often use my travel photos to develop new colour palettes. With this process, I always try to first pull out the brights (just because I love bright colour!), then I add in some of the more neutral, earthier and muddier colours to round out the palettes. I find that this is a fantastic and useful exercise: it’s a great way to understand your own colour “style” and to develop colour palettes that are uniquely your own. See below for examples.
I’ll Have To Go Back! This is just a small compilation of some of the design and arts inspirations I saw during my trip to Taiwan. But Taiwan is full of natural wonders, wildlife and flora; layers of interesting history including colonization by the Dutch, Spanish and Japanese whose legacies still colour present-day Taiwan; and delicious and unusual foods (stinky tofu anyone?!), drink (it is the birthplace of bubble tea!) and desserts (my favourite is matcha shaved ice!) offered in numerous small neighbourhood eateries, high-end restaurants, and bustling neon-lit night markets. I’ll just have to go back! Whew! All Caught Up! My Entry For This Week's Spoonflower "The Other Holidays" Design Challenge!11/27/2023 Whew! Taking a holiday means you really need to take the time on returning to catch up with everything, including the Spoonflower Design Challenges! However, I did manage to enter a design for this week's Spoonflower "The Other Holidays" Design Challenge (that is, any other holiday but Christmas) before I left! Luckily, this Challenge has been open for 2 weeks instead of the customary 1 week due to the American Thanksgiving holidays which gave me a bit more time to design something for the NEXT Challenge. For "The Other Holidays" I decided on Valentine's Day, but then wanted to take the "other" a bit further so I tried my new "Love Hearts Checkerboard" design out in a very non-traditional retro colour palette! For those who want something "other" than pink or red for Valentine's! I did try it out in a bunch of other colourways though (see below), all now available in several scales. Find them all easily in my "Love Valentine's Day" Collection in my Spoonflower Shop! Public voting for this Challenge closes tomorrow Tuesday November 28. 
I'm playing catchup here since I've been away in Taiwan (it was an amazing trip, btw, and I'll try to write a post about it very soon!) BUT, getting back to catching up...While I was away, one of the Spoonflower Design Challenges was "Surrealist Wallpaper", and I did manage to enter my new "Disembodied" design (in the Retro Colours, below left) before I left for Taiwan. When I looked at surrealist art, I just seemed to notice the weird eyes, mouths and hands the most! Voting for this Challenge closed November 14, but this new design is now available in my Spoonflower, Redbubble, Society6 and TeePublic Shops in both Retro Colours and Rainbow Brights! Click the product images below to see these products in my Shops!
Yes, more changes in the POD world are coming... SOCIETY 6 CHANGES: NEW ARTIST PLANS Back in the Spring, Society6 announced that it would start deducting shipping fees from an artist’s earnings. You can remind yourself about these fees HERE. But on October 19, Society6 announced something MUCH more dramatic: the launch of its new Artist Plans: Free, Basic and Pro. The Free Plan is free, of course, but only allows an artist to upload 10 (yes, TEN) designs to their Shop and does not allow an artist to set their own prices (rather, artist royalties are set at 10%). The Basic Plan costs $4.99/month and allows 100 designs. The Pro Plan costs $12.99/month and allows up to 10000 designs. With the Basic and Pro Plans, artists can set their own prices. The Pro Plan also comes with a sales analytics dashboard. See below for Society6’s chart of the features offered by each Plan.  As of November 30, all current Society6 artists (and new artists that create an account) will be required to opt into a Plan, and make sure the number of designs in their Shop conforms to their chosen Plan. Those who don’t will be automatically enrolled in the Free Plan, and all designs in excess of the ten-design limit will be removed. Society6 says it will remove all but the 10 best-selling designs or, if no sales data is available, the most recently uploaded designs will remain. As of this writing, all removals will be permanent. You can read more detail about these changes at the Society6 Blog HERE. My Goodness. So What Now? If you’re wondering what to do with your Society6 Shop, or are considering opening one, here are some things to consider. I’ll let you know how they’ve played out in my own decision-making, and what I ultimately have decided to do. 1. SO Much Time Spent Any designer who has POD shops on multiple sites, such as Redbubble and TeePublic (who have recently announced changes of their own), will tell you that the uploading process on Society6 is probably one of the most difficult and time-consuming. It requires you to create multiple files to ensure that a design looks good on each of its products, and upload speeds can be slo-ow. For me with my 262 designs, unless I opt for the Pro Plan, this means that all those HOURS (and I mean HOURS and HOURS) of work uploading designs will have been wasted. Even further, if I go ahead now and delete designs under the Free or Basic Plans (which itself would take a lot of time to do), then I would have to spend more hours again in the future if I ever decided to re-upload those designs. 2. How Have Sales Been? If you’ve had a Society6 Shop for awhile, how have your sales been? If they’re enough to cover the Plan pricing, then it would be an easier choice to go for a paid Plan. But if not or you would barely break even, or if you’re new to the site, what then? This is perhaps where the most soul-searching will happen. For me, I do have fairly steady sales on Society6 and I can see that sales are trending slowly upwards. But it’s important to note that I’ve been working on this site steadily, if intermittently, for 5 years, and some months have definitely been better than others. 3. POD Sites Are So Satured POD sites are now extremely saturated. Opting for a Plan with a lower design limit may just mean that your art never gets seen. This being said, Society6 notes that there has been tons of non-selling or low-quality designs being uploaded to its marketplace in recent years, impacting the visibility of high-quality content (like yours and I hope, mine!) They believe that having this tiered Plan structure will lead to a more curated marketplace and drive sales of high-quality designs by independent artists, presumably by discouraging spammers and design thieves from maintaining or creating accounts. Hmm, only time will tell. 4. Think Beyond the Money: Visibiilty Is Something To Think About I have worked with several licensees and collaborators who have found my work on POD sites, and then get in touch with me directly to discuss their projects. So perhaps paying a fee to keep more visibility online can be considered a form of marketing, can lead to other income streams, and can thus be considered just a cost of doing business. So What's A Surface Pattern Designer To Do? My Society6 Shop which I opened in November 2018 currently has 262 designs. I sell fairly regularly and I do see a slow upward sales trend over the last 5 years. I know that I have gotten other projects as a direct result of the online visibility that my POD shops provide (though it's unclear how much Society6 has contributed to this). Given these facts, here’s what I’ve decided to do: I am going to opt in for the Pro Plan for now. It would just be too stomach-wrenching for me to delete up to 252 designs (!) at this time after all the hours I’ve spent. I’m going to keep an eye on my sales to see if the Plan changes do in fact result in improved sales. And to give myself enough time to see which way the wind is blowing, I’ll revisit my decision in 6 months or a year! If you're curious, I invite you to check out my SOCIETY6 SHOP HERE! SPOONFLOWER CHANGES: NEW ROYALTY STRUCTURE Given the dramatic changes happening over at Society6, Spoonflower’s upcoming changes to its royalty structure just announced today, certainly doesn’t inspire in me the same kind of soul-searching. Spoonflower was one of the few POD sites that paid its artists a full 10% commission (up to 15% under their bonus structure based on monthly sales) on the FULL retail price of an item, even if that item sold for less during a promotion. But starting January 2024, Spoonflower royalties will now be based on the price a customer actually pays for an item, taking into account any sale discounts (but will never reflect a discount of more than 50%). In addition, Spoonflower also announced that royalties paid out on their finished home décor items (such as pillows, sheet sets and duvets) will be based on the price paid for the finished product, and not just on the amount of fabric used to make that item, as has been the case. Spoonflower notes that in most cases, artists will earn more on sales of these finished home décor products. You can read more about Spoonflower's changes to its royalty structure at the Spoonflower Help Center HERE. It remains to be seen how these royalty changes will affect how much a designer earns from Spoonflower. Since many of my own sales occur during promotions, and the fact that I sell much more fabric and wallpaper than finished home décor products, I am anticipating that I may see less royalty income going forward. BUT, I’m still happy being a Spoonflower designer and their royalty changes cause me no worries. Why? I love their thoughtful community-building; active support and promotion of designers and makers, both on social media and through organizing fun events throughout the year; participating in their inspiring weekly Design Challenges; and the fantastic visibility I get from having a Spoonflower Shop. And the ability to interact directly with, and respond to special requests from, small business owners, interior designers, makers and DIYers has been invaluable and so satisfying to me. You can check out my SPOONFLOWER SHOP HERE. YOUR THOUGHTS? I would dearly like to know what you think of my thought processes regarding these upcoming changes to Society6 and Spoonflower for designers. And if you have anything to add, do let me know. As they say, the only constant is change. So true for all of us surface pattern designers, right?!
At first glance, the colours of my "Aubergine" design below might not seem like me, and if you thought that, you'd be right! That's because I entered this one in this week's Spoonflower "East Fork: Night Swim & Molasses" Design Challenge which required the use of that gorgeous teal ("Night Swim") and dark brown ("Molasses") to match East Fork Pottery's seasonal glaze colours (for use on matching table linens). Public voting for this Challenge opens Thursday Oct 26 (and closes Tuesday Oct 31) and you can link to the Voting Page HERE! If you'd like to SHOP these designs in my Spoonflower Shop, just click the images below to link to the Medium-Scale versions. They are also available in a Small- and Large-Scale version too on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor!  Although I do love the East Fork colourway, see below for the version in the original colours that you will probably think is more "me"! This repeat pattern is in turn based on an "Eggplant Seed Packet" illustration I created in 2022 to submit to the Uppercase Magazine "Seed Packet" comp for Issue #53 which was all about Gardening (scroll down to see it). Ultimately, it wasn't picked (although my "Peas Seed Packet" was!). Since then, I've had it in the back of my mind to create a fun repeat pattern design from that original illustration...And here it is! OH and I renamed it to "Aubergine" just because I like the sound of that better than "Eggplant" (which is what we call this veg here in Canada).   Many years ago, I lived in Berkeley and regularly took the BART into the City; and more recently, I’ve visited SF with my family, so I’m familiar with many of the tourist “greatest hits” already. But this time I had 2 ½ days completely on my own, so I decided to focus on feeding my surface pattern design soul. I thought you might want to follow along with what I did and saw. I walked everywhere, wandering into awe-inspiring places of worship, fun shops and parks along the way. The weather was superb, luckily. It’s hard to eat badly in SF. Google maps was my friend. DAY 1: 8:30 Coffee and a pastry at the Ferry Building, sitting in the sun and watching the water ferries. 10:00 I am of Japanese heritage, so I wanted to check out Japantown. Had a great chat with a curator at the National Japanese American Historical Society and then headed over to the Kinokuniya Bookstore in the Japan Center Malls. Bought some books that would be pretty hard to find where I live (limited myself to just 2).
12:00 Lunch at the Chao Pescao Latin Caribbean Kitchen, with a table looking out onto the Tenderloin People’s Garden, located just across the road from the Asian Art Museum.
Spent hours checking out the rest of the fantastic Asian Art Museum. Took SO many pics, including the ones below just because I loved the faces, they look so kind to me.
4:00 Headed back to the hotel with lots of stops along the way, including at the Gump’s Holiday Shop (now open temporarily just down the street from Gump's San Francisco) and checked out all the ornaments.
6:00 Italian dinner in North Beach. DAY 2: 8:00 Coffee and a pastry at the Ferry Building (again). 9:00 Headed out to the Mission District. 11:00 Tour of the Heath Ceramics Tile Factory and Clay Studio. In addition to seeing how their made-to-order tiles are formed, glazed and fired, we also got to see where the studio manager works. In his studio, he experiments with new ideas and forms, and prepares for upcoming themed shows. All the tables and counters were filled with these experiments and examples from past shows. We weren’t allowed to take photos here, sadly, but trust me when I say it was wonderful. Heath Ceramics has a great Shop and Magazine Stand too!
12:30 Instead of having lunch at the Tartine Manufactory outpost of the famous bakery (which is in the same building as Heath Ceramics), I instead wandered over to the original Tartine Bakery on Guerrero Street. 1:00 Checked out the murals of the Clarion Alley Mural Project.
Headed up Valencia Street to stop in at the Nooworks shop. I love this fashion brand famous for their super colourful prints and wanted to see them all in person. Wouldn't it be fun to design patterns for them?!
Checked out more interesting-looking and vintage shops along the way. 3:00 Complete inspiration overwhelm in the San Francisco Design District, centered on the San Francisco Design Center. Huge interior design showrooms, strangely nearly empty of people, but completely FULL of every kind of gorgeous patterned fabric in giant swatches, often organized by theme, colourful modern furniture, and the newest rug designs. All the drool-worthy designers are represented here and you're free to walk around and drool…Who knew?
5:00 Back to the hotel. Dinner at Kaiyo Rooftop (excellent Japanese-Peruvian food and cocktails), and then finished the evening at the Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar in the Fairmont Hotel. More cocktails! DAY 2 ½: 9:30 A bit of a rocky start (I blame the Tonga Room). 10:00 Headed off to the SFMOMA. Unbeknownst to me, it was Community Day so admission was free! I also didn’t know that the “Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Love” show which encompasses two of her famed Infinity Mirror Rooms was on. I managed to snag one of the limited number of same-day tickets (otherwise tickets are sold out through November). In my opinion, SFMOMA is a must-see museum on any trip to San Francisco. If you’ll be there anytime soon, book ahead to see the Yayoi Kusama show!
Other MUST-SEE shows at SFMOMA: the Pacita Abad retrospective (images below, until Jan 28 2024), and the musical video installation "Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors” (until Oct 13 2024). This last was probably my favourite of the entire museum. I haven't included images here because you really just have to stand in the space and experience it for yourself!
1:30 Relaxing lunch on the museum’s Café 5 outdoor terrace.
3:00 Back to the hotel to pick up my bags, and then off to the airport! I’ll be back, so if you have any suggestions for NEXT time, please do direct them my way! I had a hard time trying to decide which colourway of my new “Acorns and Oak Leaves” design to enter in this week’s Spoonflower “Pantone Intangible Tea Towels” Design Challenge! The idea behind this one was to use the given Pantone colour palette (as always, it was a hard one for me)! I finally settled on the first Moss Brown version, thanks to everyone who helped me decide! Voting is open until next Tuesday Oct 24 and you can link to the Voting Page HERE! And if you'd like to SHOP these tea towels (and wall hangings, btw) in my Spoonflower Shop, click the Images below!
OF COURSE, even though this week’s Challenge is all about tea towel designs, I also felt the need to add this new “Acorns and Oak Leaves” design to my Spoonflower Shop in a repeat pattern as well! So now it’s available on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor, each in 3 sizes (click the Images below to see the Medium-Scale versions in my Spoonflower Shop. There are also Small- and Large-Scale versions too)!
On October 6, I had the pleasure of participating in the Panel Discussion: "The Latest Trends in Surface Design & How to Spot Trends in Your Own Research", as part of the 2023 Surface Design Symposium offered by Spoonflower in partnership with the Craft Industry Alliance, together with fellow designers Jeanetta Gonzales, Elizabeth Silver and Renee Froerer! If you missed the Symposium, REPLAYS of all the sessions, including a keynote by designer Mable Tan and several Design Workshops, are now available to watch for FREE!  If you are a licensee or manufacturer who would like to know the latest in upcoming print trends for kidswear, the brand new "Prints & Graphics Sourcing Guide: Kidswear A/W 24/25" has just been released by WGSN, the world's leading consumer trend forecaster. This Guide includes several of my pattern designs in its identification of the key trends for Autumn/Winter 24/25 Kidswear! Please NOTE: You must be a WGSN subscriber to access this Guide.  This year's Toronto International Film Festival happened from Sept 7-17 2023 and I had the great privilege to be involved in the excitement. My designs were spotted as backdrops in some amazing celebrity portraits shot by photographer Chris Chapman of @ccphotophoto at the Deadline Hollywood Studio in Toronto, and here are just a few of my favourites. You can find many more over on my Instagram by checking out my TIFF Highlights or scrolling back to my early September posts! Although my designs added colour to some of the portraits, I think it really was Chris' eye that made them stunning! All photos are copyright ©Chris Chapman and used with permission.
This week's Spoonflower Design Challenge is "Whimsigothic Wallpaper". So what is "whimsigothic" anyway, you might ask? I had the same question! Doing a bit of research, I discovered it is a mash-up of dark, ornate, mysterious Victorian Gothic design with bright unexpected colours and boho modern touches. So here is my take: I pictured an old stone castle with Gothic stained-glass windows, ornate velvet furniture in dark moody colours, fading tapestries and dusty chandeliers...Thus the name of this floral: "Castle Rose". BUT I also made sure to create the flowers and leaves in a semi-abstract way (look closely) in, what else? Fuchsia Pink! Public voting for this Challenge opens Thursday Sept 7 and closes next Tuesday Sept 12. You can link to the Voting Page HERE! And if you'd like to SHOP this design, click HERE to see the LARGE-Scale version. It also comes in a SMALL-Scale and MEDIUM-Scale version too!   I must say this week's Spoonflower "Vintage Sportswear" Design Challenge was a tough one! I mean, what do you think of when you think of 70s, 80s or 90s sportswear?! After trying and tossing a bunch of ideas, I ended up with my "Anemone" retro floral in bright 1970s colours (first pic)! I can see a pretty cool fleece jacket or ski suit in this (what do you think, my Nelson, BC ski buddies?) Public voting is open now and you can link to the Voting Page HERE! . I also want to thank the team at Make It In Design whose "Creative Tip Of The Week" posted on their Blog on August 25 about how to use Adobe Illustrator's Blend Tool inspired me to try something new! . Click the IMAGES below to link directly to the Medium-Scale versions of this design in TWO colourways in my Spoonflower Shop. They also come in Small- and Large-Scale versions too!   Here is my entry for the Spoonflower "Monochromatic Duvet Covers" Design Challenge, called "Abloom"! All the colours are shades and tints of the gorgeous Scarlet Red in the background, as required by the Challenge. It's now available in my Spoonflower Shop on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in several scales from Small to Jumbo. AND of course, I had to try it out in a bunch of Other Colours too (if you look closely, some of them aren't strictly "monochromatic" as I felt the need to add in bits of other colours here and there!). Click the IMAGES below to link directly to the design in my Spoonflower Shop (Large-Scale versions)! Public voting for this Challenge is now closed...Whoops, I forgot to post this LAST week! But you can vote in THIS week's "Vintage Sportswear" Design Challenge at the Voting Page here! 
And now for MORE colours...In order: Mustard Yellow, Barbie Pink, Sky Blue and Cobalt Royal Blue! All colours are now available in my Spoonflower Shop!
So I must admit, I'm kinda in LOVE with Barbie colours right now! Pink, Blue, Purple...I guess that's no surprise! So, I named my new floral pattern design "Dream House" (get it?!) and entered it in this week's Spoonflower "Tween Spirit Bedding" Design Challenge! What tween (or teen or full-grown adult or elder) wouldn't like this (um, don't answer that)?! This gorgeous floral is now available in my Spoonflower Shop on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in 3 sizes and a bunch of colourways. Click the IMAGES below to link directly to the Large-Scale versions in my Spoonflower Shop (but don't forget, they also come in a Small- and Medium-Scale version too if you prefer that!) . If you'd like to vote in this Challenge, public voting for is open until Tuesday August 22 and you can link to the Voting Page HERE!     AND OF COURSE, I had to try it out in several other colourways. Scroll down to see them! They're all now available in my Spoonflower Shop on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in 3 sizes! Click the IMAGES to link directly to the Large-Scale versions in my Shop!    |
AuthorJackie Tahara of UnBlink Studio Archives
September 2024
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All images on this website are Copyright © Jackie Tahara. All rights reserved.
If sharing, pinning or blogging my images, please always credit me and link back to my website. Supporting artists is a good thing to do! Thank you!
If sharing, pinning or blogging my images, please always credit me and link back to my website. Supporting artists is a good thing to do! Thank you!