Spotlight: Rachael Taylor

Hello,
Winding up this week's focus on layered prints and patterns I thought I would look at Rachael Taylor's wonderful work which features lots of layering of motifs and texture. You can purchase items featuring Rachael's designs from Deny or via her online shop. I LOVE these trays!

Wheel of Wonder available at DENY

Rachael Taylor is a designer well known for her quirky hand drawn style. Her motifs are playfully doodled and her patterns are bursting with colour. Layering seems to feature more and more in her recent work...

Motifs made up of lines (as opposed to the solid shapes I featured last week) work well when stacked up on top of each other for obvious reasons: they create interesting textures, nice areas of negative space and give a pattern a feeling of depth. The pattern above is made up of only one motif but it's a really nicely designed motif. It's delicate, irregular and interesting to look at - it is indeed a 'wheel of wonder'. So despite there only being one motif in the pattern, the considered way it has been handled means it doesn't look repetitive - there's rhythm without monotony. Rachael has recoloured, inverted, rotated, resized and then placed the motif in an interesting and exciting arrangement.

Festive Party tray available from DENY

Here's an example of Rachael layering simple coloured shapes under motifs to break up a solid background. Some of the line drawn motifs slightly overlap but for the most part they are just arranged on one layer with a little space between them. I imagine that layering such pretty and interesting motifs on top of each other would not allow them to shine individually. They're filled with pretty patterns and demand individual attention. Often with such motifs a designer might be inclined to arrange the motifs in a grid repeat or interlocking arrangement with equal space around each one. Instead Rachael has used circles and simple squiggles in different sizes and different shades of purple to add interest to a plain background and this also allows for the motifs to be placed in an informal and fun way. Using these simple flat shapes in the background gives a sense of depth and layering without it getting too busy. It's like they provide a little bit of rest for the eye without just leaving a gaping hole in the pattern, if you see what I mean.  It's also very lovely how these shapes show through the transparent motifs and soften the contrast between the very dark background and the very light coloured line work. I think this pattern shows off Rachael's understanding and experience of how to work with colour particularly well - it just seems such a clever thing to bridge the contrast gap.

Electric Stems tray available from DENY

Finally, here is an example of the two techniques combined to create a pretty placement print. Simple, solid shapes break up the background and there are some lovely doodled textures varying in colour and scale. The floral motif is repeated several times but treated differently each time so it doesn't look repetitive. Instead, the repetition of it makes for a cohesive design. Varying line weight and scale is a great way to use the same textures more than once in the same piece too and they serve to break up the solid pops of colour so that they don't overpower the piece.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at Rachael's work - I certainly have, there's so much to learn from looking at her work. You can find out more about Rachael at her website and as you will already know if your mad about pattern she runs the excellent Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course too. If you haven't taken the course, I thoroughly recommend it!

Thanks for reading!
Love
Frankie x