Or maybe more like just a bit wonky.
A little tiling pattern design I was playing with a few weeks back. I think friends on kids fabrics or papers is an amazing idea, so you can have stories everywhere. These guys are a bit weird, a bit off kilter, but those are the most fun people to hang out with anyway. I'd like to have some printed fabrics with my patterns on soon, so I'm going to keep working on my pattern design!
The Sparky Interview is a series of posts where I highlight independent creative people and companies who inspire me to be better at the stuff I do.
They all wear their own brand of fire pants.
Libby and I first started working together in a midtown Manhattan insane asylum. By insane asylum, I mean litigation consulting firm. Creating forty-five bar charts at 3:00 AM for a courtroom presentation that same morning should not be considered by anyone to be an activity that emotionally balanced humans participate in. But there we were, with equally unbalanced attorneys sweating it out with us over the phone. We were all crazy. But we did things that defied the laws of possibility in graphics production.
These days, Libby and I have both created our own brands of helping people do crazy things with our graphics. The thing that impresses me most about Libby is her willingness to admit that she doesn’t know about a particular process – and then throws herself into becoming an expert without wasting any time.
I’ve also been dying to share her talents with you because her pattern collection is like hot buttered rum for your eyes. Not in a stinging, emergency-eye-wash-station kind of way. I mean, smooooth.
With that, I’ll just get into the interview and hear what Libby has to say.
Le Interview
Hi, Libby, thanks for being here. Please introduce yourself to our studio audience.
Hello, I’m Libby Unwin. I live in Denver with my husband, Matt, and dog, Molly. I like to draw.
Who is your ideal client?
Someone who is enthusiastic about the end result, someone who understands their role in the design process and enjoys it, and someone who knows when to say when. I’m a people-person, and like the nuances different personalities bring to each project. Sometimes the client is more fun than the work itself! (Can I say that out loud?)
I notice you really, really like creating patterns and are amazing at it. What led you down that road and where do see it taking your business?
Aww, thanks! I’ve been doing this since I can remember. In the 8th grade, I got in trouble for turning in a worksheet with only my name and a very intricate design completely filling the margins — no answers to the questions. That’s the first pattern I remember drawing. So, this has been itching for a very long time, but it never occurred to me that I could actually do this for a living. It made sense to be a graphic artist, so I became one and have been doing that professionally for about 8 years; it wasn’t until Alluminare contacted me last winter that I realized there was an industry called “surface design”. It unleashed something and I began drawing. And drawing. And drawing. That lead me to learning ab
More patterns for that digi retro scrapbooking kit I'm working on....should finish it up in the next couple of days!!
I realized that I did not like my last mix tape pattern at all...it was
done too quickly and just didn't look right. So here it is revised, and
I like it much better.
A few months back, one of my freelance pattern designs that I did for
Cinnamon Joe Studios was sold to Paperchase (a store in the UK).
Today, while checking out Print & Pattern,
I
see a bunch of pictures of my monsters! 
How exciting!!! The
products ended up being pretty cool. The colors are different, but the
monsters are my little guys!! I can't post a link to the page (it is
too long or something), but go to amazon.com.uk and search "paperchase
spacers" to see all of the products they were turned into.
Just a bunch of cutesy clouds. Pattern design that I did for Cinnamon Joe Studios.
Love the colors!!! So joyful!!!
So fun to look at!
I love the colors! a really fun illustration! :)