I'm a Finnish-born illustrator and surface pattern designer, specialising in hand drawn botanical design, rooted in stories and folklore. In this post I share how my patterns come to life - from research and hand-drawn sketches to the finished story-led designs.
April 4, 2022
I'm a Finnish-born biophilic illustrator and surface pattern designer, based in West Yorkshire. My work draws from the natural world, from folklore, and years of research into the stories that landscapes, plants, and animals carry with them. The patterns and illustrations I create for brands are rooted in botanical world and cultural detail: everything start with a story and the design emerges from the core of that narrative.
Over the past years I've built a portfolio of surface pattern work created as bespoke commissions for brands, with projects spanning bolt fabric, clothing, and giftware. Every design I create is built around a story, a feeling they want to convey, a landscape they want to portray.
One of my early painterly pieces, Kingfisher Wood, brings together elements from several painting sessions - a semi-realistic natural scene with a dreamlike twist. Another, Wildflower Meadow, was created using hand-cut paper illustrations. When I first began my surface design journey, my focus was on building technical foundations, I learnt how to create perfect repeats in Adobe Illustrator. It was a useful part of my professional development, because vector design offers a wonderful versatility in print design.
Since then - and through client commissions - my work has evolved to include a deep research stage into the brand's origin and story, understanding that lasting design is always rooted in a genuine story. Each client project has deepened how I see and express the natural world in my surface pattern work .
For the past few years, I have created the majority of my pattern work in Adobe Photoshop, with my original hand drawn ink and watercolour designs. The intricate detail and hand drawn texture that Photoshop allows in patterns, has been better suited to my illustration style.
My repeating patterns are created for bespoke brand commissions, designed to live on packaging, print, and product with the same integrity as the original hand-drawn work. I love the moment a design makes the leap from paper to the world, becoming part of a brand story that customers can hold in their hands.
Working across different techniques has taught me to adapt to each project's mood, message, and medium. With bespoke design work, it is important to choose the best approach to serve and convey the story. Above all, I believe design is a dialogue between imagination and professional method: the creative instinct to explore, whilst being rooted in research and clear design process.
Berry Birds is an early example of my folk art influenced work - a pattern combining Finnish forest mythology and William Morris inspiration, built around movement, colour, and layered symbolism. Being Finnish, I feel a natural pull toward the folk art heritage of Northern Europe: its botanical influences, its mysticism - the sense that the natural world is always carrying complex stories just beneath the surface.
Movement and colour are fundamental to how I bring stories to life in pattern form. I assess every project individually, choosing the technique and medium based on what the design needs to carry. The brief is always central, but whatever the approach, every design begins the same way: hand drawn, on paper.
Berry Birds repeat pattern is part of a folk art collection. The complementary patterns - including Birds in Bushes below - share the same folklore world but offer quieter voice to the business of the hero design. Together they give the collection a visual range to work across different scales and applications.
Growing up in the Finnish forest, surrounded by folk tales, mythology, and the changing seasons of the woodland, I developed a love for storytelling. The textures, shapes and ever-changing landscape made my creativity blossom (even if I found it at times boring as a child). Understanding how stories connect us to the world we live in, starting from the environment nearest to us, affected the way I wanted to create and portray my art. As much as I love creating beautiful, decorative designs, I want that deep knowing that I developed of the natural world, as part of its layers. A design which is heart-felt is a design that comes from a real place, ideally a place which is lived and experienced - if not by you, then by the people who inhabited that place and are part of its heritage.
Now based in Hebden Bridge, in a Yorkshire valley shaped by the river and ancient woodland, I draw daily inspiration from my surroundings. I sketch colours, patterns, and textures from the landscape, which although very different from my Finnish childhood one, is equally rich in folklore and cultural heritage. Stories, including folklore, are one of the best connectors to our landscape, wherever in the world we are located.
I love illustrating seasonal scenes; using beautiful hand-drawn imagery to convey a story. Floral patterns, particularly flowers and small botanical details in natural landscapes, speak to my soul. A forager by heart, I love exploring the countryside, with its forests and meadows, for interesting subject matters. Often during my wild forays, I pick a few flowers and plants and draw them at home with my daughter; nature is a timeless inspiration for us both.
The Fungi Foray pattern grew from years of woodland foraging, as a child in Finland and as an adult in Yorkshire. Drawn in pencil and ink and assembled in Photoshop to preserve every texture and detail of the original art work, it is a pattern that rewards close looking. It conveys the abundance of nature and the hidden patterns in it - just like on my woodland walks, when I discover a multitude of textures and details everywhere I look.
Even in this digital age, my surface pattern designs always begin with traditional tools. Every piece starts as a pencil sketch, which then evolves into a simple, graphic motif or a detailed illustrative composition. For years, I’ve used the same mechanic pencil, which travels with me almost everywhere. The sensory feeling of pressing the pencil on the surface of the paper is something I have never been able to repeat on iPad or digital tablet.
After finishing my pencil sketches, I refine the lines using ink markers of varying thicknesses. Sometimes I keep the drawings simple with clean outlines; other times I build up layers of detail, like in the Pomegranates design above. Once complete, I erase the pencil lines and scan the artwork in high resolution (600-900dpi) into my computer. If I am working with watercolours, I add this layer over my ink work before scanning. Because I don't work in big scale and my ink line is intricate, scanning the art work in high resolution, guarantees every little detail is preserved for the digital pattern design stage in Photoshop.
My creative process always begins in the analog world and ends digitally, which I find to be the perfect balance between originality and efficiency.
Like any art form, surface pattern design is a professional practice, which evolves alongside your own creative development. The best method to use is the one that authentically conveys the vision and story, and which serve the intended purpose of the design. For me, that means allowing both hand-drawn authenticity and digital precision to coexist, as long as they are considered parts of the design process. If you are after hand drawn look, it is important to use the right method to preserve the hand crafted line in the design process. This in today's world is increasingly important, if you want to differentiate yourself from other designers embracing AI and more generic digital design.
I am Heidi, a biophilic surface designer. I help heritage brands tell their stories through hand-drawn, biophilic print design, without relying on trends. I combine over a decade of design industry experience, an award winning filmmaker's mindset, and a biophilic ‘Roots to Bloom’ design process, for heritage brands who want to stand out.
If you're a heritage or artisan brand looking for story-driven botanical design, I'd love to hear about your project. I work with creative directors and brand teams to create hand drawn surface pattern design that is rooted in genuine research. Every collaboration begins with understanding your brand's story, and ends with design that tells it. Design that is built to last and stand out in the world in an authentic way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGoFXVKXD18
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hziU6e2UE6k
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