In December, I ran across a website called makeitindesign.com. It's run by surface/pattern designer Rachel Taylor. She offers classes to help you learn the business of surface design and get you working in creative directions that you may never have thought of before. She was offering a 4-week class that she called The Winter School 2017. It was inexpensive, and I'd been wanting to see what this kind of work was all about. So, I registered and eagerly awaited my first assignment. 

In the Winter School, you get two industry standard creative briefs to guide your design process. The first was titled Reimagine Tech Stripe. We were to use a stripe motif of some sort, but find of way of introducing a technical interruption to the lines. I really enjoyed this exercise and immediately set to work creating mood boards and filling my eyes and brain with stripes and other images that eventually lead me to my final design. 

Here's the progression: 

An optional color palette was provided in the creative brief, and I decided to stick with that one. I enjoy designing with some restrictions in place. It helps me work more creatively without becoming overwhelmed with endless options. 

I'm pretty happy with the results, but I'm more excited about the process that this brief took me through. It was refreshing to stretch my brain in new directions. Designing repeating patterns not easy!