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46 |ARTS & CRAFTS HOMES Winter 2017

the

guild

AFTER YEARS WORKING as a freelance illustrator and

graphic designer, Cindy Lindgren wanted to explore

her interests in a more personal way. She’d become

intrigued by the Arts & Crafts movement after see-

ing a period textiles exhibit in St. Paul: “I was struck

by the abstract textile and embroidery designs.”

Concentrating on her own region—Lindgren

grew up in Iowa and now lives in Minneapolis—she

began to shape images for note-

cards and art prints using local

motifs including the thistle, luna

moth, and Solomon’s seal. She

adapted quickly when tradition-

al graphic design went digital.

Knowing how to create designs

by hand and mix her own colors made for an eas-

ier transition, she says. Her mastery is apparent in

her catalog of 100 or more nature-inspired designs

for fabric and wallpaper. She was one of the earliest

designers for Spoonflower, an online marketer of

custom fabrics (see the box on the opposite page).

Despite the use of cutting-edge technology

and the limitless potential for reaching customers

through the internet, Lindgren feels that Spoon-

flower and another company for which she designs,

Modern Yardage (modernyardage.com), are in keep-

ing with the Arts & Crafts tradition. “There’s no

waste, nothing is printed until it’s ordered. We can

create these very custom images that a big company

could not offer.”

Lindgren still starts every design the old-fash-

ioned way, by sketching with a pencil. “Then I refine

the sketches until I get a tight pencil line, and then

finish it on the computer in Illustrator, where I re-

draw all my lines and fill the shapes with colors.”

She starts with a single image, usually the

basis for a notecard, which is the biggest part of

her business (sold online through etsy.com). “I can

expand it into a pattern if I think it will work as a

fabric. Once you have your design, you can do it in

multiple colorways.”

You do need to know how to make a repeating

square, a technique used in most patterned wallpa-

per and textile design, to create a template image

called a tile. While some designs are less successful

in repetition, others can be startling in their appeal,

like the Scalloped Pine panel. “When that tiled, it

looked really cool. It was fun to flip it in different

ways so that the pinecones came together.” a

—Mary Ellen Polson

FROM LEFT Looking at native plants in a new way

inspired Lindgren to design an Arts & Crafts-

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CINDY LINDGREN LLC

Craftsman Nouveau Art

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( 612 ) 929-06 57

cindylindgren.com

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