The design process behind my pattern“Pure Lily”

Today I’d like to share the design process behind one of my latest pattern called “Pure Lily”.

I was motivated to create this project by a wonderful Skillshare class called Classic Pattern Styles: Learn to Design Arts and Crafts Patterns by surface pattern designer Bärbel Dressler.

This pattern is inspired by Renaissance paintings where the Madonna is often associated with the lily. As a matter of fact, according to the traditional iconography, angels offer white lilies to Mary as these flowers are a symbol of purity.

My intention was to create a pattern for wallpaper and to include two different layers as Barbel did in the pattern she created for the class.

THE MOTIFS

I started with very rough drawing in my sketchbook:

...and then moved to a more refined sketch.

From there I started to think about the overall flow of the pattern and tested my layout. Since I decided to design with wallpaper in mind what I wanted was to achieve a nice vertical flow.

After picking a colour palette I really liked, I created a coloured sketch to see how the colours could work together. I also started to think about including a background pattern and therefore traced some lines as a skeleton.

With the lines as a guide I drew a lot of small leaves and made them intertwined with the main motifs on the foreground. It definitely took a while to draw all the leaves, keep them consistent in size and shape and make sure to a achieve a good overall flow but i really enjoyed it as it was a very meditative process :) 

 THE FINAL RESULT 

Here's the final pattern in three colour ways:

Even though I started with a green background in mind my favorite version is the one in black as I find the contrast in value really nice.

Which colourway is your favorite?

Any feedback is welcome! 

Thank you! :) 

Speaking at Type Thursday Florence

Yesterday I had the chance to talk about my work during the November chapter of Type Thursday, an international monthly event entirely dedicated to typography, that has now moved online due to Covid restrictions. I was super nervous beforehand as I am definitely an introvert but it was actually so much fun to get together and talk with other super-talented creatives about letters and patterns!

If you love type and ornaments, and understand a little bit of Italian, here’s the replay!

Enjoy!