With graduation ceremonies taking place up and down the country, there’s never been a better time to shine the spotlight on talented designers who are just starting out. Gathering all of their sparks of creativity to garner ambitious projects, marvel at the fresh design work from the new kids on the block…
From screen-printing to digital, Benjamin Craven uses different techniques to create a bold signature style. The heavy use of geometric lines gives order to what appears to be a haphazard array of clashing colours and patterns, resulting in end designs that are anything but accidental. Influenced by everyday textures, Craven creates individual hand composites and structured surfaces, as well as screen-prints, from reclaimed wood in many of his pieces.
Finalist in this year’s Waxman Textile Prize for her project Mind Wandering Bloom, London’s Central Saint Martins graduate Caroline Anguilo specialises in dyed, crocheted and braided compositions. Her winning project explores the effects materials can have in quietening our mind’s chatter, promoting a creative state of mind relaxation and relief from the everyday. Experimenting with all sorts of materials including cotton, wool, acrylic, Lycra, foam, and even rubber bands and silicone tubes, Anguilo encourages the exploration of the senses, creating a temporary escape from our technology-led society.
Channelling the current copper trend, textile designer Danielle Folkes’ unique creations are influenced by the aerial views and beauty of the landscape during a skydive. Delicate embroidery, unusual embellishments, dyeing and devore are mixed with traditional fabrics and unconventional materials, such as patinated copper, to produce a contemporary interior surface collection.
Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern Design student Katie Gillies specialises in surface and material innovation. Her projects are conceptually and process driven, influenced by the form, structure and proportions of Modernist architecture. In her latest surface collection, Project 2, Gillies underlines principles of simplicity, clarity, order and truth. By overlapping bonded materials such as tiles and panels, she creates layered bespoke interior surfaces fit for industrial and architectural spaces.
Taking inspiration from the angles of three-dimensional forms and light movements, Lucy Benson’s pieces explore the beauty of translucency, line and structure. Challenging the relationship between light and material, and the nature of refraction and distortion, Benson’s work highlights the stunning effects that we rarely notice but that are all around us.
Find out more about these projects on Mix Interiors and read through our monthly column, Matterial Matters. For new material inspiration, come and visit us at our studio in Great Titchfield Street in central London.
