Friday 12 October 2012

Floral Friday: Rosie Simons

This weeks Floral Friday is Rosie Simons, a University of the Arts London graduate. Despite having a degree in Graphic Design, Rosie warmed towards surface design and has created some really gorgeous prints. 

When I first saw her designs, I immediately thought how cute they were! Sweet, ditsy florals with bright and bold colour ways. 

Rosie talks me through her design career and her plans for the future:


"I am a graphic and surface designer naturally inspired by things around me, from day to day items to nature. I automatically visualise how imagery and objects will translate into designs, motifs and patterns. Graphic and surface design have always run parallel in my interests and I have developed my style to incorporate both these passions, a simple and clean but colourful aesthetic; combining simple graphic illustrations and typography. My passions lie in making something eye catching, whether that be a great logo for a company or a surface design used on products from wrapping paper, to clothing and homeware.



I am a keen and proactive designer, I love to go out and find new inspiration, taking photos of flowers, forms, shapes, textures and typography, reading blogs, collecting printed and tactile matter, wrapping paper, labels, to inspire motifs and creation of new work. I love to explore, see and experience new things. Colour, texture and shape are some of the most important aspects of both my personal life and my life as a designer. I generally work using my Wacom tablet, hand drawing motifs from photos or my imagination. I love the freedom and organic lines this creates and then develop the designs in illustrator.



I graduated in 2012 from University of the Arts London with a degree in graphic design and have previously worked for Dorling Kindersley and Croudace Homes among another places. I recently graduated from 'The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design' with Rachael Taylor and Beth Nicholls. The course has helped me learn the business side to Surface Pattern Design and develop my style and confidence as a freelance designer. I am currently looking for representation, commissions, licensing so please contact me via my website for more information. My dream is to have my designs licensed across many different surfaces all over the world!"

Rosie is just about to start selling her designs in an Etsy shop, rosiesimonsdesign.etsy.com. She'll be selling greetings cards and christmas cards, so check back on the shop this weekend to be the first to buy her stock!

Rosie's links:


Twitter: @rosie_simons

Rosie also sells on Society6: http://society6.com/rosiesimons




Thursday 11 October 2012

I can't stop listening to...

There's a new advert on TV for the Citroen DS3 with the tag line of 'Make a Scene'. The soundtrack to the advert is by a frenchman named Sebastian and the track is called Tetra.
It remind me of the kind of ringtone you'd find on your old Nokia 3310 mobile phone where the sound was very monophonic as it tried to re-create a grand classical song. However, this piece of music is great and excites me!

Take a listen:


Wednesday 10 October 2012

You can now buy Kate Lynch designs at Ooh Deer.com!


​Hello all!
​After entering myself into the Ooh Deer Pillowfight Competition a while back, I finally heard more news concerning the next round of the competition. 
Ooh Deer have decided that the best way to decide on the winning designs is to put every design entered onto the competition shop. The design that sells the most amount of pillows wins! ​
​Please take a look at my designs here http://ohhdeer.com/blossom-deer and here http://ohhdeer.com/vintage-radio and if you feel like they would fit perfectly in your home, please buy them!
Despite it being very unlikely that I'll win, it is still very exciting to say that my designs are actually on sale somewhere. Nothing like this has ever happened before and it's enthralling!​
I would really like to get more of my designs on sale elsewhere too.​
​That's all for now, folks!


Friday 5 October 2012

Floral Friday: Zoe Barker

This weeks Floral Friday is Zoe Barker, who runs her own design studio and online shop. Focusing on her 'Beautifully British' tag line, Zoe's print designs are just that. Her hand-drawn and painted prints are incredibly gorgeous, with a fantastic array of warm, bright colours in many of her florals.

I especially love Zoe's 'Liberty View' collection; a stunning collection of prints that show off her illustration skills with a great mixture of florals and wild British animals such as fox's, rabbits and many breeds of bird. The colours are beautifully understated, bringing a hint of vintage to the collection.

Here, Zoe talks about her work:


"I embarked on a fashion and textiles adventure in 2004, having spent 5 years in the digital design industry. Successfully combining my love of drawing and painting with my expert digital design skills, I developed a unique digital textile design style that relies on traditional painting and drawing techniques which are so often lost in the fast world of digital textile design.

I now have a BA and an MA in Fashion and Digital Textile Design and after studying in London at the prestigious Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, I have returned to my Hampshire roots from where I’m most inspired.

In my Hampshire design studio, near Winchester, I am surrounded by traditional villages, gorgeous woodland and an abundance of beautiful, English countryside and coastline, all of which feature regularly in my textile designs. I’m also very lucky to be close enough to London to visit regularly.

My experiences have honed my textile design skills and confirmed my passion. I hope this is reflected throughout my collections, which take time, love and skill to produce."

You can visit Zoe's website here and follow her on twitter here











Thursday 4 October 2012

I can't stop listening to...

That Girl - The Noisettes


A lot of people have compared this song to The Beatles track 'Please Please Me', and to some extent I agree! The chorus notes are very similar, and the great up-beat pop track is akin to the sounds of the sixties. 


I've seen The Noisettes twice live before, and they are always amazing. Fantastic vocals!! I've not got the new album yet.. but I'll be sure to get it very soon! I can't wait to hear what other fantastic songs they have lined up!

Enjoy!

Friday 21 September 2012

Floral Friday: Jane Bridges

This weeks Floral Friday is the wonderful Jane Bridges. Her florals are absolutely beautiful, using superb bright colours and a fantastic mix of inspiring illustrations. Her label, Patternhouse, is based at Jane's own garden studio in Yorkshire, which I can assure you is one of the most beautiful places in Britain, and therefore brings me no surprise that Jane has produced some really gorgeous floral designs. Jane can also pride herself on the fact that all her products are printed and made in Britain, something I find very rare and extremely admirable in this day and age!

Jane talks to us about her work:

"I am based near Ilkley, West Yorkshire, where I design for my own label Patternhouse and also for freelance collections for both fashion and home. The essence of my work is very much art-based – a fresh, painterly style. My inky, colourful hand paintings and sketchy drawings are translated into lively, contemporary designs. The traditional much-loved subject of florals is brought bang up to date. I never tire of flowers - the variety is endless. I love visiting gardens for inspiration all year round. I have received national and international recognition for my work. In 2011 I was a winner of the Surtex Designext Competition in New York and in 2012 I was a finalist of  the Wallpaper of the Year competition. In the future, I hope to expand the range of products which feature my designs - I am currently working on a new wall art collection, fashion prints, cushions and tableware, so quite a range!"

To see more of Jane or to purchase any of her great designs, visit her website here. Follow her on twitter here. Like her on facebook here. Or contact her on jane@patternhouse.co.uk.








Thursday 20 September 2012

I can't stop listening to...

This week, I have three bands for you to listen to! The reason being is I'm going to a gig tonight where all three of these bands are playing. I know for a fact it's going to be an amazing night, as I really love a lot of the songs I've heard from the bands.

I've picked out a song for each band for you to listen to: Flaws by Bastille, Talk Through The Night by Dog Is Dead and I Just Know by The Struts.


Bastille - Flaws



Talk Through The Night - Dog Is Dead 



I Just Know - The Struts



Tuesday 18 September 2012

Earn Your Stripes! Marc Jacobs Spring 2013

I'm a huge fan of Marc Jacobs and more often than not I fall in love with his collections. His Spring 2013 collection is reminiscent of the 1960's with bold black and white contrast and resolute separation of colours. Simplicity was key in this collection: a very simple colour scheme of black, white, nude, red and blue. 

Stripes were everywhere: vertical, horizontal, on the collar, on the hem, big stripes, small stripes and optical illusion stripes.

I've chosen some of my favourite looks from the collection, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!













Monday 17 September 2012

Traditional Florals: Spring 2013

As I was having a quick look through the Spring 2013 collections I noticed that a few designers had incorporated beautiful traditional florals into their prints. I find this really great to see because, although I adore all kinds of florals, I really do love a great traditional! I've picked out five designers to showcase these wonderful prints; Brood, Calla, Duro Olowu, Peter Som and Thakoon. 

Calla Spring 2013: Gorgeous florals that remind me of Japanese florals and calligraphy. A great juxtaposition between soft pastels against a pale background to bold colour pops against a dark. Beautiful leaf prints in an all blue colour scheme are incredibly elegant.




Brood Spring 2013: Very traditional - almost Cath Kidston with the mix of blues, pinks and whites. A fantastic use of brilliant roses and dark green leaves. I really love the mix of lace for the look too.




Thakoon Spring 2013: Traditional floras with a twist: using birds and butterflies to create a quintessentially english print. The use of line from the top to the bottom of the dress makes it looks as though the dress is a huge bird cage. The dark background in the second image down remind me of old renaissance paintings. The third image down is a little different, with an orange repeat print of what looks like a poppy. Beautiful illustration made me fall in love with this one.




Peter Som Spring 2013: This collection is probably the least traditional of the prints I picked out, but they reminded me so much of a Spring country garden with the gorgeous soft colours mixed with bolds. The shapes of the floral prints look a little bit like a lavender flower. 




Duro Olowu Spring 2013: Traditional with a twist. Not entirely created from florals, these prints hold beautiful sketches of old-fashioned women in garden situations looking to be having a gleeful time. The use of the situation sketches remind me a lot of Timourous Beasties work and doiles. A sweet little poppy print livens the collection up with a pop of red. 




Sunday 16 September 2012

Sunday Special: S is for... Shadows!

The Shadows were once one of the most influential bands of their time. Frequently referred to as 'The Shads', they had many charted singles, both with and without Cliff Richard. 

George Harrison from The Beatles once said "without Shadows there would be no Beatles" and John Lennon has been known to have said "before Cliff and The Shadows, there had been nothing worth listening to in British music".

I've only just really started listening to The Shadows a lot, but I'm hooked. As a huge Beatles fan, I find it really easy to see where the influences have come from and can totally appreciate the great music that The Shadows made. 

I'm a huge sucker for music from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies and always will be. I feel that almost every musician from around that time had true talent. There wasn't the auto-tuned, electronic sound to it like the music we have today does, it always sounds so true and fresh and you can hear the pure talent.
If I could go back and visit any time in history, it would be a time from those three decades without a shadow of a doubt, not only for the amazing music but for the great fashion too!

Here's a Shadows track, probably one of the most well-known instrumentals the band ever did. It's also currently on a sausage advert here in the UK.




Saturday 15 September 2012

Now I Know My ABC...

Sounds like a silly thing to say, but letters are huge at the moment! With designers such as Mary Katrantzou, Versace and Stella McCartney all using letters in their collections, learning you ABC's has never been cooler.

In Vogue's September Issue, a small feature named 'Spotlight On Alphabet Street' really caught my eye, showing me many different companies that have recently used letters in their products: A wall hanging by Paul Smith for The Rug Company, a cute notebook set by Cavallini & Co for Libertys, an Alpha Chest by Graham and Green and a lampshade by Judy Holme.


Not long before I bought this issue of Vogue, I actually bought myself a rubber stamp set off Ebay, so I was pleased to see an article like this! I've not really done much with my set yet, other than play around a little and use it for little 'Thank you' notes to friends and family.


It's great to see that such a trend has become powerful in both the Fashion and Interiors world.



Graham & Green Alpha Chest

Judy Holme Lampshade

Paul Smith Wall Hanging for The Rug Company

Cavallini & Co Notebook Set




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