The Creative Home of Scott E Franson » Design

Back to School

scott e — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 01:48:15 +0000

Camp Pikaland

Back to School | This past month I started taking a class from Camp Pikaland | The Sellable Sketch, taught by Michelle Fifis of Pattern Observer and have discovered a few things that should have been second nature to me but for some reason didn’t click until Michelle pointed them out.

I have had hopes of designing patterns for fabric without really knowing who I am designing them for. Basically shooting arrows without a target but hoping to score a bulls eye. Luckily I have hit the target once without aiming but can clearly see that if I really want to design patterns, I need to know which industry I want to design for and who my audience is inside of this specific industry.

Which Industry?

I have decided to target the quilting industry and have learned how little I know about quilting and the industry.

My first research with keywords in Google produced results that were a bit discouraging for me. It all seemed so prepackaged and cute. This experience was a disappointment for me because I couldn’t see myself enjoying designing for it. I could it just didn’t seem like it would be satisfying.

This experience was a disappointment for me because I couldn’t see myself enjoying designing for it. I could it just didn’t seem like it would be satisfying.

This experience was a surprise and left me feeling really lost. The discovery that I knew nothing about the quilting beyond my personal experience with quilts made by my relatives. I tried quilting once and honestly I am not interested in the process at all. It seemed like a lot of work for a blanket.

During my research, I did discover an amazing series of quilts from Gee’s Bend. The quilts are amazing and worth a look. This discovery was the highlight of my research for this lesson.

At the beginning of the chat session for lesson 2, I didn’t know what or who I was planning on targeting with my pattern designs. During the chat, Michelle recommended trueup.net. What a great blog. I went to the blog looking for current trends and found a side of fabric design that I was excited about. It was refreshing and I felt like I could fit into this world. This is a new world that I want to discover.

It was refreshing and I felt like I could fit into this world. This is a new world that I want to discover.

I am going to continue designing fabric for quilting and I am really looking forward to digging deeper and discovering the great designers and their work.

Grumpy type

scott e — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:59:19 +0000

I really can’t help it. I was born this way. Please don’t take it personal, the furrowed brow is genetic.

There comes a point

scott e — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:01:34 +0000

“There comes a point (and it comes very soon sometimes) when, unless he is very firmly convinced that there is something in his idea, it is better to abandon it and start afresh.”

Lewis F. Day | pattern designer
Pattern Design, Dover Publications, Inc., pg 205

A Drip at a Time

scott e — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:31:00 +0000

I have learned a lot from examining the HTML/CSS code from my blogger template and then changing it one parameter at a time. I opened and copied the source code in my browser and pasted it into Dreamweaver. This allowed me to make changes in Dreamweaver. Then I copied the code and pasted back into the Blogger HTML editor.

The process of going back and forth between the two program was slow but it helped me understand the code.

I still have a ways to go but it is getting better.

Learning CSS

scott e — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:04:00 +0000

I have been asked what resources I am using to learn CSS. A Lynda.com membership is the main source and has been very helpful. The process has been really frustrating because there is so much basic CSS knowledge that you need before any of it makes sense. I watched the Dreamweaver CS4 videos several times gaining just a little bit from each pass. Then I built a (very basic) functioning website using an external CSS style sheet. It was a frustrating challenge, but with CSS it is so cool. When I make a change to the CSS style sheet all of the pages in the site are updated. For example, you can update type color site wide. It is like paragraph and character styles in InDesign.

But typography is not the place to start learning CSS. Start with the concept of “div tags”. If you are new to CSS, I know that this means nothing to you but it is the foundation for CSS in Dreamweaver. It is the first major concept that I had to know. (I have used tables in the past to design web pages and, “div tags” are not like tables.)

Once again, start with “div tags” not typography.