Design Debate

Illustrator Ashley Seil Smith creates beautifully bold designs with blocky shapes. Her colour palette is full of late summer sunshine with earthy tones in abstracted compositions.  Based in New York, Ashley focusses on women in much of her work. The stylish outfits show that kind of effortless chic that feels natural. Her illustrations fill the space with confidence, just like the women she portrays.

We are big fans of Joni Mitchell in our household. For me she soundtracked lazy summer days, family car journeys and cooking with friends. Not only an amazing singer-songwriter Joni is also an accomplished artist. Back when her famous Blue album was topping the charts across the world in 1971, Joni created some books for friends. These amazingly personal gifts were called Morning Glory on the Vine and contained her hand-written lyrics, poems and watercolour paintings. Each hand-crafted, signed and numbered, these original copies are rare but it was recently announced that these books are going to be printed again. In addition to what went before there will be a preface by the signer herself. Not being released until October 22nd 2019, you can pre-order your copy in advance. I can’t wait to see it! Story originally found at The Guardian .

January has been so busy for us in the studio! With a kind of illness tag team going on and loads of projects its been a little bit of a blur - and now we are half way through February! I thought it might be nice to show you some of our latest projects so you can see what all the inspiring things I share on Design Debate feeds in to.  Above we have the A6 welcome card we created for luxury holiday cottages at Trevear Farm . I illustrated a little guinea fowl in the corner as you can spot them wondering around the small holding. Clean and simple design with lovely uncoated print. One of our recent websites was for another lovely holiday cottage at Carclaze Farm. It is a really peaceful location so we wanted that to come across in the design. Being located in the beautiful county of Cornwall we do get a lot of holiday accommodation projects! They are lovely to work on, bringing out the personalty of the owners, the place and the location is always a challeng...

The Nova office pod is a wonderful concept, having recently moved to a smaller streamlined office space what you realise is the size is not so important, more how you use it. Our last office was a wooden cabin that had lovely mature trees and bird song surrounding it, now we have a bright white space with far reaching views enjoying rosey pink sunsets. What if you could choose your view, and move your high tech office to enjoy it. Nova is the concept of Cape Town's co-working space collective Work & Co. The pod can be transported pretty much anywhere around the city and is fully fitted with all you could need including a smart TV, printer, white board, coffee machine, charging station, running water and bathroom - all solar powered. Thoughtfully designed, that outside-inside office is successfully pulled off. Cape Town is a perfect location for this kind of concept, great views and great weather. Though I recon Cornwall could equal it for location, a bri...

Every year at Pickle Design we create a calendar to send to our clients. We tend to settle on a theme, turn it into an A2 poster and then spend the year unpacking it a little further. For 2019 we delved back into packaging's past and illustrated twelve British cupboard classics. I often use the computer to create vector illustrations, but this time I picked up my pen and started scribbling. Packaging has always fascinated me. We see these tins, boxes, jars and bottles every day without really looking at them, but once you start studying the details there is so much going on: colour, lettering, illustration, shape and all those little things that make a brand instantly recognisable. Lyle's Golden Syrup was a perfect place to start. When we researched the tin we discovered just how little its familiar green and gold appearance had changed over the years. Even when the details of packaging evolve, it is amazing how a colour, shape o...

  Today I am enjoying the work of Japanese photographer Shin Noguchi. His message behind this selection is “Your not alone at all”.  What I love about these pictures is how the person is obscured in some way and hidden from our peering eyes. Street photography is really all about being in the right place at the right time and seeing, really seeing, the moments that arise.  Its these everyday happenings that make me smile, the quirks that come about in bustling everyday life. These photographs show a subject that is a little like a composite object. Two become one.  Originally found at Ignant . 

  Such an interesting house, the chairs in particular are just gorgeous. The interior is sympathetic to the period style of the property, it is masculine and refined, yet rounded and I'd say even hugable.  All the architecture, interior design and decoration are attributed to Giancarlo Valle which explains the consistency and complete feel of the beach side home. The Watch Hill Mansion , Rhode Island USA was originally built in 1903 and is simply beautiful, a project where every detail seems considered but not staged.