Designed by Fi

Thirty days ago, I started a challenge to create one pattern a day for 100 days.

At the time, the goal was fairly simple.

I wanted to stop overthinking.

I’d spent plenty of time learning, watching tutorials, collecting inspiration, creating motifs and moving things around in Illustrator. What I hadn’t done was build a substantial body of work. The challenge was my way of getting out of my own way.

Thirty days later, I have thirty patterns.

You’ll see from this sample that some are good. Some are not. A few have surprised me. And almost all of them have taught me something.

What I didn’t expect was that the challenge would become less about pattern design and more about understanding my own creative process.

The Challenge Is the Container

One of the most useful things I’ve discovered is that structure and creativity are not opposites.

When I started, the challenge felt restrictive. One pattern a day. Limited time. No endless revisions. No waiting until inspiration arrived.

What I’ve realised is that the structure isn’t the goal. It’s the container.

The challenge provides enough structure to keep me moving. It stops me disappearing down rabbit holes and spending three hours moving a motif half a centimetre to the left and then back again.

The container creates the conditions for creativity.

If the challenge is the container, everything else is the ridiculous chain of connections.

Over the past month I’ve become fascinated by how ideas emerge.

A tree outside my window became a pattern inspired by prehistoric forests. A leaf motif became a scallop. A scallop became a coral reef. A photograph of a blanket became a topographic map.

None of those connections make much sense when viewed logically. Yet they make perfect sense while I’m making the work.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the challenge is that recurring themes are beginning to emerge.

I don’t think the challenge has created them. I think it has revealed them.

Looking back across the first thirty days, I can see myself repeatedly returning to structure and freedom, graphic forms and organic shapes, texture and mark-making, storytelling through pattern, curiosity and experimentation, and nature, geology and natural history.

Apparently, I can only stay away from dinosaurs for so long.

The challenge has also taught me some practical things.

I enjoy hand-drawn marks more than perfectly constructed motifs. I like patterns that have space and breathing room. I enjoy graphic structure, but I’m usually more interested in the organic elements that sit around it.

Reflection Reveals the Roots

The biggest lesson so far is that the pattern itself isn’t always the most important outcome.

The pattern is the visible result. Beneath it sits a network of observations, interests, memories, experiments and associations.

Like the roots beneath a tree, they’re usually hidden. The rhythm of creating and reflecting has helped me notice those roots.

Thirty days ago, I thought I was starting a pattern challenge. What I’ve actually started is a conversation with my own creative practice.

I’m beginning to understand not just what I make, but why I make it.

So here’s to Day 30. Seventy more patterns. Countless more connections. And hopefully a few more surprises along the way.