Playing with print
From her home in Edinburgh, Scotland, Linsey Kelly designs prints that are colourful, fun, and certainly not understated.
Hello, who are you?
Hello, I’m Linsey, a print designer based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Can you tell us about your career in textile design?
After completing my Masters at Edinburgh College of Art, I was lucky to land a job as a designer for a London textile studio. It was a great opportunity to design prints in a fast-paced environment and was so exciting to see my work appear in collection for brands like Anthropologie, Zara, Promod, Topshop and Seafolly. I’ll never forget the first time I walked into a store and saw one of my prints on the mannequin – a proper pinch-me moment!
It is also where I became a Photoshop whizz, which is truly invaluable. I was in London for five years and then relocated back to Edinburgh with my husband where we live today.
What inspires your designs?
I draw a lot of inspiration from the natural world and traditional pattern making techniques including block printing, Indonesian batik and Dutch wax print.
I also love to add some quirky conversational elements drawn from the animal world and then combine this with modern colour palettes and compositions. I like my prints to be full of fun and not too serious. I’m also definitely a ‘more is more’ gal and ‘understated’ is not really in my vocabulary!
You started your Instagram as a way to keep creative after commissions stopped coming through when the pandemic hit. Have you been amazed by the support you’ve received?
Yes! Starting my own account and exploring creativity without any deadline or commercial pressure is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but as with everything life tends to get in the way. I found myself on furlough at the start of the current madness, which finally freed up some time. It’s actually been one of the few good things to come from 2020 – it’s kept me busy and it’s been so lovely to ‘meet’ others in the same boat.
How long does a piece usually take to design?
This is a hard one, it really depends on if it is a style I am familiar with or if its something entirely new. I also have a habit of wanting to add lots of little details so it easy to get carried away. I usually make a rough plan and then get down to drawing. Depending how it goes they can take any thing from half a day right through to two or three days. If I’m not feeling something I tend to get frustrated and leave it for a few days and come back later. They are never really finished though, there is always rom for tweaking.
I work through a mixture of hand and computer tablet drawing, and then produce the final design in Photoshop. I really admire creatives that work in traditional techniques like linocut and watercolour – I just can’t work without a ctrl+z in my life! I like to build as I go rather than sticking to a rigid plan so working on the computer gives me that freedom.
Tell us about your creative space. Where does all the magic happen?
I work from my home studio in our spare bedroom. I’d love to tell you all it is a super organised beautifully stylish space, but in reality that isn’t really the truth! Since starting selling cards and prints I am fast running out of storage space so it tends to get messy very quickly. But hey, creative mess is okay right?
The dream would be to get to a point where I can rent a dedicated space locally. After working from home for the last 5 years it would be nice to ‘go’ to work again and to have people around. As so many of you will have discovered this year, working from home all the time can be quite isolating and can make it difficult to switch off.
What does a normal day look like for you?
I usually wake around 7:30am as my husband leaves for work and he lets our pupper Olive up on the bed for a snuggle. I’ll have a quick look over my emails and Instagram and make a mental note of anything that needs a quick reply. (I know all the research says phones first thing in bed is a terrible idea but I just can’t help it – maybe that can be a 2021 resolution.)
Once I’m up I’ll head out for a quick walk with the dog at the local park and then sit down at my desk in my home studio around 9 to make a plan for the day. To do lists are my saviour. I go a bit crazy and find it difficult to switch off without them - maybe they should feature in an upcoming collection!
I’ll then work on whatever I’m prioritising for that day, usually with a podcast on in the background. My Favourite Murder, Criminal and No Such Thing as a Fish are favourites at the moment. Totally open to recommendations in the comments please!
The afternoon is post office run time if I need to and then if it’s a nice day I’ll head down to the beach for a walk with Olive. We’re lucky to live so close to the sea and I always feel better after I’ve been down there.
Back at my desk I’ll try to tick off whatever else is on my to do list and try to sign off around 7pm. To be honest the days go too fast and it’s a juggle to fit everything in. If I have orders to pack this is usually done in the evening in front of Netflix after roping in my multi talented husband to help. A lot of this is new to me so there are ups and downs, good days and bad. It’s been a learning curve and a lot of work but I’m loving it so watch this space!
Edinburgh, Scotland
