I've been too busy up until now to blog about my design processes for the new products I'm exhibiting at the show, so here is a quick update on how I've been getting on!
So I was a bit stuck as to what to show this year at OYO... 'Do I design something new?' 'Do I design only a few new products?' were a few of the questions I asked myself before I even began designing for the show...
The solution to my predicament came in the form of a proposition by a client I met at TENT 2012. Nikki Greenleaf approached me with the offer of being part of her new brand 'artenax,' a company focused on showcasing contemporary design in bold and daring colours, with a specific colour pallet of strong and vivid magnets, turquoises, lime green and acid yellows. Now with my current work being mainly monochromic, with my newer designs for TENT including some bold colour in small areas, Nikki's proposition inspired me to work with colour in a much bigger way. I began with colour washes and inky splatters using vivid chemical fabric dyes and inks on paper, which I then scanned into the computer to brighten up further and enhance. Using my colours of choice from Nikki's pallet, I designed a cushion and lampshade in hues of magenta and turquoise, thus my collection for artenax came into being.
I was so excited to be working with colour in a way I had never done before, I decided to use this initial starting point of using vivid inky colour as the basis of my entire collection for One Year On. More magenta and turquoise, acid yellow, cobalt blue, indigo and teal are all colours which have found their way into my collection, combined with my signature pen line pen drawing of my favourite imagery.
For the show I have narrowed my products down to just lampshades and cushions, as the colours are intense and bold and so are more suited to act as accent or statement pieces in the home or corporate space.
