ABOUT ME
Hello! I’m Nicola Rowe, a surface pattern designer based in Shropshire, UK. I’m so glad you’re here!
I have always had a deep love of nature and the surrounding countryside where I spent many days as a child climbing trees, studying wild flowers or collecting leaves and this informs many of my pattern designs now. I love to infuse fresh, bright colours into my designs as this reminds me of the happiness I felt of being a child free to explore.
You’ll often find me walking through my nearby countryside taking copious amounts of photographs of interesting fauna and colours as inspiration for later creations.
My Path to Surface Pattern Design
My path to surface pattern design is long and winding. I’ve always been creative and dabbled in many hobbies such as fine art, jewellery making, greeting cards and decoupage. Although it wasn’t until after having my son in 2014, that I found the world of pattern design. I studied many online courses on Skillshare and didn’t even know pattern design was a ‘thing’ that you could do as a job! That’s how little I knew :(
Having no art degree or fancy qualification in art (I have an A’level in Art & Design and that’s it…), I accepted the fact at the time that I wouldn’t be able to do this as a career. Having a newborn and going back to college and university just wasn’t an option for me. Fast forward a few years and having immersed myself in the world of pattern design, I was constantly seeing designers who were licensing their designs yet didn’t have a degree or any qualifications in art or pattern design. My son was off to school giving me some much needed time to devote to my career. This gave me the hope that maybe I could do what they were doing.
I learned surface pattern design during Covid and used the time to learn the basics and how to use Adobe Illustrator (eeek!) and then in 2022 I set my business up. I now license many of my designs exclusively on print on demand sites like Spoonflower, Redbubble and Woven Monkey. I now offer a regular FREE Colour Palettes Masterclass where I teach the basics of crafting a cohesive and balanced colour palette. I have a past career as a Hairstylist so my knowledge of colour gained here has helped me enormously in creating colour palettes now. Who’d have thought?!
A few things I like: cups of tea, walking in nature, buying notebooks (I’m a stationery addict!), taking photographs, cooking a delicious gluten free meal (I’m non-coeliac gluten sensitive) and gardening.
Get in touch below if you’d like to work together. I warmly welcome new collaborations and I’d love to help you find some beautiful art for your company’s products.
Thanks for stopping by!
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