Celia Forrester loves a good palette. In fact, for her it’s the biggest and very funnest part of any design – and it shows. Her colours are rich, warm and inviting; bright and evocative without being obtrusive.
celia forrester – jazz fusion
Celia started out years ago as a graphic designer then went into fashion design, designing for several women’s wear lines in the Southern California area. She also had her own small children’s wear line, called Boo Kitty. “One of the lines I designed for was called Faith, and it took me to Bali, Indonesia (where it was manufactured) and I ended up living there for three years.”
Now, she has settled to life in Snohomish, a small city near Seattle – and her current workspace is the dining room table, with just a pencil, sketchpad, scanner and laptop computer. “I was always interested in textile print design, as in my fashion career I used a lot of prints in my designs (either designed by others, or my own simple prints). Last year in June I decided to try my hand at print design when I signed up for an online course through Skillshare called “Reign Repeats”, which taught me how to do seamless pattern repeats in Illustrator. I loved it! So right now I am in the process of reinventing myself as a textile/surface print designer.”
celia forrester – molecular mayhem
celia forrester – march of the arabians
Working with a very graphic style influenced by Modernism and Abstract Art, her designs start off with simple sketches which are then scanned in and built up through Illustrator. It’s all a big learning curve, and she admits that “the best part of design is when something wonderful happens on the screen that you were not expecting.”
celia forrester – slice of pie
celia forrester – dim sum checkers
She’s not sure where her favourite piece of advice came from, but loves it for its invitation to experiment.
“Figure out what other people will do, then do the opposite”.
And she also adds a framework for those words to sit in: “You need to be true to yourself in order to develop your own unique style.”
celia forrester – paikea blue dots
celia forrester – snake zigzag
(No artist is complete without a muse. This is Cassie)
celia’s muse
You can find more of Celia’s designs in her Spoonflower shop, celiaforrester.
Hi Celia. I stumbled upon your faith clothing line & would like to know all online stores who sell your women’s clothing! They are simply exquisite & highly unique!
Hi Shana, unfortunately the only contact I have for Celia is through her Spoonflower store – https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/celiaforrester. You could try messaging her there?