Natalia Kolodiazhna Surface Design

Collaboration with Wonder_Map

Tuesday, January 24, 2017
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"Daily Crazy Pattern" — Road to Creative Freedom

One friend asked me a few weeks ago:

— What do you do?

— I'm graphic designer... bla-bla(short story about my current work)... I've created a personal project "Daily Crazy Pattern" around a year ago. Did you see it?

— Yeah. I saw. What is the main purpose of this activity?

I might say this question made me a bit confuse. How? How did it happen? Didn't he know the objective of the project? I kept posting lovely pattern designs regularly and wrote that I created one unique design every single day for one year. Everything was pretty clear. But... after a while I recognized — no, not clear... In fact, I never wrote about the goal I've set for "Daily Crazy Pattern" project.

Therefore, it's a perfect time to correct this little issue.

There were two main goals for this art journey:

a) I just wanted to draw some nice doodles and level up it at the same time. You know, this art skill is quite useful for my profession.

b) Create gorgeous surface pattern designs which can be placed on advertising brochure, on fabric or package.

Simply put, I was planning to create kind of online sketchbook for drawing practice.

So, with these initial thoughts I dived into "Daily Crazy Pattern" activity. One month later I understood everything happened for a reason. My daily challenge suddenly turned into a powerful tool for disciplining me, it wasn't just a draw practicing any more. It transformed into something more.

After next two months, my project became work like an art therapy. It really improved my physical, mental, and emotional well-being in those days. Did you ever notice while you were busy with creative process, you felt relaxing, your mind was opened and starting to generate new positive ideas? I called this condition "art meditation".

Somewhere on halfway to completion of my daily project I fall in love with color palettes. Again. Seriously. Became a passion fan of different color combinations. Since then every tint gets my attention and carefully stored in the huge color library. I find inspiration in nature, exactly there you can find an endless source of color references, perfect palettes and gorgeous shades. Just amazing!

Then the most interesting things began — finally I felt true creative freedom. There were no more doubts. I started developing my pattern making skills as fast as never before. I couldn't imagine my being without surface design anymore, it became a huge part of my career and daily life. Exactly at that moment I got a new cute habit — stared at every item surrounded me for looking inspiration and generating new ideas. Well, I still do it. However, if you catch me staring on your shirt or backpack, relax, I just find picture printed on it quite interesting and it inspires me for fresh creations.

After all, let me sum up — "Daily Crazy Pattern" project was planned like a tool for improving drawing skills. However, it transformed into a magnificent place for mad experiments and interesting ideas; into the huge space of true creative freedom. And it's great!

Be awesome,

Natalia