MICA / / Eric Leland

Today we are sharing the beautiful work of Eric Leland who I met on a recent work trip to the US! I was lucky enough to get to visit Boston & Baltimore, hang out with the team at the Lilla Rogers Studio & teach some workshops & deliver a public lecture at MICA (Maryland Institute College Of Art). It was such an honour to be invited & to teach at such a wonderful college with talented tutors such as Eric.

Eric's design career began in architecture - he spent five years working in that field in Baltimore, Maryland, & passed his registration exams in 2007. However, at the same time, he was overtaken both by wanderlust & by a growing realisation that he was happiest with the part of his work that involved pencil & paintbrush. Eric & his wife took a leap across the Atlantic, and then enrolled in the postgraduate illustration course at University College Falmouth, in Cornwall, England. Since 2009, Eric has been back in Baltimore, where he has now nearly filled his basement with obsolete letterpress printing equipment. Eric produces & markets his own illustrated greeting cards, calendars, books, prints & paper goods, much of which is printed & bound by hand, by me. For the 2013 - 14 academic year, he is also teaching part time on the Illustration Practice MFA course at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

You can visit Eric's lovely website & his Etsy shop to buy his gorgeous illustrations.

MICA / / Rebecca Bradley

Today we are sharing the gorgeous work of Rebecca Bradley who I met on a recent work trip to the US! I was lucky enough to get to visit Boston & Baltimore, hang out with the team at the Lilla Rogers Studio & teach some workshops & deliver a public lecture at MICA (Maryland Institute College Of Art). It was such an honour to be invited by the talented Rebecca Bradley (Rebecca is also one of Lilla's artists as well as myself, & a fantastic tutor) & to teach at such a wonderful college. 

Rebecca Bradley is British & studied at Chelsea College of art in the UK & Savannah College of Art & Design in the USA. She works full time at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, as well as working freelance as an illustrator. She is represented by 'Lilla Rogers' in the USA & by 'Eyecandy Illustration' in the UK. Partial client list includes 'Penguin Books', the 'Boston Globe', 'The Guardian Newspaper', 'BBC books', 'Chronicle books' and 'Hachette books'. To give you an example of the broadness of assignments that she gets, Rebecca has recently worked on illustrations for the official 'Twlight Guide' & has also illustrated soup packaging for Tesco's stores in the UK!

Below is a selection of her beautiful illustrations. You can find more of Rebecca's work on her blog!

USA Work Trip / / ABSPD Alumni Meet Up

On a recent work trip to Boston, I was fortunate enough to meet up with a lovely group of the students & Alumni of 'The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design (the e-course)' (from left to right: Alik, Margaret, me, Hannah & Mary). It is always wonderful to to get to meet the students in person & chat about their experiences & successes during & after the course & I feel so grateful to be part of their journeys. We met at Wagamama & enjoyed a lovely meal together, it was such a fun evening & they were all such a fab group of talented ladies.

Are you having your own ABPSD meet-up? Let us know by leaving a comment or on the ABSPD Facebook page & we will share them with our fantastic community!

You can find out more about my trip to the USA on previous posts including my inspirational trips to the Boston Marina & Boston Aquarium, the Pumpkin Patch & getting to meet my agent Lilla Rogers for the first time!

Alik Arzoumanian is an illustrator & surface pattern designer living in Cambridge, MA, USA. She was trained as an illustrator at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Since graduating in 2004, Alik has mainly been illustrating picture books, until she decided to pursue my love of surface pattern design. Alik just loves making patterns & likes to think of her patterns as being simple, bold, & playful. If you want to know what about Alik visit her blog, website or find her on The MOYO Directory.

Margaret Applin is an artist/designer living in Lowell, Massachusetts. Born & raised in New England, Margaret's art is full of inspiration taken from the natural landscape & the changing seasons. Margaret explores various techniques such as stamp & stencil making, drawing, mono printing, screen printing, or straight digital design to develop the building blocks that define her artwork. Margaret's style is characterised by simple images that are transformed into quirky, casually elegant, fresh & modern design expressions. See more of Margaret's work on her website, blog or on The MOYO Directory.

Hannah Milkins is a lover of all things decorative, swirly and beautiful. Currently she is an aspiring pattern designer & illustrator based out of New York's Capital Region. Since taking the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course she has been having fun experimenting, refining her style & building a professional portfolio. She looks forward to continuing her pattern journey as she makes new friends & takes next steps into the wonderful world of design! Find more of Hannah's work on her website or her MOYO Directory profile.

Mary Tanana is a designer who is inspired by many things; art, photography, gardening, landscapes and nature. She’s had a life-long love affair with anything patterned, & after a long & successful career as an award winning jewellery designer, she has once again embraced her first love of surface pattern design. Mary originally studied fashion illustration, & has adapted her fascination with textures & patterns into a unique design style. Her style is influenced by the diverse art & architecture she observed while traveling & living overseas. Follow Mary on her blog or Facebook or take a look at her portfolio.

Boston Visit / / Lilla Rogers Studio

Happy Monday everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm back from my USA work trip & catching up on things here at the studio. I've a camera crammed full of inspiring imagery to edit & share with you from my sunny visit to Boston & Baltimore.

My trip started with a meet up with the inspiring Lilla Rogers Studio (this was actually the first time I had met Lilla, other than via Skype!). I flew into Boston on the Friday evening & spent the whole of Saturday hanging out with Lilla, we started our morning by chatting about art & design, went on a lovely walk, caught up on ideas & shared our personal experiences from teaching an online e-course. We then went for a lovely lunch in pretty Arlington to then return to the studio where I spent the rest of the day blissfully drawing away. I had such a chilled afternoon & my day was topped off by going out for a yummy meal with Lilla & her friends. I continued creating art on the Sunday & helped Lilla review some of the brilliant design work submitted for her Make Art That Sells e-course. I then spent a fun afternoon with Susan McCabe (one of Lilla's fab agents), we visited Harvard Square, roamed the inspiring streets in Cambridge & managed to watch some of the Regatta on the Charles River.

I caught up with the studio ladies again on the Tuesday evening when Susan kindly hosted a dinner party at her home for myself & the local LRS artists. I was fortunate enough to also meet the talented Alison Cole, Susan Pilgrim Waters & Ann Boyajian & my other fab agent Jennifer Nelson. We had such a brilliant evening it was so nice to meet everyone.

Before I flew out to Baltimore I attended a fun studio meeting where I also got to meet more of the brilliant LRS team; Julia & Patty. It really was a great opportunity to bounce ideas around & chat about our goals & plans for my creative future & design label. I was sad to leave as I enjoyed every minute of my time with them!

Stay tuned as I have lots more imagery to share with you from my Boston visit including my #ABSPD alumni meet up, lots of fun sight seeing & my catch up with Smart Creative Women.

From L to R: Alison Cole, Susan Pilgrim Waters, me & Ann Boyajian

USA Work Trip / / Boston & Baltimore

Happy Thursday everyone, I hope you have all had a fun week so far! Today I am super excited to announce that I'll be visiting, working & teaching in the USA very soon! Having only visited two places in the US so far (Las Vegas & New York). I'm thrilled that I will be able to discover both Boston & Baltimore for work, I LOVE MY JOB!

Firstly I'll be working with & hanging out with the talented team at the Lilla Rogers studio & I hope to squeeze in a little sight seeing around the wonderful city of Boston. This will be the first time that I will meet the team in person (since joining the studio at the end of last year). I'm so EXCITED!

After a five night stay in Boston I'll be flying to to Baltimore to teach workshops & deliver a public lecture at MICA Maryland Institute College Of Art. It was such an honour to be invited by the talented Rebecca Bradley (Rebecca is also one of Lilla's artists & a fantastic tutor) to teach at such a wonderful college.

"MICA has become the leader in the education of artists and designers by fostering a community of talented, creative individuals committed to redefining the boundaries of art and design and to expanding their own vision and perspective through rigorous study.

• Ranked in the top 10 of MFA programs in the visual arts, #3 in Graphic Design, and #5 in Painting/Drawing by U.S. News & World Report
• In each of the past six years, MICA has been listed as a top producer of Fulbright Scholars among specialty schools by The Chronicle of Higher Education, and was ranked No. 1 in 2008-09 and in 2012-13
• Named one of the top two studio arts programs in the country by Parade magazine
• Listed among the 25 best U.S. design schools by ID magazine
• Selected as a top 20 U.S. design school by GDUSA magazine
• The Princeton Review named MICA a "Best Northeastern College" each of the last seven years
• Enrolled 100% of Presidential Scholars in visual arts and photography who selected an art college in 2008 and 2012—consistently enrolls the most Presidential Scholars in visual arts
• Founded in 1826—the oldest continuously degree-granting college of art in the nation"

Stay tuned as I will be sharing news, images & blog posts from the trip along with writing a full article in issue six of MOYO magazine.

(The public lecture will be held at 12.15pm on Thursday the 24th of October, Graduate Studio Center Auditorium). 

 

Beautiful examples (above) from Rebecca's portfolio

Rachael Taylor

Recently Rachael announced that she is now a proud member of the Lilla Rogers Studio. For the next few months we have decided to feature a regular weekly showcase from Lilla's esteemed group of designers & Illustrators. Today we bring you the lovely Rachael Taylor herself.

Rachael Taylor is an enthusiastic surface pattern designer, textile artist & illustrator. Not forgetting that she is also a design consultant, writer & teacher. Rachael's design work is quirky, illustrative and experimental. Rachael uses a variety of radiant colours withing her work as well as artistic textures & layering. Rachael tends to create hand-drawn imagery using a variety of mediums, which are then manipulated digitally.

Rachael has an impressive client list including American Greetings, Graham & Brown, Tigerprint & many more. Rachael has her designs on a variety of products through licensing with companies including Deny Designs, Seascape Lamps, TeNeues, Wallpapered, Wallpaper Republic & many more. You can purchase many of Rachael's products from her online shop. You can find Rachael on Facebook and follow her on twitter @rachael_taylor_ You can also follow her online shop @RTShopOfficial Enjoy, Hannah.