With these two kid-friendly bedding collections, Spoonflower artist Nadine Westcott highlights the importance of focusing on your intended audience vs. making designs for everyone. Read on to find out how Nadine created two distinct collections for use by one audience. The post, the 6th in a 7-part artist education series, highlights the design and curation of a bedding collection selected for Spoonflower’s 2023 Summer Lookbook. Along with Nadine’s tips, you’ll also find out how her collections grabbed Spoonflower’s Senior Manager of Merchandising Emerson Jones’s attention.
Nadine Westcott
A former children’s book illustrator, Nadine now spends her time designing patterns for her Spoonflower shop and painting birds as well as botanical art.
Nadine’s 3 Tips for Curating and Designing a Bedding Collection
1. Choose designs based on your intended audience’s interests.
For these collections, I chose designs that I thought would appeal to kids. Therefore, for my undersea-theme collection, I used my Octopus and Seal print as the hero design. I coordinated the hero with a similar pattern, Mermaid and Seal. (Note: this design isn’t in the photograph above, but is in the larger collection curated by Nadine.) Next, I chose the simpler Little Fish and Octopus prints to complement both designs. For my jungle-theme collection, I started with a popular pattern, Cheetahs. Once I knew that was the hero, I added more color with Zebra Skin and Delray Palms.
2. Experiment with scale.
Spoonflower was very helpful in determining the scale of the patterns in these collections because artists have the option to see them on all Spoonflower products after designs have been uploaded. This feature allows artists to see what scale works best on each item. It’s also fun to change it up and use scale to do the unexpected.
3. Don’t forget about adding variety and trusting your gut.
To add variety, I chose some non-directional designs for these collections as well as some patterns with a definite direction. My color choices are chosen by gut feeling; otherwise, they never look right to me.
How does the experience of curating for this project affect how you’ll design for collections moving forward?
The process of putting these collections together made me focus on putting my best work together and then thinking about what defines those patterns as my best work. Moving forward, I’ll concentrate on themes I’m passionate about and make art that is truly original and from the heart.
Take a Better Look at Nadine’s Kid-Friendly Designs
Discover Why These Collections Were Chosen for Our Summer Lookbook
To hear how this collection caught Spoonflower’s Senior Manager of Merchandising Emerson Jones eye for addition to our Summer Lookbook, we asked her about it:
“This bright, bold, two-bed collection lookbook image was styled with visiting grandkids in mind. It was an exciting challenge to curate two kids’ bedding sets with two different themes tailored to specific interests and preferences that still complement each other. Luckily, Nadine Westcott had lovely designs for both an undersea collection and a jungle collection that perfectly fit the bill. Nadine’s background as a children’s book illustrator made her the perfect fit for this feature and her strong illustrative style helped connect the two separate looks. The bold checkerboard wallpaper design in Bright Mid-Century Checks by fellow Spoonflower artist Stephanie West, was the perfect finishing touch to create an inspiring, creative space for young minds.”
