New Package release with HAAYA'S Coffee

Here are the ground coffee drip packs by Haaya's coffee, Taiwan.



I am so happy working with them. The colorful packaging not only brings more sales to the company but also becomes one new category for art licensing. This packaging category is total different from art licensing for fabrics and paper products. The graphics are not printed on the product itself. Instead, it add a new piece of cloth to ground coffee. The customers usually throw away the packaging. With these joyful graphics, they may start to collect all of them. At least, these colorful packages catch their eyes when they buy coffee.

Artists Around the World – the BLOG HOP

This post is for a blog hop called “Artists Around the World”. Artists, designers, writers, illustrators, and more around the world are asked 4 questions and post their answers on their blogs. Then link to 1 to 3 other artists to continue the hop.

I am invited by my artist friend Anais Lee to join this blog hop. You can see her lovely works here and blog

Let me introduce myself first. I am a surface designer based in Queens, New York. I started my own design studio in 2010 and licensed my arts to manufactures and other companies. Right now, my works can be found on fabrics, wrapping paper, cell phone cases, and party ware.

Below are the Q & A:

1. Why do I do what I do?
I am passionate about creating art, and I love fabrics, ceramics, and paper. What I do is to bring what I love together, and to share the art to all the people who also enjoy it.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I like to keep the hand-drawn lines and shapes, which makes my art more personal. Combining related objects together is one interesting character in my work. For example, I put rabbit hair bends on chicks for an Easter collection. I also created a Santa Claus nutcracker.

3. How does my creative process work?
I always start with defining a subject (theme). I rarely create from a doodle on a piece of paper. Sometimes, an idea just pop up in my head, it could be a certain type of texture or a scene. I find certain topics based on current market trend or personal preferences. After that, I go online to find image references and draw some elements. Once the sketch is ready, I scan it into the computer. Then, I use the live trace function in Illustrator to digitize all the elements and continue to experiment with colors . In order to build a collection, I create more co-ordinate patterns as my last step.

4. What am I working on now?
I just finished a cats design for fabric! I'm planing to try the fashion theme which is totally different from my current portfolio. I am also taking an online course about mix-media painting.

Now I would like to introduce Vivayne and Eva Marion Seyffarth to continue the blog hop. They are my classmates in the Make Art that Sales online class. Remember to check out their posts next Monday, August 18th.

Vivayne's blog: Vivayne Art Life and the Journey
Eva's blog: Twinkling Journeys

SURTEX 2014 flyers

SURTEX 2014 - May 18~20 at the Javits Center, New York City.
Feng Liang Design will be exhibit at Booth #347. There will be a different booth set up compared with last year. Come and visit my booth!

“Tweet Together” Fabrics

New baby collection "Tweet Together" by Monkey Bow are available. Monkey bow is a division of Feng Liang Design, mainly to create cheerful and whimsical designs. There are two color combinations: grey and lilac, which are suitable for both baby boys and baby girls.
I really like the soft texture and am planning to make bibs out of these fabrics. Thanks Studio E fabrics for making it happen.

13 prints in this collection
Panel in lilac.

Panel in linen grey.

Thank you [ The Fabric Shopper ]

My Forest Playground fabrics have been featured on the blog, The Fabric Shopper. Check it out here. It's a great site for fabric sale and new-release fabrics!

Sneak Peek - Forest Playground fabric collection

The NEW fabric collection - "Forest Playground" with Robert Kaufman will be available September 2013! There are 2 groups in this vibrant collection. One is based on lake blue and sunshine yellow, the other is based on nature green and sunshine yellow. I am so excited and looking forward to finding any quilt or DIY stuff made of these fabrics.





Look at the selvages! There are colorful hedgehogs on in. This is a cute idea using the graphics in the fabric design instead of regular color circles. More details to follow. ^_^

Surtex 2013

Can you find me in this photo?

A month after Surtex, I am just about to finish up my follow ups with current clients and potential clients. It was great to look at new arts from other exhibitors, which are so inspiring and offer a fresh perspective.
My booth setup has a bright green tone as last year. I decided to let the banner's background have a light texture with tiny elements in order to make the banners reusable. Then I printed the bigger elements including the animals and ornaments in my artworks with my printer. The last step was to attach the bigger elements onto the banners. By doing this, I can replace the graphics from this year with new graphics next year if I want to maintain a similar look and feel for my booth. Also, this is the first year we have a shelf for the licensed products, including the paper stationery with Caspari, some household items made from the "Night Owl Club" fabrics, and an iPad cover by Solid Lines Products. Showing the products this way may have confused the visitors to my booth cause them to think they are mock ups instead of actual finished products. On a more positive tone, this approach did add some depth to the booth instead of having only 2D printed banners.
This year at Surtex, there was not much traffic perhaps due to heavy rain on the first day. However, exhibiting at Surtex is surely a great way to meet clients in person.

(photo below: a lucky dog enjoys the indoor sun bath)