ABSPD Module 4 / / Card Crazy Live Brief!

We are bursting with excitement about some of the incredible ***LIVE BRIEF'S*** that we have in store for you! Set by a hand-picked selection of ***TRULY AMAZING COMPANIES*** in Module 4 of 'The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design (the e-course)'! Module 4 is an advanced seven week course in which you will learn everything you need to know about building your professional portfolio. The course is crammed with masterclass video tutorials, regular live briefs from real companies, templates, tons of brilliant inspiration, invaluable content, a weekly Q&A with Rachael, & individual work reviews from either Rachael or another flourishing designer! PLUS you will get six months’ FREE access to the MOYO Directory, where you can create a bespoke profile, upload unlimited portfolios and attract potential clients. This is a rare opportunity to build your commercial portfolio in a structured way, with the support & guidance to boost your confidence & make you raring to go!

Card Crazy are a UK based, greetings card publisher with the focus of making designers stand out from the crowd! They invest a lot of time in designing beautiful greetings cards & providing a no-nonsense service that delivers at all times. They love to celebrate & showcase their designers ensuring that they share in the success of their designs! We love our own collection with Card Crazy & we are very excited for them to share their Live Brief! You can register here for March 2014, when Module 4 begins! This is an amazing opportunity to gain REAL design experience from a brilliant brief along with the chance to present your work to an innovative company. Rachael has worked with Card Crazy on her own illustration & pattern card ranges & loved designing for them!

Many of our graduates are now big players within the design industry & we're proud to say we have really nurtured some amazing talent! You can see more success stories from current students & Alumni in this Facebook album or read some of our lovely testimonials. We are so pleased that the course & our Alumni have received outstanding industry recognition, as we have been going from strength to strength since our intial launch at the end of 2011.

WE WILL BE REVEALING EACH WEEK THE COMPANIES THAT WE HAVE CONFIRMED SO FAR. STAY TUNED!

So far we have lined up wonderful textile company Dashwood Studio (see the announcement post here) & fantastic modern homewares company DENY Designs (see the reveal post here).

ABSPD Module 4 / / DENY Designs Live Brief!

We are bursting with excitement about some of the incredible ***LIVE BRIEF'S*** that we have in store for you! Set by a hand-picked selection of ***TRULY AMAZING COMPANIES*** in Module 4 of 'The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design (the e-course)'! Module 4 is an advanced seven week course in which you will learn everything you need to know about building your professional portfolio. The course is crammed with masterclass video tutorials, regular live briefs from real companies, templates, tons of brilliant inspiration, invaluable content, a weekly Q&A with Rachael, & individual work reviews from either Rachael or another flourishing designer! PLUS you will get six months’ FREE access to the MOYO Directory, where you can create a bespoke profile, upload unlimited portfolios and attract potential clients. This is a rare opportunity to build your commercial portfolio in a structured way, with the support & guidance to boost your confidence & make you raring to go!

WE WILL BE REVEALING EACH WEEK THE COMPANIES THAT WE CONFIRMED. STAY TUNED!

We are so delighted to announce that modern, think-outside-the-box home furnishings company DENY Designs will be writing a Live Brief for Module 4! This global, prestigious company offers products to transform the home while supporting art communities all over the world. They believe in each product being custom-made for each & every customer using state of the art printing methods to create fresh, vibrant colours & high-end quality products. DENY Designs are a passionate group of people who want to inspire & be inspired, create & be visionaries & they want to share this with designers & customers from across the globe!

This is an amazing opportunity to gain REAL design experience from a brilliant brief along with the chance to present your work to an innovative company. DENY Designs is a company that really shows the impact & power of surface pattern design & the range it can have. Currently DENY Design produces over 30 home-wares products with plans to expand even more in 2014! It is wonderful to see the versatility you can get from one design! Their team of artists even includes some of our ABSPD Alumni such as Loni Harris, Wendy Kendall, Tammie Bennett & Vy La! Rachael has collaborated with DENY Designs herself & cannot sing their praises enough!

Many of our graduates are now big players within the design industry & we're proud to say we have really nurtured some amazing talent! You can see more success stories from current students & Alumni in this Facebook album or read some of our lovely testimonials. We are so pleased that the course & our Alumni have received outstanding industry recognition, as we have been going from strength to strength since our intial launch at the end of 2011.

ABSPD Module 4 / / Dashwood Studio Live Brief!

We are bursting with excitement about some of the incredible ***LIVE BRIEF'S*** that we have in store for you! Set by a hand-picked selection of ***TRULY AMAZING COMPANIES*** in Module 4 of 'The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design (the e-course)'! Module 4 is an advanced seven week course in which you will learn everything you need to know about building your professional portfolio. The course is crammed with masterclass video tutorials, templates, tons of brilliant inspiration, invaluable content & individual work reviews from either Rachael or another flourishing designer! PLUS you will get six months’ FREE access to the MOYO Directory, where you can create a bespoke profile, upload unlimited portfolios and attract potential clients. This is a rare opportunity to build your commercial portfolio in a structured way, with the support & guidance to boost your confidence & make you raring to go!

WE WILL BE REVEALING EACH WEEK THE COMPANIES THAT WE CONFIRMED. STAY TUNED!

We are thrilled to announce that wonderful textile company 'Dashwood Studio' will be writing a Live Brief! Dashwood Studio specialise in producing beautiful, design-led fabric collections for today's quilt & home-sewing communities. They are passionate about what they do, taking a fresh approach to the design process, seeking & collaborating with the best design talent the UK has to offer! Their team of designers includes three of our talented ABSPD Alumni; Phyllida Coroneo, Wendy Kendall & Bethan Janine!

Many of our graduates are now big players within the design industry & we're proud to say we have really nurtured some amazing talent! You can see more success stories from current students & Alumni in this Facebook album or read some of our lovely testimonials. We are so pleased that the course & our Alumni have received outstanding industry recognition, as we have been going from strength to strength since our intial launch at the end of 2011.

ABSPD / / Module 4 ‘Building your professional portfolio’ is here!

At last it is time to unveil Module 4 of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design: Building Your Professional Portfolio! This brand new course has been developed in response to popular demand from graduates of Module 3, but is open to anyone who has some experience in surface pattern design and wishes to concentrate on growing their body of commercially-viable work. Module 4 is an intense seven week course, which consists of five weeks of class plus two weeks of design reviews.

Module 4 will run for the first time MARCH 24 - MAY 10 2014. PLACES ARE STRICTLY LIMITED in order to allow individual design reviews for every class participant, so book your place now! Instalment plans are available - see this page for details.

Module 4 includes:

- Weekly LIVE briefs from real companies

- A series of video-based technical masterclasses to hone your professional design skills

- A series of advanced design challenges to help you grow as a designer and build a strong, sellable portfolio

- Insight into the practicalities of managing a growing design studio

- A whole host of downloadable templates

- Opportunity to put questions to Rachael Taylor

- Individual work reviews from a flourishing designer*

- Six months' extended access to class materials once class has finished

PLUS you will get six months' FREE access to the MOYO Directory, where you can create a bespoke profile, upload unlimited portfolios and attract potential clients. *Please note this course includes a review of two designs per student, when submitted in line with the guidelines given in class. The review will either be by Rachael Taylor or another flourishing designer whose opinion we trust and respect. 

This is a rare opportunity to build your commercial portfolio in a structured way, with the support and guidance to boost your confidence and make you raring to go!

Video-based technical masterclasses

This module includes a series of 10+ advanced video-based masterclasses including the following topics: 

- Character design (hand-drawn and graphic) 
- Typography (traditional and contemporary) 
- Using mixed media, textures & collage in pattern design 
- Using photography in pattern design 
- Advanced repeats 
- Advanced mockups 
PLUS You will also get access to a library of textures and media to use. Each video will be supported by a PDF transcript including step-by-step visuals. This is an advanced class and you will need to be proficient in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to get the most out of this module. Please note we do not offer technical guidance for any other software programmes (including free software).

This is for you if:

- You want to be stretched and challenged as a designer to create new work and expand your design comfort zone 
- You want to strengthen and build your portfolio quickly, with pieces that are commercially viable 
- You want advanced technical guidance for developing sophisticated work
- You want to learn more about putting strong collections together
- You want to work more on developing your signature style
- You want to become part of a supportive community of fellow designers
- You have graduated from Module 3 of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design (although this is not a pre-requisite if you already have some design experience)

PLACES ARE STRICTLY LIMITED in order to allow individual design reviews for every class participant, so book your place now! Instalment plans are available - see this page for details.