Art Studio Helene is the work of Netherlands based designer Hélène van der Laag. After losing her job Hélène took the chance to make a career in the creative business, and after doing courses in Fashion and Interior Design she fell in love with surface pattern design. By not knowing Illustrator and Photoshop at all, it has taken Hélène quite a while to master pattern making. But now that that she has she says it doesn’t feel like working and feels excited every morning to be doing what she loves most! Hélène feels she has always had an eye for beauty, colour combinations and composition. She finds inspiration in nature especially the flowers, shades of green, birds etc. Here we have a showcase of Hélène's new tropical collection which was inspired by the extremely high temperatures this summer. She wanted something fun, bold and happy that would be suitable for kids fabric, stationery, or home decor. The plants and birds were created in watercolour and for the bugs Hélène used gouache before bringing them all into Photoshop for a clean up and to put them into repeat.
These lovely fabrics (above & below) are by Louise Nisbert of the Hornbill Studio and were created for Clarke & Clarke's Studio g label. The collection is called Village Life and features pretty bunting, flower filled bicycles and home baking. Louise has been freelancing for over 17 years as a greetings card designer, but just over a year ago decided she needed a change and a new challenge and began to design for surface pattern. The challenge of creating repeat patterns has given Louise the space and freedom to really push herself creatively. Not being restricted to certain colour palettes and themes as she had been in greetings cards, Louise now feels like a whole new world has opened up and she can’t get her ideas down fast enough!
Susan Black is an artist/designer living in Nova Scotia, Canada. Susan has licensed her artwork to many major US gift, home decor & stationery companies including Starbucks, Trader Joe's, Calypso Cards & Madison Park Greetings.I last featured her work way back in 2011 and Susan wanted to show how her style has evolved since then. She still has a love of all things colour and has recently compiled a fabulous botanical portfolio from which I am lucky enough to be able to post some examples below. You can find Susan's latest work on Instagram and by calendars, prints, colouring books etc. on Etsy.
Poppy Almond is a freelance designer and illustrator. She graduated from Leeds Arts University with a degree in Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern Design and is now looking for commissions and collaborations. You can get in touch with Poppy and see her latest work and musings at Instagram here.
I am looking at Autumn Winter 2018 arrivals again today - and this time from Sainsbury's TU brand. All these patterns and placement prints were spotted in childrenswear. There were lots of browns, maroon, and yellow ochre and as you would expect for Autumn cute woodland hedgehogs and foxes. New this year are on trend Dalmations, and for girlswear plenty of ponies. You can see TU clothing in Sainsbury's UK stores and online here.
