Rachael King photographed in front of her textiles

This International Women’s Day we wanted to highlight the contribution Rachael King has made to women in surface design

Creating Experience

Rachael King has worked in creative industry for decades, pivoting her career along the way and honing her craft. Rachael is an example of the variety of careers and growth creative woman can undertake. Graphics, textiles, surface design, business and publishing are among her accomplishments.

Pattern Pulse

In 2020 Rachael made a stunning contribution to Surface design and self published Pattern Pulse. A publication highlighting the skill of Australian Surface designers. Exploring their process and artwork. Pattern Pulse Volume Two was released in 2022

Tell us about your pivot to a career in surface design?

My career in surface design has spanned the past eight years. Highlights include getting licensing deals with companies such as Spotlight and John Sands, being a part owner and designer of a fabric business, self-publishing two books about surface designers and meeting hundreds of incredible designers

How has your style evolved?

Wow, it has changed so much since I first started. I am more confident with my colour choices and am always keen to try new techniques to compliment my watercolour artwork. I would like to spend more time exploring analogue repeat pattern making as I find it fascinating.

What are your favourite design mediums to use?

Watercolour inks by Ecoline and Dr Ph Martins. The colours are so intense and make me very happy when I play with them on the paper.

What would you love to tell your younger self when starting out in surface design?

Take a deep breath and don’t try and figure it all out. Doing the art is far more important than trying to navigate the business side of making money. If you have a library of unique artwork that you are happy with and confident to show to a client, then this is a solid base for building an art practice upon. A lot of the details get worked out along the way as long as you stay authentic and show up every day.

What are you looking forward to this year in design?

Such a big year! Art retreats, teaching classes in person and online, Mentoring, designing and community building. Many things are going on for me right now which confirms that I am exactly where I need to be.