Curious about creativity? If you don’t already know about it, the always excellent Design Matters podcast hosted by Debbie Millman features designers, artists, and other creatives talking about their lives, work and creative process. Last year, record producer Rick Rubin was on to discuss his book The Creative Act: A Way of Being and there were so many resonant, jaw-dropping moments in it for me. I had to rewind several moments throughout because these insights were just so delicious, I had to hear them again! If you were ever curious about creativity and where it comes from, this is the book for you.
The bottom line is that creativity is for everyone – like Rick says, it’s a way of being human. I highly recommend you give the podcast a listen if you’d like to know more about how curiosity leads to creativity and how to let it enhance your daily life. This book is an insightful addition to my library, whenever I feel in doubt about my creative path, I reach for this book.
Over the past several years, I’ve thought a lot about my own curiosity and its connection to my creativity, indulging in interior design, outdoor watercolour painting, and half-hearted attempts at pottery. Obviously, creativity manifests itself differently from day to day, depending on what is planned and where my curiosity leads me. More recently, it’s led me to surface pattern design and around two years ago I created a mini-challenge for myself – to create thirty repeat patterns in thirty days, themed around my favourite animal to draw: cats.
I was asking a lot of myself, being that drawing on my iPad was still a new process for me and my digital drawing skills were to be honest, not great. But I felt called to the process and I’m happy to say I completed the challenge, despite much inconsistency in style and some questionable designs. However, the process kick-started a thirst for more exploration and a desire to improve my technical skills around building surface patterns. It had been a long time since a medium held my interest so completely and I was willing to do anything in my power to get better at it.
After several more months of drawing and joining The Studio by Liz Kohler Brown to improve my skills, I created my first pattern collection Cat Moods, available on Spoonflower as textiles and wallpapers.
Though this collection is without a doubt larger than it probably should be, I was still learning and just trying to get better at drawing on the iPad. Let’s just say that after this collection was finished, I was exhausted but happy that I put so much effort into this process. It felt like an achievement.
Cat Moods comes in two colour versions: brights including orange, pinks and pastels and neutrals including cream, gold and navy blues. I had a lot of fun developing this collection, and if you are looking to inject some whimsy into your home décor or hobby sewing projects, Cat Moods might be for you.
Also, check out my shop for some Cat Moods stickers featuring motifs from the collection if that’s more up your alley.
Since Cat Moods, I’ve released a couple smaller collections, also on Spoonflower – Fall Vibes and just this summer I launched the Pollinator Paradise Collection which might be my most complex collection yet in terms of pattern design, with more detail and layering than previous patterns. For this collection, I was inspired by my favourite art and design movement, Art Nouveau, and my love of nature. My goal is to subtly reference this past design era by combining motifs of pollinator insects like bees, moths and butterflies with their host plants in a contemporary way, emphasizing the relationships within biodiversity. I’m happy with how this collection turned out and I’m working hard on being more cohesive with style and colour palettes within collections.
If you have a moment, please send me a comment. Do you agree (or not) that curiosity leads to creativity? Tell me what you are curious about, or what has been on your mind lately – maybe you can recommend a podcast to me, I would love to know!
