Using primary colours and traditional printmaking techniques, Leeds College of Art graduate Abbey Withington creates colourful and graphic designs, that remind me of Marimekko and all the other Scandinavian designs I’m fond of. She studied on LCA’s Printed Textiles & Surface Pattern Design and has already started designing gift cards for Marks and Spencer. This collection consists of wallpapers, hand printed fabrics and artists prints that document the exotic fruits and corals found on Darwin’s first voyage around the world. She says:
I take influence from Finnish textiles, vintage children’s books and generally anything with a lovely nostalgic feel to it. I’m quite old fashioned in the way I create prints and patterns, I enjoy doing everything by hand and only really use digital devices near the end of the design process.
Screenprinting is the main process I use within my practice as I feel it achieves a nice textural aesthetic quality. Good quality materials are important to my work, I love printing onto durable fabrics including linens and cottons.
I spotted her work at New Designers, which sees over 3,000 of the most talented, newly graduated designers from the UK’s universities come together to exhibit in one venue. Check out Abbey’s blog here. She also has a shop on Etsy.
An example of how the kiwi print might look in a living room setting
