Design Debate

I know we are all so focussed with the business of the time of year, but the good people at Pantone have found time to get predicting the colours of Spring 2017, fancy a look? The images I have collated are from Vogue Living Australia , I just love their interior shots. It seems greenery reigns supreme as well as soft pinks and an intense lapis blue.  I put together these two mood boards together that I feel fit the light and airy feel of Island Blue and that super-food colour of Kale I coupled with peaceful Greenery. Its addictive finding colours that go! All pictures via Pinterest .

I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by! We have been nicely busy in the studio at Pickle Design, working on some really lovely and varied projects. I thought I would show you some of what we have been up to in 2016... The brand Pickle Design created for Wadebridge Wines' Gin Festival . Great fun, I loved illustrating the botanicals. Cornish Horizons kept us busy as usual! We designed them a magazine, brochure and another magazine! We also branded everything from vehicle livery to website banners. Any excuse for me to draw! Woody's Wood Fired Pizza , so tasty, we are currently working on their website, but here is the loyalty card and menu we designed. I loved coming up with the concept for the stamp. With Wavehunters, everything had to be bigger and better! Huge new signs for the beach, new shop and café in Padstow and brochure design. I even got to design a colouring sheet for kids! And this is Jo & Co , I really enjoyed the minimal ...

Day beds are definitely a thing at the moment. And why not, elegant and sleek they have that air of importance and can't be botheredness. In particular I am liking the Crescent Lounge by New York studio Vonnegut/Kraft . Named after the founding designers, Katrina Vonnegut and Brian Kraft. They are dedicated to maintaining a balance between contemporary technological manufacturing and a tradition of hand-made craftsmanship. I really like their choice of materials, the light bleached ash with rich forest green wool and clay pink. Or the walnut frame supporting a 70's brown cushion and grey bed. The first one I spotted though was the dark ash wood with fluffy wool over at A Merry Mishap .  I like the balance and calm contained within this piece of furniture, the integrity of the materials and the choice of textiles. You can see more of their varied pieces here .

        The work of Daily Overview and Benjamin Grant is well known across the internet, his Instagram has half a million followers. There is now a book entitled 'Overview' and springs from the idea that seeing the world from above helps to give us a unique and perhaps necessary perspective of us and our landscape. Astronauts get to see the Earth in its amazing beauty, perceive the patterns of nature - and the devastating marks we have left on the natural environment. Now we get to gaze in awe too.  For me it is the pattern that I am drawn to. Some locations are easy to fathom, while others confuse. The photographs could be an artist's palette, a child's play-mat or maybe something quite extraterrestrial.  Overwhelming in their scale, I think we are able to appreciate these landscapes due to Grant's clever cropping and framing of the images. Allowing us to stand back and perceive our world from a completel...

What a perfect hide-away space! The 'Hemmelig Room' ('secret room' in Norwegian), was a commission for a guest room and library in upstate New York. The designers were Studio Padron and they created this cosy dark box which houses a bed, a desk and a chair. The walls are horizontal beams of oak from the surounding forest cleverly stacked allowing for plenty of book nooks. Wherever you are in this cabin you are in easy reach of a good read! I really like the rich dark shape beautifully framed by the fallen snow. The trees behind like endpapers in a story book.  Originally found at Freshome .     

  Quite the venue in its heyday, the Bachaumont Hotel had been closed for 40 years. First opening in the 1920s, it became the place to spot the celebrities and socialites of the day. However the glamorous doors closed in the 1970s and the Bachaumont was left to crumble, until one Samy Marciano, a local entrepreneur, saw the potential. Collaborating with Dorothée Meilichzon on the interiors.  The pair decided to restore the hotel with the same Art Deco lux it had originally. I love the dark and moody blues. Marble floors, accents of gold and the clean and minimalist look which have helped place this hotel back on the Parisian map.  Originally found at My Modern Met .

1887 Men on the edge - Glacier Point above Yosemite Valley 1871 The Annie, reportedly the first ever boat launched on Yellowstone Lake  1899 Tourists driving along Yellowstone River  Have you explored Retronaut ? Its a website that I can loose a few hours in. I just love old photographs, something about the real people in them with real stories. The costumes so elaborate, the joy, the tragedy, some feel so very familiar and others shockingly different. c.1900 The Geyser Basins at Yellowstone 1911 Tourist camp at Mt. Rainer National Park 1903 Two ladies slide down a snow covered slope in Yosemite What sparked my interest today was a collection of photographs of the first American National Parks. Of course this land was very much inhabited by Native Americans, but the tourist didn't really enter these breath taking space until the 1860s. It was President Woodrow Wilson who paved the way for the first National Parks and brave intrepid explorers set ab...