My New Year’s resolution was to get in the groove of a daily pattern habit. The rule is that every morning before I start work, I fill a page of my pattern journal with some kind of pattern. I spend 15-20 minutes using the grid lines in my notebook to work through what a simple motif can do. Then, …
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Start a pattern habit
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The gap between idea and execution
So, tra-la-la, it’s all “clever me” when the facade of Fortuna apartments on the Sea Point Promenade gives me an idea… but what happens next? How does a sketch on paper actually turn into a vase? One that stacks? The fact is, there’s a MASSIVE gap between an idea, and the idea becoming something for realz. And …
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Who looks for treasure in the same place twice?
Nobody looks in the same place for treasure twice, right? Well, it depends on how you define ‘treasure’, I guess. For designers, like me, creative thoughts & fresh ideas are hugely valuable. This is the ‘treasure’ I look for, and I definitely need to look more than once to find it. Here’s what I mean: …
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Instagram’s Treasure Hunters
Occasionally, I take a photo that I feel really pleased with, and if I’m honest, the reason I’m happy with it is because it feels like a photo that I might ‘like’ on Instagram. Is that a funny thing to say? It’s not news to anyone that imitation (very different from coyping) is very a …
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How to Look Better – tips for seeing treasures every day
I’m a good looker. I don’t mean I’d win a beauty contest, just that LOOKING is part of my creative toolbox as a designer, and I’m good at it. I’m in the habit of using my eyes in an enquiring way that helps me make the creative connections and leaps that are needed for new …
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On my bookshelf
I took this photo when promoting our 2021 calendar, choosing titles from my bookshelf that I thought made sense together. Then, as I was packing them away, I thought perhaps some of you would be interested to know more about them. So here’s a bit more, with links for each. Yes, yes, this is a …
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In Memoriam: Yanni Vosloo
🖤This image is a version in black of one of the designs I made for the Skinny laMinx collab with MrPrice Home in 2017, in memoriam to Yanni Vosloo, the Mr Price group’s merchandise director for 19 years, who succumbed to Covid19 this week.🖤 When Yanni contacted me in 2016, proposing a collab with Skinny …
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The PROMENADE lifestyle collection
When you take 3 midcentury architectural facades on the Sea Point Promenade, add a pinch of admiration, 3 dollops of attention, a few choice collaborations, what do you end up with? The PROMENADE lifestyle collection. This collection pays homage to the large-scale public murals at Fortuna and Bonne Esperance apartments, and on the Beach Road …
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Collaboration: Wren x Skinny laMinx
In this design collaboration, carefree prints & colours from Skinny laMinx & the innovative stitched paper accessories from WREN meet to tell a bright & optimistic story evoking the mood of a breezy Summer stroll along the Sea Point Promenade in Cape Town. WREN specialises in the innovative use of stitched paper to create personal …
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