“When you feel like there is a mountain of doubts in front of you, power through it and focus on your work, the work will get you out of your head.”
These wise words come to us courtesy of the lovely Paola Pagano, one of the talented members who make up our Textile Design Lab community. Paola clearly takes her own advice as she is a prolific designer with a finely honed artistic style. We are excited for you to get to know her and to share some of her beautiful work with you today!
Paola is a professional illustrator and pattern designer, and always knew illustration was something she wanted to do. But, she tells us, “it took me a long time to realize I wanted it to be my job. Looking back now, I am astounded it took me so long to know it: my animation thesis presented a world made of patterns, every time I got the chance I would work on patterns. My eye would always wonder on repeats when buying clothing and would remember and store them, like I had a separate hard disk for them in my brain.
I started my career in 2010 as a Graphic Designer for a prominent Art Magazine in NYC, were I stayed after quitting my job at the magazine and kept working as a freelancer for many years. The beauty of freelancing is that you find yourself with a lot of different directions and the need to find a new one for yourself and your work. So, I started building my new portfolio, attended illustration and drawing classes and studied my style trying to evolve it.”
“Almost from the beginning of this long process, I saw a tendency to pattern design, or better yet to thinking about my illustrations in terms of repeats. Since 2016 I have been working at making my portfolio of prints better, stronger and wider in terms of themes.
I now live in Milan, Italy where I moved in 2017 and I’m launching https://www.thepattern.shop/ a section of my portfolio dedicated to licensing and selling pattern designs and collections for the textile industry.”
Throughout her time in the Textile Design Lab, the course Paola found most impactful was the Sellable Sketch. She explains, “not coming from a fashion background I lacked the structure when thinking in terms of collections and current trends. Through it I found out that I actually enjoy the research part of the creative process: I just need a push and some directions! I also loved the Ultimate Guide to Repeats, because I got some very useful tips to work better and quicker.”
Join Paola and hundreds of other surface pattern designers from around the world in our supportive online community! No matter where you are in your journey, from beginner to professional designer, there is a place for you in the Textile Design Lab.
