Mirror mirror

A parcel of pocket mirrors arrived in the post today. I had them made up with 5 designs, and think they're rather cute. They're a little smaller than your average pocket mirror, and I think would appeal to children and young teenagers. One of them will definitely be making it's way to my niece this Christmas, I just have to decide which one :-) 

Playing cards

I've just received my new business cards from Moo, complete with new website and email details. I'm really pleased with them, I got a bit carried away with the amount of designs I used for the back, but that's the fun of them! Now, to stop playing with them and put them to work...

Featured on Pattern Booth blog

Image courtesy of Pattern Booth/Cara Holland

I was very happy to be featured on Pattern Booth this week. The Pattern Booth blog is the creation of Cara Holland, it's a brilliant new blog celebrating modern, abstract and fun patterns, and is full of great finds, inspiration and interviews. Take a look here. And you can see my feature here, thank you Cara.

New website!

www.zoeattwell.com

I'm very excited to announce that I've just finished designing my website which is live now.
Please come and visit and have a look around, I hope you like it! Click here to view.

A little Greek inspiration

I'm afraid I've neglected my blog somewhat over the last few weeks. I've just come back from a lovely holiday in Greece catching the last of the summer sun. Today I just thought I'd share a few of the things that caught my eye.

I love the unusual packaging of this chewing gum with its strong colours and geometric patterns.

And I really like the simplicity of the distressed metal bus stop with the cut-out bus detail, the subtle colours of the stone panels top right, and the shape and vivid red of this old fire hydrant.

I like the look of distressed paintwork and worn surfaces generally, and was drawn to the lovely textures and colours of this turquoise door and wooden panelling. And these colourful tables and chairs are just very cheerful and fun, I think they may inspire a future colour palette.
I hope you saw something you liked in my odd little selection of images!

Cushions for sale!

Stitched Up

A while ago I entered Ohh Deer's Pillow Fight competition, and these are the designs I submitted, above and below. For a limited time starting today my cushions will be available to buy from Ohh Deer's online shop! So, if you fancy adding a colourful, quirky cushion or two to your home click on these links. Click here to buy 'Stitched Up,' the design above. And here if you're interested in 'Stacks,' the design below. They will only be on sale for 3 weeks so hurry if you think you'd like one!
After this time Ohh Deer will be choosing 4 designs from the competition entries to add to their shop, and to sell through their stockists, including Tate Modern and the Millennium Gallery. Fingers crossed!

Stacks

Ooh dishy!

Plates designed by Kathie Winkle for J Broadhurst & Sons Ltd.

I visited Tent London at the weekend, it was very inspiring and full of great designs. If I had the money (and the space) I would have bought a few chairs, a couple of tables, a lamp and some cushions, and that's just for starters! But as that's not an option at the moment, I didn't. I did however buy these 2 lovely plates designed by Kathie Winkle. I love the hand-painted abstract design, and the muted colours. It's a bit funny to go to a show known for its cutting-edge contemporary design and come back with a couple of old plates but there you go, I'm going to enjoy looking at them and using them, probably mainly for cake :-)

Dream Designs

Image courtesy of Dawn Clarkson/Nice and Fancy

I have a really nice feature over on Dawn Clarkson's blog Nice and Fancy. Dawn has a great new regular feature called Dream Designs where she asks designers to choose a favourite pattern and their dream application for it. I chose my 'Retro Checks' design and you can read the post here. Be sure to check out the rest of Dawn's blog and her lovely designs. Thank you Dawn for the lovely feature!

Pattern Bloghop!

Today is the Passion 4 Pattern Bloghop! If you are already on the hop (so to speak) you will have joined me from Gill Eggleston's lovely new blog Pattern Addict. If you've only just found the hop you can pop over to Claire Smillie's blog to start from the beginning.

For today's hop I thought I'd share a collection of wrapping paper designs I've been working on. Although they were designed with gift wrap in mind, I think they'd make really nice designs for notebooks too.

I think this is my favourite, but I keep changing my mind...

And here I had fun wrapping up some presents. I think they're bright and cheerful, I'd like to receive some presents that looked like this, how about you? :-)
Well, that's all from me today, thanks for visiting! Now, be sure to hop along to Eva Marion Seyffarth's blog. Eva Marion is getting ready to exhibit at Indigo Paris with Believe Creative Studio and I'm sure has some great pattern inspiration to share with you!

Hoppity Hop

On Sunday I will be taking part in the 2nd Passion 4 Pattern Bloghop. If you're unsure what a bloghop is, well, it's a little like it sounds. Over 40 international Surface Pattern Designers will be showcasing their work. Starting at Claire Smillie's blog each post will have a link to the next designer, allowing you to easily hop from one to the other and see some lovely designs. Join us this sunday!

A tile or two

Today I thought I'd share some more lovely mosaic tiles that I saw during my recent trip to Barcelona. I took a lot of pictures of tiles... :-) These details are from the beautiful exterior of the Palau de la Música Catalana in the Old Town.

The Simple Things

Image courtesy of The Simple Things

I bought the first issue of The Simple Things magazine at the weekend. It's a magazine that, you guessed it, celebrates the simple things in life. It is beautifully designed and has the most gorgeous photography. This issue includes some lovely interiors, products for the home, and some very tasty looking recipes! It was a real pleasure sitting in the garden with a cup of coffee taking it all in. To find out more about the magazine and to visit their website click here

Made with love

Sketchbook covers for Milo and Madeleine

Today I just thought I'd share these little handmade presents I made for my nephew and niece. They came about after not being able to find any fun looking sketchbooks for children, so I decided to design my own covers. I'm pleased to say they went down a treat :-)

'Bloom' Birthday card

I also made this card for my Mother's birthday using my 'Bloom' design, which is one of her favourites, and a co-ordinating pattern for the back. It's always been difficult to find a card for her which she hasn't seen as she sells so many beautiful ones in her shop, so this was the perfect solution :-)

MOYO Magazine launch!

The cover of the first issue of MOYO Magazine

Last week saw the launch of MOYO Magazine, it's the world's first online magazine dedicated to Surface Pattern Design. MOYO (pronounced mo-yor from the Japanese for pattern) is the creation of Beth Nicholls and Rachael Taylor of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design. It is full of interviews, inspiration and design tips, aswell as showcasing emerging designers. I'm very happy to have one of my designs (see below) included in the first issue! The magazine will be published quarterly and is free! You can get your copy here.

My design featured in the magazine, part of my 'Dotty Triangles' collection

And today I was really pleased to see my 'Bloom' designs were featured on Beth Nicholl's Do What You Love blog as part of the e-course Module 2 showcase. You can see the feature here.

Sometimes it's the little things that make you happy

Here's a little peek at my new mini cards from Moo. I'm really happy with them, I love that you can print different images on the back! The printing's great and turnaround really fast, I definitely recommend using Moo!

Another lovely blog feature!

Image courtesy of Rebecca Greenwood/Littletree Designs

Last week I was lucky enough to be featured on 3 blogs! Rebecca Greenwood of Littletree Designs showcased my 'Dotty Triangles' designs as part of a lovely feature on some of the designers of the
e-course we are taking. Rebecca is very talented designer, I love her style, and has a lovely blog you can visit here.

Rachael Taylor Blog Showcase 2

Image courtesy of Rachael Taylor Designs

I'm very happy that this week my 'Bloom' design was featured on Rachael Taylor's blog as part of the Module 2 final showcase of The Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design run by the lovely Rachael Taylor and Beth Nicholls of Do What You Love For Life. You can see the feature here. I couldn't recommend the course more highly and can't wait to start Module 3 on September 3rd!

Bloom

Print & Pattern feature!

Image courtesy of Print & Pattern

I am thrilled that today one of my collections has been featured on the leading blog for pattern design, Print & Pattern! Click here to see the post! I'm featured alongside some of my very talented fellow classmates of the brilliant The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design e-course run by Rachael Taylor and Beth Nicholls

Fifties Fun

Beautiful Barcelona

Details of the lovely tiled mosaic seats in Gaudi's Parc Güell

I've just got back from a lovely few days in sunny Barcelona where I celebrated my birthday. It's such a beautiful city, filled with so much inspiration. I was particularly taken with the colourful tiled mosaic seats in the terraced area of Gaudi's Parc Güell, which you can see in the images above and below.So pretty, I think they'll definitely inspire a pattern or two!

Details of the lovely tiled mosaic seats in Gaudi's Parc Güell

Exciting news!

Square Up

Oranges & Lemons

It's been a while since my last post but I have some exciting news! A while ago I submitted some designs to be considered for inclusion in an upcoming book which will be published by The PatternBase. Last week I was thrilled to find out that seven of my designs have been chosen for inclusion in the book which will be called 'PATTERNBASE: A Collection of Contemporary Textile & Surface Design.' It is due to be published at the end of the year, and can be pre-orderd here. Above are two of the selected designs. I'm very excited to be a part of The PatternBase's first book!

Pencil patterns

Pencil Stationery: (Clockwise from left) A4 folder, notebook, post-it notes, pencil case

Pencil Stationery: (Clockwise from left) Diary, notebooks, post-it notes

Here's a couple of stationery concept boards I've been working on. Using pencils to decorate a set of stationery could be a little obvious but I started drawing these stylised pencils and I had to incorporate them into the designs. I like the fresh feeling of the bright colours paired with the neutral backgrounds which give them a little zing.

Triangle Tango

Dotty Triangles

A collection of patterns inspired by PANTONE Colour of the Year 2012, Tangerine Tango (and triangles ;-) )

Scribble Stationery

Scribble Squares Stationery and Wrapping Paper

Scribble Squares Notebooks and Pencils

Today I've been mocking up how my Scribble Squares collection could work as a mix and match set of stationery and wrapping paper. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, though I may need to work on my photography :-)

Rachael Taylor Blog Showcase

Image courtesy of Rachael Taylor Designs 

Today one of my designs was featured on the lovely Rachael Taylor's blog showcasing the work of Module 1 students of the fantastic The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course that Rachael Taylor has put together with Beth Nicholls of Do What You Love For Life. A big thank you to both for such an amazing and inspiring course! Check out the link here! Scroll down to see it, I am last, but hopefully not least ;-)

Scribble squares

Scribble Squares Collection

I've been working on a new collection today, and after a pretty frustrating start I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out so far

Patchwork

Patchwork Patterns

A selection of complementary patterns originating again from my 'Retro Checks' design.

Lollipop Trees II

Green Lollipop Trees

Here's a more colourful version of my lollipop trees. It's perhaps more striking than the previous one but I can see merits in them both.

Lollipop trees

Lollipop Trees

Playing around with circular motifs, they kind of turned into trees. I think it's a cheerful, bright pattern that could be used on a variety of products. I'll continue to experiment with this one, and try out some different colour combinations.