Behind the scenes: Get a peek at the creation of our new floral pattern and design inspiration

Ever wonder what goes into creating a new pattern? For our newest Po Campo print, it was a bit of research, lots of design inspiration, and partnering with surface design pro Gloria Urech of Gukuuki. Come behind the scenes and get a sneak peek into the process of creating Petals, our new floral pattern! We’ll also be talking with Gloria about her creative process and what it’s like to be a pattern designer.

 Our Spring 2015 mood board: rich colors and watercolor flowers. Sources: Color trend images by Trend Council via We Connect Fashion; Floral prints clockwise from bottom left: Marimekko, ModCloth, Nani Iro. Central floral image by Sarah Jo via Flickr.

Design inspiration can come from a lot of places. When we started this project we already decided on two things: we wanted a floral pattern and a new color to add our line. Looking through the color trend forecasts, we fell in love with the rich purple color of African Violet and built our color scheme from there.

Deciding on a direction for the floral style meant lots and lots of research! We gathered a ton of images, from current trends to classic floral styles. We found ourselves gravitating towards gestural, watercolor styles. We loved how these can look both modern and classic.

Now that we had our mood board, it was time to bring in the big design guns!

 Gloria Urech, head designer of Gukuuki. Floral print available on Society6.

Meet Gloria Urech, surface designer and head of Gukuuki studio. We were really excited to work with Gloria. As you can see in her portfolio, she’s skilled in creating all types of unique floral patterns.

 

Floral Sketches by Gloria Urech for Po Campo

After looking through all our design inspiration, Gloria sent us a couple sketches. Two are pictured above, and we chose to go with the one on the right.

 

Final Petals floral pattern

After a couple rounds of edits, the sketch was ready to be turned into a repeating pattern. We asked Gloria to create a scatter pattern. This is when a pattern’s motifs look as if they have been toss randomly onto the fabric. It takes a lot of patience and good design sense to make it look as effortless as Gloria did!

Curious to learn more, I asked Gloria some questions about how she designed our print:

Po Campo/Robin: Thank you for talking to us about your design process! What did you like most about designing our print?

Gloria: The freedom you gave me from the very beginning plus the clear brief and mood, to inspire me.

PC: Did you have any challenges or breakthrough while designing this?

G: Challenge: to create a hand drawn watercolor and digitalized in your requirements without losing the real look of it.

PC: How was creating this similar to your other work? And how was it different?

G: I have created similar patterns in my past and I always love how they render. Delicate and elegant. This time was different because I need to reduce the amount of colors without losing the real watercolor look and feel. And it came out so well. I was also very happy with your choice of colors which are some of my favorites.

PC: We shared several images with you at the start, but was there any other inspiration you drew on?

G: Florals are a great source of inspiration for me, so it is always the easiest subject to draw for me. I also like to experiment with different brushes techniques and finishes and as I said at the beginning, you trust me and gave me the freedom to create. Thank you!

Gloria and I talk a bit more about her design influences and how she became a pattern designer in my interview with her here. It’s been a pleasure working with Gloria, and we expect to see more great designs on her site in the future!

I hope you enjoyed this look behind the scenes. If there’s any other part of our design process you’re curious about, let me know in the comments.