Inspiration: Textile designer Lourdes Sánchez


WOW
I love how the colours bleed

Love these dottie dottie dots.

Very Paul Klee-ish

What stunning colours in this IKAT pattern

Bull's Eye Rug designed for West Elm

I'm working on some surface design samples this week so have been researching textile designers.

One favourite I've discovered recently is Lourdes Sánchez . I spotted the very colourful rug she designed for West Elm on the back page of the catalogue and immediately needed to know more about her. She is a Cuban born artist and textile designer who grew up in Queens + New Jersey. She works in hand painted watercolour media which gives her designs a beautiful fluidity. There is incredible variety within her textile line: including designs with dots, stripes, ikat patterns, and vintage florals. Her client list includes Crate and Barrel, Graphique de France, Clinique and Diane Von Furstenberg.

(Would love to know more about her creative process. Have added her to my list of people I'd like to interview for uppercase magazine!)

ps. I think it's really great that West Elm does so many collaborations. It gives the artists great exposure and adds a juiciness to the company. Have noticed that many other shops including Anthropologie + J. Crew are following this model.

Press: Covet Garden Blog


Photography by Tracy Shumate

The new Covet Garden issue is out and it is stunning! It features the soulful home of set buyer Alex Hooper and design director Paul van Dongen. Beautiful photos with tons of mood + texture (as usual!) by Tracy Shumate. Thanks to Alex + Paul for listing me as one of their favourite artists on the new Covet Garden Blog. Means a lot coming from styley guys like you. xxx

Behind an Illustration

As promised here is a peek at the process behind the Style at Home mural.

1. Margot Austin requests a fanciful image with a "Dorothy Draper-meets-Alice-in-Wonderland" vibe. The piece must be created using colours in the Style at Home Beautitone paint series. Suggests the Anthropologie catalogue for inspiration.



2. The Anthropologie catalogue is hugely inspiring. Filled with wonderous images which combine photographs of the models with Victorian toys, overscale props, whimsical chickens and sheep! Really amazing.
(FYI The Design cognescenti suspect that Tim Walker is behind the catalogue)

Am now inspired to combine my illustration with some Victorian Advertising cuts for an extra surreal dimension.

3. Research Dorothy Draper. This is one of the hotels she designed.
See this blog post.


4. After doing lots of sketches I scan my drawings plus some images from a catalogue of 19C Advertising cuts and put the image together in Photoshop.
Above is one of several sketches sent.
I liked the little Victorian man with the bowler hat chatting to the peacock. :-)


5. The team chooses this sketch but requests that I change the chandelier to a George Nelson bubble lamp and the old chair to an Arne Jacobson Egg Chair for a fun new + old mix.

6. I carry out the revisions plus also add a clock because I am a perfectionist.
This revision is approved. Ready to move onto colour.


7. I scan in all the paint chips. I then use the eye dropper in Photoshop to grab the hue and bring it into my illustration.

I chose to use a limited palette of blues + greens because this usually gives a more sophisticated look. The paint chip names are Wasabi, Pool, Trinity Blazer and Viburnum.

10. The team liked the 'colour family' but asked for me to switch around some colours.
Above is the Final approved image.

11. I then converted the file from RGB to CMYK and sent it off to the printer Pierre at Mural Unique where he did a great job of scaling it to 12.6 feet X 10 feet and then printing it out onto wallpaper strips.



12. Ta da.