I thought it would be fun to share a bit of our design process at Made on 23rd and show you how our printing blocks are created.

We begin with inspiration.....imagery research of design elements that we find fasinating.

I think it is fun to mix two or more inspiration elements that seem incompatible. Here we have iron work that I found in Paris and a collection of very modern chairs. In the photo on the right you can see the drawings that were inspired by the images on the left.

When the drawings are finished, I scan them to the computer and manipulate them in Photoshop. You can see how the original drawing changed in the design progression above.

The design is then put in a repeat pattern and sent to our CNC machine to be cut.

Watching the CNC machine cut the design is mesmerizing! This is one of my favorite steps of the design process.

And then we have printing blocks!

The final step in the process is to see how the blocks perform....and....if they pass the performance test....

they are printed with color and added to our pattern line. This pattern was printed with white and metallic gold ink and will soon be a Christmas table runner.

The Evolution of a Design