I started this series in 2012 as a way to spread the world about the awesome work that Maggie’s do, using design and architecture to make people’s lives better. Each month I feature a different centre and this month it’s the turn of Maggie’s Highlands, shown above looking (to me at least!) like a beacon of hope in a stormy sky.

Maggie’s offers emotional, practical and social support to people with cancer and their families and friends. The centres offer a sanctuary when all else is at sea.

Maggie’s Highlands was designed by architecture firm Page \ Park and was inspired by the division of cells (mitosis) in a healthy individual, when cells are in balance and communicating with each other. Just before they break in two, each cells forms a ‘vesica’ shape; like an oval, but with points at either end. This shape is repeated throughout the building and landscape architecture.

The idea of interconnected, living cells is also communicated by connections between the building and its surrounding gardens, designed by Charles Jencks, such as the green colour seen both in the copper roof of the building and the turn in the landforms, and the repeated angles, dimensions and vesica shape. Healthy cells constantly communicate with each other to maintain balance and harmony – the idea is that the building and its gardens are doing the same.

Page \ Park explain how the healthy cells concept runs right through the landscape architecture: “The visual illusion created by white and green stripes  travels from one mound, or nucleus of the cell, to the other. This is one of those signals so important to cell balance and health – what is known as the long, or endocrine signal. Communication between cells, the constant chatter, is a path to health, just as is the decision to eat well, exercise and transform one’s daily life.” I love the level of thought and detail that has gone into providing a healthy environment for people with cancer. And whilst many will miss it, it provides some intrigue and complexity for those who wish to explore it. Helping people to find a new perspective on their cancer experience is crucial to the support that Maggie’s offers and sometimes huge, grass covered, visual metaphors can help!

The building continues the mitosis theme and is constructed from ‘vesica’ spirals. The overlapping of two of these spirals represents the exact moment in cell division, known as anaphase, that two distinct cells become apparent.

Inside, is a flexible yet homely environment. The ground floor is an open plan space that contains the kitchen, lounge, dining room and library, each of which can be separated off with sliding doors for specific activities to create privacy when required. When the doors are open, people can interact with each other and there’s a real sense of connection with the outside space. Smaller, cosy counselling rooms are tucked under the a mezzanine providing more intimate spaces.

Different people need different things at different stages of their cancer experience, and even just from day to day, so this flexibility is really important in making sure they can always find the space they need at Maggie’s. As Page \ Park put it: “Rooms to talk privately and ‘hide’, and other spaces to quietly sit and contemplate. Spaces to socialise and chat, and other areas to sit and look at the landscaping and gardens.”

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• maggie’s :: fife
• maggie’s :: edinburgh
• maggie’s :: hong kong
• maggie’s :: dundee

Share/Bookmark

It’s the first day of 2013′s Clerkenwell Design Week today, so I thought I would return to my series of interviews with the new and independent designers exhibiting at the House of Detention. This week, I’m speaking to Katy Goutefangea…

What’s the most important thing to know about you?

I like making things. Also I can’t function without a morning coffee.

What inspires your designs?

I’m really drawn to things that have been made from a functional perspective – instructions, patterns and diagrams. I like the idea of stripping something down to its bare essentials in order for it to communicate well.

Talk me through your design process from initial idea to final product?

My work is process driven, I like to find a way of working and play with it. I’ll start with a drawing, deconstruct it, flip it on its head and put it back together again. I often spend weeks obsessively doing this until I find a few options I like, then I leave it alone for a while. When I come back to it my eyes are fresh and ready to finish it off. Then I’ll print samples, trying out different colours and material combinations until I’m happy.

How do you overcome creative block?

Try to loosen up. Often that means doing some drawing, or getting out of the studio and taking photographs. I find doing something creative that’s unrelated to a project takes the pressure off and gets my mind going again.

Describe a really good day and a really bad day in the life of Katy Goutefangea?

I love making, starting a project, printing in the studio or playing with an idea.

I don’t like entire days spent in front of the computer, it makes me restless.

What are you most looking forward to about Clerkenwell Design Week?

Meeting people and getting a reaction to my work. I studied Fine Art at university and although I have been exhibiting my prints since then, I have never been part of a design event. I’m really looking forward to it.

What are you most proud of?

So far I’d have to say I’m most proud of setting up my studio. I’ve been in various jobs over the past few years and although this is the hardest I’ve ever worked, it’s also the most I’ve ever enjoyed working!

How do your products make people’s lives better?

I take a lot of time choosing the colours and materials I use and I like to think that shows in my work. I hope that makes the products special to the people who own them.

What advice would you give to an aspiring designer?

Keep going and be patient. I think working for yourself can be tough but it really is worth it.

And finally, what’s your favourite colour?!

If I had to pick only one I’d say orange.

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• interview :: barnby & day
• interview :: alex mueller 
• interview :: liene jākobsone
• interview :: roddy&ginger

Share/Bookmark

I spent the weekend in the Westcountry, and enjoyed some sunshine and a complimentary overnight stay at the Magdalen Chapter Hotel, which opened in Exeter in June 2012. This rather impressive building was once the West England Eye Hospital, and more recently the Hotel Barcelona. It is now a collection of contrasts that really works – a luxury hotel that welcomes dogs and children, a combination of Grade 2 listed 19th Century architecture and cutting edge modern design, a hard-working functional space that feels anything but.

Interior design agency Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios handled the renovations, commissioning original artwork and specifying furniture from designs icons like the Eames DSW to contemporary pieces from the likes of Pinch.

I really loved this mustard yellow wall, which really shows off the Pinch chaise longue at its best!

FCB Studios have done a brilliant job of combining the old with the new, so that each compliments the other, rather than feeling at odds with it. External walls have been made into internal feature walls creating a genuine sense of blurring the boundaries between inside and out; and little details from the original building, such as a board listing hospital visiting hours, have been incorporated into the design.

As always, it’s the little details that make a hotel work, both in its design and in the way it functions.

Two architectural details that caught my eye were the fabulous curves on these incredible double-height windows in our room, and the very utilitarian drainage hole left in the original hospital flooring. From a service point of view, I loved the fact that dogs were made welcome (people were even given ‘doggy bags’ after dinner!) – and that each guest is lent an iPad from which to access all hotel services.

We stayed in a “feature room” with an open plan bathroom like this one – I love the industrial feel of the white tiles with grey grouting, and the original flooring seen above, contrasted with little luxuries like egyptian cotton bedding and the glamourous wallpaper.

Any hotel with a library is going to appeal to a bookworm like me – all the books are available to borrow for the length of your stay.

It’s a cosy space to curl up with a coffee and a book during the day - and by night, it’s right next door to the bar! Cocktails and Coelho anyone?!

I liked the fact there were lots of different spaces to retreat to with a drink, so you could pick the ambience to suit your mood.

The restaurant feels slightly nautical with its huge canope from a central ‘mast’ and I loved the lighting installation, reminiscent of hot air balloons.

Outside ‘the circle’ provides a grassy centre-point around which the pool, spa, and private dining space The Potting Shed are arranged.

From the indoor pool, heated by a log-burning stove, you simply swim outside into the fresh Spring air – another contrast, and one you can’t fail to notice when you swim it!

There is even rhubarb growing in the garden, which I like to think make it into the compote I had on my granola!

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• out and about :: montpellier chapter
• out and about :: the scarlet hotel
• blogtournyc :: tryp hotel

Share/Bookmark

You can tell the UK’s had a little bit of sunshine recently from these pics, can’t you?! The top one was spotted when I was hurrying along a street in East London – I’m never in too much of a rush to stop for a good number!

The middle one was a lovely surprise on a long country walk  and number 3 at the bottom here is on London’s Southbank – I love the low evening sun shining across it, giving it a yellowish hue.

Here’s to more sunshine… fingers crossed! Have a great weekend!

Share/Bookmark

I recently spent a day working in a new co-working space in London called Club Workspace. Co-working is a relatively new concept in the UK, but one that has been popular in the States for some time. The idea is that people who would otherwise work alone, share a working space, and in so doing, share ideas, resources, events etc and eventually a culture and community builds up that is conducive to what they each do.

Club Workspace, Waterloo, is relatively early on in this process, as it has only recently opened, but co-working specialists Studio Tilt have designed the space to support this ethos.

They say: “We design enabling spaces, creating inspiring atmospheres that transform the way people interact with each other. Space design can energise or de-motivate in equal measure. It fundamentally impacts on people’s experiences. Imagine an office that inspired you to work.”

An events programme is crucial to the community aspect of a successful co-working space, so flexibility is built into the design. Desk tops can be hung on the wall and desk legs stacked in a corner to make space for a temporary lecture theatre.

Co-working spaces attract different types of people with differing requirements, so there are multiple desk designs with each space. The desk above includes integrated power, a pinboard and a lock, so you can leave a whole mini-office inside.

Other desks are designed to enable switching between collaboration and working alone, informed by insight into how people work at different times in any given day.

These arm chairs are for more relaxed working with your laptop either on your knee or on the arm of the chair, reflecting how people often work at home.

Tea, water and proper coffee are offered free within Club Workspace premises to save you worrying about where the nearest Starbucks is – a Godsend on the day I was there! The Club Workspace model is actually quite clever in that co-working spaces are within rented office buildings owned by the same people, so they almost act like incubators for future tenants.

Internal post boxes make sorting mail simple – and there’s even a big blackboard for brainstorms and sharing ideas.

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• creative spaces :: falcon
• creative spaces :: bulldog drummond
• creative spaces :: jailmake
• creative spaces :: lovely pigeon

Further eye candy for the especially visual:

There are lots more photos of this space and all my creative spaces on the confessions of a design geek Pinterest page; a sort of visual version of the blog. If you’re not a member yet, click here to join, and start pinning images of the things that inspire you.

Share/Bookmark

It’s the last day of Pulse today, so just time to sneak in one more interview, this one is with LaunchPad exhibitor, artist and designer, Freya Cumming…

What’s the most important thing to know about you?

It’s not really important, but I found out recently that I have a form of synesthesia. It’s a strange quirk, it means I see letters and numbers as specific colours in my head. I thought this was normal, but apparently it’s caused by a muddling of the senses. It’s a nice thing to have, and I’m curious about how much it has determined what I do for a living as there is evidence of a link between synethetes and creativity.

What inspires your designs?

I’ve lived in cities for most of my life, and then I recently moved home to the tiny village I grew up in. I was really surprised at how much my work changed after the move. I hadn’t realised beforehand how directly I was inspired by my surroundings. Regardless of where I’m living, I think I’m drawn to anything decorative, whether it’s a building, or a landscape. If there is detail within it, I want to get it on paper.

Talk me through your design process from initial idea to final product.

Everything I produce is screen-printed, so it all goes through the same process. Every piece starts out as a pencil drawing, and then the next stage is to make a stencil for each colour I want to include. After that, the stencils need to be exposed onto a silkscreen before being ready to print. I tend to plan the first few colours and then make the rest up as I go along. You get something a little different than you’ve visualised if you work this way, but it keeps what is technically quite a boring process much more interesting for me!

How do you overcome creative block?


I keep making self-imposed deadlines! If I don’t have a deadline, I can wonder about what to do next all day, and get really stuck. I work from home so I find myself rearranging the furniture and doing lots of things that don’t need to be done. If I have an exhibition looming, I get the deadline fear, in a good way, and work much, much harder!

Describe a really good day and a really bad day in the life of Freya Cumming?


A bad day would be a day when I get nothing but bills in the post, no emails about work and I am slow to get started. Particularly if then my printing or drawing then goes badly, and I have to stop what I’m doing and start again.

A good day is when printing is going well and I think the next colour will be a winner. Today has been good so far… I’ve had no bills delivered, I haven’t moved any furniture, and I’ve just had a lovely email from someone saying that one of my prints has arrived in the post and made her happy!

What are you most looking forward to about Pulse?

I’m looking forward to meeting new people, both other designers, and also hopefully some future clients. I’ve rarely exhibited anything other than limited edition prints before, so I’m excited to see how my wallpaper is received.

What are you most proud of?

I’d have to say my friends and family, for helping out when it’s really needed and encouraging me to keep going. I took over my parents’ dining room recently, when my studio was just not big enough to print wallpaper. They have never complained, even when ink was being splashed about and bits of silver and gold leaf were floating into every room in the house!

How do your products make people’s lives better?

I hope that they make people’s lives more colourful. One of the best things about doing this for a living is when somebody tells you how much they enjoy having something you’ve made.

What advice would you give to an aspiring designer?


Value what you do and don’t sell yourself short. I was literally giving work away for nothing at the beginning because I was so grateful that people liked it. It’s impossible to make a living that way!

Also try to have some structure to your day if you’re self-employed. I don’t know why I’m saying this as I don’t have any myself, but it’s something I aspire to!

And finally, what’s your favourite colour?!

A lovely earthy ‘cowpat’ green!

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• interview :: abigail*ryan
• interview :: roddy&ginger
• out and about :: pulse preview (2013)
• out and about :: pulse london (2012)

Share/Bookmark

Pulse is at Earl’s Court, London, 12 – 14th May 2013. I spent the day there yesterday and had the unenviable task of selecting my top ten exhibitors from LaunchPad, the section dedicated to new designers, and then judging the award for Best New LaunchPad exhibitor – there was just so much to choose from!

As a Cornish lass, you can image I’ve seen my fair share of seaside themed, well everything really! It was really nice to see a fresh take on maritime influences that were coastal without being corny!

Hole in my Pocket is Scott Airlie and Allistair Burt, both architecture graduates, who work on projects as diverse as exhibition design, painting, video, writing, performance art and conceptual work as well as… “traveling around the coastline of Scotland with an old air hostess trolley full of wine”!

I was lovely to finally meet Andy Rouse aka Caslon&Co in person, having featured his work on the blog back in March. It’s really hard to pick a top ten from a mixture of designers you know, designers you’ve featured before, and designers who are completely new to you, so I focused just on the work that was at Pulse.

Caslon&Co’s gorgeous cushions, made with vintage printing blocks, were definitely made the cut!

I recently posted an interview with Abigail*Ryan, at which point they were able to tell me all about their new range, but didn’t have any pictures, so I was really keen to it when I got to Pulse.

…and here it is! I loved this colourway particularly, with the contrasting turquoise and orange creating a real zing!

Home Slice were part of the Southbank Centre Boost programme, so it was very cool to see them with their own stand at a show like Pulse. They were launching their new cushion range, which is a clever extension of their unique brand of British style.

I also loved their mugs, which I hadn’t seen before. You can read my interview with Steph and Ellie here.

Jessica Hogarth won the confessions of a design geek Bursary in January, but it would have been wrong not to include her work in the Pulse top ten, because it was up there amongst the best in show. I actually really liked the new wallpaper she’s trialling, tucked away as stand styling behind her fabulous cushions!

Seven Gauge Studios on the other hand were completely new to me and I instantly fell for their yellow and grey geometric patterns.

But if you think their products look gorgeous, wait until you touch them! So soft!

On the Central Saint Martin’s stand, I loved Kangan Arora‘s work, inspired by the colours and patterns of Indian street culture, created by a homesick designer from Punjab. Absolutely stunning!

I saw Emily Bucknell at the East London Design Show at the end of 2012, but Pulse was her first trade show, something she was very excited about, if surviving on very little sleep! I love the complexity of her designs, which are all hand screen printed.

There’s something quite grown-up about her work – I’m a fan.

I also loved Holly Francesca‘s maps. Inspired by a market on a her doorstep to take her first leap into commercial design work, she received her first big order and was in production immediately. I love the mix of factual map design and illustration and the colour palette she’s chosen.

I met Joanna Corney at New Designers One Year On, when her work, much of which featured the Brighton Pavilion, was much more curvilinear. I love the way she’s developed her style, using more rectilinear architectural shapes to create pattern repeats.

So much so, that after much deliberation, I decided to award Jo the Best New Launchpad Exhibitor award! Congratulations Jo – it was well deserved!

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• interview :: abigail*ryan
• interview :: roddy&ginger
• out and about :: pulse preview 

Share/Bookmark

I do love to be out-geeked! This week’s selection of numbers are part of a project called We Are One Thousand, an attempt to find photos of every number between 1 and 1000. I asked project initiator Pete Lewis to send me his three favourite numbers and here they are…

In their words: “We One Thousand is a project run by Pete Lewis & Jack Barnes. We are trying to collect the numbers from 1 to 1000 and we need your help. What started as a pet project by Pete in 2009 has turned into a joint obsession to fill in the missing gaps with the most good-looking numerals possible. If you see any delightful digits with a certain je ne sai quoi whilst on your travels, please send them to us at: numbers@weonethousand.co.uk”

What a fabulous undertaking – I’m going to send a few of mine to see if they make the cut!

Have a great weekend folks.

Share/Bookmark

I was recently invited to Thornback & Peel‘s studio, which is in Cockpit Arts, Holborn, for an evening of screen printing, to make my very own Thornback & Peel cushion. Being a bit of a print-addict, I was there in a flash! The first step was to choose our pattern and our fabric from the gorgeous selection above. I went for a spotty fabric and a grey rabbit – a popular choice it would transpire!

The patterns had already been transferred onto the screens creating a stencil, so the next step was to place our screens over the fabric and load them up with ink. I went for grey.

Luckily Juliet (Thornback) and Delia (Peel) were on hand, because I’m a bit rusty at this!

The ink is then pulled across the screen with a squeegee (love that word!), forcing the ink through the holes of the pattern and onto the fabric beneath.

Our little bunnies were then hung up to dry on a simple washing line and we retired for an amazing dinner in the Thornback & Peel shop just around the corner. Every member of the extended team had made and brought along a different dish, resulting in an amazing ‘pot luck supper’ made even more special by the thought and effort that had gone into it.

Meanwhile, Thornback & Peel elves sewed up our cushions at lightening speed and they were ready for us to take home at the end of the evening. Here’s mine released back into his natural environment!

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• here’s one I made earlier :: caslon&co
• here’s one I made earlier :: concrete rug
• here’s one I made earlier :: degross
• here’s one I made earlier :: the sofa and chair company

Share/Bookmark

Pulse is fast approaching, and so my series of interviews with new and independent designers exhibiting within LaunchPad is gathering pace. This week, I spoke to the absolutely lovely Abigail and Ryan Bell, aka abigail*ryan…

What’s the most important thing to know about you?

We are design duo abigail*ryan, and husband and wife team, Abigail & Ryan Bell – we design beautiful hand-illustrated products for home.

Ryan says you should also know that he’s a really good dancer!

What inspires your designs?

Flowers, plants and nature are a huge source of inspiration for us! Abigail’s hand-drawn pen and ink illustrations of gorgeous flowers form the basis of our pattern designs, and from there, we are hugely influenced by colour, and unusual colour combinations, which add a real edge to our otherwise more traditional floral prints.

Talk me through your design process from initial idea to final product.

The first thing we do is source lovely flowers and plants, and Abigail photographs them, keeping interesting forms and silhouettes in mind. She then painstakingly draws the flowers in black ink, creating the unique illustrative bones of our signature style. From there, we scan the drawings into to the computer and Ryan starts to build our patterns, repeats and motifs… we work together on the colour story, and design the products from there.

There is then a huge amount of work that goes in to sourcing ethical, UK based manufacturers we feel passionate about working with – asking questions about processes, sampling stages, awaiting manufacture and then working with the material when it arrives in the studio. If it’s printed fabric, we will cut and sew this in our Belfast studio into cushions, if it’s something like our tea towels, we will fold, package and box them, paying attention to branding, designing labels, and sourcing packaging. There’s so much to do on each and every product, and we enjoy every stage of management, design and creation.

How do you overcome creative block?

We don’t get creative block! Being a duo, we are constantly bouncing ideas off one another, which sparks more ideas… and more ideas!

We might have logistical block, or practical block (financing ideas!) but the ideas themselves are never hard to come by…

Describe a really good day and a really bad day in the life of abigail*ryan.

Good Day: Waking up to awesome emails, perhaps a lovely order or a request from a magazine we love! Ticking a good amount off our to-do list (you know those days where you feel super productive and things just ‘work’ in the studio, or Abigail has created some really great new drawings, or Ryan a new pattern design and we feel really excited?!) and being able to finish at a reasonable hour and stop for a nice home-cooked meal together and play with the dog!

Bad Day: Being woken up by a spammy phonecall (they always ring REALLY early!), having to deal with difficult suppliers perhaps where customer service is a little lacking or being really held up by a delivery not arriving and dealing with the knock-on effect of that. Maybe one, or both of us, is sick? That’s always stressful…

To be honest though, we don’t have many bad days. We get to work alongside our favourite person in the world, from home, with our gorgeous dog and mostly suit ourselves when it comes to schedule and workload. We’re really blessed.

What are you most looking forward to about Pulse?

Debuting our brand new collection for the home, including our new wallpaper, and seeing everything together, and on display, for the first time. Just getting to share the collection with buyers and press will be really exciting!

What are you most proud of?

Our recent collaboration with Jo Malone London, and Jo Malone Style Editor, Charlotte Stockdale, which is currently on sale exclusively at Selfridges.

…and our new collection. We are over the top excited and proud of what we have produced together this year.

How do your products make people’s lives better?

We are firm believers in bright and bold colour in the home! Colour makes you happy, and (literally) brightens your life… additionally, all our products are made in the UK, so whether you realise it or not, by buying abigail*ryan you are supporting British industry and giving jobs and support to our economy – SO important!

What advice would you give to an aspiring textiles designer?

Make your work different, stand out, be unique.

Take time after training to find out who you really are. A lot of very new graduate work is a little too derivative of established working designers, and I think if they took a little time, rather than instantly wanting a piece of the pie or thinking homogeneity is a road to success, young designers would find their own, truer voice, which would lead to a more successful career in the long-run.

Importantly: be nice, be professional, deliver.

And finally, what’s your favourite colour?!

Ryan: Yellow, or Blue. Or Green. Sometimes Pink. Chartreuse? Hmm. Lots.

Abigail: I think every colour can look spectacular when paired with another, every colour has something to offer. I couldn’t possibly choose, it wouldn’t be fair to the Pantone chart…

And finally a little message from Abigail and Ryan: “We would like to apologise for a slightly bare website, and out of stock items! We are set to launch our brand new collection at Pulse London in less than a week, so we have marked down all the very few cushions we have left in stock to half price. Find us at stand LP58 at Pulse London, where we will launch our new collection of Wallpaper, Scatter Cushions, Yardage, TeaTowels and Napkin Box Sets.”

Profile image (top) copyright Tarah Coonan Photography

Share/Bookmark