I am Heidi Vilkman, an illustrator and surface pattern designer. My art is influenced by my Nordic roots and the folktales and mythology of nature around me and in my soul.
I have always loved and made art, since I was a little girl. The act of creating marks, colours and stories on various surfaces and materials, contains the magic I see in the world, ready to be assembled together in various, often surprising ways. There is something truly wonderful about taking an idea in one’s head and turning it into a visible thing – a creation of the mind, fuelled by imagination, made concrete by fingers, and tools, whatever those may be.
So what is surface pattern design?
For over five years I have been selling my own products, including cards, gift wrap and stationery, printed with my own designs. For some reason, until about two years ago, I never considered that this type of design was called ‘surface design’, or in the case of repeating patterns, ‘surface pattern design’. Yet, the world is full of surface design, and it is the form of design, the majority of us see every day around us. Whenever there is a design on a surface, this indeed is called surface design. So, in effect, surface design means ‘design applied to a surface’, including: packaging, fabric, stationery, homeware and pretty much any product that we commonly see, buy and use. The term ‘surface pattern design’ refers to a repeating pattern within that design.
