from the Design Library . . . Charley Harper

i cannot believe i only discovered Charley Harper last year. where have i been?! i thought i'd discovered a new genius...but no. he was born in 1922 and produced an amazing body of work from the 40's right to the new millennium. and there is a book out there that captures all these years across a whole 400 pages - 'Charley Harper - An Illustrated Life'.

i love his use of simple geometric shapes to create quite intricate scenes. he called his style 'minimal realism' and described it as:

" when i look at a wildlife or nature subject, i don’t see the feathers in the wings, i just count the wings. i see exciting shapes, colour combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behaviour and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures... i don't try to put everything in, i try to leave everything out "

i like this way of thinking. i shall adapt this to my work. less is more.

* you can buy the mini edition book here on amazon for only £13! there's also the full size (it's enormous and weighs a tonne. oh and it costs about £200, although i did find it in Liberty for £70)

* and here's a shop full of Charley's stunning artwork (OMGoodness you can buy everything - jewellery, tiles, puzzles...!)

amsterdam . . . the design

so i promised you a look into some of the shops in amsterdam to see what kind of design goods they are selling...well here you go...




first up is GUUS, a cute little boutique shop just off of the main streets. it had table mats, kids toys, magnets, lighting...all very quirky and right up my street :)

ceramic bottles. not sure what you'd do with them but they looked quite nice

finally. someone has modernised v   paper decorations vhghhhhh

the cork placemat. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm                                

paper tree houses to add to your plants!

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a little further down the road we have KITSCH KITCHEN. don't think i need to explain what kind of delights where held within these store walls...

quite frankly these owls just scare me

painted tealight holders

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christmas a-z . . . Z!

Z is for...ZIB TEXTILE
supercool leggings are on offer in this store - cute characters pretty florals or funky geos will give you amazing legs!

Z is for...ZINNIA DESIGNS TC
simple but fun designs fill this shop including lots of christmassy decorations and accessories...but i think the dog is my favourite :)

Z is for...ZOE MURPHY

and ending on my favourite find of the year. i first saw Zoe's work at tent. now i know furniture is not really a stocking-filler-type-gift but i had to share...but there are a few smaller gifts in her shop

and that's it...all done...phew! hope you enjoyed some of my finds and it inspired you to buy more handmade goods...have a merry christmas everyone!! x

guest blog from decorque - post 1 . . . florals!

welcome to the first ever guest blog on mel smith designs! some of you may already know decorque, others may not, in which case this will be a lovely introduction to their brand and inspirations. i recently guest blogged for them so after reading this why not pop along to their blog to check it out!

Hello everyone, we are delighted to be guest blogging and partnering with Mel Smith Designs to bring you an insightful series of blogs focusing on all things creative!

We are Decorque, a family-run business based in the UK, designing, producing and selling unique products for the home & stationery markets. We thought we would share with you one of our biggest influences, florals, and show how they affect our design themes and collections. 

Our design team consists of Lesley Stevens, with background and experience as a surface pattern designer specializing in the fashion and textiles sector; and Harriet Stevens a qualified graphic designer. Between us we adore digital design, photography, fine art, sketching, screen-printing and surface pattern design (to mention a few!) – and as you can see from our mood board this creates a diverse and eclectic mix of inspirations to aid the design of our products.

An enormous influence for us is Louis Comfort Tiffany whose Art Nouveau stained glass windows and lamps create beautiful floral cascades in rich, opulent colours that bring a glow to any room. We also love Gustav Klimt’s floral paintings, which have a wonderful delicacy and intricacy. With Lesley’s background, we are always inspired by watercolour and gouache paintings. Gorgeous soft painted florals like that of Luli Sanchez and the more vivid controlled roses by Working Girl Designs remind us of our tropical flowers painted and layered onto our Skin Tropique A4 art print.

In juxtaposition we love bold, digital, layered florals that mix transparencies, effects and combine hand drawn sketches and illustrations next to CAD drawn flowers and photographic images. The mixed-media effect is one we try to experiment with in our work, such as the Hot Skin Tropique Mouse Pad which uses bright colours mixed with monochrome sketched skin print & illustrator drawn stylised florals.

As mentioned, digital florals are a huge inspiration for us, and a trend that has cascaded across all areas of design from interiors, to fashion and stationery. Matthew Williamson is the king of the digital fashion print, alongside that we have stumbled upon some fabulous designers on Society6 like Laura Sturdy and Aimee St Hill who are taking florals onto all types of media.

We are currently designing our SS13 collection, and focusing on selling both online and offline in the run up to Christmas. We have such a variety of products, all featuring our gorgeous designs. Cards & tags, mouse pads, art prints and our infamous and totally unique decorative and stylish cork coasters and placemats. If you haven’t seen these yet, take a trip to our website and see our best selling Charm of Hummingbird placemats, and Red Butterfly coasters, perfect for any table!

We also have our successful blog featuring wonderful designers and creatives, alongside posts on all creative subjects. To keep more up to date with all things Decorque you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest, and of course check out our main website.

Links:

Main site link: www.decorque.com

Blog site link: http://blog.decorque.com

Twitter link: @decorque

Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/Decorque

Pinterest link: http://pinterest.com/decorque/

Moodboard image references/links:

Watercolour rose paintings  

Monochrome line drawn floral wall

Designer’s Guild Wallpaper  

Floral plate by Anthropologie

Gustav Klimt floral poster 

Louis Comfort Tiffany reference 

Floral card by Laura Sturdy – Society6  

Emma Floral in Ocean Wallpaper 

Floral print 

Watercolour floral by Luli Sanchez

Tiffany floral close up

Matthew Williamson print 

Flora painting by Nick Wright 

from the Design Library today...EXPERIMENTAL COLOURS IN WATERCOLOUR

i found this book whilst at Kew Gardens for their Tropical Extravaganza exhibition this spring - it is SUCH a yummy book! and after seeing fellow ABSPD classmate Deborah Velasquez experimenting with watercolours i thought it was appropriate to showcase this book next :)

i had never heard of Ann Blockley before seeing this book but it turns out she's a rather well known watercolour artist!

this isn't a 'how-to' book, Ann simply shares ideas of how to work with watercolours and experiment with different techniques - it is the up to you to decide if and how to use these tips.

i had always associated watercolours with wishy-washy colours, quite boring in my mind - i had never seen watercolours used in this way - to get such bold and vibrant colours:

the book is split into seasons, each chapter focusing on the flowers and trees from that particular season, and giving advice on how to capture their features through various techniques:

my favourite flower - anemones :)

beautiful winter landscape

some of the paintings have a mixed media quality to them, layers of texture built up...

this gorgeous book can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk for £13.29 or from Amazon.com for $20.40...happy painting!

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!