freebies // The 2013 Designer Calendar :: May

Oh my God!!! This year is flying!!! We are a week away from May: a meaningful month for me because we celebrate Mother's Day (at least in Colombia and Italy and I think in other places too). Funnily, Rebecca Greenwood (the talented designer behind Littletree Designs and this month's calendar), created it thinking of her Mom because her birthday is in May. How romantic and festive is her design? Perfect for a special Mom… so don't wait long and print it and give it too yours so she can write her to-dos on a beautiful calendar. 

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About Rebecca: 

"Hello, I'm Rebecca, the designer and illustrator behind Littletree Designs.

Throughout my life I have always wanted a career in the creative industries - Interior Designer, Stylist, Furniture Designer - but my love of colour and pattern won over them all.

I am originally from Essex in the rainy UK. I studied Printed Textile Design at De Montfort University in the city of Leicester, from which I graduated in 2007. More recently I completed Modules 1-3 of the e-course 'The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design' run by the talented designer Rachael Taylor and Beth Nichols.

Being a designer comes naturally to me, I see shapes and pattern all around me – I often ‘think’ in pattern! My style in three words would be Graphic and Colourful with a Retro influence. I design with the end use in mind being for mainly stationary, fabric, kids, cards and giftwrap and homewares.

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In the future I would love to see my designs in stores such as Paperchase, M&S, Heals etc. And maybe one day have my own range of stationary or homewares."

Her quirky detail: 

"Hmm...a quirky detail about myself...I love to cook/bake, I am ADDICTED to cookery shows and I own far too many cookbooks!"

Her favourite Designer:

"That is a tough question! My favourite surface designer would have to be Caroline Gardener. I just love her cards and gift wrap."

You can download May here or clicking on the download link below the image above, and remember, it can be printed as big as an A3 format (42x29.7cm / 16.5x11.7in). Don't forget to visit Rebecca's portfolio to see more of her lovely work and her blog to soak on inspiration. 

giveaway // Reign Repeats: create perfect repeat patterns in Adobe Illustrator

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Good morning everyone! I have great news :)

I've partnered with the awesome team of Skillshare to teach Reign Repeats: create perfect repeat patterns in Adobe Illustrator. The class is for surface pattern designers, graphic designer, illustrators, artists, crafters and anyone else who is interested in pattern design using Adobe Illustrator. 

You'll submerge in the wonderful world of patterns, and learn how to use the basic Illustrator tools to bring to life your ideas. You'll learn how to create a repeat, both the old-school way and using Illustrator CS6 new Pattern Tool. At the end of the class you'll be able to create your own designs for you to use however you want; for example, to sell your own fabric on Spoonflower. To help you get started with this, you'll create a repeat for a Spoonflower contest as part of the final project.

The Tourist Guides [tea towels] designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

I'll explain you how to get your hand-drawn sketches vectorised (even if you don't have a scanner), how to apply colour and then easily re-colour your design to create new colour ways, the different types of repeats and how to make them, and how to solve most of the common problems that arise when using Illustrator. I'll also teach you how to prepare perfect files for you to get your best results on Spoonflower.

The Tourist Guides [sketches] designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

The Tourist Guides designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

At the end of the class, I'll choose the top 15 designs and will showcase them here on the blog and on my Facebook page. For a week I'll ask my readers to vote for their favourite designs and the top 3 voted will receive some fab prizes donated by Spoonflower. I would like to thank them for such amazing gifts and for being happy to be part of the class. 

This course will be packed with lots of useful info, helpful resources, and inspirational interviews from great designers that have come to reign repeats. If you can't wait to get your ideas on to fabric or any other printed surface, don't miss the class… enroll now!

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To celebrate my first Skillshare class, I'll award two of you with full scholarships and other two with half scholarships. Complete all the steps below to gain multiple entries and increase your winning chances. I'll announce the four lucky winners on Monday May 20th (if you decide to enroll before this date and end up being one of the winners, I'll refund the paid fee).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Copy and paste the code below on your blog/website and spread the word about the course, and get 2 extra entries on the giveaway raffle :)

<div align="center"><a href="http://skl.sh/11jgtiL" title="MaJoBV + Skillshare class" target="_blank"><img src="http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac199/MaJoBV/MaJoBV_ReignRepeatsEcourse-button150px_zps6bf4490b.jpg" alt="MaJoBV + Skillshare class" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

contests // 1000 Dog Portraits

Rockport Publishers and Modern Dog Design Co. invited  artists, illustrators, and designers around the world to submit artwork with dogs as main subjects for their next book titled: 1000 Dog Portraits. Being the big dog fan I am, I couldn't not participate. Take a look at the illustrations I submitted :)

Matita is my Italian dog: she's a mixed breed but somewhere in there, there's supposed to be some kind of terrier.

Matita designed by 2008 © Maria José Bautista V

 Bruno is a German Boxer and he's one of the 4 dogs my father has in the farm in Colombia. He's so sweet, in spite of the gladiator face.

Bruno designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

Zagala is my Grandma and Aunt Lili's dog; she's a cute French Poodle. She never gets those ridiculous poodle haircuts, but just for the fun of it, I decided to portrayed her in Paris with a new more fashionable style, hehehe.

Zagala designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

Zagala [detail] designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

And here's Snack, a Beagle. I don't own any beagle, so he's imaginary (and so is his name), but I imagine him being a true explorer ;)

Snack designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

The last one is Woof!: an imaginary mongrel I created for an old Spoonflower contest. You can buy this design on fabric, wallpaper and giftwrap here. 

Woof, Fetch! designed by 2012 © Maria José Bautista V

So… what do you think of them? I hope you like them.

The Judges will choose their favourite pieces today, and I really hope they'll include in some (if not all, hehehe) of mine in the new book.

life // it's time to pick a side

I've been meaning to create these designs for a while to show my position about marriage equality: evidently I SUPPORT IT, and want to spread the word as much as I can. If you want to show the world what side are you on with my designs, you can get them all as art prints, tech gadgets, clothing and pillows on my society6 shop. I will donate all proceedings from the sales of these three designs to the Marriage Equality Campaign. 

equality designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

equality love designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

equality love II designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

If you want to also show your support online, click on the links below each image to download the buttons and add them to your blogs, websites and facebook pages. Don't forget to link them back to this post for people to know more about them (just copy/paste this link: 
http://muymajobv.blogspot.it/2013/04/life-its-time-to-pick-side.html). Thanks!

• Equality

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• Equality Love

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• Equality Love II

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shop // happy

Hi everyone!

I wanted to introduce you to my new design Happy. What do you think?

happy designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

You can now get this design on my society6 shop in a variety of articles to beautify your days. Plus, click here to get free shipping until midnight (PCT) Sunday April 14th.

happy designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

contests // Tigerprint :: male pattern

Yesterday was the deadline for Tigerprint's latest design competition. This time the brief was to design a pattern or placement print for the male market. Here are my two entries, both inspired by a classic English icon that never grows old (just like most men), but everyone loves :)

boys rock 1 designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

boys rock 1 designed by 2013 © Maria José Bautista V

If you want to see the other entries, you can see the complete gallery here.

news // Artscase video

I wanted to share with you the awesome video the team over at Artscase created to promote my designs. Thank you so much guys!!! It is awesome :D

Liked what you saw? Then click here to visit the shop :)

contests // MOYO design brief :: Floral Twist

MOYO's third issue included another design brief, and I couldn't help to submit some designs. The theme this time is Floral Twist and meant to make designers look at flowers outside of the box. Check out my Sabor de Orquídea mini collection inspired by the different textures in orchids' petals, and let me know what you think :)

red de orquídea designed by Maria José Bautista V

tejido de orquídea designed by Maria José Bautista V

cartografía de orquídea designed by Maria José Bautista V

Fun fact: Colombia is the country with the most number of orchid species, and one of them (cattleya trianae) is our national flower :)