Geometric Design To Print
As part of our Anniversary were having designer interviews! We were so excited to interview Patty Young! Thank you So much Patty for giving us your time!!
Biography: Patty Young, Modkid
We know you're Patty Young the designer of very vibrant, colorful, versatile, and fun fabrics and that you creating some DARLING and very fun patterns for girlies as well, but…
Tell us a little about yourself what makes you, you! I think what makes me "ME" is a combination of that Latin flair in my blood (having grown up in Central America in a purely Hispanic family), that entrepreneurial spirit (which I also inherited from my hard-working and always-creative parents) and that need to be unique and different (which I have no idea where it came from, but believe me it's there! LOL!) You take all of these personality traits and throw in some chronic insomnia, addiction to caffeine and some OCD behavior and you have Patty Young. :)
What inspired you to start designing fabric? I have always loved creating repeated patterns, whether it was doodling on my notebook in school or creating a background texture for one of my many advertising and marketing jobs. I went to school for design and received my Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in 1993. I worked at a number of design-related jobs creating mostly artwork for print media. In 2005 I left my corporate job to stay at home with my children and pursue my own creative endeavors. Sewing clothes for them led to designing my own sewing patterns which led to wanting to design my own fabric to accompany these patterns. All the basic knowledge was there... I just had to apply it to a different medium: textiles!
How do you design your fabric; some designers paint, draw, design on the computer etc..? My designs are about 99% computer-generated. Every now & then I do sketch out an idea on paper if I happen to be away from my computer, but my next step is usually to scan it, bring it into Adobe Illustrator and redraw it. I make my repeated patterns using Illustrator and Photoshop depending on the complexity of the design. I prefer Photoshop for playing with color because I can have each design on a different layer and play with the opacity to create new looks and combinations.
Is there a design that you're particularly most proud of whether it be a pattern or fabric and why? Oooh, that is a hard question. It's like asking me to pick a favorite offspring... haha. Since each of my designs is original, they all were dreamt up in my head, born onto paper or computer then sculpted and tweaked to perfection. Each one goes through this process of development and sometimes even a metamorphosis of sorts. Many designs end up looking absolutely nothing like what they started out as (I can't believe how many parallels there are between my fabric designs and my kids!) I don't know if I can pick a favorite but I can tell you that my current obsession is with this design that is not currently out. It will be part of my next fabric collection, due out in May, 2010. I can't really say much about it at this point because it is still so premature but I can tell you that I have a full size print-out of it tacked to my wall above my laptop and I swear I stare at that thing all day long... it's like I'm hypnotized by it! Hopefully it'll have that effect on everyone else. ;)
Tell us a little about Flora and Fauna, your newest collection for Michael Miller? Flora & Fauna is like what I would want my dream world to look like: bright, colorful, fun and filled with beautiful flowers and whimsical creatures frolicking among a backdrop of perfectly designed geometric textures. Like I said in my first answer, I grew up in a place that I can only describe as a lush tropical paradise. Now, I live in the Midwest where it's Winter about 6 out of 12 months of the year and these colors don't naturally occur in nature... only in my head! And now in my fabric.
We know you have some new, darling Modkid patterns just released as well; tell us a little about those and how you got your inspiration for them? Yes, we have 6 new patterns that are a bit different from my previous sets. At the insistence of various people, I promised to do some fun home dec items, so now we have a Hummingbird Quilt and a Pillow Trio pattern. Also, this time I worked with a good friend of mine, Valerie Haberer, to launch a line of clothing patterns for 18" and 15" dolls. The collection comes complete with a set of garment bags for child & doll. How fun is that?! So far, all our new patterns have been very well received so you can expect to see more of this from us!
What is one piece of advice you would give to those who dream of becoming a fabric designer? I'd say first impressions are key. Have confidence in your work. Be prepared to answer any questions about your designs, your inspiration, your background, your future plans (like you're at a job interview). Show a variety of designs to prove your versatility but also make sure your unique style shows through in all of them. And last, but certainly not least, PRESENTATION. Present your designs in a unique and creative way that is also clean and organized. Have a proposed name and even a logo for your collection... this shows that you've thought this through and are serious and confident about it.
Thank you!
patty young
Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to.
In this selection we’re glad to present you PT Sans, FF Celeste Sans Offc Black, Secca STD, Cantarell and many other regular and experimental high-quality free fonts. Please read the license agreements carefully before using the fonts — the license can change from time to time.
You may also want to take a look at our previous typography-related posts:
- 20 New High Quality Free Fonts
In this previous “free fonts” edition we present Madawaska ExtraLight, Apparatus SIL, League Gothic, Contra and many other high-quality free fonts. - 40+ Excellent Freefonts For Professional Design
The price of good fonts usually reflects their quality and starts at 50$ per typeface. However, before purchasing a font you will probably use only once in your designs you might want to take a glance at outstanding free alternatives first. - 50 Useful Design Tools For Beautiful Web Typography
A review of useful typographic tools, techniques and resources for creating effective and expressive designs. We will also look at some hands-on typography tools that help designers and developers learn how to style their Web content, test it interactively and see the changes instantly.
New High Quality Free Fonts
PT Sans (PDF specimen)
The Russian type design company “Paratype” released an extensive free sans-serif family with 8 font weights: Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Caption Regular, Caption Bold, Narrow Regular and Narrow Bold (700+ glyphs each). The family can be used for legal documents on screen and in print. The family contains glyphs to various Cyrillic languages as well Latin glyphs, signs, fractions, numerators etc. A very impressive free font.
FF Celeste Sans Offc Black Set (Registration is required)
FF Celeste Sans Offc Black Set comes in an easy-to-use format optimized for everyday use in Microsoft Office apps. You can use the style-linked (regular and italic in one menu item) FF Celeste Sans Offc for free.
Secca STD (2 Demo fonts) (Registration is required)
Secca is a fine and simple typeface honoring the roots of early German grotesque type designs but mastered for the needs of today. The weights work perfectly for body text. Two weights are available for free downloads: Secca Std Demo Regular and Secca Std Demo Bold. Designed by Andreas Seidel. A registration is required.
Fh_Lentil Regular
For more fonts, and other resources, visit Fictionalhead.com’s Fonts New font created for personal use. Additional families being developed (bold, italic, etc.) to be released at a future date.
Mr Jones Book
Mr Jones was originally conceived as a family for print design consisting of a sans and a headline. The lowercase are wide for legibility at small sizes while the caps are narrower to save space and keep an even balance of negative space when used in body copy. The overall widths of certain characters have been adjusted to almost extremes to keep an even balance of white space around each letter. He works well in body copy, but will need decreased tracking for larger settings. Two weights are available for free download: Mr Jones Book and Mr Jones Book Italic. Designed by Richard Miller.
Clutchee
Clutchee Font is perfect for t-shirts, also applicable for any type of graphic design, web, print, motion graphics etc.
Digitica
A very interesting, original geometric font, designed by Samuel Delabarre and available for free download.
Cantarell
The typeface is designed as a contemporary Humanist sans serif, and was developed for on-screen reading; in particular, reading web pages on an HTC Dream mobile phone. Each font file currently contains 391 glyphs, and fully support the following writing systems: Basic Latin, Western European, Catalan, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Dutch and Afrikaans. To date, Pan African Latin has only 33% glyph coverage. Since the design is aimed at display on-screen at small sizes, the printed output (especially of the bold and oblique) may not work well.
tribbon ‘Layered’ font
This layered ‘ribbon’ style font was created by Dominic Le-Hair. It is a working ‘ribbon’ style font that consists of several layers and is available in both TTF and OTF font formats for free download.
Exus Pilot
An original geometric free font in True Type format. A good choice for poster design. Designed by Mauro Hernández.
Orbitron
A geometric sans-serif typeface intended for display purposes. It features four weights (light, medium, bold, and black), a stylistic alternative, small caps, and a ton of alternate glyphs. Orbitron was designed so that graphic designers in the future will have some alternative to typefaces like Eurostile or Bank Gothic.
Ripe Font Family
A geometric post-modern slab serif face. The serifs feature simplistic rounded terminals and its stroke is uniform. Ripe was designed to be a practical typeface. Each character is distinct, yet consistent. Its subtle differences are clear enough to be easily read at both high and low resolutions, perfect for print, web and screen media. The family has 4 weights (Regular, Light, Semibold, Bold) containing 577 characters in each weight.
Goudy Trajan Regular
Goudy Trajan Regular Goudy Trajanô is based on the drawings by American type designer Frederic W. Goudy of his rendition of the capital letters inscribed on the Trajan column. One of the most elegant typefaces in the CastleType library, Goudy Trajan works especially well at large sizes. The Regular weight (shown above) contains many alternate letters and discretionary ligatures for more versatile typography. It also includes the Cyrillic alphabet and over 100 classic fleurons. Click here to view all glyphs. Download specimen. “Goudy Trajan is possibly the finest font I have discovered” (D.S. from Omaha, Nebraska.) The Goudy Trajan family includes: Regular, Medium, and Bold. A single font is available for free download.
St Transmission (free for personal use only)
This free font is available in two weights: thin and extrabold. It has standard OpenType features such as ligatures, slashed zero, contextual alternates and lining figures. The Extrabold weight is ideal for bold headlines. Designed by Sascha Timplan.
Keeparty (Large preview)
A very original, colorful typeface created by Eugene Rudyy.
LOT (large preview)
LOT is a free font applicable for any type of graphic design – web, print, motion graphics etc. It is a good fit for T-shirts and other items like logos or pictograms. Format: Opentype (.otf) Compatible: PC and Mac. The font contains 78 glyphs.
Recycle it font
Denne’s aliens
A hand-written, original, playful font with basic glyphs set. Designed by Denise Bentulan.
Pac Font
An older, yet quite original and attractive free font. Free for personal use only.
Merge
A very simple, yet playful and nice looking free font, designed by Philatype type foundry and released for free download in the OpenType format.
Further useful collections
- 24 high quality free and stunning symbol fonts
Fonts are the vital need of any designer. But now a days font demands are increasing in regular computer users as well. Depending on the needs and modern trend we are going to list down some really beautiful and unique examples of 24 High Quality Free And Stunning Symbol Fonts. We hope these fonts will be useful for you. - Top 10 Programming Fonts
A round-up of 10 readily-available monospace fonts. Many of these fonts are bundled along with modern operating systems, but most are free for download on the web. A few, notably Consolas, are part of commercial software. - 40 free unique cartoon and comic fonts
Have you ever feel that traditional fonts are a little too boring and plain for your designs and artworks? Ever wanted to use fonts that are funkier, stylish and fun to look at? Cartoon and comic fonts are very popular and most people are only familiar with Comic Sans MS and that’s about it. We have now discovered 40 unique and refreshing cartoon and comic fonts for you to give your artwork and design that extra ummmppphhh. Here are a few for sneak preview and the full list is right after the jump. - 5 Excellent Calligraphic Fonts
A small collection of nice calligrapic fonts found over at Dafont.com.
Related Posts
You may also want to take a look at our previous typography-related posts:
- 20 New High Quality Free Fonts
In this previous “free fonts” edition we present Madawaska ExtraLight, Apparatus SIL, League Gothic, Contra and many other high-quality free fonts. - 40+ Excellent Freefonts For Professional Design
The price of good fonts usually reflects their quality and starts at 50$ per typeface. However, before purchasing a font you will probably use only once in your designs you might want to take a glance at outstanding free alternatives first. - 50 Useful Design Tools For Beautiful Web Typography
A review of useful typographic tools, techniques and resources for creating effective and expressive designs. We will also look at some hands-on typography tools that help designers and developers learn how to style their Web content, test it interactively and see the changes instantly.
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Post tags: Fonts, typography
