EBAY EXCLUSIVES

ebay express have put their backing behind young british designers with their 'exclusives' range of specially commissioned homewares. there are 10 items by five designers available online. the first is a designer familiar to us here on print & pattern, the talented leanne rostron from freckle designs. these stunning black & white 'kimono' plates are £12.00 for small & £20 for the large from ebay express.

TABLEWARE - freckle designs

a reminder of leanne rostron's tableware designs available from her company 'freckle designs'. all hand cast in stoke-on-trent they pay great attention to details, for example having patterns on the back of the items too.

EBAY EXPRESS - sylvie fuller

also from ebay express comes this hummingbird mug by sylvie fuller. sylvie trained at the LCP and worked for fulton umbrellas before going freelance last year. to see her work visit lillebulle for details.

GIFT WRAP - snow & graham

beautiful new wrapping paper designs from snow & graham, as seen at papermojo.

DESIGNER - nadia sparham

i was so impressed when i saw nadia sparham's website that i had post some images. nadia works with a range of design surfaces including textiles, ceramics and paper, creating beautifully handcrafted homewares.

DESIGNER - lotta glave

i saw this on imedagoze's excellent blog, a new bird pattern from lotta glave (lovely prints here). lotta has set up business with her partner bengt lindberg. check their website : bengt & lotta ab for more information.

PAPERCHASE - easter

i walked unsuspectingly into paperchase on saturday and actually gasped with excitement when i saw the first pieces of the easter collection were now in. its a wonderful bright gingham story of bunnies, eggs, & chicks. and as usual its absolutely brilliant.

IN THE SHOPS - debenhams

i was so pleased when i saw this window display at debenhams as its celebrates pattern. its fantastic to find that prints are so in fashion this season, and even more so to see it promoted so enthusiastically in this way.

IN THE SHOPS - M&S mothers day

mothers day at marks & spencer features flowers and butterflies on window displays, cards, and packaging. the lovely floral graphics (left) really say spring, and were a welcome sight when they went up in dreary early feb.

IN THE SHOPS - accessorize

a selection of prints as seen in accessorize

IN THE SHOPS - cath kidston

continuing my review of 'whats in the shops' with a look at the merchandising displays in cath kidston's shops in covent garden & at fulham road.

IN THE SHOPS - the range

rubber stamps, sticky ribbons, and floral wall prints seen in the range

IN THE SHOPS - asda

a selection of patterned products as seen in asda, from the george brand. of all the UK supermarkets that sell homewares for me asda do it the best.

IN THE SHOPS - b&q

swatches of wallpaper, and in the bottom right a shower curtain seen in diy store B&Q.

IN THE SHOPS - homebase

floral canvases and embroidered panels in chocolate & natural colours from homebase.

URBAN OUTFITTERS - new patterns

a selection of new prints from urban outfitters, if like me you are in the UK you can visit branches in london at oxford street, covent garden, and south kensington.

IN THE SHOPS - heals

i have lots of store photographs saved up that ive taken over the last couple of weeks. so i thought i'd do a round up of 'whats in the shops' print & pattern wise at the moment. starting off with heals, these were taken at the newly refurbished tottenham court road store.

IN THE SHOPS - matalan

next up a look around the homewares dept in matalan.

IN THE SHOPS - cargo

some nice shadow prints on cushions seen in cargo homeshop, also on tottenham court road. lots more shop reports tommorow.

NEW COMPANY - lagom

exciting news today about a new design company founded by one of my design heroes kelly hyatt. kelly was previously the man behind legendary card company beaumonde, but he has sold up and moved on to pastures new by setting up 'lagom', a swedish word meaning "enough, sufficient, adequate, just right". a description which kelly hopes "will sum up the product we plan to produce over the next few years". lagom is in the early stages but hopefully will launch in march. all these preview images are fabulous designs by another blog favourite hanna werning. watch this space for info and details of when its up and running or keep an eye on kelly's design agency website. you can also contact via email here.

KELLY HYATT - cards

kelly hyatt's designs for his ranges 'juliette' and 'saint germain' as spyed in scribbler at waterloo station last week. plus, coincidently kelly also designed the habitat books featured yesterday.

DESIGNER - hanna werning

in honor of todays 'lagom' post a quick review of some of hanna werning's previous designs. swedish born and london trained with a really distinctive style hanna's work must be some of the most recognisable in contemporary design.

SPRING DESIGNS - marimekko

lovely new spring kitchen pieces at marimekko.

ORLA KIELY - store shots

way back in july 06 i reported that orla kiely had the builders in at her covent garden store. they were working on the new home accessories dept. well ive finally been back with a camera to take a few pics and here are some of the prints you can see on display there. products available include cushions, wallpaper, rugs, throws, and mugs.

HABITAT - patterns

snaps taken in habitat's flagship tottenham court road store. particular pattern favourites included : above activity book & document wallet by kelly hyatt from their childrens dept, and below the 'landscape range' of ceramics created by atelier LZC. a new print called corsage also caught my eye, shown below on trays & drum lampshades. finally down at the bottom, piles of patterned storage boxes by marcel wanders.

PAPERCHASE - get in line

it wouldnt be print & pattern without a look at paperchase, so here are a couple of pics from their latest promotion 'get in line' a new range of striped accessories. im liking the diagonal ones best.

BOOK WEEK - finale

book week comes to a close today and after all the 'eye candy' we've had since last monday im finishing with an educational book. several people asked if there was a book for beginners that explained how to make patterns and repeats. the good news is yes there is, its called 'pattern design' by lewis f day. this 300 page paperback book was originally published in london in 1903, and revised by day's friend amor fenn in 1933. buy this great little book if you want to learn how to layout patterns, otherwise be warned there are no colour pictures so its not really a coffee table book. the illustrations are all in black and theres plenty of text to explain the images. click here for details on amazon UK or USA.
NORMAL SERVICE RESUMES TOMMOROW.

BOOK - vintage fabric from the states

and finally, one more book suggestion 'vintage fabric from the states', a japanese book about american fabrics. nothing to read in this one just page after page of lovely vintage patterns. divided into sections such as geometric, kids, and kitchen, this is inspirational stuff for both layouts and colours. from amazon UK or details from the publisher.

BOOK - pattern + palette 2

if you enjoyed the book pattern+palette in 2005, then good news : pattern+palette 2 has just been published. this time the designer at the helm is heidi arrizabalaga of the paperie HEIDI. the book is divided into 6 catergories with a palette of 15 colours given to each, then various combinations are shown to create hundreds of different looks. the book doesnt use pantones but instead gives you the cmyk percentages, handy for example if you are using illustrator as you can simply type in the numbers. this is a really great book for anyone looking for colour guidance, but the patterns are beautiful too. £12.40 from amazon uk or $19.80 from the US. oh and as if that was tempting enough it also comes with a bonus cd included.

BOOK - pattern & palette

dont forget to check out the first pattern & palette book designed by anvil graphic design.

although both books use the same format they are quite different, so my advice is to collect them both. who knows there may be more in the series still to come. from amazon UK or USA.

BOOKS - also recommended

here are half a dozen excellent books that i have previously reviewed on print & pattern, click here to see reviews of all wrapped up, 1000 patterns, print in fashion, in bloom, private view, and pattern.

BOOKS - vintage

besides the latest design books another thing you can do is utilize vintage books. im sure many of you do this already, but for those just starting out, scour charity shops, car boot sales, or secondhand bookstores for illustrated reference books. for example i have lots of flower books as clients always ask for floral designs and you need to know what types there are and how they look. my old art teacher used to say to us all the time "you are only as good as your reference", and this is so true. surround yourself with great reference books and it will really help your designs. many old plants/gardening titles from the 60's and 70's can be picked up for just pence. other popular subjects to look out for are animals, birds, butterflys, seashore & shells, fruits, leaves, and trees.