Anna London is a serial creative, and for a long time had been filling her life with various classes in print making, graphic design and fashion design. It wasn’t until she took a course in hand-printed textiles while studying Art Studio and Design in university that she thought about turning surface design into a career.
Swinging between florals, tribal influences and abstract geometrics, Anna’s work is distinctive for its soft, bright palette and its hand drawn feel. Despite this, it still manages to still retain a particular boldness and graphic edge through the use of vectored shapes and flat colour.
Anna London – bouquet on green
Often starting with a doodle in her sketchbook, she brings in the many things that she loves and have influenced her – natural forms, mid-century style, the work of painters Wayne Thiebaud and Henri Matisse, and designers such as Marimekko, Leah Duncan, Julia Rothman and Elizabeth Olwen. (In fact, Anna was thrilled about actually getting to meet Elizabeth and help her out at Surtex this year. “She’s such a nice person, and it was really exciting to meet one of my favorite contemporary designers!”)
Anna London – pink sunsets
anna london – quirky ovals
Anna loves that something that is so creative still has a functional end. “I love art, but I also have a really practical side which I think I get from my scientist dad. I love creating patterns because I get to make art, but I know that it can be placed on fabric or products that people will use in their daily life.”
She grew up surrounded by art and always knew she wanted to do something creative; her mother was a painter, and was always encouraging. “I loved to create things, from paper boxes and handmade notebooks to miniature furniture for a dollhouse… One of my strongest memories is of sitting in our living room with a huge stack of colored paper spread out on the floor in front of me. I was so happy to see all the colors together, and I spent a whole afternoon just looking and arranging the colors.” {mmmm colour…. 😀 -JG}
Anna London – chevrons
After graduating from university, she continued making patterns on her own and slowly taught herself about the pattern design industry, including taking a few classes from Pattern Observer.
She moved to Berlin with her boyfriend (who moved there for work) recently, and while she says it was hard leaving a job, family and friends, she loves the adventure of it all, and is very happy with the extra time it has given her to be able to focus on her designs. She is struggling through German classes, but is now proud of the fact that she can walk into a restaurant and order a meal!
Anna London – abstract diamonds
Anna London – abstract triangles
Her best piece of advice comes from Ira Glass, and I must say, it is one of my most favourite quotes ever as well.
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Anna London – floral
You can find more of Anna’s work on her website, www.annalondon.com.