Amanda Lincoln has a strong background in graphic design and is starting to venture into surface pattern design and her work is absolutely stunning. Beautiful colour palettes and wonderful patterns make for a really strong portfolio.
Amanda was very kind enough to give us a short interview about herself and work.
What three to five words would you use to describe your work?
Girly, Pretty, Clean, Fun, FeminineWhat inspires you?
I read lots of blogs and looking at other creatives work inspires me to come up with new patterns. However inspiration can come from many sources, I may take a walk in the country and see a sillouette, or visit a sweet shop & the colour combinations will spark an idea, my advice is to always keep your eyes open and inspiration will come when you least expect it. I also love to be busy, the busier I am, the more creative I feel. Also my best friend (childrens illustrator Tina Macnaughton), she is so good at telling me how it is, if I send her a pattern of mine that she thinks needs a little more detail or colour she will say and if I send her something that works she sends the me the most inspiring, positive emails which encourage me to go forward & do something I love. ☺
What was your first job?
My first design related job was a six month contract at a small design company in Hertford where I was designing for companies such as Hasbro & MB Games, this is where I learned to use the software I use today, particularly Adobe Illustrator, I was taught by a very patient and understanding designer called John, I feel I learn better from being shown something rather than by reading.
When/how did you know you wanted a career in art?
I have always been creative, I got that from my mum, we were always making things when I was small. When I was a teenager I used to make & sell my jewellery & I had a passion for needlepoint. I then began to paint objects from nature and used to sell my paintings locally, I decided to get colour copies of them and the man at the copy shop offered me a job as a graphic designer! I didn’t have the confidence to take the job at the time, but that inspired me to apply to go to college and get my degree.
Design books/blogs you can’t live without:
Print & Pattern I am addicted to, Tigerprint (of course!), the new ‘Print & Pattern’ book is like a bible to me,‘Artist’s & Graphic designers market’ is a great book for advice on pricing & the legal side of things, as is ‘Licensing Art & Design’.
Other illustrators blogs whom I love are:
http://jillypgraphics.blogspot.comhttp://designerjots.blogspot.com
http://arkdesignsbyanna.blogspot.comWhat mediums do you work with? I work mainly on my mac, basically I draw with a brush pen, scan in my drawings and convert them to vector in Adobe Illustrator, occasionally I will apply other mediums to my work after I have printed it out, but solid colour is the look I am into at the moment.What’s next?
I am pretty new to Surface Pattern Design and so I am hoping to get more into that, designing for Cards, Wrap, Partywear, Tablewear, Scrapbooking etc. I would also love to work on babywear, but I think that is something further ahead in the future. I know that lots of hard work is ahead, but I love what I do. I have also been approached by a few companies to license one of my characters, which is very exciting!
See more work by Amanda here:
What a great little interview!
love all your little patterns, very cute :)theyre always so lovely and clean and fresh.
I know exactly what you mean about keeping your eyes open inspiration is everywhere...i tend to use my camera as a sketchbook these days rather than a real one sadly dont have the time to sketch as much as i'd like to but find the photos i take great to look back on for reference and colour etc.
Also want to say thank you Amanda for mentioning me...blimey i didn't expect that! big thanks!! how happy am i now.
Anna x
Posted by: arkdesignsbyanna.blogspot.com | April 08, 2010 at 07:10 PM