Meet the Designer: Vince Desjardins aka Vinpauld

when my mom gave me her set of books from the Famous Artists correspondence school and then began encouraging me to draw.

My digital toolbox consists of Corel Painter 12, Adobe Illustrator CS4 and Photoshop CS4. My “real” physical world toolbox consists of a Pentel brush pen, Pigma Micron pens, Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens in various colors, and Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor pencils in a wide range of colors.

I feel safe, cozy and happy.

I have three primary sources of inspiration. The first one comes from things I see in nature, especially on my walks with my dog, either in our local park or on local hikes (I frequently carry a camera with me and take lots of reference pictures of trees and flowers). Since I consider myself primarily an illustrator, my second source of inspiration comes from vintage children’s books, especially the Little Golden Books from the 1950s and 1960s. I love the works of J.P. Miller, Alice and Martin Provensen, Richard Scarry, Garth Williams, Tibor Gergely, Gustaf Tenggren and of course Mary Blair. My third source of inspiration comes from old movies and TV shows. I find that when I’m watching an old film, I’m always keeping an eye out for beautiful patterns and color palettes. Sometimes, especially if I’m watching a DVD that I can pause, I will get out my camera and take a picture of a pattern right off the paused image on the TV screen.

Bloomington is lucky in that it has a number of wonderful, independently owned shops. My favorites are Gather: Handmade Shoppe & Co., Bloomington Stitchery, The Book Corner, Vintage Phoenix Comic Books and a little farther out in Greencastle, Indiana is Conspire: Contemporary Craft.

“September Sunshine, Adel Woods,” a 1998 painting by the late British botanical, wildlife and landscape painter Raymond Booth.

something soft and lightweight like a cotton jersey and most likely be a shade of dark blue. I usually wear solid colors or dark plaids, but if it had a design on it, it would probably be a fox, rabbit or dog.

Fleece, because it is so soft and I don’t have to worry about it fraying. I really should make more things with it, but most of my projects are made from either the Basic Cotton Ultra because it’s relatively inexpensive or the Linen Cotton Canvas Ultra (I make a lot of tea towels).

an animated film. Knowing that will probably never happen, I’d be happy to see one of my designs turned into a duvet cover.

something I feel I’m still trying to figure out. I believe in letting your personality show through in your work and I tend to be drawn to subjects that excite me – animals, flowers, vintage style, but when I’m working on a new design, I rarely think past the one design I’m working on. My collections on Spoonflower tend to be grouped by subject matter rather than by whether or not they relate to one another in color or style. I need to work on creating ’spin-offs’ from my designs that could be looked at and instantly recognized as being part of a collection.

“Don’t give up, perseverance pays off.”

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 You can visit Vince’s Spoonflower shop and view his entire collection of nature-inspired designs. Connect with him on the web via his website, and don’t forget to check out his Etsy shop.