Some New Work

You may have noticed a certain lack of posts recently, and there is a reason for that – I’ve been working on a new range of products which I’ve literally just finished this week.

They are designs that I started while working in Reykjavik earlier this year and as a result I hope they have a light and Northern feel to them. I will add some very exciting stockists details shortly.

I am also happy to tell you that I have work in a new book, Languages of Colour, an anthology edited by Alexandra Loske which will be published by Frogmore Press on 31st May. Frogmore Press is well known for its book cover art and I am delighted to show you the cover of Languages of Colour, by artist David J Markham.

And finally, the research I was carrying out on identifying some art nouveau wallpaper will be published in The Wallpaper History Review this September – and I’ve been on quite a trail attempting to uncover the designer.

Apologies for only writing about my own activities in this post but I was keen to let you know my lack of posting is for a reason!

Well, I’m off to stomp over some mountains this weekend so I hope to catch some good images to share with you next week.

Keep you posted…

Dyslexia and Interiors

I recently came across a photograph of my Great Grand Father taken around 1904. He was an artist and the photo is taken in his studio in London. But something jarred with me right away.

I live in a house with no pattern at all, no  pattered cushions or pattered curtains or bed linen. I dress in plain blocks of colour and actually feel quite unwell if I try to wear patterns. I’ve never really given it much thought, despite people often mentioning my ‘minimal’ or ‘ordered’ taste.

Looking at the vintage photo all I see is the wallpaper jumping out at me, confusing my mind into a chaotic tangle of thoughts. How on earth could Great Grand Father paint in such a decorative room? And very well he painted too as he exhibited at the Royal Academy , Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute.

With help from the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Whitworth Art Gallery and the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, I have been on a fascinating trail to try and identify the wallpaper in the studio. My findings will appear in The History of Wallpaper Review later this summer.

But back to pattern versus plain. As I spend a lot of time specifying wall colour, I thought I would do a little research into why some people are comfortable surrounded by pattern and some are definitely not.

I was diagnosed a ‘dyslexic’ when I was very young and have chosen to work in areas where right-brained individuals can thrive so therefore don’t give my label of dyslexia any thought…until now.

When you look up ‘symptoms of dyslexics’ on the web you will see lists containing  attributes such as being intuitive, sensitive, perfectionist, artistic, and often very orderly. All very nice. Something else I hadn’t clocked until now which made me smile – dyslexic children are often first to learn and identify colours! There are of course many other indicators including being very light sensitive, often ambidextrous, thinking in images rather than words, having a strong sense of justice and interestingly often left eared. Well I tick all of those boxes and more but then something popped up which may well answer the question as to why I choose to live in an uncluttered interior.

It is actually common for dyslexics to feel anxious in decorative interiors. They contain far too many random visual stimuli which can led an ordered mind of a dyslexic to become extremely anxious. Our minds which operate on visual imagery receives an overload of information which needs to be ordered and the task becomes overwhelming and leads to confusion and stress.

For me, this answers a lot of personal questions and for interior designers, it is important information to bear in mind. If your client includes decorating a  bedroom for a dyslexic child you could quite easily create a stunning room in your eyes but one which creates a lot of tension for a child. It is less likely to happen when working for a dyslexic adult because they are likely to have discovered their preferred ‘style’ which will almost certainly be very clean and simple i.e one where they feel at ease in.

So perhaps the Father of Modernism, Albert Loos who famously wrote, Ornament and Crime, was perhaps a fellow dyslexic? Well I would like to think so anyway…

London: a Riot of Colour

I have to admit to not quite knowing where to start with today’s post. I spent last week in London, a city that never fails to blow my mind, and last week was no exception. It was of course in the throws of London Fashion Week and the The Brit Awards which meant that the shop windows were groomed and styled to perfection.

Strong colour trends were clearly visible throughout London. Blocks of coral crashing into great chunks of Klein blue and 70′s purples anchored by spicy tans and cinnamon hues – tribal colours without the pattern, instead emerging in great blocky geometric shapes.

As if I needed any more colour stimulus, I made a trip to the David Hockney exhibition ‘A Bigger Picture’. Suddenly you find yourself looking at the English countryside though a new set of eyes. To say the exhibition is vibrant, energetic, zesty would somehow be an understatement. This huge exhibition positively bursts off the walls of the Royal Academy with a ramped up sense of optimism and freshness. I would strongly recommend you to watch Andrew Marr’s interview with David Hockney on last nights The Culture Show - so much can be learnt from the mind of this artistic genius. As Hockney says, ‘everything becomes interesting if you really look’, I couldn’t agree more.

looking at patterns and exaggerating colour in Fife

Space is something David Hockney often talks of, particularly where one thing stops and another thing starts. Where two colours meet is something I am intensely interested in as the energy created at the boundaries of adjoining colours is the perfect fusion of art and science. But infinite space is one of  Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s enduring obsessions.  Her show at Tate Modern is one of the most fascinating exhibitions I have ever seen.

It shows her work constantly changing over the decades which probably mirrors her life which includes living in rural Japan, New York, Tokyo and for the last thirty years living voluntarily in a  psychiatric institution where she has created work hoping to show the psychological trauma she so often feels and wants to escape from. Leaving the exhibition you must navigate through a darkened room covered in mirrors and tiny coloured lights which completely disorientate you and seem to stretch out to infinity. It really is something you should experience if you are in London.

Apologies for the lack of photographs on this post but I couldn’t take my camera into the exhibitions. I’ve also been very busy creating some new products – I’m still at the messy stage but I am really pleased with the pieces that I started in Iceland last month.  I hope to have images up soon!

Working the New Neon Micro Trend

There are many people in the design world who are steadfast against colour trends. I hear what they say and agree to an extent but there is no doubt that colour trends, especially micro, quick, fleeting trends can add a lot of fun and a great ‘edge’ to an interior. I am not suggesting you embark on an interior makeover every time a colour trend emerges, that would be ridiculous and very expensive, but interiors should inspire, excite and explore new techniques in order to keep them alive.

Perhaps I just have a low boredom threshold but can you imagine your favourite interior shop where and the products remain the same colour every time you visit? I really don’t think that would be much fun.

Enter ‘new neon’. We are talking,  ultra clean-cut, sharp, pulsating colours. Use it in really small areas and it can literally transform a space from dowdy to cool without much effort. The obvious way to do this is with small accessories like a vase or a cushion or even just a zip but I have been trying to source a neon paint to use over a few old randomly shaped glass bottles I was going to dump in recycling. I rather fancy a still life, Giorgio Morandi style but within the group of ever so chic well balanced neutrals slotting in an unhinged neon.

Glowtec UK  have a neon paint range which they claim can be used outdoors too. The trick with this micro trend is definitely less is more. The fashionistas are wearing it on nails, belts or satchels along with ultra femimine tailoring worn in baby soft neutrals tones. It’s the shock factor that this trend is trading on.

Pantone of course have a range of neons (801 to 807 being some of the punchiest) but they are designed for ink printing so most paint stores are unlikely to have the formulation to mix them as paint.

You may have spotted the image below in last weeks post – it was the neon window frame of this design store in Reykjavik that lured me into the workshop. A great example of really working this trend to full advantage.

The problem is, I have now created a dilemma for myself……. can I justify the addition of a neon edge to the profile of my  business card………

Short of Inspiration? Visit Reykjavik, That Will Fix You

Having spent the last few nights standing on a remote snow covered lava field in Pingvellir National Park Iceland, I had hoped to be posting magnificent images of the aurora borealis but I’m afraid the famous Northern Lights did not play ball despite the near perfect conditions.

There are however, enough colours in Reykjavik city centre to melt the head of any colour lover.

Coloured facades, Reykjavik.

Iceland is well known for it’s contrasts – fire and ice, dark winters light summers but I hadn’t expected to find so many contrasts in the world of design. I didn’t spot a single international chain shop or restaurant, instead I found row upon row of individual shops/work spaces with the makers living above or behind their showrooms. The designers are using a huge range of ancient craft techniques and creating cutting edge designs to satisfy the hunger of the design conscious locals but also to ship to the best galleries and design stores in New York. In short, very traditional techniques are being used to make ultra contemporary styles.

design spaces Reykjavik

The Icelandics don’t appear to be influenced by design trends abroad, they have their own unique and extremely strong sense of design and as a result are producing some of the most exciting pieces I have seen in years. One of the most impressive workshops I visited was one which was attached to restaurant Forrettabarinn. There, four designers make and display their furniture, jewellery and textiles. It felt a little like some of the venues at London Design Festival, a smaller version of Tent London perhaps but with designers I had never come across making very powerful pieces that I would loved to have taken home with me.

Another striking contrast were the deeply minimal, squeaky clean public buildings (lots of black concrete and stainless steel) which were peppered with tiny elements of highly decorative antiques especially crockery. Oddly enough this gave the sometimes fairly austere and rather serious spaces a fantastic sense of quirky humour.

Minimal working with decorative

I couldn’t finish this post without mentioning the ridiculously cool Kex Hostel in downtown Reykjavik. It’s housed in a converted biscuit factory and is stuffed full of twentieth century design classics. It has one of Reykjavik’s best bars where jazz bands play and many a celebration takes place. It summed up Reykjavik to me – work hard, play hard and always, always creative.

Kex Hostel

2012 Warms Up

While Pantone have chosen Tangerine Tango to be their Colour of the Year for 2012,  Dulux opted for a lively juicy red but Crown paints have launched a whole new colour palette, New Directions ,which is intended to encourage us to mix traditional colour groupings together i.e pastels with neons, brights with neutrals, neutrals with pastels (but all still under pinned by neutral grey). So it looks like 2012, Apocalypse or not, is going to be a colourful year with plenty of trending hues emerging from the warm side of the spectrum.

Back blogging on January 5th

It will be interesting to see what iconic Danish brand Vipp will choose for 2012 as their 2011 colour was ‘rising red’ – I will tell you as soon as they announce it but I have a feeling we may see something with a violet tone to it.

Anyway, lots to look forward to but most of all I would like to take this opportunity to thank all subscribers and readers of my blog for being so supportive and jumping in with brilliant comments throughout the year. As all bloggers know, receiving feedback is what it’s all about, so thank you all very much indeed and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and I look forward to catching up with you around the 5th of January 2012 for another colourful year.

Requiring the Nothingness of White

Having spent the summer pouring over my Pantone  Plus Series fan deck, I have reached a point of complete colour saturation. I feel totally unable to work with colour today which is deeply frustrating as I have some important colour work to finalise. However, it’s not an unusual situation for people working with colour and thankfully there are two routes to “recovery”.

Often a walk amongst green foliage can rebalance ones ability to look at colour with “fresh” eyes and is a technique I often use. Today though, I can’t even take green so I have opted for my second route to recovery – strip everything back to black and white.

Although black is fully saturated i.e it absorbs the whole spectrum and bounces nothing back, it forbids any of its captured colours to dominate. White on the other hand absorbs nothing and is therefore the cleanest and most pure backdrop on which to start. This tells us that black  has a very low  reflective”value” and white a high light reflective value (LRV) allowing high visual contrast when looking at black and white together.

High visual contrast allows the shape or form of the image to be more dominant and that is exactly what I am looking for in order to make good colour choices.

So I am stripping off colour and slowly adding it back in, a process that is making me fine tune every element in a measured and considered way. A spontaneous process no it’s not, but this is just the fine tuning at the end of a long process and it’s definitely working.

One word of warning though, you cant just convert a coloured image into black and white and gain a high visual contrast. If the original image is say, red and green, even though they are “contrasting” colours, convert it to black and white you will discover red and green have a similar LRV and therefore will give you very little contrast indeed – more about this in my previous  post.

So befuddled with colour don’t panic, enjoy the nothingness of white with the contrast of black and you will find yourself back on the colour trail shortly.

The Best Tool in Design: Colour

If a designer told you they had a tool which could shrink, expand, adjust temperature, change your mood, create energy, reflect seasons, continents and cultures in your home without making any structural changes you may think they were mad. But they do have that tool. It is colour. It is such a powerful tool that even the smallest amount can create an impressive statement.

The other advantage (for me anyway who prefers simplicity over decoration) is that used in conjunction with beautiful natural materials and crafted in a time honoured fashion, simple colour placement can be all an item ever asks for. It’s akin to cooking with the best, local ingredients. There is little point in embellishing  a medallion of venison, when all is required is some seasoning and a hot pan. This is the philosophy I am using for my textile range. Quality local materials coupled with interactive colour – simple but fulfilling.