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.

USA Work Trip / / ABSPD Alumni Meet Up

On a recent work trip to Boston, I was fortunate enough to meet up with a lovely group of the students & Alumni of 'The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design (the e-course)' (from left to right: Alik, Margaret, me, Hannah & Mary). It is always wonderful to to get to meet the students in person & chat about their experiences & successes during & after the course & I feel so grateful to be part of their journeys. We met at Wagamama & enjoyed a lovely meal together, it was such a fun evening & they were all such a fab group of talented ladies.

Are you having your own ABPSD meet-up? Let us know by leaving a comment or on the ABSPD Facebook page & we will share them with our fantastic community!

You can find out more about my trip to the USA on previous posts including my inspirational trips to the Boston Marina & Boston Aquarium, the Pumpkin Patch & getting to meet my agent Lilla Rogers for the first time!

Alik Arzoumanian is an illustrator & surface pattern designer living in Cambridge, MA, USA. She was trained as an illustrator at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Since graduating in 2004, Alik has mainly been illustrating picture books, until she decided to pursue my love of surface pattern design. Alik just loves making patterns & likes to think of her patterns as being simple, bold, & playful. If you want to know what about Alik visit her blog, website or find her on The MOYO Directory.

Margaret Applin is an artist/designer living in Lowell, Massachusetts. Born & raised in New England, Margaret's art is full of inspiration taken from the natural landscape & the changing seasons. Margaret explores various techniques such as stamp & stencil making, drawing, mono printing, screen printing, or straight digital design to develop the building blocks that define her artwork. Margaret's style is characterised by simple images that are transformed into quirky, casually elegant, fresh & modern design expressions. See more of Margaret's work on her website, blog or on The MOYO Directory.

Hannah Milkins is a lover of all things decorative, swirly and beautiful. Currently she is an aspiring pattern designer & illustrator based out of New York's Capital Region. Since taking the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course she has been having fun experimenting, refining her style & building a professional portfolio. She looks forward to continuing her pattern journey as she makes new friends & takes next steps into the wonderful world of design! Find more of Hannah's work on her website or her MOYO Directory profile.

Mary Tanana is a designer who is inspired by many things; art, photography, gardening, landscapes and nature. She’s had a life-long love affair with anything patterned, & after a long & successful career as an award winning jewellery designer, she has once again embraced her first love of surface pattern design. Mary originally studied fashion illustration, & has adapted her fascination with textures & patterns into a unique design style. Her style is influenced by the diverse art & architecture she observed while traveling & living overseas. Follow Mary on her blog or Facebook or take a look at her portfolio.

MOYO Magazine / / Christmas Gift Guide!

We are excited to bring you the downloadable MOYO Festive Gift Guide. Packed full of unique gift ideas from talented designers, we hope this guide gives you ideas for presents to delight this holiday season. From pretty Christmas tree baubles to gorgeous gift wrap, you are sure to find something just perfect for friends and loved ones. The products come from around the world and all the featured designers are members of the MOYO Directory, or alumni of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design.

This special downloadable version is a gorgeous selection of our favourite products that have been sent in. All of the entries are being featured on the Make it in Design blog here until Tuesday 17th December. Below are just a few of the beautiful pages inside the guide.

To download the gift guide simply go here. If you are on an iPad click here to view the magazine on Issu.com. If you want to download this guide or any of our MOYO magazines, here are some simple guidelines to help you: Downloading MOYO.

Please feel free to share this page and link to the Gift Guide on your blog, in your newsletters and tell all your friends about it. Wishing you all a wonderful festive season, from the Make it in Design team!

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.

Follow Your Dreams!

It has been pretty chaotic in the studio lately as we have been juggling so many things such as our new wedding collection, new product ranges, MOYO magazine & the launch of the next full series of 'The Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design' (the e-course)'. When your hectically running around sometimes you forget to appreciate the little things.

Last week was such a 'happy' week as I received masses of new styled photography from my fab photographers navyblur. I had a moment to take stock and assess how far my brand had come.

I'm just someone doing what I love, who works hard & remains dedicated and to see everything coming together lately really made me smile. So many people ask me about my career & how it evolved & I'm so pleased that I get to share my story within our very own e-course.

I left my full time job 5 years ago to fly solo & would never have imagined or believed all of the things that have happened so far! (Here are a few of my product collages that showcase a selection of my designs used in multiple ways. Along with a typographic quote that I created recently.)

I hope these images inspire you to follow your dreams! (You may also like to read my recent interview over on the fantastic new Do What Love website).

Hurry our next class starts tomorrow! You can still squeeze in. (*This is last time we will be running module 1 until 2014).

ABSPD Alumni / / Loni Harris

So many of our ABSPD Alumni have been up to great & exciting things & we love sharing their fantastic news! In the run up to the next series of M2 of the e-course (there is still time to register) we will be sharing some of our alumni successes! Which you can also see more of in our Success Stories Facebook album!

Loni Harris is another fabulous Alumni of e-course & has always had a passion for art & design. With an education in graphic design, Loni has now gone on to pursue her real passion; surface pattern design! Loni describes her work as "fun, quirky", "hand-drawn" &" slightly textured".

Since ABSPD Loni has gone from success to success! She is currently represented by Pink Light Studio, has built a beautiful website, runs an Etsy shop 'Cactus & Olive' selling lovely baby mobiles & other paper goods & has a huge collection of gorgeous patterns with DENY Designs!

Visit Loni on her website or follow her on Pinterest. You can shop her entire DENY Designs collection here.

If you are interested in ‘The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design (the e-course)’ we are thrilled to announce we are running a new series (starting on August 19th 2013) Register here. Also, don’t miss out on our next run of Module 2 ‘Creating Your Professional identity’ which is running 19th August 2013! If you hurry there is still time to register! Brought to you by Rachael Taylor and Beth Kempton.

Rachael on Twitter: @rachtdesign Beth on Twitter: @DoWhatYouLoveXx

You can also read some magic words from some our past students who have gone on to achieve some amazing things!