It's beginning to feel a lot like Springtime.
My allergies told me so. Achooo!
Print & Pattern Blog Feature
I have a such hard time with self promotion—egad, it really is never easy to toot your own horn. But I have found that it is essential to know how to present and exert yourself in this industry. Self promotion is not a bad thing. It's about getting your name out there, showing what you can do and how you can be of service to others. I have submitted my work to numerous outlets in the hopes of expanding awareness of my brand and voice. It's a lot of work getting people to know who you are and what you can do. I'm making all of this work that I'm completely passionate about and I don't want to hide it away. I want to share it with the world!
It's a wonderful feeling when you get little breakthroughs and today was a great one for me. I was thrilled to find out that I was featured on the Print & Pattern Blog. I appreciate any exposure and am happy to be amongst other creative people who share a common love for prints and patterns. Click image below to see the full article and all designs featured.
Cheers to all you creative folks out there. Keep doing what you do and please make sure to share it with the rest of us!
Feeling Springy Today
A little flora and fauna have sprung onto the page today.
Feeding Your Creative Soul
What feeds your creativity? Listening to music? Visiting a museum? Taking an urban hike? For me, it's spending time in any new place and being surrounded by lots of nature. I had the greatest getaway along the coast this past week. I was lucky enough to tag along with a friend who got free rooms courtesy of her work, at the Carmel Valley Ranch. Since I'm in between jobs at the moment, I feel very blessed to have generous friends with major perks. Lucky me!
We stopped in Santa Cruz on the way down from SF with a necessary pop into Hart's Fabrics and The Crepe Place for lunch.
Hart's Fabric, The Crepe Place, Rio Theater - Santa Cruz
The following morning after reaching Carmel, we continued our adventure all the way to Big Sur. With stops at The Big Sur Bakery (yum!), McWay Falls in the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, and the Henry Miller Memorial Library. What an amazing stretch of coastline—it provoked lots of oohs, ahhs and OMGs along the way.
Sometimes just getting out of your immediate environs is enough to spark some new inspiration. You don't have to go very far! Even a day trip is beneficial to stoking that creative fire.
Big Sur Bakery, Henry Miller Memorial Library, McWay Falls - Big Sur
March Instagram Fave: Whitney Leigh Morris
I love this designer's tiny canal cottage in Venice Beach, CA. Her feed brings you into her serene and charming world with images of her dog, great design sense and dinner parties under the stars. Bigger is not always better.
All images © Whitney Leigh Morris
Collaboration with Hatch.co for International Women's Day
Hi Friends. Today I have teamed up with Hatch.co to support fellow female creatives for International Women’s Day. Hatch is a curated site for a multitude of makers and artisans from all over the world, and this week they are raising awareness about powerful female voices in the design industry by collaborating with designers like me. Pretty cool!
I was one of a select few female designers who were asked to create a version of the Hatch logo to promote women in the design field. My logo and profile are featured today!
You can visit Hatch.co to see it in action and be sure to go back every day this week to see designs by other talented female designers: Check them out here.
Enjoy, and Happy International Women's Day. You go girls!
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Pale Shelter
It isn't hard to see that I love bright colors. They enliven my soul. But sometimes, I just need to soothe my soul too, and that's where these pastel beauties come in. My Pale Shelter board on Pinterest is a place where I can collect dreamy cotton candy colored hues to my heart's content. I might just go revisit my board and listen to a pretty rad song by the same name.
Clockwise from upper left: Sally King Benedict, Crystal, LittleElmsTumblr, Tec Petaja, Dianna Molzan, Ana Montiel, Kate by Anna Palma, Sol LeWitt, Hibeck jacket
Trying New Things
Have you ever thought of doing something but you realize you don't know how? Well I got this idea in my head and it seemed so simple to do, but when I sat down to do it, I realized I had no idea how to make it happen. This is where the wonderful internet came in! I just googled "how to add pattern to type" and voila! Here's one easy way (you could also use pathfinder in AI) to do it. See steps below.
1) In Photoshop: Once you have created a design you would like to use as a fill, go to DEFINE PATTERN under Edit. That will create a pattern swatch that you can select later.
2) Select the type you would like to fill with said pattern.
3) Use the fx drop down at the bottom of the layers panel, and select PATTERN OVERLAY. Here you can select your pattern and change scale, opacity etc. Really is easy as 1-2-3.
Pattern + type. I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.
Ai Wei Wei @ Large on Alcatraz
As stated by the For-Site Foundation (who made this show possible) "Ai says that for him, the dragon represents not imperial authority, but personal freedom: 'everybody has this power.' The individual kites that make up the dragon's body carry quotations from activists who have been imprisoned or exiled, including Nelson Madela, Edward Snowden, and Ai himself." Side note: Take a close look at the eyes of the dragon.
When I'm in between jobs and have time on my hands, I love to take advantage of the free time to explore the city. Most of the time, I travel alone since my friends are at work or home caring for their children. I don't mind seeing exhibits solo because it allows me the space to become involved with the show and sometimes (as was in the case of this particular show) become very emotional. Spoiler alert! If you haven't seen this show and are planning to go, I must warn that I am going to show much of what the exhibit has to offer.
On a whim, I bought an Early Bird ticket to see the Ai Wei Wei exhibit at Alcatraz. I paid a bit more to bypass the general flow of traffic (well worth it) and have a private guide scoot me up to the good stuff before anyone else got there. She told me that it was the first time EVER that she only had one person in her group—lucky me!
So on this blustery and foggy Tuesday morning, my guide and I stepped into the New Industries Building where the exhibit begins with the With Wind installation. Whoa. The light, the blast of color, the contrasting surroundings. Incredible! I felt very privileged to be here before anyone else and also to be in this room alone with these beautiful, hand painted kites. The colors and motifs are chosen from the countries' flags where the prisoners of conscience are being held.
Looking out toward the bay and beyond.
"By confining the kites inside a building once used for prison labor, the artist suggests powerful contradictions between freedom and restriction, creativity and repression, cultural pride and national shame. he also offers a poetic response to the layered nature of Alcatraz as a former penitentiary that is now an important bird habitat and a site of thriving gardens." (quote: from For-Site.org)
Continuing into the next room, we approach the installation called Trace. Laid out on the floor is a vast sea of faces made of individual lego pieces which were hand assembled in squares and pieced together like a quilt. The portraits depict 176 prisoners around the world who have been exiled or incarcerated because of their beliefs or affiliations. Ai Wei Wei calls them “heroes of our time.” It was very moving for me to see these faces and not recognize most of them. I was awed by the sheer number of them, and by the way they were portrayed in this confined space. Literally brought tears to my eyes.
The last exhibit in this building is entitled Refraction. It is a large metal wing weighing several tons, made up of reflective solar panels. The theme of "confined freedom" continues here where "this piece uses imagery of flight to evoke the tension between freedom—be it physical, political, or creative—and confinement. The weight of this piece keeps it earthbound, but one might imagine its array of solar panels silently mustering energy, preparing for takeoff."
The confinement of the guard's walkway where one is forced to view the work through cracked and rusted window panes is noticeable; and the irony of the glowing EXIT sign is not lost on me in this moment.
The next series of works are found in the A block building. The Blossom sculptures are on display in the hospital ward and are made up of an abundant and delicate array of porcelain flowers. "The work could be seen as symbolically offering comfort to the imprisoned, as one would send a bouquet to a hospitalized patient. The profusion of flowers rendered in a cool brittle matieral could also be an ironic reference to China's famous Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956, a brief period of government tolerance for free expression that was immediately followed by a severe crackdown." (quote: For-Site.org)
The last exhibit that I participated in is called Yours Truly. You are able to correspond directly with any of the listed prisoners by filling out a postcard (they are adorned with foliage and birds from each country of the incarcerated). There is a binder with descriptions of the captives and their stories and you may write any message to any prisoner of your choosing. The staff will mail the pre-addressed cards for you for free. Whether it reaches them or not, will remain unknown although it has been recorded that many do reach them and are greatly appreciated. Around 6 or so prisoners have been released since the beginning of this exhibit.
Here's another excerpt of the description from the For-Site website:
"Ai Wei Wei has spoken of the deep feeling of isolation that afflicts incarcerated people. He says that political prisoners often fear that they — and the causes they fought for — have been forgotten by the outside world. This work is a response to those concerns, reminding detainees that they are remembered — and reminding exhibition visitors of the detainees’ individuality and humanity. In the spirit of free expression, visitors may write any message they wish. Yours Truly brings home ideas at the heart of the exhibition: the responsibilities that we all bear as members of a community, and the importance of communication as both personal expression and a force for social change."
To know more about these as well as a few remaining pieces in the show, I would recommend A) Go to see it in person if you can or B) Read more about it on the For-Site.org website.
It was an incredible show and day all around. I felt all sorts of emotions—from awed and fulfilled, to sad to inspired and hopeful.
February Instagram Fave: Mark Otto
Wow this month is just flying by! I almost forgot to share my latest Instagram favorite with you all. As usual, I'm drawn to all things bright and colorful and Mark Otto's feed is just that.
He's a 17-year old student who showcases high school life in Dayton, Ohio with snaps of himself and friends, as well as school supplies and such against minimalist and colorful backdrops. As he said in an earlier interview with Instagram "I believe that our generation is using the Internet to make connections and showcase our art...Young adults today totally own the Internet."
Ain't that the truth!
All images: Mark Otto
Nature's Bounty
I love looking at a pattern and thinking about the original source of inspiration. Very often motifs and designs are borrowed directly from nature. I'd like to stop and thank these creatures for sharing their beauty with us. Since it's Valentine's Day, I'm sending my love out to them. I liken it to a gourmand practicing mindful eating—with every bite, imagining the field where a vegetable was grown, or the chicken who laid the egg that is on the plate. Ok better stop me because I might get deep now.
Having some gratitude for nature's offerings is important! When I stop to think about each creature, plant, rock or sky that inspired a design it just fills me right up. How lucky we are to get this all for free!?
Here are just a couple of examples that compelled me to look deeper.
Anntian
Givenchy 2014
Friendly Encouragement
Challenge - Day 1
Challenge - Day 3
Challenge - Day 5
I'm enjoying the design challenge that I see going around Facebook these days. Friends are challenging each other to post an original design each day for 5 days and to nominate another friend to do the same. It offers a nice excuse for creative types to open up and showcase their work where they might not feel inclined to otherwise. My talented friend Dayse Gagne encouraged me to take on this challenge and I've had a lot of fun with it. Here are the five designs I shared. Now who can you put to the task?
© Katja Ollendorff. All designs are my own and copyrighted. They are created with love from original hand drawn motifs.
Challenge - Day 2
Challenge - Day 4
Dreaming of Trees
I'm heading to Sonoma this weekend. The land of some really cool trees (and vines and other things)...
I created a pattern out of a picture I took up there on my last visit, and it's getting me excited to be up there again.
Ignacio Canales Aracil
I spend a lot of time studying flowers for pattern inspiration. I inspect them in nature—inspired by their variety of color, shapes and forms but I have never seen them quite like this before. This installation art by Ignacio Canales Aracil is a totally unusual and new way of seeing their beauty. He visits renowned gardeners' grounds to collect fine floral specimens, then presses and crafts them into these molds and shapes. Goes beyond your everyday flower pressing!
All images are from his Tumblr page
Inspired By: Gypsy Life
Growing up, I was a nomad by default. My father was a diplomat with the Foreign Service (based in Washington D.C.) and we lived overseas in places like Helsinki, Düsseldorf and Paris—moving every 3 years or so. We did a ton of traveling around Europe and in the U.S. and I could never get enough of it.
There is something exciting, scary and refreshing about being uprooted to a foreign place and changing your scenery to one that is unfamiliar. I remember feeling like I could wipe my slate clean and make a fresh start every time we moved to a new town. The more we moved, the more natural it became, and I almost couldn't wait for the next stop. I made tons of friends along the way, learned languages, saw endless new sights and never suffered from lack of culture or inspiration.
The beauty of living a Free-Spirited life has always appealed to me. I don't fear commitment, I fear immobility, stagnation and boredom. I never want to stop moving, and exploring and seeing the world. There is too beauty much out there!
Something about these images of gypsies around the world is so romantic and lovely—the combination of patterns in their clothing, the colors and movement. They are swirling and dancing and bright and free and that speaks to me.
Clockwise from top left: Transylvanian Romani with Rajasthani influence, Ukrainien from Metcollection, Image from Lysia Blog, Olga Azarova - photo: Nicolay Bessonov, Romany Caravan, Turkish vest, Remzi Taskiran painting 1961 Turkey, Lyalya Moldavskaya - Photo: Nicolay Bessonov, Turkmen girl, Caravan detail, Gypsy portrait
Keep Playing
When I don't have it in me to create a new design from scratch, I often flip through old work to see how I can change or improve upon a design. I liked the initial motifs I painted of this design and the first layout I made without the background, but it was fun to revisit it today, add in a pattern and play with colors to see what else could happen.
As you might know by now, one of my favorite expressions (in all aspects of life) is to KEEP PLAYING. Sometimes it's good to work with the individual pieces you already have. And I don't know about you, but I'm really feeling this new one.
Roksanda Pre-Fall 2015
Sometimes I come across something that just makes me sit up and say "Wow!" The new collection from Serbian-born designer Roksanda Ilincic made me do just that. I love the color combinations she uses and mixture of contrasting fabrics and shapes. The colors evoke a femininity while the shapes and straight lines feel bold and powerful.
All images from Style.com
Carving into Color - Henri Matisse
A very wonderful bit on one of my earliest inspirers. Click image to play.
"Strange Bird" Series
© Katja Ollendorff
I've been doing a little more dabbling in black ink. Still deciding whether to keep these creatures in their original BW state, or to add color. I always lean towards color. My mind says "More color...more, more!" So it is with great restraint that I would allow them to remain in their natural state. Which way do you think he wants to go?
January Instagram Fave: Happy Mundane
When you need an extra dose of awesomeness and color, just visit Jonathan Lo's Instagram feed (AKA Happy Mundane). Wowza! To my eyes, his images are just so...well, perfect!
All images are property of Jonathan Lo (Happy Mundane)
