Print & Pattern will be finishing a little bit earlier than normal for the holidays as I need to work full time on finalizing the manuscript for Print & Pattern Nature Book which has to finished before Christmas. Many of you wanted to know what happened with the book after a call for entries back in August. There were a staggering 747 entries so as you can imagine competition was pretty stiff with hundreds of people competing for around 60 spaces. So sadly I had to let many good people down. Because there were so many entries I was only able to contact those designers who were successful. Since then has taken all this time to gather in all the correct high res images, find out about the artists, obtain proper legal permissions and of course finish all the written text. Thanks so much to everyone who submitted designs - there were brilliant qualities to just about all of them and I hope to be able to work with some of you in another book next time.
A few more Christmas designs have come in at the last minute for designers who are doing advents. Posting a Christmas design each day is a great way to test your creativity and skills and to build up a portfolio. The first designs are from Hong Kong based designer Gina Maldonado of Cocogigidesign.
Next up are some bold designs from Stephanie Thannhauser's Christmas countdown...
Designer Jane Farnham has been illustrating each day of December to create a countdown to Christmas on her Instagram account.
Below are two designs from Sandra Bowers a freelance illustrator and surface pattern and branding designer based in Canada.
And finally there is countdown each day at the Yellow Doodle blog from designer Noopur Thakur.
Designer Jill Haworth is another fab artist who is posting a new Christmas every day. Jill has created an advent alphabet with a different letter each day. Jill's illustrations are first rate and we begin with A is for angel but there are lots more letters to see online at Jill's facebook page or on instagram.
Print & Pattern continues to look at Christmas design this week and these gorgeous new designs are by Wendy Kendall. Wendy has just uploaded her latest designs to her portfolio website online here and she is also part of the brilliant Dotty Wren Studio who are posting new work each day as part of their Christmas advent calendar.
Designer Miriam Bos is counting down to Christmas by posting an illustration every day until the 25th of December that is festive or winter related. Miriam hopes to add a bit of cheerfulness and sweetness to people’s day during the cold December month and at the same time is building a portfolio for her first solo exhibition at Surtex 2016! All the designs have a touch of traditional water colouring combined with digital techniques. The countdown is happening here at Miriam's instagram.
There are some fab designs from card publisher Stop the Clock this Christmas. Divided into two main collections their 2015 design ranges are called Love Xmas and Doodle Xmas. They also have different designs available in multipacks. Look out for these cards in good card stores now and retailers can place wholesale orders online.
And also new from Stop the Clock is the lovely Flora collection featuring painterly flowers and hand written type.
And finally from Stop the Clock there is the more masculine graphic range called Hip Orange...
