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Amelia’s Magazine | Dot to Dot at V&A Museum of Childhood: Childrenswear Showroom Report, February 2014

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Dot to Dot showroom for kids

Following my write up of the Bubble London kidswear trade show I was invited along to the inaugural Dot to Dot trade show and press day at the Museum of Childhood last weekend. I was promised some of the best independent childrenswear brands, so how could I say no? After a three hour stint at Spa London in York Hall (I’ve only got a few weeks left until my birthday and still needed to use up a much appreciated 40th birthday gift voucher from my NCT buddies) I bombed into the museum’s basement for a whirlwind tour before heading home for lunch. I hope I didn’t scare off too many brand owners with my extremely pink face and wild steam room hair.

Dot to Dot childrenswear trade show

The basement of the museum was the ideal venue for this venture, which is the brainchild of Carly Gledhill from Corby Tindersticks and Nicole Frobusch from Nixie Clothing, designed to showcase their favourite independent British children’s designers. The basement was compact yet airy and easy to negotiate and I particularly liked the small touches, such as some fabulous collaged artwork on the walls, courtesy of students from the Kids Company. There was a fantastic array of exciting independent brands on show, making my fleeting visit well worth the effort on a blustery winter’s weekend.

Corby Tindersticks cushion

I’ve written about Corby Tindersticks before, but this was a chance to become truly smitten by this burgeoning brand, which now includes square cushions (they make very cute shaped ones too) and clothing in its offering, much of which will appeal equally to adults and children. I unfortunately did not get a good photograph of their wall display, which was beautifully put together.

Badger print by Poco Nido

This super cute badger design is by Poco Nido from Sheffield, set up by footwear designer Catherine Lobley. Perhaps not unsurprisingly her speciality is very cute printed baby slippers. I also love the fact that she runs a competition to see who can make the best object out of a Poco Nido packaging tube. Yay to crafty recycling!

Indikidual clothing

Indikidual crayola print

I adore the deliciously bright colour palette from Indikidual, a brand which I have heard many good things about in recent times. The collection, designed by Syreeta Johnson, is unisex and designed to be worn in layers. I am looking forward to dressing Snarfle in some of these pieces in the years to come. Doesn’t this crayon print rock?

Aravore dress for girls

I am super impressed by the many roles of Aravore designer Yanina Aubrey, who has used a beautiful end of roll luxury womenswear fabric (above) in her pretty new collection. During London Fashion Week she will be curating the Paraguayan international showcase. Impressive stuff, I will have to try and visit.

Little_Titans_lookbook-tights for boys

Little Titans cushion

The fabulous illustrative branding for boys’ tights brand Little Titans by Carly Hardy appears on the cushion above and on all packaging, combined with some wonderful typography and photography. I adore the quirky central character, which really sums up a typical cheeky little boy. As a massive tights fan (for Snarfle, I should clarify, I’m more of a leggings woman these days) I have obviously become aware of Little Titans, which specialises in abstract designs: think bold colourings, stripes and lightening bolts. I think they are fab and am sure that Snarfle will wear these in the future, although for now he is exclusively dressed in the wonderful patterned offerings from Slugs and Snails.

Becky Baur

There were other designers that I did not get a chance to look at because I was in such a rush, but for now I’ll end with the eye-catching range by Hackney based designer Becky Baur (who I clearly missed on my earlier Top Drawer excursion). She also had the most wonderful wall display (again, didn’t manage to get a good photo, my bad). With designs that would be equally loved by kids and adults, her brand, launched in 2011, includes homeware, stationery and ceramics. Very very cool.

Many of the designers at the Dot to Dot press day have impeccable environmental credentials, using organic cotton and manufacturing or making up their products within the UK where possible. Having just learnt that organic cotton uses half the water of normal cotton and avoids all the health problems associated with pesticides (from Zandra Rhodes! in her penthouse flat! but more on that later…) I think it’s great that so many childrenswear designers are doing their best to implement ethical practices, and I am really enjoying the process of getting to know this aspect of the fashion industry, now that I’ve got a little one of my own.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday February 12th, 2014 11:22 pm

Categories ,Aravore, ,Becky Baur, ,Bubble London, ,Carly Gledhill, ,Carly Hardy, ,Catherine Lobley, ,Corby Tindersticks, ,Dot to Dot, ,ethical, ,Indikidual, ,Kids Company, ,Little Titans, ,London Fashion Week, ,Museum of Childhood, ,NCT, ,Nicole Frobusch, ,Nixie Clothing, ,Organic Cotton, ,Poco Nido, ,Slugs and Snails, ,Snarfle, ,Spa London, ,Syreeta Johnson, ,Top Drawer, ,va, ,Yanina Aubrey, ,York Hall, ,Zandra Rhodes

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Amelia’s Magazine | irkafirka illustrated tweets: Nick Hilditch explains

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irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

**************************************************************************
Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (let’s just gloss over the fact that the best was a retweet, okay?)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…

Written by Amelia Gregory on Friday December 10th, 2010 12:25 pm

Categories ,#firkafursday, ,Apps, ,Budapest, ,Bulgarian, ,Chris Bell, ,Flickr, ,hashtag, ,Hoppala, ,Hungarian, ,illustration, ,iPhone, ,irkafirka, ,Layar, ,Nick Hilditch, ,Nokia, ,Tumblr, ,Twitpic, ,twitter, ,Zazzle

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Amelia’s Magazine | Magnetic Wallpaper Designs: an interview with interiors surface designer Sian Zeng

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Sian Zeng Yellow Green Dino Boy in jungle

I first encountered Sian Zeng‘s sew your own bespectacled bears a couple of years ago at a craft fair, and am the proud owner of one such bear which I made with my own fair hands. But soft toys are not the only product this multi-disciplinary interiors designer makes; her offering includes high tech magnetic wallpapers adorned with whimsical movable designs such as the plethora of cacti, dinosaurs and ‘flycopters’ which feature in her new S/S 2014 collection, guaranteed to appeal to adults as much as children. Here she shares her journey and some sage advice about the value of looking at the numbers when you run a small business.

Sian Zeng office bear

You’ve had a very multi-cultural upbringing, how did your family come to live in Hungary and what brought you to London?
In ‘90s China, it was a popular choice to move to the West to look for better economic opportunities. After the fall of communism, Hungary’s visa requirements to Chinese citizens were very relaxed and so my parents decided to move Budapest. I first came to England to study in secondary school so that I would have better chances of going to a British university; my parents felt a British degree would open more doors for me in the future.

Sian Zeng Pink Green Detail magnetic wallpaper

What are the best things that have fed into your design work from your time in China and Hungary?
In my first year of Hungarian primary school, I loved looking at the beautifully drawn pictures in Hungarian folk tale books. I obsessively copied and altered the images so that they would become stories to tell to my classmates: my interest in visual storytelling has continued in the products I design. One summer, during the holidays, I went back to China to study painting and drawing. It was one of the most intensive periods of training I’ve ever had, but I came out with a deeper understanding of how Chinese art schools dealt with colour and composition. I still use many of the techniques in my work today.

Sian Zeng Yellow Green Dino boy magnetic wallpaper play

Where did the idea of creating magnetic wallpapers come from?
During my final year, I was interested in how fairy tales were told and how they had changed through time. It occurred to me that creating a magnetic wallpaper for my degree show would let visitors act out their own stories using a cast of magnetic characters, creating an interactive display that was constantly changing.

Sian Zeng Grey dino magnet close up

What was the process of producing them, from your initial ideas as a student, to commercial production under your own brand?
The first sample I created for my degree show was made using magnetic paint on thick paper. I realised later it was too expensive to produce and not very practical, so I began to look at alternative methods. While I was still in my research stage, Hilary Duff’s interior designer contacted me and asked me to send a sample over to her. I told her I only had the prototype and that the end product may look different: at that stage, I was still cutting out the magnets by hand. It was really low-tech! Based on my prototype, Hilary Duff placed a large order and the lead time was very tight as it had to be completed before her son was born. I was on the phone to my manufacturers every day, asking questions and pleading for a faster turnaround. Thankfully, in a very short period of time I had my first batch of wallpapers manufactured and sent out. It was so rewarding!

Flying pig black cushion

What kind of narrative tales most often influence your choice of imagery?
I enjoy depicting stories that are removed from reality, giving you the freedom to play with the imagery and create alternate endings and moods.

Sian Zeng magnetic wallpaper

How did you secure a place with Cockpit Arts and how has being with them helped you grow your business?
I filled in an online application and was invited to an interview with my portfolio. Being part of Cockpit has been so helpful; it’s such a collaborative space and I have other designers as my neighbours. It’s so easy to knock on someone’s door and ask for help or advice.

Pink flying pig cushion

What is an average day in the life of Sian Zeng like?
I wake up around 7.30am and the first thing I do is look at my emails and social network posts on my phone so I can start to plan my day. If there is anything urgent I put it down on my morning to-do list; I find myself most productive in the mornings so I try to work on important big projects first and answer e-mails and work on smaller tasks after 3pm. I live very close to work so I can walk to my studio. I’m usually in by 9am and finish work around 7pm. On a good day I go to the gym after work and then head home. My husband comes home around 9pm and we have a very late dinner while watching a movie together. We go to bed around 11pm.

Blue duvet set sian zeng

Do you have any little ones in your life to help test your projects and if so who are they?
I often think of myself as the little one! I also have friends with children so I sometimes give some of my products to them for a test drive. Open studio days are also a good place to see how children react to my products.

What is your best selling product and why do you think it is so popular?
My magnetic wallpapers are my best-selling product. I think it’s because they offer something totally different and customers love the interactive, playful element of them – they’re not just for kids!

Brown pink bed linen - Sian Zeng

What was the best bit about studying at Central Saint Martins, and do you have any tips for anyone who would like to follow in your footsteps?
The best part of studying at Central Saint Martins was learning how to research and create collections based on creative concepts. My advice may sound boring to a creative person, but I think it’s essential to record expenses and sales figures well so that you are able to understand your own market and product range better. When you take care of the admin elements of a creative business, it makes it so much easier to see what improvements need to be made and focus on what makes the most profits. Saying that, I don’t always take my own advice and sometimes I just have to create things that are most exciting to me at the time!

Sian Zeng Yellow Green Dino Magnet close up

Do you have any new cutting edge ideas for interiors up your sleeve for 2014? if so can we have a sneak peak?
I’m developing a conceptual fabric range for 2014 and I can’t wait to share the results later in the year. It’s in that exciting stage right now where I’m experimenting with colours and patterns: keep your eyes peeled!

Written by Amelia Gregory on Thursday March 20th, 2014 3:32 pm

Categories ,Bear, ,Budapest, ,Cacti, ,Central Saint Martins, ,children, ,China, ,Chinese, ,Cockpit Arts, ,dinosaurs, ,fairytales, ,Flycopters, ,Hilary Duff, ,Hungary, ,interview, ,Magnetic Wallpaper, ,Play, ,S/S 2014, ,Sian Zeng, ,surface design

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