Circles in a Pinstripe World

While doodling this bracelet, I was thinking about one of my husband's old ties he used to wear while he was a medical student years ago. It was bright yellow, matched nothing he owned, and had diagonal pinstripes in blues marching sedately down it.

I think the tie went the way of the world many, many moves ago, but the thought of that tie and its colours made me want to play with something that evoked a similar feeling of colour, with a bit more dynamic feeling in the design.

It's good to try and change things up when designing. You want to give yourself challenges.

Try to make a design with lines (as above), and yet have a sense of movement to the image. Rather than have the eyes follow the same path over and over again, as it did in the original tie, aim for ways to make the eye move up and down, back and forth.

Try to get the eye to be arrested on one particular element, using bold blocks of colour (see the big yellow triangle?) or by introducing something unique to the design, that is unexpected (little circle dudes!).

Look for ordinary items in your home that have patterns and ask yourself how you might use them in your designs. Look for ways to change the ordinary into something new and different.