Evolutionary Endeavours...

Every so often, we stubble across a new designer that gets us very excited, and we want to work with them immediately! So today's graduate showcase is of Duncan of Jordanstone Textile graduate 

Claire Corstorphine.

Claire specialises in digitally printed textiles, which enables her to manipulate her photographs, and vintage finds to create an explosion of colour, and quirky imagery in her range of silk scarves.

For her graduate collection entitled 'Molluscs, Microbes and Mutants', she took inspiration from Darwin symbolism to create her own hybrid of the natural world. 

Although she presents a palette of bright zingy colours, on peeling back the layers of silk, a darker undertone of progressive natural selection is revealed, and her patterns show an abstraction of the core of life itself, fragility and strength seem then, to work in harmony...

Walk the Line...

We were contacted by the illustrator Estelle Morris last week, and from the many portfolios we receive, her fluid, off-beat and slightly abstract work caught our eye in particular.

There's a spontaneity to her pieces which grabs hold of real-life moments, and her blog showcases some of her as-they-happen drawings from walking around Cambridge, where she's based, to a Sunday afternoon at the pub.

Estelle uses a combination of hand-drawing and digital colour-blocking to create her collage-inspired pieces, which have a freshness mixed with modern-day motifs.

Estelle currently works as a freelance illustrator, and her work has been submitted as part of Amelia's Magazine, (a great supporter of emerging illustrators), as well as illustrations for events and promotions in London to Brighton.

We'll be launching our first newsletter in a couple of weeks time, and amongst all our up-coming news, we will have an extended feature on Estelle with an interview to find out a bit more about her, her inspirations, motivations, and plans for the future. This won't feature anywhere else, so if you want to find out more, simply hit subscribe...

Paper Cuts...

A new designer-maker to welcome to the fold is Polly Tucknott, a London-based teacher who has always been creative, with a particular interest in fairy-tales and far-away lands.

Experimenting whilst drawing, led her to cut her designs out of paper, and naturally her interest took a lean towards screen-printing.

As an introduction to Polly's work featuring in our shop, we have a step-by-step series of photos showing the process she uses to create her delicate designs...

Quick sketches

Checking scale and proportion

Adding detail

The completed design

The cutting process

Exposed onto silk screen

Transfered onto material

Finishing touches

Ta-da!

Polly's whimsical work has been translated onto a series of silk and vintage lace cushions, which will be available to buy from the shop very soon... 

All things bright and beautiful...

Jessie G has been on board with us for the last couple of months, but we thought we would do a bit of an official introduction...

Jess works as an interior designer in London, but ever since being given her first silk screen as a child, she has been addicted to the process and the wide-range of results that can be achieved.

She takes inspiration from her travels around the capital, and her trips a bit further afield too. Her bright, and bold graphic approach tunes into a style akin to mid-century modern, and her pieces whether a print or cushion wouldn't look out of place on a G-Plan sideboard or Ercol daybed!

Most weekends you will find her brightening up a Designer-Maker Market in London with a kaleidoscope of colourful wares from greetings cards to poppy prints, she brightens our day and will brighten a room in any home too...

Find some of her beautiful prints at our shop...here...

From blog to Plog...

In anticipation of the next issue of Plog Magazine, and our general excitement over being 'in print', we thought we would return the favour and find out a bit more about the publication, and its founder Son Emirali.

 

Still at University, amazingly, Son manages the design, marketing and distribution of Plog whilst studying Graphic Design at Winchester School of Art. And we complain about juggling our day jobs with running our own business, we cannot imagine trying to do something like this while studying for a degree!

We managed to catch Son briefly to answer of few questions about the magazine and his motivations after graduating...

What was your motivation for starting the magazine? Why now, why not wait until after graduating?

Well I started the mag in my first year at university, we were in the process of making a magazine cover for one of our briefs, throughout the project I was really getting into blogging and archiving all the students work that was inspiring me. I realised I didn't want this work to just sit in my bookmarks, I wanted to have a physical piece of it so I remembered it. I think that alone was the key motivation, to be surrounded and inspired by great work.

At the time, waiting until I graduated wasn't even something to consider. Being so passionate about others work I couldn't resist to start gathering it all, with the intention to inspire other students whilst we were actually studying, so we could feed of each others work.

  
What support did you get, if any with the initial set-up?

In terms of motivation to get the idea going, quite a bit. I got great support from the students I was selecting to feature, and a great deal from my tutor at the time, James Branch. He really helped to encourage me to follow through with the idea, and stressed how important side projects are.

When it comes to the technical stuff of printing, financing, websites and building a team - not much, just a few people to bounce ideas off were enough. It was mainly down to me to work out the kinks along the way. It was all pretty easy until issue 3 went nationwide, then it became a lot harder, finding a distributor and really stepping into the publishing industry.

  
Was there a quite a bit of research involved or was it something you felt passionate about and wanted to do regardless?

Initially, not much research involved at all. As I started the mag literally when I first stepped foot into uni, I still had a lot to learn about how to develop an idea, and how important research is. But I think this naivety and passion is what lead the magazine to take off so quickly, and for me to have so much determination to make it work.

Is this a collaborative effort? Friends, family or a solo project?

Indeed it is! Don't know where I would be without the rest of the team. Initially there were three of us, myself and two other friends, but as time went on it turned more solo until a few other friends of mine started to jump on board.

At the moment there's myself, Adam, who helps design and art direct the issue with me. Kieron, who takes charge of our online content, and Ben who helps go through all the submissions we receive. We all also do various other little jobs, as I'm sure you've guessed, we don't exactly have a marketing team, project manager or a PR assistant!

One thing we do have though are a lot of guest contributors which I'm happy to say are contributing well to the mag! We've recently had Anneka French and Nick Reading writing for us, as well as a whole batch of studio guest bloggers, students who blog about the live work going on in their studios.

Can you give us a sneak peek at what we can expect in the next issue?

In the next issue we've been lucky enough to have a bespoke cover designed exclusively for us by KOKOMI, directed by Spiros Halaris. Something that we think will really pop off the shelves. Look out for a little preview of that soon!

We've got valuable interviews from artists within the industry, and of course a great catch up with yourselves which I'm sure our readers will be excited to hear about. As usual you can expect to see a wide variety of student and graduate work, from thought provoking photography to witty illustrations.

Biggest achievement to date?

That's a hard one! I would say the magazine, but I still feel like we could and will achieve a whole lot more soon. So instead I think I'll go with persuading my parents to let me completely redecorate my room to then have three people throw paint balls all over it as part of an art project. And yes it's still like that to this day!

  

What's the future plan after graduating, will the magazine take centre stage or be a side project to your own creative endeavours?

Another hard question! I'm a bit unsure at the moment, I think if the magazine doesn't take centre stage, then it'll be a pretty darn big side project. It's hard to say as I've got such a passion for many areas, whether it's publishing, design, technology or even creating installations, who knows where I'll end up!

The next issue of Plog Magazine is out in June...

Comic timing...

It's great to be following yesterday's post with another one of our designers having their work being picked up...

CM Carter, our cartoonist and illustrator in residence, already selected for our Pop-Up People exhibition, has had her work picked up by the U.S-based quarterly comic anthology Seqapunch.

The premise behind the comic is to include a selection of the best new comic strips from independent artists and illustrators regardless of theme, content or style. They say the only major rule is that it has to be good, "...great storytelling will always have a place at Seqapunch..."

Carter was selected as one of the twenty featured artists with her quirky comic entitled 'Edgar Orange and The Four Prawns' a story about a lonely man called Edgar who has a very special gift!

The comic strip is the first in a series Carter is working on, so expect to see more from Edgar and his great adventures very soon...

Sugar and Spice...

One of the things we love about what we do is pushing the promotion of our designers as much as possible. Exposure through our blog, shop or exhibition is always great, and then a few weeks ago we were contacted by the award-winning design company Brinkworth. 



Having known the guys at Brinkworth for a number of years, they were looking for an illustrator who's work they could use to grace the walls in a new Indian restaurant project they were finalising the design for.








We instantly thought of Ben Phe as the perfect addition to a modern Indian establishment, as his intricate illustrations on both paper and glass, have a certain ethnic quality to them. Brinkworth were looking for a quick turnaround, so we put them in touch with Ben, so he could arrange a selection of his prints to be used.



The restaurant in question was Cinnamon Soho, the newest addition to the Cinnamon brand owned by Vivek Singh, with previous restaurants Cinnamon Club and Cinnamon Kitchen already established eateries.











The moody interior with a few flashes of colour provide the perfect back-drop to Ben's work, the first of many walls we hope his detailed pieces will be on show for all to see...

Pop-up People...

From the heart of Peckham in the last two weeks of April, we will be hosting a collaborated pop-up exhibition with design company TheHouseWith. We've been dropping hints about who, when and where, but since a meeting with THW last week, we now have our final six exhibitors decided upon.

We presented all designers who applied to be a part of the exhibition, and would like to thank everyone for their interest, but numbers had to be limited due to the space, and we hope you are as excited as we are to host these hugely talented bunch of new designers.

The event is to also coincide with our first year as Look Like Love, and the designers exhibiting are a true reflection of the journey we have had over the last 12 months, as some of the first designers that caught our eye during last years shows, and initial research.

Ok, so enough waffle...here are the six you will be able see next month, some of who you will be familiar with from our support and promotion, who we will be proudly representing in Peckham!

Ben Phe - Illustrator, newest edition to Look Like Love and member of Art School Disco...

Michael Carroll - Sustainable Furniture Designer who we got chatting with at New Designer's 2011 and soon to have pieces available through our shop...

Roisin Connolly - Jewellery Designer from Dundee who uses acid-etching to create her amazing pieces...

Sandy Powell - Textile Designer who works with felt and recycled leather and will add a bit of softness to proceedings...

Kayleigh Hadley - Lyric-inspired and movie-loving illustrator is currently experimenting with lino-prints for a new collection...

CM Carter - Illustrator and all-round doodler, our first blog post, so it would be rude not to include her, and her amazing caricatures into the mix...

We'll be posting more details about the designers, the work you can expect to see, and information about dates and opening times in the next few weeks...our first literal watch this space moment...we cannot wait!

Animal Magic...

We might be heading off to places in the sun, but we still keep a look out for any talent that catches our eye, it's been a long time, and we are excited to get back to showcasing one such designer.

Julia Kisselmann is a designer who graduated last year from the University of Bedfordshire in Illustration. Her work leans towards nature, with a hand-drawn aesthetic, and a bold use of colour and scale.

We particularly like pieces from her Transmutation collection, where animals themselves cross-over into nature, and the exploration of flora and fauna become intertwined.

With the creation of her brand, and business in mind, her creativity doesn't wane, and its great to see a range of strong products being built around a true talent...

The Last Word...

With an ever increasing amount of technical wizardry and wonderment to supposedly make our lives easier, there are a few who work tirelessly to maintain crafts, techniques, and traditional ways of working alive.

The Counter Press is a small typographic collaboration between David Marshall and Elizabeth Ellis. Both established graphic designers, they have always had an interest, and passion in the origins of typography, and when the opportunity arose to purchase a neglected original press, there was no going back.

Months of painstaking work eventually brought this beautiful press back to life, and The Counter Press was born. Individually, and together they work on small commissions, and short-run prints, and in December saw their largest print run of their own Christmas cards.

Over the last few years wooden type has been seen as a decorative accessory in our homes, being sold at a premium, lined up on book shelves, a mish-mash of fonts and styles sat together, but it's certainly worth taking a second to think what they could have been used for in years passed...a film poster from the 1940's, the front cover of The Times perhaps.

Having seen first hand how this process works, it is incredible to believe that this was how everything we see in print today used to be produced, and it's collaborations like The Counter Press that will see this skill kept alive for many more years to come...

Just New...

A new year always brings a sense of optimism, a fresh set of challenges, a new creative project, an energised and motivated approach, and for us this is no different.

We start though with bringing back our showcase of some of the great, and the good work that goes on out there by graduates and part-time designers...

Art School Disco are an illustrative collective based in the UK is made up of six designers that each take their own style, and apply that to a new theme each week.

Made up of Ben Phe, (we featured his work back in August in 'Just Super Cool...') Simon Abbott, Ed Brown, Johnny Ace, Keiron LeVine, and Katie Allen, their individual interpretation makes their blog an eclectic mix of creativity, sometimes a little quirky, and maybe even crazy at times.

There's a definite sense of a dark undertone, and a touch of morbid humour with some of the works, but this all adds to the appeal for us, and showcases pure creative vision at it's experimental best...