l'atelier

Now available: 40 motifs for Illustrator: from Christopher Dresser, Studies in Design — $11.00 USD Purchase Now

Included are the 40 motifs from Studies in Design by Christopter Dresser (1834-1904). The plates were hand traced in Adobe Illustrator CS3 (as opposed to using Live Trace) that can be used with Illustrator or imported into other vector drawing software. The colors are close to the original, though the plates were faded, thus colors are probably somewhat muted, compared to the original.

These designs are representative of the Aesthetic through the early Art Deco styles. Botanical and fantastical animal forms dominate this collection–many are highly decorative alone or when used in combination with each other or with Dresser linear border brushes.

These motifs are customizable (see below) so experiment with different combinations and colorways.

For more information concerning installation and use, please see the online version of the “read-me” file.

The next series of vector reproductions is from Eugene Grasset’s Plants and Their Application to Ornament A Nineteenth-Century Design Primer which was published in 1897. Somewhat earlier than Christopher Dresser, Grasset was more of a contemporary of William Morris, Eugene Grasset was more famous in his time as a designer of French-style posters and magazine cover designs.

Plants and Their Application to Ornament begins with a study of one of the garden plants from which stylized design variations are generated. His designs are generally Art Nouveau or Art and Crafts style and quite archetypical of the period. Some are representational of how these designs would be applied as decoration to different media (wallpaper, fabric, tiles, stained glass, carved wood, metal,porcelain) or as decorative patterns, borders, and motifs. They betray his background as a decorative materials designer before turning to illustration.

All of the original plates were reproduced by a pochoir (literally ‘stencil’) print process, which was a precursor of silk screen printing. The originals are very graphic and lend themselves to vector illustration. As such, they can be used in period reproduction or adapted for contemporary design elements.

Below is the first in an ambitious series. The collection will eventually grow to include design variations for 33 garden plants. View completed plates here.