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.

USA Work Trip / / Boston Marina

Today I wanted to share with you some more photographs from recent USA work trip. After visiting the New England Aquarium, I walked along the waterfront & stumbled across some truly amazing colours & textures at the boating marina. I must have spent at least an hour documenting all the imperfections & beauty.

Enjoy! Love Rachael x

USA Work Trip / / Boston Aquarium

Happy Monday everyone!

Today I wanted to share with you a selection of images from my Boston trip. I was lucky enough to squeeze in a full day of sight seeing (on foot) & crammed in so much of the beautiful city. There's nothing better than spontaneously exploring a new place when you have no appointments, time constraints & you can just go where you please. I had such a fun day & managed to visit the wonderful New England Aquarium. There's something truly inspiring about sea life, I've become a huge fan ever since my snorkelling adventures on my recent honeymoon.

(You may also like to read about my meet up with The Lilla Rogers Studio & my sunny visit to a Pumpkin Patch).

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