Many of you ask why you should learn to design surface print patterns in Photoshop when you already know how to make them in Illustrator.

Others ask, What on earth is a 'repeat' and do I really need to know how to make one to become a professional print pattern or surface designer?

Our lovely Longina Phillips Designs designer, Phoebe, clears it all up in this week's vlog.

Why use Photoshop?

As a studio, we use Photoshop as it allows our designers to have the most creative freedom when it comes to editing and manipulating their prints.

When do we use Illustrator?

So a good time to use Illustrator is when you want to create vector-based artworks. So they are shapes that use points and anchors instead of pixels. So it means that they are infinitely scalable. So a good time to use Illustrated would be if you're doing a Pucci print or maybe you're doing a Geo print that you don't know what the scale of it might be. So it could be put on a billboard. And in that case,...

Whenever you need to elevate a design, textures are an easy option. They can add interest and authenticity to the simplest composition and bring it bang up to date.

In the Longina Phillips Designs studio we have an enormous digital library of pre-made textures.  It’s an essential resource for the designers on our team and we dip into it daily!

Whether you are starting your texture library from scratch or building upon an already well-furnished folder, check out creative director, Bec's suggestions for using texture in 2023.

1. Tie-dye

You can get so much mileage from a few tie-dye textures. Cut them up, make new variations of them, and create more stylized tie-dye designs like the Ulla Johnson pre-fall examples. Or strip them back and use them as a non-print print for a more sophisticated market, home, or menswear (Scotch and soda).

Clockwise from Top: Ulla Johnson, Raquel Allegra, Scotch...

With inflation, rent and interest rates rising, life is getting pretty expensive. Throw in Christmas and school holidays and your card is whipped from your purse so often, you think it might catch fire.

You have a little time to paint and create over the break and could really use some new art supplies but, for aforementioned reasons, it's a bit out of the question (unless you cleverly popped them on your Christmas wish list!)

Materials can dwindle quickly in our commercial studio of 15 designers. And, like you, we’re on a budget. If there’s anything we can do to get the absolute most out of a tube of paint, brush or pad of paper, we will!

So here's how we rein in our art supply spend, in hopes to get you through this holiday season with piles of beautiful, completed work and your credit card in one piece.

1. Reactivate dried paints

• Unlike acrylic or oil based paints, when a blob of gouache or watercolour dries on your palette, you can use it again. Wet it...

Flowers. Fully understanding these botanical wonders is a non-negotiable for any great fabric designer. From ditsy daisies on intimates to intricate orchids for swimwear or big bold poppies on apparel - each species has its place in our design library.

Images of plants and flowers are so readily available that we tend to rely on them a lot. But, while using a picture of a flower as a reference is a time-saver, drawing from nature provides us with so much more information about the subject. 

So, it's time to head outdoors! Here's Kat's top four tips for flower gazing in RL.

Words by: Katrina. The Print School Instructor

1. Draw Instinctually

One of the greatest things about working ‘en plein air,’ is the opportunity to capture the essence of the flower or the gesture of the leaves without getting too caught up in the detail.

We tend to work more quickly as time is limited and, without the comfort and familiarity of the studio, our habits are...

Recently the big boss, Lola, invited a watercolor artist to teach our professional watercolorists to err.. paint in watercolor. And for a very good reason. Keep reading to find out why!

"We should 'feed our creativity' constantly, no matter what stage of our career," she says.

"Watching someone else paint inspires our creativity. That 'someone else' may use a different technique, different tools, composition and materials and by watching we get that 'ah ha' moment that is so inspirational."

So she asked Sydney artist, Susie Murphie, to come to the studio and show the designers how she paints watercolour blooms in her loose and gestural style.

Here's what they took away from the workshop:  

1.  Stamp out the water
Stamp out the water on your brush before applying it to the paper or palette so you don’t drown your paints. - Phobe, Junior Designer
 

2. Create a “creamy” consistency
Create a creamy consistency with the paints on your...

Spring Summer '23 was a grand slam for turn-of-the-century trends. The Y2K-slash-90s vibe could be felt on every runway, every model, or just about.

Next year there'll be no escaping it. So fan or not a fan, as a print designer operating in the fashion world (and EVERY surface print pattern designer operates in the fashion world) you'll need to the key styles to focus on creating. 

Luckily Rebecca, our Creative Director, is here again to show you the way into 2003 err.. sorry, 2023.

1. Lace, crochet and ropes

Tactile fabrications are key, with lace, crochet and rope-type fabrications across a myriad of designers and cities.
We know this is not a print trend per se, but it's still a surface pattern and not to be ignored. When we see something across so many collections, we know it's going to be huge, and that we should incorporate it in some capacity in our collections.  It might be as a background texture, behind a floral or a stand-alone printable crochet. ...

The last model walked the Spring Summer 23 runway a few weeks ago but we are (and will be) pouring over the collections for many months to come. 

While there were lots of shareable moments, we noticed one overriding colour trend: wishy-washy, subdued hues. As print designers, we were more than mildly disappointed to see these shades, such as dishwater blue and dove grey, star in so many shows.

The season’s dull delivery might be especially shocking in contrast to the last lot of shows in Fall Winter 23, which saw Valentino light a fire of fuchsia down his runway.

But, to save us from designing every print in Pantone Pink PP by Valentino for the foreseeable future, our creative director, Bec is here. 

She’ll show you how to make those dreary hues look positively pretty, keeping your collection both on trend and full of commercial appeal. 

But before we get into it, we are dying to tell you about our new color course, Color Theory and Photoshop for...

Be a fly on the wall of this private VIP coaching call where our company leaders, Longina Phillips, Bec (Creative Director) and Sara (Head of Design) are asked about pricing designs internationally, working within a signature style and replicating successful designs. 

Read on and favourite this page for future reference!

If you're creating floral prints with a signature style, how can you use your signature style to create other designs such as abstracts or animal skin prints to include in your portfolio? 

Bec: Good question. If your style is naturally very detailed, you would just take that across into your skins where you might use more detail in the hair of the skin or the movement, you'd be more detailed in the way you draw a flower.

If you are very loose and abstract you would still take that same handwriting into paisleys or animal skins. I think it's just practice and finding the right methods for your handwriting. What do you think Lola? 

Lola:...

What even is a repeating pattern? It’s a design that stretches seamlessly for infinity, just like the design on a roll of fabric. And if you’d like to become a surface print pattern designer, then it’s one of the most important skills to learn. 

Tutorial by Lyndsay, Senior Designer

Here we break it down for you in 5 easy steps.  

1. Place your hero

Start by creating a bunch layout in the centre of your art board. Make sure there’s some bare canvas around it.

2. Duplicate and place over-hanging motifs

You can see that this flower is hanging off our canvas at the bottom so to make this repeat work, it will need to reappear that the top of the canvas.

To do this, duplicate the motif then use the x and Y axis in the toolbar to move it north exactly the length of the canvas. This canvas is 64cm, so you’ll see me type -64 into the Y axis to move the motif 64cm exactly north.

TIP: Make sure that the triangle in...

Do you wish you could do more business or earn more money? If you’re spinning your wheels but getting nowhere, consider: could you be getting in your own way? Here’s five ordinary habits that can stall a design career, and the techniques to turn them around.