Our first featured guest blogger is miss Kayla Bill! She has had a huge influence on the designer I am today, and without her… Who knows where I’d be? We met through the UWSP Design program, and worked together recently at NUK. So, it was only appropriate for her to be my first guest! Without further ado, I give you Kayla and her favorite design element, patterns:
Chevron, ikat, stripes, paisley, houndstooth, floral and of course my favorite; polka dots. Patterns have become a part of my every day design life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I love sketching new pattern ideas and creating them can be a fun and exhilarating challenge. You would be surprised how many patterns you see everyday. They are literally everywhere; clothing, furniture, dishes, books, purses, nail art, tattoos, baby products and so much more. I was first introduced to pattern design when creating designs for NUK pacifiers and baby bottles. Instantly I fell head over heals in L-O-V-E, love. Most of the time I find myself incorporating patterns inside larger shapes or even cute little animals. It took a lot of practice, but now I’ve got it down to a strategic science. Everyone has their own tricks and I wouldn’t have any up my sleeve without my illustrator pathfinder and align tools. I prefer to construct patterns piece by piece on my own in illustrator, rather than creating pattern swatches that tile a pattern for you. Yes, creating pattern swatches would probably save me time, but sometimes I prefer my patterns to be more random and not so perfectly tessellated together. Besides, who says patterns have to continue on into oblivion repeating in the same manner anyways? Not this girl. There are no rules when it comes to patterns, so as long as it’s a pattern to you that’s all that matters. So open up illustrator or your sketchbook; find a rock to draw on or get out your nail polish; and try your hand at creating a pattern, because “pattern makes perfect”.
Geometric Quilt | Nail Art | NUK Bold Dots Bottle | Norquary Handpainted Paddles | Diamond Circle Pattern| Wit and Whistle Books | Owls | Untitled Tattoo
Photoshoot with Kyah Jo
Taking us back to sunsets, dresses, and green grass… The weather was gorgeous and a perfect time to shoot photographs for a sprouting new business.
Through the development of Sprout, I knew I wanted to get some great professional photos to use for my site and various promotions. It didn’t take long to decide who I wanted to work with – miss Kyah Jo was at the top of my list. I met Kyah in college and had the opportunity to work together for some UWSP Basement Brewhaus promotions. She’s such a fun person who recently started a business of her own as a photographer. I saw her photography work and thought it would be so great to get back together with her and have a little fun! What could be better than working with another startup business?
I was so nervous preparing, I’m not one of those people who enjoy the spotlight or being the center of attention. Not to mention the last time I had photos taken like this was probably years ago for my high school senior photos. I anxiously awaited the day and frantically tried deciding what I could wear. For those who know me… I love clothes… and I’m also extremely indecisive, not the best combo (:
So the day had come, Kyah and I met for a little coffee and caught up, then continued around town to some cool spots to take photos. It was awesome that Kyah already had some in mind, because I wasn’t from the area. She did a GREAT job picking locations (and even helped narrow down my wardrobe options — she rocks!)
We had a blast on our photoshoot!! It was way more fun than I had anticipated! We were enjoying ourselves — laughing, smiling, and photographing. She was wonderful at “setting up” and capturing the perfect photo as you can see. I’m so happy with the results! We are hoping to get together again and shoot some more photos to share!
I encourage you to check out all her work! She shoots engagement photos, weddings, portraits & more, and does a wonderful job at all of it!
Photo credit to Photography by Kyah Jo
Pattern Makes Perfect
Our first featured guest blogger is miss Kayla Bill! She has had a huge influence on the designer I am today, and without her… Who knows where I’d be? We met through the UWSP Design program, and worked together recently at NUK. So, it was only appropriate for her to be my first guest! Without further ado, I give you Kayla and her favorite design element, patterns:
I love sketching new pattern ideas and creating them can be a fun and exhilarating challenge. You would be surprised how many patterns you see everyday. They are literally everywhere; clothing, furniture, dishes, books, purses, nail art, tattoos, baby products and so much more. I was first introduced to pattern design when creating designs for NUK pacifiers and baby bottles. Instantly I fell head over heals in L-O-V-E, love. Most of the time I find myself incorporating patterns inside larger shapes or even cute little animals. It took a lot of practice, but now I’ve got it down to a strategic science. Everyone has their own tricks and I wouldn’t have any up my sleeve without my illustrator pathfinder and align tools. I prefer to construct patterns piece by piece on my own in illustrator, rather than creating pattern swatches that tile a pattern for you. Yes, creating pattern swatches would probably save me time, but sometimes I prefer my patterns to be more random and not so perfectly tessellated together. Besides, who says patterns have to continue on into oblivion repeating in the same manner anyways? Not this girl. There are no rules when it comes to patterns, so as long as it’s a pattern to you that’s all that matters. So open up illustrator or your sketchbook; find a rock to draw on or get out your nail polish; and try your hand at creating a pattern, because “pattern makes perfect”.
Geometric Quilt | Nail Art | NUK Bold Dots Bottle | Norquary Handpainted Paddles | Diamond Circle Pattern| Wit and Whistle Books | Owls | Untitled Tattoo
Real. World. Design.
This past weekend I had a great opportunity to be a featured designer at the Real World Design Conference at my alma mater, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. It’s an annual event put on by the dedicated and wonderful AIGA – UWSP chapter. It was so much fun and they wore us out! I was honored to be one of the five featured designers, along with Courtney Lancour, Tom Wilz, Michael Johnson, and Amanda Chavez.
As part of the conference, we got to review student portfolios (so much fun!) and give a presentation on what we’ve been up to post grade.
Portfolio Reviews: The portfolio reviews went great! There is some awesome talent coming out of UWSP this year and I look forward to seeing the student’s develop in the upcoming months, and for the younger students, years. I hope I was a great mentor for all the students and I hope to continue to be a resource for them! Being a portfolio reviewers was such an enlightening experience, I felt it was important to share their projects’ strengths as well as constructive things to think about. The time went by so fast with each student, and many of them had such great work we could talk all day. Great job to all the students I got to talk with (Lanea Zagrzebski, Adam Hintze, Emily Sikora, Alex Weinfurter, Dana Vanden Boogart, Sarah Rieder + the rest of the AIGA board)! They showed some great conceptual work in packaging, brochures, digital media, and even some brave sophomores with letterform projects. Please stay in touch and feel free to contact me with any questions at all! (:
The Presentations: It was so much fun getting to listen to the other Alumni speak. All of us shared our own perspective and life experiences since graduation, as well as tips for students and a creative body of work. I hope the students learned a lot, I know I did! I haven’t been out of school that long, but how do you crunch so much into 20 minutes?! Well, I failed at that, haha. I guess I had a lot to say, and that’s even after trimming my slides down. There was so much I wanted to cover and advice to give the students… And I forgot/ran out of time to mention half of them. I know that all the students are in great places to enter the design world, whether they believe it or not. The most important thing is knowing who you are and believing in yourself. Everything falls into place as it should and best wishes for the fun journey ahead!
PHOTO CREDIT: UWSP AIGA Board
Big NEWS!
central park | broadway | colorful skyline | nyc taxi | statue of liberty | times square
Sprout it up!
You may spot us around working hard on current design and/or web projects, and maybe writing new blog post! We’re super excited to keep you updated through our blog on anything to everything. We’ll have fun articles, featured artists and even some freebies! Stay tuned as we emerge into the blogging world and continue to grow at a company!