goodie bag contest design winner!

We are thrilled to announce Katy Clemmans as our goodie bag designer for 2012! We ran a contest in The Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design e-course I took (& loved!) and were totally impressed with all of the thoughtful and fantastic entires. I wish we could have used all the designs! We loved the way Katy described her winning design:

"I have created sheafs of 'corn' from the Makerie logo by adding long stems. The vertical presentation creates a pleasing stripe pattern and the random upside down sheafs give a quirky feel. I think the corn theme compliments the retreat's nature element, going hand in hand with organic foods, health, and the great outdoors! It's a really positive, happy and nurturing design for the goodie bag."

Katy was so kind to share her story with us and we wanted you to get her know her too.

"I studied graphic design at Salford University in the North West of England, and from there kind of fell into a career in design for television after getting a fantastic graduate job at the design department of the BBC in London in 2000. I have worked in TV ever since, and thoroughly enjoyed my career to date, but have always held onto my passion for print and all things 'pattern'.

Recently I have been designing wedding stationery for friends and family and dipping my toe into the world of surface pattern design, and discovered a total love for it. I had been trying to find a way of making money from my designs when I heard of the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course. The course sounded like an absolutely perfect foundation for me to make a proper go of establishing myself as a surface pattern designer and help me achieve my goal of working for myself, loosening my ties with the city and moving out to the countryside with my husband. I feel this is such a brilliant opportunity to put my love of creating patterns to great use, and one day hopefully it will pay the bills.

I'm brimming with ideas and can't wait to complete the course and get on my way to being a fully fledged surface pattern designer. I would love to see my designs on all sorts of paper goods, homewares, fashion accessories - in fact everywhere! I still hope to launch my own range of wedding stationery in 2012. To see my design on the Makerie goodie bag is (hopefully) just the beginning!"

We have a feeling she's on her way. Congratulations Katy! We absolutely love it.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the contest and to Beth and Rachael for supporting such a fun design challenge in the class.

Happy Wednesday!

~xo