11 Aug 2014

10 QUESTIONS with LAMAI McCARTAN

Welcome to our our very first BLOG interview!! This is the inception of Surface Design Australia... a wonderful and exciting collaborative by like minded Aussies bent on show casing the talent that our country has to offer.... and we are worth it!!!!!!!

Its amazing how many Australians are going under the radar for their talent and its now our goal to bring them to the surface and expose them for the creative talent that they possess.








INTERVIEW WITH LAMAI McCARTAN




Lamai McCartan



SDA: Congratulations on your awesome achievement winning the latest design competition with Spoonflower in conjunction with Robert Kaufman and Fabric8.  Can you tell us about your background and what inspired you to do design?

Lamai: I have always had a need to express myself creatively. When I was young, I would spend hours in my room writing and illustrating stories for my younger brothers! The first ever story I wrote was about a lonely bat in a zoo! I was 10 and I was so proud of that little story, written on pages torn from an old roll of printer paper.

I had an awkward childhood, dealing with the absence of my parents. I wish I had enrolled myself in a design course of some sort but unfortunately I didn’t have that luxury. I had to concentrate on surviving on my own, taking work at call centres and office admin jobs. But I would often paint and draw on the weekends.

It was not until I was 25 that I took a job in the local paper as a Signwriting apprentice, not knowing what a Signwriter even did but it sounded good! It was a four year apprenticeship and I learnt about digital design and digital printing. I was hooked!

When I was pregnant with my first child, I decided to leave the world of Signwriting and follow my dreams of being a designer. My husband was an incredibly supportive guy and he still is to this day. I couldn’t have come this far without him.

SDA: What asset/possession could your business not live without?
Lamai: My custom built apple iMac. I love her! I sometimes get in trouble for spending too much time with her…

SDA: Describe your creative process and style.

Lamai: I spend a lot of time doodling or opening a blank page in illustrator and just ‘computer doodling’ as I call it, creating icons or images that ‘flow’ from me without the pressure of having to create something for a particular project. I have a folder of them that I can refer back to when I need to. From there, they are developed into projects I am working on.

I wouldn’t say that I have a particular style. Maybe I do but I just don’t see it. But I do tend to create ‘cute’ images. I have always been drawn to Kawaii and Kitsch.



Yeti and Bird Print by Lamai McCartan


SDA: If you met someone in the industry that you admire what 3 things would you want to ask them?

Lamai: I would love to know how they stay positive, committed and passionate about their work. Where they find inspiration and also, in their years of experience, what jobs or projects they found were lucrative and what has been a complete waste of time.

SDA: What kind of designer do you want to be known as?

When working with companies like Robert Kaufman, I want to be known as an easy and pleasurable designer to work with, who gives 100% and is hard working. Amongst my peers I want to be helpful, share my experiences and offer my support whenever I can.

SDA: In an industry where work fluctuates so greatly do you feel its important to have a source of passive income from your designs or is this a hobby for you personally.

I think it’s important not to place all your eggs in one basket. I work full time as a designer and currently have five projects on the go. Work definitely fluctuates but the more seeds you sew now, the better off you will be later once they all start flourishing. It can take a while to see your hard work pay off but once it does, it’s so worth it. In saying that, you definitely need your ‘bread and butter’ work to keep you ticking over.




Robin Art Print by Lamai McCartan


SDA: Describe your dream surface design project.

I’m a home wares shopaholic so seeing my work on a range of bedding, prints or kitchenware would be amazing. I’m not fussy though so anything home related would be pretty cool.

SDA: What advice would you give someone wanting to become a surface pattern designer?

If you start off with little experience like me, enrol in a course like Lilla Rogers MATS. Buy books, follow blogs like print and pattern, absorb as much information as you can. Spoonflower is a wonderful starting platform. Enter their competitions and get a feel for what people like, don’t like and what they respond too. You may think that you know what people ‘like’ but most often than not, you are way off the mark. I have done stuff that I thought would be an instant hit and have bombed and I have done stuff that I have literally hated and they have been a huge success! Just be willing to step out of your comfort zone and create all sorts of different pieces of work to start off with and most importantly, don’t hesitate to share your work with the world!!


Budgies Print by Lamai McCartan


SDA: Can you explain the process, the inspiration and the pitfalls (if any) in your latest design competition with Spoonflower?

The inspiration behind entering fabric8 - I was entering every single Spoonflower competition I possibly could and fabric8 was one of them. I think the guys at Spoonflower got sick of seeing my work, I shoved it in their face so much!! The motive behind it was not to win first prize, but like I said before, to get a feel for what sort of work people were responding too. Once I started getting into the top 10 for their weekly competitions, I really started to understand what worked for me. I never in a million years thought I would win fabric8. There has been no pitfalls so far. It has all been such an amazing experience.

 SDA: Where to from here?

It’s a really crucial time for me right now. The publicity that fabric8 has generated has been amazing. I just have to make sure that I make the best of this amazing opportunity and utilise it for the future. Hopefully I make the right decisions and set myself up for the next few years.



Cockatoo Art Print by Lamai McCartan

Where can we find Lamai McCartan
Spoonflower profile - http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/lamai
Blog - http://lamaimccartan.blogspot.com.au/




Surface Design Australia