6 days to go: 50 reasons why The Ultimate Portfolio Builder is – well – the ultimate! (+ course giveaway)

We’re on the official countdown to the start of our next round of acclaimed surface pattern design courses starting September 21, 2015. Over the next few days we’ll highlight our favourite reasons why you should join us!

6 days to go…

…until the start of The Ultimate Portfolio Builder.

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Why is it the ultimate? Here’s our 50 reasons why:

It’s because you want to….

1)   grow your body of commercially viable work and refine and strengthen your professional design portfolio

2)   you want to be inspired by the work of Rachael Taylor and discover the styles, stories and work from many other successful surface pattern designers

3)   gain valuable insight into how you can achieve trade show success direct from Printsource New York – one of the leading surface and textile design shows in the world

4)   be in with the chance of winning a FREE booth at Printsource New York, August 2016 AND $1,000 to help get you there

5)   find beauty in the ordinary as you focus your attention to drawing everyday ‘objects’, plus you’ll receive a helping hand with our fab and fun prompt cards

6)   try your hand at designing an all-time marketplace favourite, ‘characters’,  plus you’ll once again be supported by your friends, the fab and fun prompt cards

'Niamh' by Rachael Taylor
‘Niamh’ by Rachael Taylor

7)   join a supportive community of like-minded creatives from around the world who will offer constructive criticism if you ask for it and plenty of encouragement when you need it (did you read how awesome our community really is on day 10 of this countdown ‘The power of a design community?‘)

8)   watch Jessica Hogarth explain how you can create a technical half-drop repeat tile and one that’s suitable for print at a standard wallpaper width

9)   make your portfolio shine by learning how to create your own product and room set mock-ups. In our amazing master class hosted by Adrian O’Meara, he’ll show you how to add patterns of different shapes and sizes and demonstrate the most useful transform tools in Photoshop (check out our latest students making the most of their new honed mock-up skills!)

Room set mock-up by Olivia Henry
Room set mock-up by Olivia Henry

10)   access to a library of exclusively styled room set images ready-made for you to render your designs on and test all you’ve learnt in Adrian’s master class

11)   watch an exclusive masterclass with the fabulous Allison Cole where you’ll learn the basic elements of how to develop a character and discover hints and tips for working with scanned, hand-drawn imagery

12)   get a weekly Q&A with Rachael Taylor – ask her anything, she’s happy to impart everything she knows, no question too big or small!

13)   benefit from an invaluable individual work review from the fabulous Rachael Taylor, Khristian A. Howell or Janine Burrows so you can understand where you are now and how to move forward (find out loads more about this on day 7 of our countdown ‘Gain real and honest perspective‘)

14)   have the opportunity to submit to a live brief set by DENY Designs – are you next to feature in their cool artist gallery?

15)   learn the secrets to securing the right buyers at shows for your work and have them eating out of the palm of your hands

16)   tackle a series of advanced (and fun!) design challenges to help you grow as a designer and build a strong, rounded, healthy portfolio

17)   push your boundaries with typographic applications, as you’ll explore this fantastic and popular theme and how it could apply to greetings, gifts, stationery, homewares and fashion

'Think Big' by Rachael Taylor
‘Think Big’ by Rachael Taylor

18)    have the chance to submit your greeting card work to Card Crazy in another fabulous live brief – did you know they selected 4 students to work with from our May course?

19)   watch a typography queen at work. Faye Brown is at your service to deliver a master class in creating graphic styles and illustrate your own lettering that could lead on to a whole new typeface – exciting!

20)   read helpful material on how to be your own career strategist and how to start thinking outside the box

21)   understand the practicalities of managing a growing design studio

22)   take your existing portfolio and see how you can maximize it’s potential to a new audience through the art of reformatting

23)   explore the super popular re-occurring ‘geometric‘ trend and all that goes with it, looking at both the mathematical and retro styles – and don’t forget our fab and fun prompt cards too!

'Mosaic madness' by Rachael Taylor
‘Mosaic madness’ by Rachael Taylor

24)   have access to all the class material for 6 whole months so you can take the course at your own pace, refer back and get the most from it

25)   have the opportunity to submit to a live brief set by Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine – did you know they will be publishing 3 students work from our May class? Keep an eye out for it in the new year!

26)   challenge yourself creatively by mixing the types of media you use up a little

27)   break down the barriers and release your wild, spontaneous, unique design style as we look in depth at ‘abstract’, and guess what, we’ll throw in some more fab and fun prompt cards!

28)   delve into the world of working with mixed media art originals, with our stupendous master class demonstrated using the fantastic work of Kelly Rae Roberts

KRRoberts

29)   loosen up, chill out, let your ideas flow and be TOTALLY inspired

30)   access our rather helpful bonus material on managing your finances (you’ll thank us in the long run!)

31)   get hints and tips for editing and manipulating a photograph to improve the quality and enhance the image through another amazing technical master class

32)   have an incredible amount of fun on a career-changing course that will inspire and change your surface pattern life as you know it

33)   get a taster into Rachael Taylor’s life as a dynamic and successful professional surface pattern designer

34)   get your hands on Rachael’s top tips for finding colours and working with them

35)   take a live brief textile challenge from Dashwood Studios and you too could be following in the footsteps of former students Wendy Kendall, Bethan Janine, Phyllida Coroneo and Susan Driscoll

Designs by Wendy Kendall
Designs by Wendy Kendall

36)   discover what makes Rachael say: “I can’t begin to explain the feeling it gives me: excitement, nervous energy, adrenaline and a creative rush

37)   understand a bit more about designing for occasions to include seasonal and special moments

38)   take part in an incredible four-part creative brief from Printsource to help you attract the clients you want and the kind of work you dream of

39)   stay ahead of the game and be trend aware thanks to our generous 90 day’s WGSN full access gift (and don’t forget you can find out more on ‘The importance of trends‘)

40)   download each course post to refer to time and time again in years to come

41)   you want the low-down for creating a digital portfolio as well as a physical one

42)   push yourself and break through your design barriers as we go into the detail of the significant themes of ‘genre’ and ‘style’

43)   get your hands on a HUGE selection of inspirational colour palettes intended to help you push your colour choices

Example colour palatte
Example colour palette

44)   access to a huge library of textures to give your work depth and distinction

45)   have the chance to join the Really Good artist line-up. Their collections are quirky, innovative and radical. You won’t want to miss this live brief opportunity to get your work licensed

46)  have access to the classroom 24/7 so you can work at your own pace and fit it around your busy life

47)   get an overall view of the design industry and identify where you fit in

48)   build your confidence and be truly excited about your future as a successful surface pattern designer

49)   gain a graduation certificate and shout about it from the rooftops across your blog, website, social networks or wherever

50)   and last but certainly not least, you want to take an acclaimed course that’s well-regarded in the surface pattern design industry!

 

Phew….. we’ll these are just some of the top reasons we’ve rattled off the top of our heads.

In order to truly appreciate the level of detail, number of resources, depth of learning and how you’ll come out a truly better designer, you’ll have to sign up and start your Ultimate Portfolio Builder journey with us starting next Monday, September 21.

 

And remember, it hasn’t been labeled the best surface pattern design course out there by a former student without good reason!

Places on this course are limited and there aren’t many left. So secure your place today.

 

WIN A PLACE!

Oh – and before we forget, our friends over at Uppercase magazine have a super competition where you can win a guaranteed FREE PLACE on The Ultimate Portfolio Builder starting next Monday! Check it out, but sign up in the meantime to make sure you have a place (if you win we’ll re-imburse you!)

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