News for the ‘Patterns’ Category

Underwater color magic

As a child, I had a fish tank. A very small one and just fresh water, but I really go into it and spent endless hours looking at the beautiful colors of my guppies and zebra fish. I also had some pretty plants and colored stones in there. Then I moved away from Switzerland and never got a new tank. Somehow I just came across this stunning YouTube video of a salt water reef tank. The beauty of nature is truly blowing me away, I am in awe!

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Introducing my first line of rugs – Satori

I am thrilled to announce that my long time dream to design a line of rugs has become a reality. As of today, my first rug collection Satori is now available through Lindstrom Rugs, a rug company based in Los Angeles.

My collection consists of 8 rug designs in 4 featured colors. The rugs are hand woven in Nepal and are primarily sold to interior designers who can customize the rugs by choosing their own color schemes, size and materials.

Below are a few samples in various color schemes. You can see the entire collection at lindstromrugs.com/satori.html

This is the first of two collections. I am currently working on the second collection which is scheduled to launch on Mai 1st.

TARGET PRACTICE

WAVE LENGTH

SOLID PATH

SITE PLAN

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Love birds

Whenever I go on an an airplane trip, I bring a sketch book along to doodle around as I “wait” to arrive at my destination. These birds came to life on a trip to Switzerland last December. Yesterday I looked through my sketchbook and decided to scan my love birds and start coloring them in Illustrator. Here’s the beginning of what I hope will become a full collections of love birds in paradise.

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Featured Artist: Isabelle Kunz

This post is way overdue. I just cleaned up my image folders and came across these picture. It needs a little explanation up front to put things into context.

When I was in Kindergarden, I had a sweetheart, his name was Daniel. Fast forward 35 years, he contacts me through facebook. He still lives in Switzerland, is now an architect, married to an architect with two children. I was happy to hear from him after all that time and thought it was fun to tell him that I, too am now married to an architect. Well, this is where the story gets interesting. I am telling him that I am a UX designer but spend a significant amount of my non work time, doing surface design and send him a link to my NadjaDesign.com website. It turns out that his wife, Isabelle, is also a surface designer on the side, so he gets me in touch with her.

This is where Isa and I become virtual friends. She in Switzerland, me in Seattle. She sends me resources on how to get our own fabric printed in small quantities (Spoonflower), webgo in together on getting breadboards printed to split the cost and just keep encouraging each other to move forward with our passion for surface design. All that happened in 2008/2009. In 2010 I am finally visiting Switzerland again and of course we meet. My husband and Daniel hit it off immediately, taking a day trip to Daniel’s construction site while geeking out over Architecture. And I feel like I’ve known Isa for years. We have so much in common with our passion for 2D patterns, color and form, architects, growing up in Switzerland… oh and did I mention that both of our dads were eye doctors! Crazy…!

I am a huge fan of Isa’s work, it’s just so heartwarming. Looking at her designs makes me happy!

You can check out her designs on her website: http://troismiettes.com
And her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TroisMiettes

Below is a picture of her beautiful work space that she put together in her house in Bern, Switzerland. It’s just so perfectly adorable, I want to move in!

And a picture of the two of us last August in her Kitchen (Isa on the right). She is as beautiful as her work.

Isa gave me a few of her new tea towels (literally fresh off the press) as a gift. I put them in my kitchen as art… my husband is not allowed to use them for hands or dishes! He’s okay with that, as long as I do the dishes.

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A Mexican love story

Last week, two of my favorite people got married. To celebrate their union, they invited friends and family to spend a week with them in paradise (aka Tulum, Mexico). It was a perfect week with lots of sunshine, beautiful weather, good friends and very much love!

Below are a few sketches that I drew on the beach. Happy life together Angela and Hernan!

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Homemade roasted squash ravioli

For my birthday I got a pasta maker. It actually took some time to convince my minimalist husband to add another “machine” to our kitchen. So now I have to prove that I am worthy of the clutter. Seasonal for fall, I decided to make raviolis with a roasted  squash, parmesan and toasted almond filling and it am happy to report that it was well worth the time it took to clean up the flower dusted kitchen. If you’re interested in making them yourself, here are a couple of recipes that I mixed and matched to create my own: recipe one |  recipe two

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Summer fun with MOGO Click Flops

About a year ago, I was commissioned to design a repeating pattern for the tween charm bracelet company MOGO. The idea was to use the design as a prominent visual element for their new flip flops. Just in time for summer, the “Click Flops” (cute name!) arrived in stores (online and brick & mortar). I can’t wait to get my fingers (and toes!) on them!

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Number 3 Pattern

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