Book Review: Behind Collections

Graphic Design in branding and communication has always been important. Something well designed can create customer loyalty, monetary benefits, and an edge on competition. Insert pattern and texture into this conversation and you’ve elevated it, giving the audience more visuals to identify with.

Behind Collections is an encyclopedia of the best graphic design and promotional materials in the fashion industry today. It hits a certain aesthetic that’s quite popular at the moment, and reveals the varied methods of achieving a luxurious brand through color, embossing, typography and photography.

It includes promotional design from ACNE, HONOR, AKIN, Vogue, Hermes and more…and an index of the creative studios behind the work.

Here are a few spreads that that caught my eye. If you’re looking to add another book to the library, I highly recommend investing in this one. Click here to purchase.

May 28, 2015 | By: Shayna Kulik

News to Share…

Fun news to (finally) report…I’m creating a Pattern Sketchbook with Chronicle, and it’ll be coming out in Spring 2016. (Yay!) We’ll be focusing on pattern spotting in the world around us, and how inspiration becomes a purposeful repeat.

I know that sounds like a massively long time from now, but everything is actually due rather soon, so…here’s where you come in.

I have a nice outline coming together of who I’d love to include in this book, but I’m always on the hunt for new pattern designers, artists and illustrators- especially young talented ones. I’ve always been a strong believer of following the experienced creators as much as the fresh up-and-comers.

So, please feel free to submit work that follows these guidelines. I’d love to include 1 or 2 art students to the mix.

Please address your emails to: editor@patternpulp.com with the subject title: Patterns & Inspiration. Please, no heavy files – just links and jpgs.

Thank You!

Shayna

January 23, 2015 | By: Shayna Kulik

Kapitza, Kickstarter & Pattern Inspo

Lately, I’ve been a bit of a serial Kickstarter supporter. It’s very inspiring to poke around the platform and see who’s doing what and which crazy new concept is coming to life.

This morning, I backed Nicole and Petra Kapitza‘s latest book project, Geometric Two. These sisters are talented. They also share a serious love of pattern, design and geometry and run a multi-disciplinary design studio in London.

They’re experts in their field and have an impressive track record with their previous pattern publications, Geometric and Organic.

Their artworks are bright, colourful and minimalist, featuring abstract graphic art and flower illustrations in bold colour compositions and compelling arrangements.

Kapitza have gained a global following in the design world for their inspirational pattern art books and picture fonts, which are available from their beautifully designed online shop. They also published the critically acclaimed book Geometric in 2008.

Their deep love of nature is an ongoing concern, as can be seen in the ever growing Font and illustration collection, ‘We Love Nature’ and in their new project, Organic, which has been nominated for the Designs of the Year 2013 Award by the Design Museum London.

October 8, 2013 | By: Shayna Kulik

Book Review: High Touch

Today’s visual culture is shaped by a vast wealth of influences from a diverse range of styles, cultures, and eras. Handcrafts including crochet, papercraft, and the design of costumes and masks are being melded with the techniques of more traditional art forms such as installation, sculpture, collage, photography, and illustration.

This new visual language is currently being formed out of the skillful and unusual combination of creative styles, as well as the use of an expanded range of materials and techniques. One of the most striking aspects of today’s visual culture is its intricate, handcrafted quality.

The term “high touch” is used in design theory to describe an accessible, human visuality. High Touch the book is a compilation of current work that is broadening and enriching this definition in a contemporary way.

Presenting a rich selection of innovative, often handmade design created with the full spectrum of materials and stylistic devices in existence today, the book explores all of the many ways artists are expanding this palette of visual possibilities. We’re excited to see so many of the fantastic design and art projects we’ve documented here on Pattern Pulp in the pages of this eye-catching book.

July 31, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Book Review: Wondering Around Wandering

Mike Perry is a Pattern Pulp favorite and a verifiable artistic dynamo, consistently producing an awe-inspiring amount of work, wide in scope and medium. In addition to his design and illustration work, he publishes zines, runs a magazine and has curated three successful books. Wondering Around Wandering – Works So Far is his latest creation and is his first monograph.

Having carefully designed each and every page, placing old works beside new ones and occasionally updating old work to make it new again, this is a true artist’s book. With explosive fluorescent colors, various paper stocks, and five four-page zines bound into the book, this volume is an object that must be experienced. Artists, designers, hip trendsetters, children, the young-at-heart, and anyone interested in DIY culture will treasure this amazing project. In addition to his work, the book also features: A Conversation with Ed Fella and Introductions by James Victore and Jim Datz.

April 27, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Book Review: Draw It with Your Eyes Closed

For those of us who’ve been out of (art and/or design) school for a while, living and working in our modern world where we’re confronted with constant image and info overload, it’s not hard to miss the days when we were encouraged to step away from our best judgement and stretch our creativity to the limit. Draw It with Your Eyes Closed: The Art of the Art Assignment presents 100+ art assignments, anti-assignments and artworks from both teachers and students from a broad range of institutions. The book is sure to get your creative juices flowing, inspiring original thought processes and work, as well as serve as an archive and record of the evolving oral tradition of the art assignment. Not just for artists and designers, this is a great book to give any and everyone’s brain a little creative push.

Get going with this excerpt from the book!

Color Walk

Take a color walk. Give yourself at least one hour of uninterrupted time. Do not plan your walk in advance or combine it with other activities (commuting, shopping, etc.). Try not to talk or interact with other people during this time. You will not need to bring a cell phone, journal, camera, or iPod. You will not be graded or evaluated on your color walk.

You can begin your color walk anywhere. Let color be your guide. Allow yourself to become sensitized to the color in your surroundings. As you walk try to construct a color story or a narrative based on color you observe. What are the colors that you become aware of first? What are the colors that reveal themselves more slowly? What colors do you observe that you did not expect? What color relationships do you notice? Do colors appear to change over time? We will discuss the color walks in our next class.

—Munro Galloway

March 15, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik