THE SPIRIT OF SUMMER
by Niamh McCooey
As giant, inexpensive homeware brands such as Ikea continue to grow worldwide, it’s not wholly uncommon for people’s living rooms to end up looking like a page ripped right out of the catalogue. As an antidote to this somewhat homogenous aesthetic, it’s not surprising that an increasing amount of forward-thinking consumers are opting for a more artisanal style of homeware to furnish their lives. Many of today’s designers are well attuned to this widespread disposition, and Juliet Travers in particular has crafted a fresh solution to this by embracing the hand-drawn in her recent wallpaper designs, soon to be turned into stationary.
Launching at The House and Garden Festival in London next week, Juliet’s new stationary collection will include fabric covered hardback notebooks, luxury wrapping paper and co-ordinating note cards each featuring the recognisable flamingo and elephant designs taken from her current wallpaper and fabric collections titled Safari and Albion. Inspired by her time spent travelling through Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East while working for top UK design firm de Gournay, Juliet drew on her familial connections in Zimbabwe and Tanzania to tap into the world of safari, bringing it right into homes across the world.
Of course to mass produce a hand-drawn design is not easy. Transferring her artworks to fabric involved undergoing an extensive process in collaboration with Anstey Wallpaper in Leicestershire. To re-create her sketches in print, each layer of each drawing’s tone and colour had to be separated and engraved into individual copper cylinders before being printed. An incredible amount of time, thought and dedication has gone into each and every layer of her designs. Titled Spirit of The Summer, this collection of stationary is one of the greatly anticipated highlights from the upcoming House and Garden Festival - and we’re pretty sure you won’t find these designs on every coffee table on the high street.
The House and Garden Festival, 21 - 24 June 2017, Olympia London