TRENDY MONDAY: SPRING FLOWERS

         THANK GOODNESS: IT'S MARCH !!!!

    What we all need is a good dose of SPRING! Have you been to Target lately? Even in the snow bound Northeast, they are showing row after row of bathing suits...so, of course, if you don't go and try one on right now, while you are pasty and white, then, well, you just might miss out on your first choice! 

    In the spirit of all things SPRING, I give you some new flowers in all kinds of designs and products:

    Here are the pinks, blues, lime greens. Note the splash of coral in the palette at bottom.
 

Here is a slightly stronger palette, including some black and white:

 

    Last week there was a discussion in the blogoshere about trend boards: what they are and how designers do them. They are usually thought of as a tool for interior designers and decorators as a way to show prospective clients, either retail or residential, ideas for a project.

    My background is a variation on this: I am the product and/or print designer and in that capacity I have to present to my client, the manufacturer, my ideas on how a certain print and its coordinates will work for his/her specific product as well as for other related products. If it's presented to a ceramics manufacturer, they may also want to see the collection expanded to, say, paper products, or bath etc. It is surely to my benefit to step out the program to other products.

   Given that background and transitioning into the world of blogs:  How do I do these boards, you ask? 

    We start with a list of "Trendy Monday" topics: right now this list has maybe ten ideas on it. We (I mean Sophia and I) begin to gather ideas and images for some of these Trendy Monday projects. We use a program called "Evernote". I came upon it recently and it works ok most of the time...but we have also had, as in all things computer, real glitches. We each have "notebooks" for each category and add all sorts of images, with the URL source code, to each notebook. 

    This "SPRING FLOWERS" project was a tricky one. Yes, there are lots and lots of flowers out there, but, of course, we had to narrow it down.. both in prints and products selected. Here are several of the early boards, and ultimately, rejects.

 

    I had wanted to do some sort of patterned background: top left. We tried it small scale, then tried this oversize scale. It couldn't compete with the images on the board. I still like it, but then, when I dropped in the black:  BINGO! it worked. Same with the yellow at top right. It is actually a scan of a grasscloth paper. We tried scaling it down and then blowing it up. Nope. 

    In the end, these boards are really a personal choice. The items at the bottom of the last board didn't make the cut: we already had something similar, or they just didn't fit.

    The boards are definitely a work in progress! You will see changes every so often!

    Anything you would like to see us research? We're open to any and all ideas!  

ok, ok, a few more images for an almost Spring day:

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Comments

[Ellen Evett]

Libby,

It looks great! What a beautiful job you are doing with this.

Love, Love, Love new ideas in flower prints.

Ellen