FolioFocus portfolio review winner 2016
FolioFocus portfolio review winner 2016
In October last year, I took part, along with approximately five hundred people, on a portfolio building course. We were given a whole variety of briefs and I loved them! Over the weekend I found out that I was a FolioFocus portfolio review winner 2016! How cool is that!! For this prize, there were actually two winners, so in fact I was a joint winner.
I was in shock when I scrolled down the page on the Rise Design and Shine blog, to find my name and a couple pieces of my work staring right at me. There were so many talented designers on the course (too many to mention) and when I submitted a sample of the work I produced on the course, I didn’t ever think that I would be selected by Bonnie Christine for a portfolio review. It was a total surprise!
I loved each design brief, yet the projects I enjoyed the most would have to be:
Christmas bird dinnerware collection
Birds seem to be popular at Christmas, especially in the first four days of the carol ’12 days of Christmas’. I thought my birds would sit perfectly on dinnerware and I painted them in bright and pastel colours.
Geometric abstract sportswear collection
I had lots of fun playing with shapes, colours and textures for my geometric, abstract print collection. I kept to a feminine colour palette, mixing brighter colours with pastel shades. I’d love to extend this range one day and create more abstract patterns.
Let it snow illustration
At the moment, I’m really enjoying creating characters for children’s illustration. For this piece, I wanted each monster to portray its own personality and I put them against a snowy mountain scene, which was perfect for the time when I designed them, back in November when the weather really started to get cold. I can see this illustration on children’s apparel and on stationery too.
Floral perfume greeting card set
I love painting flowers. They’re quite a challenge to get right and for this brief, I painted perfume bottles too. Some of the perfume bottles have decorative detailing and I made others silhouettes. I kept the colours bright and added a lace pattern in the background for one of the card designs and inside its envelope too.
The feedback from Bonnie was very positive and encouraging. Getting good feedback definitely boosts your confidence and at least I know I’m creating designs that people enjoy to see. One of the comments from Bonnie was that she can see my designs used on all sorts of projects, ranging from children’s clothing, home decor, apparel to stationery and more!
Cheers to a productive 2017!
Emma Jayne x