Drawing on a career in design

Louise Kirby is a designer based in the city, in this week’s Design for Life column she shares a bit about her practice, her design process and her new collection

As a designer I use my work to tell stories. I often help businesses or organisations to tell their story and capture the essence of their brand.

My practice includes creating artwork for all sorts of products, from business cards to brochures, murals, textiles, greetings cards, packaging, wall hangings and bespoke artwork for interior spaces. One company even has my designs on their fleet of vans.

I studied printed textiles at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), and then went to London. The intensity of my experience working in one of the city’s design studios made a huge impact on my work and my life. I learned so much and got a real insight into the commercial world and the speed at which people are working to keep up with current trends.

When I returned to Dundee, I was lucky to do a professional development residency at DJCAD. There I was able to spend time developing my practice. I knew I wanted to move on from being just a textile designer and I wanted to be creating artwork for a range of products.

The residency allowed me to create a new body of work and research other business models.

All of my creations start with a photo or quick sketch. It’s nothing fancy and can sometimes be on a post-it note or the back of an envelope. I always work in black drawing ink. This stems from my printed textile background, in which designs needed to be in black for the process of exposing screens for printing.

I’m obsessed by making patterns and I love how they work together with images. My decorative style retains hand-drawn qualities – there are often a few wobbly lines and brush marks.

I love to play by layering up imagery, collage, pattern, colour and surfaces that can clash in a good way.

You can often find me taking a photo of unusual things that others overlook – bits of beach debris, flaky paint on an abandoned door, patterned details in the sand, structures of buildings, I’m inspired everywhere I go and love to look: looking up, down, in, around and closely. I find surface, pattern, shapes and colours everywhere.

The Dundee Delights collection all started with me drawing a picture of a Dundee Cake! I loved the pattern of the almonds on top and it really expresses my decorative style.

As Dundee is trying to get Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status for the cake, I thought it would be good to have my design available to buy, and help promote how special the product is.

The new collection brings together a few ideas that I’ve been working on over the last few years.

In 2013 I created a wall hanging called Vision of V&A which was about how the V&A Dundee would connect the city.

Then in 2016 I was commissioned for the Dundee Design Festival to create a series of patterned artworks that tell a contemporary design story of the city.

Earlier this year, I took part in Fun A Day, in which participants had to complete a drawing every day for a whole month.

I found it really motivational, and started my own project called Dundee Drawings where I drew something in or from Dundee every Wednesday and published it on social media. Many of the drawings from this project were further developed for Dundee Delights.

The first seven in the collection feature The McManus, The Penguins, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee Cakes and Frank Gehry’s Maggies Centre and Broughty Ferry beach and castle, there are more to come in spring.

The city is changing and cultural tourism is growing. I wanted to create an inspiring collection for locals and tourists which would give a fresh and positive perspective on the city.

I hope that the collection will create mementos of Dundee for people to share, spread the love and make others smile.

Louise in the studio and some of her work for the Dundee Delights project.