Snippets’. Chats with Creatives. Here at Digital Fabrics we love everything print, pattern and colour and we love to know what makes designers tick. This series is all about asking some fun and different questions and learning about the inspirations and ideas behind the artist and their work. We hope to inspire others by sharing snippets of these creative stories. We gave the artists and designers featured a varied list of questions to choose from so we will learn something new from everyone involved, should be fun!
Today on Snippet’s we are talking to Darren Church, graphic designer behind ‘Raw Inc’ a street design division based in Australia. Inspired by graffiti and street culture they design and create unique apparel, cushions and accessories.
The Snippety Snips:
Tell us a bit about yourself and what your creative practice is, how and when you began:
I’m currently based out in Penrith in Sydney’s lower Blue Mountains, but personally I enjoy the days out into the city and other areas I have to go, walking between stores and checking out what’s new on the streets in the graffiti scene catching up with shop owners.
How would you describe your work, and what influences your style?
I base 99% of our designs around graffiti and the classic sneaker culture, and we’re all about bold clean lines with fresh colours, using illustrations and different elements in photographs to create for that next cushion design. It’s our little niche and very different to what is out there in the industry.
We find people can relate to our different types of cushions, by bringing out what they grew up with a twist and purely for the love of the novelty of the item. We get contacted all the time by paint companies asking when are we going to do a cushion of their design.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Always finding myself sketching up new designs and redrawing artwork ready for print for clients. And always hunting around Sydney fabric stores to find that perfect fabric to match artwork being printed. Cutting and sewing up fabric for those store orders.
It does get chaotic sometimes and a little stressful but very satisfying and it’s worth it in the end to see people loving the products.
What has been your proudest achievement to date, creative or otherwise?
After many years of Managing retail stores here in Sydney and while living in the UK for 10 years, I got to the point of having enough and had to do something I enjoyed.So I studied Diploma in Graphic Design and a quick 12 month course in Screen Printing and realized I had so much to artwork and ideas I could do.
Now I have people coming up to me here in Sydney and in other states, that don’t even know me and treat me with a lot of respect. When we get emails weekly from European and US stores asking for order forms, it makes your day.
Tell us something people may not know about you
I’ve been doing graffiti since the late 80’s and I like to combine the elements and influences into my work and whilst living in the UK I studied fashion and design for 2 years. It really opens up your eyes to how things are designed and so easily produced.
Love your Locals:
City/Town/Village where you currently reside:
Sydney West
Favourite spot for a bite:
I don’t really have a favourite food spot, I like to try new things all the time and sometimes catch up with friends for lunch or drinks and talk about new projects and ideas.
Secret Inspirational spot:
I’m always out and about in the city.I like to walk around the city and look at all the different graffiti, art, stickers, advertisements and t-shirts people wear, I carry around a little sketch book and I’m always stopping and sit down somewhere doodling ideas down.
Snippets’. Chats with Creatives. Here at Digital Fabrics we love everything print, pattern and colour and we love to know what makes designers tick. This series is all about asking some fun and different questions and learning about the inspirations and ideas behind the artist and their work. We hope to inspire others by sharing snippets of these creative stories. We gave the artists and designers featured a varied list of questions to choose from so we will learn something new from everyone involved, should be fun!
Today on Snippet’s we are talking to Jasmin Owen, the designer behind Jazminbell, a homewares brand that designs and creates heat packs from fabrics she designs and prints.
The Snippety Snips:
Tell us a bit about yourself and what your creative practice is, how and when you began:
Hi there, my name is Jasmin Owen and I am the founder of the jazminbell® brand. The dream of running my own business all started at the age of 4 when I decided that I would work within Australia’s creative industry. After completing my design degree I went on to deliver my products to the world. I never realised how much there is to learn in the world of business and it has been the most amazing journey.
Jazminbell® began as a homewares brand, offering a unique range of cushion covers. With a pile of scrap fabric I sought to make mini hand warmers and they instantly took within the market. I never really saw success until I took the brave initiative to turn the business into a cold/heat pack brand and it has thrived ever since. It is hard to imagine now that it all began with tiny hand warmers – That is the incredible and unpredictable journey of business, I guess!
Working with Digital Fabrics has given me the opportunity to deliver a unique range of textile designs for my products and also create a relationship with another local business within the Australian industry.
Which five words best describe you? Quirky, happy, bright, inspirational, goal-digger.
Which other Australian designers, artists or creative people are you enjoying at the moment? I am forever inspired by the creative practice of Nicola Cerini. Her beautiful studio and printed textiles are so inspirational for me and what I do.
What has been your proudest achievement to date, creative or otherwise? Completing a Bachelor of Design Arts and Graduate Certificate in Accounting, bringing the most wonderful daughter into the world and having the opportunity to work on my business and have the freedom of my own career.
If you could only use one colour in your work what would it be? Pink!
Love your Locals:
City/Town/Village where you currently reside: Canberra, Australia
Last week we had a wonderful opportunity to provide work experience to a student from one of the local colleges. Despite her young age Rachael demonstrated good knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, great imagination, creativity and made the whole week extra pleasurable and fun. Rachael was working on stripy fabric prints designs and was very happy to share her fabric designing process with us. We are sure this will help many people to understand how fabric design process works and steps required.
Brief
I was given a design brief to come up with 3 different stripe design prints relating to the current trends for women’s wear in summer. I needed to explore stripe designs and its versatility, playing with negative and positive spaces, sizes, mix & match and texture. The design was also going to be inspired by crystal rock colours.
Mood Research
To support the ideas I made two mood boards both displaying two different moods and stories. I used Pintrest as a starting point for developing ideas. I found different summer stripy trends and categorised the images into: bold, thick stripes- conveying a heavier look; and thin, light stripes- conveying a more peaceful look.
Colour research
I also found images of crystals and looked at the many different colours. I really liked the lighter blues and pinks. I found darker crystals that had a different mood to them. The darker colours consisted of dark purples and blues. Once I had found my two different moods I linked the two ideas together: the crystal colours with the stripy designs.
Moodboarding
I made two different mood boards displaying two different unique styles on Photoshop, The bold stripes and dark colours & simple and relaxing.
My first mood board conveyed a peaceful, simple and relaxing mood with small thin stripes, using light and dark pinks. I thought that the light pink colours would work well with detail in the stripes. I went with the whole crystal, spiritual idea and I was really influenced by henna. Henna is traditionally used in Indian weddings, but today henna can be found at most local markets. I thought about combining the two ideas: busy stripes and floral henna style flowers.
My other mood board was going to contain more of a bold strong stripe designs with darker purple colours.
Defining colours
Once I had made my two mood boards I wanted the colours on my Photoshop document to match the final design on fabric. For this I had to go through a Pantone formula guide colour book to find colours that I liked and when I found a colour that matched I would write down the number. In Illustrator I made boxes with the exact colours, with their number. I printed them out and checked to see if they were the correct colours. Depending on the fabric, the colours print slightly differently.
Design experimentation and development
Simple and relaxing
I wanted to make a design that incorporated stripes with a henna style floral. I wanted to have a detailed design with not too over-the-top with colours. I started to draw up some ideas on paper. I really liked having colourful flowers with black and white stripes crossing under them. I made an Illustrator document with the idea. After some fiddling and small changes to my design I thought the background being one colour would be really boring. I wanted to make a colourful, but not too bright background. I thought about something like an army camouflage pattern, just to make it a colourful but not overpowering the stripes and flowers.
The bold stripes and dark colours
I decided to make a print with my second mood board The Bold Stripes and Dark Colours. I thought it might be more interesting and fun to experiment with darker colours on fabric. My design contained a purple and light blue theme but I wanted to add more colour to my design so I added some pinks.
My final three designs looked like this.
We are hope you have gotten inspired by this whole creative process. Stay creative!
Snippets’. Chats with Creatives. Here at Digital Fabrics we love everything print, pattern and colour and we love to know what makes designers tick. This series is all about asking some fun and different questions and learning about the inspirations and ideas behind the artist and their work. We hope to inspire others by sharing snippets of these creative stories. We gave the artists and designers featured a varied list of questions to choose from so we will learn something new from everyone involved, should be fun!
Today on Snippet’s we are talking to Shyanne Clark, the swimwear and textile designer behind ‘Printsea’ a print design brand who love to spread sparkle and magic and inspire others to do the same.
The Snippety Snips:
Tell us a bit about yourself and what your creative practice is, how and when you began:
I’ve been a textile fabric designer for the past 5 years. My style is very mermaidy and I love tropical florals, so my business PRINTSEA has naturally progressed to helping bikini designers find their signature style and launch beautiful labels.
I am such a cheerleader for people doing what they truly love, the things that make them all sparkly inside. I was always that kid that didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn’t fit in one of the boxes. I think it’s because I didn’t know this job existed or how all my talents could come together to be something. I adore what I do so much and its always growing and changing me. I feel so grateful that I listened to my heart and followed its windy path, you learn so much along the way and I would love that for everyone. I get giddy just thinking about it.
At the moment I’m creating a signature range of beautiful hand designed, high vibrational pieces. There is such magic in colour and creativity. My hope is that each piece will add a little extra sparkle to your day and that owning a piece will feel like a precious treasure that brings you many heart swelling, quiet smiles and inspires your soul.
What would your dream creative project look like?
I’ve actually got a bit of a fascination with creating a print that would cover a whole aeroplane. Could you imagine a giant bunch of gorgeous flowers flying through the sky. Instant happiness I reckon. I wonder if Richard Branson would let me print wrap a Virgin plane for fun?
In another life what natural talent would you wish for?
I’m pretty much tone deaf, sometimes I’ll sing + scare myself with how out of tune I am. I have always admired people that can make your heart swell with emotion from their singing voice. I’ve secretly wished that I could do this, but in saying that, I wouldn’t want to trade my talent of drawing flowers. Can I have two natural talents?
Which part of the creative process is your favourite and why?
I absolutely love the moment when the inspiration strikes + your imagination goes all bright + sparkly. You can’t wait to birth this creation that’s swirling around inside. It’s just such a rush of ecstatic excitement. I love that part. The finished piece is pretty amazing too, but the journey is the best.
Which other Australian designers, artists or creative people are you enjoying at the moment?
I adore Annie Everingham. Her paintings evoke so much feeling. They are so happy and beautiful. I could stare at their gorgeousness for hours.
Love your Locals:
City/Town/Village where you currently reside:
I live on the beautiful Sunshine Coast, some people say, it’s like what Byron Bay was 20 years ago.
Favourite spot for a bite:
There is a gorgeous cafe at Rosemount called ‘GURU Life.’ The brother sister team roast their own beans + it truly is enlightenment in every cup, they have delicious raw treats and the staff are super friendly.
Secret Inspirational spot:
Well if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret! … I actually adore the Noosa National Park, it’s a stunning feast for your eyes and soul (and a good workout if you walk all 8kms.) On a great day you’ll see turtles, whales + koalas.
Feeling inspired by Printsea to start a swimwear brand? You can buy her E book here. AND she is currently running a promo where you can purchase 1 print and get one for free with the code: PRINTME until August 17th, then you can print it onto lycra here at Digital Fabrics and start YOUR creative journey.
The Holidays are the perfect moment to go all out when it comes to fashion. But if you truly want to have a unique look for Christmas, designing your fabric, DIY and sewing it the only way!
Design & order your custom made fabric HERE before December 9 to get it before Christmas. And if you’re looking for fashion inspiration for the Holidays, check out these 5 DIY festive dresses tutorials
Shopping for unique gifts is a challenge. You want to make sure the person is happy with what you give but that it also reflects their taste and personality. That’s why personalized gifts are the way to go this Holiday.
It shows them you care (you took the time to design & create the gift!), it’s truly unique (nobody else has it) and it makes gift shopping a fun process!
Custom made cushions are great to gift to people who are passionate about home decor, artists, who just moved into a new house or have a nursery that they want to personalize. Here at Digital Fabrics you can create & design your own print and we make and ship the cushions to you. You can print your art, painting, photographs or messages to personalize the pillows.
If you want to make sure you have a beautiful customized gifts for the Holidays, order before the 2nd December to receive it before Christmas. Create & order your custom made cushionsHERE.
Below you’ll find more colorful, custom made cushions to get you inspired!
Christmas is around the corner and it forms a great opportunity to customize your home & wardrobe. Celebrate the Holiday season in DIY style by creating your own Christmas print fabric, cushions or legging.
Below you’ll find 9 free christmas prints for you to use to print on fabric, cushions or leggings.
If you had to pick just 10 items for your wardrobe, leggings would definitely be part of it. From Spring to Winter, leggings are a wardrobe staple and you can style them many ways. Dress it up for a fancy occasion or wear them during your workout. And to make sure your leggings reflect your personality and style Digital Fabrics is organizing a workshop where you learn how to design your own print for your custom made leggings on December 3rd!
If you need inspiration on how to wear leggings, here are 5 stylish examples for you to rock!
If you’re looking to update your Fall wardrobe, Jocy from Pink Chocolate Break created a DIY Poncho Sweater that you can easily make at home! When it gets colder she loves working with thicker fabrics such as fleece fabric and for this DIY project she used the fabric she designed and printed with Digital Fabrics. You can shop the african print fleece fabric she used here.
What you’ll need:
– 2 yards/meters of fleece fabric
– pins
– fabric scissors
– thread
– sewing machine
We live in a hyper-visual world, where imagery dictates your rating. The increasing need to have a positive impact on sales especially high in a vast and competitive design world.
That is why print design is becoming an increasingly utilised tool in any designer’s tool kit, be it swimwear, stationery, fashion, brand or home wears designer. Print designs, surface design, patterns they called different but carry same purpose, is to capture people’s interests in instant, unifies the design collection and creates point of difference from other brands.
For example Tigerlily always been known for they boho and travel inspired prints and easily recognised in Australian fashion market.
Say, We Are Handsome and beautiful swimwear with stunning photographic print design are evoked.
But what if to take print and fabric a bit further? Doesn’t this collaboration open more door? There are so many ideas and product that can be created with using fabric as a base medium. Don’t think of a fabric as a cloth on a roll.
Would be a wedding invention a luxurious idea to make your invitees fill extra special and setting the tone of your weeding?
Fabric packing is very unique concept too, wrap your product, or even how about envelops or business cards?
To archive all the above ideas is a breeze now days. We live in the new era of digital printing technologies. Fast, cost efficient, ecofriendly they opens doors to the craziest creative projects!
That is why we are in love with digital fabric printing!
The Snippety Snips:
What does a typical day look like for you?
What has been your proudest achievement to date, creative or otherwise?
Tell us something people may not know about you
You can follow what Darren is upto: Website, Instagram, Facebook
