Pintrest!

You can now follow me on Pintrest, I've only just set up an account but already find it quite addictive! 

You can have a peak at my boards by clicking here.

Madge Gill

Whilst on placement I was doing artist research and I stumbled across the work of artist Madge Gill. I'm particularly drawn to her black and white pieces as I've always loved monochrome work. If you want to see more of her artwork you can look on the website madgegill.com. 

Fave fabric pics at IKEA

IKEA are celebrating 25 years in the UK this year, so I thought I'd share with you some of my current favorite IKEA fabrics. 

P.s. It's my dream to one day work for ikea. 

Wish List

Spotted this muppets All in one on the teen section of the new look website, I think it's amazing! Who wouldn't want to lounge around with the likes of miss piggie, kermit and the cookie monster?! 

Hackney Wick Street Art

Some photos I took of the street art by the station & canal near Hakney Wick! Enjoy x 

Kitsch Love!

Just spotted this unusual print on this Chelsea Girl dress that's available to buy at River Island, or on the ASOS website.  ..... I LOVE kitsch and this combo of cherubs is perfect! 

My time at Muraspec

I've just returned home from my 2 week placement in the lovely Muraspec Design studios in Kent,which was amazing! It was my first proper placement and I really enjoyed it. I was overwhelmed by how lovely everyone in the studio was, and the amazing space they had set in the beautiful Kent countryside. 

Whilst on placement, I spent time with the CAD department and used their AVA software to tweak my winning 'african masks' design, we also used AVA to produce multiple colourways and rendors. The girls in the graphics department explained that this software costs around £40,000, and you're even required to go up to London to get specialist training to use it. This software was amazing though, and I'm really pleased with how the rendors and colourways have turned out. 

My design renders

Different colourways for my design 

I was also given tours of the Muraspec site, as they are able to produce their own designs on site in their factory, which was really interesting to see. Also from a designers point of view it's a benefit that you're able to see your design from the start (mood boards, drawings etc) to the finished product. 

I'll be updating my blog with the designs, drawings and mood boards I created at Muraspec shortly! 

Muraspec - so far so good!

I'm currently half way through my two week placement at Muraspec design studio in Kent, I've really enjoyed my time in the studio so far and have been creating new designs mainly based on tribal and African patterns aswell as producing professional mood boards. The studio is lovely, set in a small village outside of Maidstone and it's a really friendly studio environment with loads of space and the staff are lovely! On the second day there was a site tour, which involved being shown the whole factory and how it operates - and given some not so pretty details of accidents that involved workers losing fingers!
Next week I've got to think of a new theme and create designs based on this as well as oversee my winning design from the student competition being put into print! I'll report back when I've completed my placement & will hopefully be able to share some pictures..meanwhile time to get my thinking cap on for some new ideas! 

LookLikeLove Blog

My work has been featured on LookLikeLove Blog, as one of their favourite surface pattern designs from New Designers. 

 'Louise Dormer, a recent graduate from Leeds College of Art took her Spirits, Rituals and Superstitions collection to form the back-drop to her display at New Designers. We were actually drawn to her collection in particular a couple of times during our recent visit, and we especially liked the monotone designs she created with its repeated motifs and bold graphic statement.'

It's always so lovely to hear that people love your work and their compliments! I've also had a look through the LookLikeLove blog and am defiantly going to start following as they've featured lots of talented artists and designers on their blog. They also aim to help support, promote and nurture graduates and new designers ! For the full post you can click here.

Barcelona - Park Güell

I've recently returned from a trip in Barcelona with a few friends from uni - to mark the end of the best 3 years of my life! We only stayed in Barcelona for a few days, so we really had to cram in as much as possible as the city is full of things to see! My favourite part of the trip was when we went to Park Güell - designed by the artist Antoni Gaudi. I fell in love with the mosaic bench that meandered around a large park area and loved the way that the mosaic had been considered, colours and styles had been grouped together, I spent along time trying to find my favourite section! I had a lovely time in Barcelona, it's a beautiful city and I would love to go back again! 

Outdoor Range

Because of the glorious weather we've had in the UK for the past few days, and the start of festival season there's alot of really cool designs on items associated with the summertime and camping! I've found Cath Kidston tents, Marimekko umbrellas and other gorgeous patterned items. They inspired me to experiment with how my own designs would look on items associated with camping and summer living!

I thought I'd put my designs from my 1960's project onto some items to see how they would work as a outdoor range.. and I'm really happy with the outcomes!

Design Visualisations

One of the biggest comments I got from my week at New Designers was that people really loved my design visualisations of my wallpapers, many even asked whose room it was that I had wallpapered as they looked quite realistic and convincing! 

With some of my designs being quite a large scale and unusual patterns, I feel that they really benefited from having these visualisations on display as it could possibly be difficult to imagen how they would repeat and look on an actual wall. Obviously the dream would be to one day have the real thing, my own design, up and papered onto a real 3d wall, instead of a photoshop visualisation to demonstrate the repeat...but they'll do for the time being!! 

Muraspec Competition

A couple of months before we finished uni for good, the company Muraspec came and set us a brief for a student competition that they run every year at different universities and art colleges.  We had to create designs, mood boards and concept boards to show off our work and then they would chose their 'winner'. This person would then go along for a placement at Muraspec and in their design studio help put it into production! I'm very excited to announce that this person was me!! At New Designers I was presented with a cheque that will go towards my accommodation as their design studio is in Kent. 

being presented with a cheque with the lovely Rachel from Muraspec 

I'm thrilled that they liked my work enough to pick me, and I'm also so excited to start a placement at a company whose work I really like and I feel that my own style and designs fit with! Muraspec are one of the biggest commercial wallpaper and wallcovering companies in the UK and provide designs for hospitals, cruise ships, hotels and even on a Calvin Klein catwalk!
Here's a few samples of the work that Muraspec produce... and you can see more on their website here, I'm personally in love with this print from the 'wow' range! 

I'll be updating my blog with my placement and how my design gets put in production.. Now time to start looking for accommodation ....!!