Zoe Ingram has a thing about circles. They appear, in one form or another, in just about every design she produces. Hand drawn and vector, dots and spots, circles within circles, mandalas and kaleidoscopes, all in gloriously vibrant colour. And it is her skilful use of colour that really sets her work apart for me. Translucent hues are layered in a ways that are reminiscent of mid century style, but in a palette that is pure and fresh; citrus splashes of orange and acid yellow sit against hot pink and turquoise. The mix is exuberant and joyful. “Colour plays a very important role in my work and I also really love playing with the textures and layers in my work. I find inspiration in the oddest of places and I have a pretty wild imagination which helps!”

 

 

Besides producing fabulous surface designs for Lilla Rogers Studio and Robert Kaufman Fabrics (amongst others), she is also a wonderful illustrator, with books, posters and more to her credit.

 

 

Obsessed with art and design from a young age, Zoe said her head is full of early art memories. “I can remember the first time I coloured in and stayed within the lines. I can remember having a day excursion to a drama school and in the afternoon we got to make papier mache dragons and this was my favourite part of the day. I can remember my mum bringing home from her work lots of sheets of blank paper for me to draw on, which I did, and they were all people and fashion drawings. I think I was about maybe 8 or 9. Then as I got older I spent any free time I had in the art department at school trying out new things.”

 

“I didn’t like the more academic subjects at school so the art department was my escape and I loved it.”

 

Later, as a grown up, she graduated with an honours degree in printed Textiles from the (formerly) Scottish College Of Textiles, before working in design agencies for the first 12 years of her career.

Wanting to extend her (already considerable) skills, she undertook the Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells eCourse, which she loved. Then the Global Talent Search competition with 1500 entries was run  in conjunction with Lilla Rogers, and after several nerve-racking rounds, Zoe came up the Grand Winner! She told me that this has been the absolute icing on the cake of her career to date. The winning piece {Hope is the thing with feathers} is pretty special to her not only because it won, but it also because it holds a lot of special memories. (You can find out more about this competition here.)

 

 

For illustration and surface design, her working method usually starts with a bit of investigation of what it is she will be drawing, so that she can get a feel for the shape, texture, form and colour. “I will do some really rough sketches or drawings and refine them from there if I get a drawing that looks like it’s going to work. I use a lot of pen & ink for my initial drawings and then I scan them and make them into vectors and that’s where it all comes together – the colour, the layers and the layout. I mostly use Illustrator and occasionally I’ll use Photoshop for finishing touches.”

“I think back to when I first started creating prints and illustrations and some of my early work is a little embarrassing now when I look back on it but everyone has to start somewhere. I thought it was great at the time and was really proud of it but as you grow and develop you learn how to do things differently or a little better each time and so it’s all about learning, I think. Mistakes are good because they help you to learn.”