Hello!
Welcome to The Pattern Social. I am Jules McKeown, a surface pattern designer and Senior Lecturer in BA Textile Design at Leeds Arts University. I am originally from the beautiful West coast of Scotland. I now live in Leeds, West Yorkshire with my husband and young son. I founded The Pattern Social in 2015 as a design collaborative working with other designers and educators to promote contemporary pattern design.
I love pattern, colour and often getting my hands dirty with a paintbrush or even better, a squeegee in the print room! My textile journey began at the amazing Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, Scotland where I studied Printed Textile design. Following that - a Masters of Textile Design at Winchester School of Art specialising in Fashion print allowed me to pursue my dream as working as a print designer in London and New York.
After a number of years working in industry I decided it was time to do my own thing and set up as a freelance textile designer. Many years on, I am still lucky enough to be doing this and had the opportunity to work with a wide range of clients across many product sectors from fashion, home, stationery, greetings to book illustration and exhibit my work at international textile design events - Surtex in New York and Premier Vision, Paris.
My work (and wardrobe!) encapsulates my love of bold colour and clashing pattern that mixes different eclectic styles and influences; from mid-century Retro, slick Memphsis graphics to Liberty print florals. The artwork starts off hand generated in a sketchbook or postcard combining various methodologies from collage, mark making to simply drawing with marker pens. These are often developed digitally depending on the outcome using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or Procreate. I don’t have one specific design style - there are too many exciting ways of working for me to focus on one. I love to play creatively and see what happens.
As a design educator and a naturally chatty person, I enjoy sharing my practice and techniques through my role as a Senior textile design lecturer, visiting lectures at events, drawing & painting workshops and most recently through Instagram. It is important for me to encourage the next generation of designers to the skills and joy of surface pattern design.
If you would like to work together creatively or are interested in workshops or professional practice talks to students, I would love to hear from you.
Have a great day!
Jules x