Ammi Lahtinen sketching for the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project

One of the most recent pattern design collections of Ammi Lahtinen consist of three pattern designs, Poimintoja, Palkit, and Kohti korkeuksia, which were created while she was sketching for the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project.

Ammi tells that the sketches were made intuitively, with the only goal of filling the sketchbook with different kinds of colors, surfaces, and technique tests: 

“When nowadays a big part of the design process is done on the computer, I think the hands-on sketching with different types of materials, like cutting and gluing paper, brings needed balance to the creative work. It feels good to find the creative flow without any specific goal – other than filling a sketchbook.” 

“First I painted the papers. For the floral patterns, I used solid surfaces and for the abstract pattern Palkit, I made vertical stripes. Then I cut out shapes of flowers and leaves. The stripes I cut to horizontal strips, breaking the lines, and placed those on the sketchbook page in a different order, leaving gaps between them.” Ammi describes the sketching process.

The final patterns are finished on a computer. Ammi used the sketches as a base because she wanted to keep the hand-made feel of the slightly variating repetition rhythm and texture. Depending on the colors of the pattern, on a small scale, the texture can be just a blending detail, or on a bigger scale, more rough and visible. The look and scale of these, as any other patterns, can be adjusted according to the use of the pattern. So, please don’t hesitate to ask if you like the patterns and want to know how it would work with your technique & products!

As said, the original ideas for these patterns came, while Ammi was sketching for the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project. Based in New York, it is the world’s largest collection of artists’ and designers’ sketchbooks. You can take a look at Ammi’s sketchbook over here.