Elevated Classics: Spoonflower Design Challenge

My 9th challenge entry this year at Spoonflower. I've ranked as low as 1603 and as high as 307. But as exciting as it would be to rank in the top 100, that's not really why I participate. I join in for the challenge to my skillset, to stretch myself outside my comfort zone, to grow as a designer.

The brief for this challenge:

"Timeless patterns get a sophisticated refresh. Elevated Classics reimagines enduring motifs through modern color, refined scale, and elevated simplicity. Celebrate the beauty of heritage patterns: checks, plaid, stripes, gingham, houndstooth, and geometrics — updated with warm, comforting palettes and clean, contemporary styling."

And the color palettes suggested: chocolate brown; camel and oat; olive and moss; deep navy; burgundy and oxblood; forest green; charcoal and soft black; warm ivory, cream, and stone.

Heritage motifs with a contemporary spin? That’s my kind of puzzle.

When I read "and geometrics" in the brief, my mind immediately jumped to argyle. But how to elevate it, make it modern? The truth? I don't know. But I thought I'd try large diamonds (but not too large, since this was a fabric challenge), with the darker diamonds placed to create the illusion of a larger diamond. Diamonds within diamonds. I elongated the dashes, gave them sharp edges, widened the gaps. And then, the olive and moss colorway did the rest. (I hope!)

Voting is open until Tuesday, September 22nd. Browse all the beautiful submissions and vote on your faves.

You can see this argyle in all its colorways on Spoonflower. Most of the colorways also came from the challenge: olive & moss (of course), oxblood & burgundy, forest green, deep navy, camel & oat, chocolate brown, and charcoal & soft black. It was giving fall, Christmas, & winter vibes, so I added a terracotta orange colorway and a plum colorway, for a total of nine.

As always, the challenge inspired an entire collection — Elevated Classic Geometrics. I included four of my favorite geometrics: herringbone, houndstooth, windowpane plaid, and tonal gingham. Same nine colorways as the argyle. See more on the portfolio page or explore on Spoonflower.

How would you elevate a classic geometric?