from the Design Library today...ANGIE LEWIN

today is a difficult book to show - simply because every single page is filled with such lovely designs and prints it was tricky to know which ones to pick! I think most people will be familiar with Angie Lewin's work so I have chosen to showcase some other areas of the book rather than the final pieces...

Angie Lewin - Plants and Places

the book is splits into 5 main areas: Coast, woodland and Hedgerow, River and Loch, Meadow and Garden, and Studio:

workings for 'Dandelion'

you can literally see how the designs start as painting and sketches and follow them right through to the final prints, as with the 'Salthouse' design below:

sketchbook and workings for 'Salthouse'

'The Church, Salthouse' initial sketches

'The Church, Salthouse' final design

the book holds a wealth of knowledge on Angie and her inspirations, her workings and methodology:

initial paintings - i wish i could paint like that! [sigh]

workings and final print of 'Winterspey'

in full working mode!

one of Angie's finalised linos for the design 'Spey Seedheads'

testing colours on Japanese paper

i love how the book shows everything about Angie's thinking - you can see dabs of colours for testing out palettes and combinations, little notes and scribbles...it's great to have a little insight into how her mind works!

 'Clocks II'

'Alliums and Fennel', from start to finish

some examples of Angie's prints as repeats patterns

it can be bought from Amazon.co.uk for £17.50 or at Amazon.com for $29.85...enjoy!

from the Design Library today...NAIVE

i love love LOVE this book and hope you do too!  it's quite a graphic one but it's full of some really strong prints and illustrations...'Naive - modernism and folklore in contemporary graphic design'.

some really strong illustrative styles stand out in this book, two of my favourites being Josh Cochran and Tad Carpenter:

bold graphics feature heavily in this book, the overall style being described as 'minimalist design vocabulary'.

silk screen printing techniques are a favorite amongst these designers, fantastic layering of colours build up to create a textured and tactile print...i wish i had done more screen printing at Uni...[sigh]...

typography and hand lettering feature a fair amount in the book too... 

there is no text in this book, it is all about the imagery...so if you want to read about the history of poster art or folk design, well, this is not the book for you!  but just look how yummy everything is...why would you not want this on your shelf??!

Marcus Walters has a more simplistic style  basic shapes cut from coloured paper to create bold designs:

Print & Pattern favourite Helen Dardik pops up a few times in this book with her wonderful design world...posh birds, french cats, sausage dogs...they're all there!

if you've fallen in love with this book as much as i did you can treat your yourself to it for £21 on Amazon!

from the Design Library today...LOTTA JANSDOTTER

today we have a double treat from Lotta Jansdotter! i thought these would be a good choice this week as a few on my fellow ABSPD classmates were discussing making their own products recently.

first up is Lotta Prints:

Lotta first shares with us some of her inspirations:

this book then covers all manner of printing techniques - lino-block printing, screen printing, rubber stamping, iron-on transfers, leaf printing, stencil art, potato printing - and all the materials that these techniques can be used on

every technique has a step-by-step guide, and even has tips on cleaning up and how to store certain paints, inks, and brushes etc

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...and then after you have created all these wonderful fabrics you can make them into gorgeous goodies with the help of Simple Sewing!

a lovely spiral bound book which means it stays open easy and you don't have to weigh it down with all many of cups or staplers or boxes or whatever you have to just be able to read it! it's fan-tastic!

templates are included for the products listed in the book n a nice little compartment at the front:

the products are aimed at varying levels, starting off with a nice and easy tea towel at level 1...

...the level 3 magazine holder:

...and moving on to the somewhat more complicated doorstop at level 4:

how to make a doorstep

each product has a guide including a list of items needed, step-by-step details on how the to make the products with sketches and photographs:

how to make a tote bag

 so between these two books you can set up your very own manufacturing factory at home!

on amazon for £6.88
simple sewing on amazon for £10.53