Close your eyes and imagine a space where your favorite makers all get together in one place for you and your friends to shop. Lucky for you, and thanks to the Renegade Craft Fair, you don’t just have to imagine this magical place! The Renegade Craft Fair is the world’s largest curated showcase of independent crafters and designers, now with fairs in 12 cities across the world. Today we’re so pleased to welcome Madelon Juliano, Associate Creative Director at Renegade Craft Fair. We first met Madelon when she started printing the fair’s event banners on Spoonflower’s Poly Crepe de Chine. and today we’re so pleased to welcome her to the blog (and now the Spoonflower Marketplace!) to learn more about her involvement with RCF and find out how her custom designs went from paper to poly. 

Behind the Scenes of Renegade Craft Fair | Spoonflower Blog
Using Poly Crepe de Chine, Madelon turned her artwork into event décor for the Renegade Craft Fair. Photo via Renegade Craft Fair

My involvement with Renegade Craft Fair is:

“I have been working for Renegade for a little under 8 years now. I started as an info booth volunteer at our Chicago flagship event and quickly began managing and buying for the little shop we had at the time, Renegade Handmade. After closing the shop, I continued as an official RCF employee from then on. I’ve hand my hands in nearly every pot at Renegade but have settled into my new role as Associate Creative Director. I do everything from creating GIFS and icons for the RCF website, to jurying and curating the fairs, to designing our info booth + collateral, to creating Flag Installations for the events (that the lovely Spoonflower makes possible!).”

Behind the Seams of the Renegade Craft Fair
Madelon’s designs make a statement as banners at the 2016 Austin holiday fair. Photo by Hollin Brodeur

My background is in:

“Design! I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I mainly focused in Fiber and Material Studies. I’ve spent double the time at RCF that I spent at SAIC, so I consider my time with Renegade as my Masters Degree in Design (and so many other things!). I have RCF to thank for developing my art practice as it stands today.”

Behind the Scenes of the Renegade Craft Fair | Spoonflower Blog
Madelon’s whimsical designs before they’re turned into banners.

My inspiration for the Renegade Craft Fair banners comes from:

“The Creative Team comes together with images + colors and overall vibes that inspire us. This leads to a breakdown of what direction we want to go in for all of our Creative Deliverables. This includes e-flyers, posters, postcards, etc. etc. Once we’ve locked down some colors, a vibe, I just go for it and start painting, cutting out paper, drawing and scanning. Then I take the scans into photoshop and create large files where I play around with my designs and make the final fabric layouts! Sometimes it feels like magic and sometimes I’m so uninspired that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to design anything. Ever again. So far that hasn’t been the case….fingers crossed!

The flags have become a fixture of RCF and help make the blank spaces we set up in feel more intimate and creative. We’ve been using Spoonflower to produce the flags since 2015.

Behind the Scenes of the Renegade Craft Fair | Spoonflower Blog
Madelon preps her Poly Crepe de Chine banners for the next Renegade Craft Fair show

My design toolbox is made up of:

“I use my two mitts. Paints, paper, colored pencils.  A scanner. My phone camera (lol). And finally Photoshop!”

My work is inspired by:

“Nature. I love camping and river rafting and I always try to go there in my head when I design.”

My advice for someone trying to create a statement piece for an event is:

“Play with color. Play with texture and different materials, hand paint and draw instead of working digitally. You can always mess around with colors/textures in design programs later, so don’t be afraid to do something weird!”

Behind the Scenes of the Renegade Craft Fair | Spoonflower Blog
Stitching banners for the holiday Renegade Craft Fair shows is an all hands on deck effort! Madelon’s partner Patrick is ready to lend his sewing skills.

I chose Poly Crepe de Chine for the Renegade Craft Fair banners because: 

“I spoke with a Spoonflower rep and explained what I wanted, which was something transparent, (essentially double sided), lightweight and easy to wash/transport. They suggested Poly Crepe de Chine and I never went back!”

I turned my banner idea from a vision into a reality by:

“I’m a free and easy kinda gal when it comes to making art and I feel good when I make something that I really love. Spoonflower makes it easy to take my paintings/scan them and make them into something more substantial and exciting. But I’m probably preaching to the choir here? I really love making fabric.”

Behind the Seams of the Renegade Craft Fair

Behind the Seams of the Renegade Craft Fair | Spoonflower Blog
Photo by Anna-Alexia Basile

Inspired to transform your artwork into fabric just like Madelon? Take a closer look at some of our favorite design resources.


Madelon wrangles *most* things creative at Renegade Craft Fair, makes fun gifs and icons for our website + social media, and juries and curates the events. Outside of RCF she’s extremely food focused and is working on slowly remodeling her little house. She loves painting, drawing, surface design and making lil’ clay thingys.