design

ICON 8

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I attended ICON 8 the illustration conference in Portland last week, and had a wonderful time. I met some amazing and inspirational illustrators, and learned alot about things every illustrator should know. I especially enjoyed meeting Carson Ellis, Jon Klassen (who did 'This is not my hat'), Leo Espinosa, and Vivienne Flesher (a true illustration icon!)all of whose work I totally adore. There were just so many great speakers...I visited the animation studios of Laika, and got to play with some of the characters and props used in the Boxtrolls movie. I especially liked Coraline... ... and of course Portland itself was super to explore.I especially enjoyed the doughnuts!

Design School Wisdom

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I gave a quote for this book published by Chronicle Books, containing sayings and advice from a variety of designers and design teachers. My quote has been featured on the inside cover. In all my time teaching at St Martin's, this is perhaps the most important thing I wanted to get my students to understand: know, and be able to articulate, why you're making your design choices...

It's out now, full of all sorts of good advice, and available from Chronicle Books and Amazon.

slice of pear

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This year I'm working on a collaborative mokuhanga project with my friends Yoonmi Nam and Katie Baldwin. We're going to give a presentation and hold an exhibition of the work we produce at the International Mokuhanga Conference in Tokyo in September. It's very exciting! Here's a preparatory sketch for my first piece of work for the project...and a test print of the colours.You can follow the group's progress on our blog woodpaperbox.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

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I designed 2 different sets of adorable lai see red pockets for clients in HK this year. The first were for BEYORG, celebrating the year of the horse, with cute horses doing various traditional New Year things, in lucky red and shiny gold. . .The second were for Grand Century Place shopping mall. They asked for a pattern incorporating Chinese New Year elements, but also fashiony things like a dress and jewellery. I love the coppery gold colour they used for the foil highlights, to match the pink. They also made a promotional fabric ipad mini case for VIPS with the same pattern.Have a wonderful year of the horse everyone!

christmas lights

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Things are starting to get Christmassy, and I'm getting excited. Here are two of my favourite little lights I designed for thinkgadgets. They contain mini LED lights that slowly change colour. I love Mr Moon, who isn't just for Christmas, and the snowman, that is definately more wintery...They're available in all sorts of small stores around the UK, and lots of Christmas fairs!

Jenny's wedding

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I created the Save the Date and wedding info card for Jenny and Randy in Hong Kong this summer. Their Save the Date was interesting, as they asked for a map showing all the places that meant something in their lives, especially Okinawa in Japan, where they got engaged. They requested three colours: brown, pink and champagne...I then made a more detailed map of Bali, where the wedding was taking place, showing all the various wedding event venues. It featured little pictorial icons of some of the surprises in store for their guests.They also printed tote bags featuring the Save the Date map as favours for their guests. Nice! Congratulations guys! What a cute couple...First photograph is by Jada Poon Photography, and second is by Johnny Productions.

London toile dinner plates

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I'm in London, and I've just received some samples of my London toile dinner plates. They're super cute!They're made from fine bone china, blue on white, in a set of 6, and each plate has a different London icon in the centre.I have to say that I have a soft spot for the corgi...They're available to buy online and instore from faux and tree, in HK.

wedding (mine!)

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I'm getting married tomorrow, hurrah! Here's our Save the Date.I kept to a simple colour palette of greens, pinks and browns, on white. This runs through all the stationery and the decoration at the reception. We're having a Quaker wedding, so I drew two of the founding members for the invitation,and a little vignette of me and my fiancé for the cover. Congratulations us, happy days!

lavender sachets

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I've decided to make one special limited edition Mariko Jesse product collection every year. Welcome to the very first! I've designed and made some fabric lavender sachets that feature two of my ceramic etchings printed on the front. The reverse sides are made from a selection of pretty vintage materials. This sachet is 14 x 11cm, with a dark purpley-brown etching of a white jug on a floral background. As well as the lavender, it contains rosemary hand-picked from our garden.This sachet is about 11cm square, and has a specially created image of a Chinese teacup decorated with lavender flowers. The lavender inside is from Provence, and both sachets contain some rice to give them a bit of weight. I've used vintage fabrics and ribbons that I've collected over the years for the reverse side. Most are cotton, though there are also some linens and silks. Thank you to my friend Karen for helping me with the actual sewing! They're packaged in a little card box with my new shiny gold sticker, and a paper description inside.They're available exclusively in Hong Kong from Mingei Antiques in Central, or online directly from me. E-mail me if you'd like to buy one, or pop to my etsy shop here.

Lane Crawford shopping weekend

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This weekend (1/2 Dec) I'm creating personalised Christmas cards in store as part of the Lane Crawford GIFTED Shopping Weekend in Hong Kong.I'm in the homeware section at Pacific Place. Customers can choose one of my designs, or ask for something special, and I create a one-off original card. Here are some I made earlier...Hope you can pop in and say hello!