Why Emotional Connection Matters in Pattern Design
Patterns created from the heart……..drawn from emotion.
Emotional connection has always sat at the heart of me as a human, long before I recognised that or consciously understood why.
As a result I don’t approach design as a purely visual exercise, I respond to colour, shape, and visual rhythm emotionally, instinctively, and often intuitively. Certain palettes hold memories and emotions, certain motifs carry feeling and connection, and certain patterns only feel complete when they are resonating on a deeper level. I’ve had a harder time connection to designs that feel fleeting or only relevant in a moment or a trend.
I’ve come to see that this emotional response isn’t something to separate from the work it’s what defines the work as mine and gives it meaning, depth, and longevity.
✨ Designing from feeling, not formulas
I’ve always been an emotional human. Not just in the creative space but in the way I move through the world. I’m moved by nature, humanity, human connection, the way light falls on things, the feel of the seasons. You name it I feel it intensely.
So when I start working creatively I respond instinctively to shape and rhythm, I feel colour deeply and I’m often guided by a sense of does this resonate rather than is this ticking the right boxes.
As I’ve been starting out in the world of pattern design I’ve spent a lot of time wondering if that made my approach less valid, less strategic, less commercial. But as I have continued building my portfolio through 2025, I’ve come to realise that emotional connection isn’t a weakness in my process, it’s the very foundation of my work.
🧭 My emotional approach to surface pattern design
Now that I’m finding my feet as a designer I no longer separate emotion from design; they’re woven together. My creative process is shaped by memory, atmosphere, nostalgia, and quiet observation. I’m moved by places, stories, heritage details, and subtleties such as the way certain colours can hold a feeling rather than just fill a space.
This emotional lens has always been present in my life, even before I had the language to describe it or even the awareness to recognise it.
It influences how I notice motifs, how I layer colour, and how I know when something feels finished.
🎨 Designing with feeling: how emotion shapes colour and motifs
When I talk about designing with feeling I’m not meaning I ignore structure or skill it means I am letting emotion inform the creative decisions that I make.
It shows up in:
colour palettes that carry warmth or calm or emotion rather than shock, clash or are trendy in a moment
motifs that feel familiar, elegant, or gently nostalgic
patterns that feel cohesive because they share a mood, not just a grid
When I let emotion lead, my design choices feel more intentional rather than forced or manufactured to fit a trend. The work begins to hold together in a way that’s difficult to quantify, but easy to sense.
🧵 Story, heritage, and emotional resonance in Krafty Chameleon
Emotional connection is the very heart of the Krafty Chameleon brand.
I want my work to resonate not just visually, but emotionally. That resonance often comes from subtle references to what has gone before. Be that repeating motifs that feel timeless or reference echos of historic styles or from colour stories that whisper from the past while still feeling contemporary and relevant to now.
Not every design needs a back story but to me every piece should feel like it belongs to something; a wider narrative or purpose. Sometimes that’s a reference to a moment in time or a location I’ve visited, other times its like the design has been quietly present for centuries and is still finding its moment now.
The Krafty Chameleon brand will always represent a body of work created with continuity and heart.
🌿 Why emotional connection matters to the viewer
Emotionally resonant patterns invite people to linger. They produce a connection, a moment, a thought; something that speaks to something deeper than what the eye first sees.
Patterns created with connection feel easier to live with, easier to imagine in real spaces, and easier to connect with season after season. They have longevity and familiarity; they are designs that can feel timeless, the ones people return to repeatedly rather than move on from quickly as the moment or the trend passes.
When a pattern carries feeling, it creates a quieter, deeper connection. It carries an heirloom quality to it; something that can be quietly present for months, years or generations.
🌱 Learning to trust emotion in a commercial creative world
Trusting my emotion within my creative process is not straightforward and it’s a constant quiet internal battle. In a commercial landscape where trends and the need for visibility feel dominant its incredibly hard not to bow to the pressure to be designing a certain thing at a certain moment because its appeared in a trend report or its the right time to be designing a season to tie in with what art directors are buying at that moment.
I’m learning that when I honour my emotional instincts, the work I produce is stronger, more deliberate and far more recognisably mine. When I design based on what is inspiring me in a. moment the work has a relevance, a story and a grounding in my life and my inspiration. That’s not to say that I don’t find that in something that is on trend or seasonally in demand but I start from what my heart wants to create or the story my soul wants to tell and let emotion become a guide rather than a distraction.
🤍 Letting pattern design mean something
I want my work to mean something; to me first, and then to the people who encounter it. I create my work to tell a story, to convey a moment or a feeling and to add a meaning, a moment or a thought to the world around people.
Emotional connection is the thread that ties my designs, my brand, and my creative life together. It’s what allows my patterns to feel grounded, intentional, and quietly expressive and it’s something I now protect deliberately and fiercely in my process.
Emotional connection is what made me step away from corporate life into a creative world and it is something that is uncompromisable for me in my creative process.
🌈 Connect with me to chat creative journeys, the meaning in your product or designs, or potential projects: rachelanne@thekraftychameleon.com