Gill Eggleston is a self-confessed pattern addict – so much so that she named her surface design business Pattern Addict.

 

 

 

Two decades of experience in the textile design industry can’t be ignored. A graduate of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) with a BSc (Hons) in Textile Design and Design Management (1993), she worked as a printed textiles designer within the CVHF group (Dorma), then in sourcing and product development roles for a few years, and then back to design management for a supplier to high street stores in the UK.

Although she has a good deal of industry experience, it was only mid-last year that she felt confident enough to work with Illustrator and Photoshop professionally, and launched Pattern Addict’s Design Garden. “I am now happily designing and creating lots of new surface pattern work and illustration.”

 

 

A lover of all things French, in 2008 she took the plunge and moved to France, first living near Cannes, but subsequently moving to a semi-rural location closer to Paris.

Gill is lucky enough to have a dedicated studio at her home, with a fabulous view over a small lake in their back garden. She loves the garden and is a keen macro photographer, using her images of plants and bugs as a major inspiration for her designs. She is also inspired by the colouration in vintage textiles from the likes of Eugene Alain Seguy and Zina de Plagny. “I try consciously to fuse these together in my surface pattern work with other influences such as mid-century modern design, ethnic/tribal art and mark-making.”

Mark-making is a vital part of her design process. Firstly, she draws or paints her images, and then digitally manipulates them, attempting at all levels to retain hand-drawn nuances. “I find entirely digitally created work too perfect and samey for my own tastes; I like to see any CAD work looking as close to the original sketch as is possible – snags and quirks included (where acceptable of course!).” The result is a wonderful mix of subtly shifting lines and digital flat colouration, worked in overlays of varying colours to create work with a distinctive edge.

 

 

 

Gill now works full-time as a freelance designer, and is currently seekign representation in the UK and internationally. You can check more of her work on her own website here, and on her blog.

She is also the initiator of a great project called the Little White Book of Surface Designers – a source book with a listing of emerging designers throughout the world. You can check it out at findnewdesigners.com