Farrow & Ball Moodboards

Working at Farrow & Ball is great: I learn more and more about interior design and the beautiful pleasures that finding great colourways can bring every day.

This week, I created my own little project to make some moodboards using some fabric samples from a local fabric shop named Fabric & Co and finding different colourways and combinations with Farrow & Ball paint and wallpaper.

I had incredible fun making them, it really took me back to my college days where making moodboards was a daily occurence! Then they seemed like a hassle.. now I love them!

I thought I'd share my moodboards with you, so here you are:

New online portfolio with brushd

Just thought I'd quickly mention I've just set up my new online portfolio with brushd. 

If you'd like to have a look at some of my work, please visit it here: http://katelynch.brushd.com/

BetaFasion: Epic Journey Project

Brief: Many of life's most vivid memories and powerful day dreams often come from travels we've been on, or the journey's we've had, or wish to have. Exciting destinations, adventures along the way, once in a life time experiences, culture shock, childhood nostalgia, or just escaping the day to day, there are so many ways that travel can play an important part in our lives. For this project we want you to encapsulate these ideas, whether real or fantasy, for use on our range of square scarves.

Prize: 4 winners will be selected, each receiving £300 and seeing their design go onto be sold in our online store, Topshop and more.

My Design:

My Inspiration: A new and accurate map of the world. An old treasure of my Grandma's that I saved from going to a carboot sale was an old map of the world on a mirror.It's been in my room ever since, joining my general theme of 'around the world'.

Please rate my design here: https://www.betafashion.com/competitionratedesign.aspx?SubmissionID=6961

Floral Friday: Kathryn Pledger

A long awaited Floral Friday has arrived as I introduce you to Kathryn Pledger.

Kathryn is a Graphic designer with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Communication. She has worked in Design Studios in Sydney, Dublin and London. Originally from Australia she is now based in London and pursuing her recent rediscovered love of surface pattern design, and freelancing in graphic design. 

"Creating surface pattern designs is a new and exciting venture for me. I have recently graduated from the online course The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design, and I am developing my portfolio and style."

Kathryn's ditsy florals are cute, beautiful and up-lifting. A great juxtaposition of using lovely light, refreshing colours, to dark and moody paintily designs. 

Kathryn talks about her inspiration for her florals:

"Having only recently followed my pent up desire to create patterns florals, it seems to be what my creative streak wants to make. I find inspiration in all the wonderful public gardens London has. One of my favourites is Myatt's Fields Park in Camberwell, it has really beautiful and colourful planting and all the patterns you see (apart from the yellow ditzy print) are directly inspired from that garden over the course of a few month. The yellow ditzy print has a special place in my heart; its the first pattern I made since I was a teenager and its based on flowers I saw on my honeymoon."

Visit Kathryn's website here and follow her on Twitter @KathrynPledger.

Feeling loved up today?

Take your lovey dovey feelings and get designing: Tigerprint will launch their 'Lovely Days' competition this Monday.

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!

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. 

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.

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.