If you follow me and my work, by now you know that I love bold colours just as much as I love beautiful typography and breaking design rules. My portfolio sort of gives that away. But what the heck does any of that graphic design stuff that have to do with a white rabbit?
And specifically, a white Peter Rabbit?
At nursery we were given statues of Peter Rabbit to paint in any way we liked. Well let me tell you, I went to town on this statue! I chose all the bright bold colours…the end result was a statue that looked like it had all the colours of the rainbow painted on it.
I was so damn proud of myself. I couldn’t wait to get this little guy home.
And I was head over heels in love guys!
But what happened when I got home with my new love?
My mum painted over it.
In white. All white.
With black outlines for the eyes.
ALL WHITE… no bold colours were left.
There really wasn’t a scrap of colour left visible on my gorgeous Peter Rabbit… I was heartbroken.
Peter was then placed on display. I had to look at him every single day and no matter how hard I wished for it, he stayed white.
I know what you’re thinking…
You’re wondering how long Peter stayed pristine white and on display aren’t you? I can’t give you an exact time line but it was a very long time. And that’s when I started noticing all the other little idiosyncrasies:
- the perfectly organised display cabinets (I’m talking precise placement guys)
- the evenly hung towels
- the toiletries and books were always in height order.
I didn’t know it then, but something kind of magical started happening over those years.
- the white paint started to chip and peel away. Peter’s bold colours were making an appearance again and I loved seeing the transformation. It made me happy to see my art coming back to life.
- I started to break the mould with the perfection – my mum doesn’t know this but I’d purposely move things around so they weren’t in order!
A couple of other things happened too
- in primary school I started my own colouring club!
- in middle school that colouring club was down to one member – me!
- I was addicted to watching Tony Hart and Morph.
- in secondary school I took GCSE and A Level art where I discovered the likes of Joan Miro, Jackson Pollock and Damien Hirst.
All of this cemented my love for colour and I knew that my career would involve it in some way or another. I just wasn’t entirely sure how or what that’d look like.
Spoiler alert…I didn’t follow the expected career path!
My mum wanted me to be a physiotherapist (or maybe a doctor, lawyer or accountant) and the thought of that just made me shudder. She’s been more of an influence on my career choice than she realises.
A foundation course in art and design led me to a degree in Graphic Design and Visual Communications. And from the minute I started studying visual communications, I was hooked.
The rest, as they say, is history. I won’t bore you with how many years I studied design for, where I worked as a junior designer or who my favourite designers are and why! (there are so many and if you’d like to know please feel free to ask.)
Breaking free and bold colours
As a child living in a hyper-tidy and organised house I both learnt to live within it and break away from from it. Peter Rabbit in all the colours of the rainbow sparked my love of all things bright and bold; that perfection that became imperfect with a simple move sparked my love of the design grid and breaking it.
Sure, I learnt the rules, but I had more fun breaking them. And I’m sure you know by now that this is reflected in my work too!
Why not say hello!
Are you a new business selling a super cool product or service? But you’re not sure how to attract the right clients so that your business is successful?
Or maybe you’ve been running your own business for the last 5 years? But you feel a bit meh about your brand identity?
Are you trying to break the rules a bit? (settle down, nothing illegal!)
