“Aerial” – Flocks of moving birds by Anna Kuukka

We have been admiring the professional, fragile design style of Anna Kuukka since we met her at our portfolio review some years back. In the end, she joined Patternsfrom Agency’s designer pool in spring 2020. We asked her to describe the design process of the “Aerial” pattern family. This is how she replied.

“For me, the concept of the design comes first – what kind of storyline does it create, what’s the overall look and feel of the product family? With this particular print series, I wanted to convey a sense of open-air and the freedom of birdlife.

After coming up with the concept for the design I usually know the direction I want the end result to look like. So usually I just pick up my chosen medium and start creating graphical elements. Then (quite diligently!) I polish and compose them on the computer to achieve the look I’m satisfied with.

I rarely do single designs if I’m not directly commissioned to create a stand-alone print. Instead, I really enjoy editing, mixing, and matching my patterns to support each other and work together on a range of products. Coloring is an essential phase in managing collections!

My design “Rainclouds” is a nice, texture-based print that works well on many interior surfaces. I created the original artwork with a soft pencil, so the final outcome has an organic hand-drawn feel about it. It makes the design approachable and friendly.

I really put a lot of heart in the “Flock” -pattern, depicting a cloud of birds flying in the sky. Although the end result seems almost sketchy, I wanted the design to relate the freedom of movement, the continuously changing form of the group, to capture the same airy feeling as the birds have as they are flying!

I love putting together mock-up images; to me, they just light up the designs! It’s also an effective way to help a customer to understand the potential of a print, bringing it closer to reality. While creating the “Swallow” design, I took the ‘less is more’ direction. Sometimes you have to give the main figure the central stage; here, the motions of a flying bird are enough to create a powerful design.”