Today's artist interview is with Louise Owens of Love Little. Louise is the clever creator of the "Bake do and Blend" print that is currently hanging up in Art Wall's dining room. Louise received her education in textile design from Huddersfield University and worked for Paul Smith upon graduating. From there, louise moved to Antler where she designed luggage for 5 years (note suitcase-inspired card design below). Now, Louise heads-up her own creative business Love Little, where she offers a freelance design service, art prints, cards and wrapping paper. If that little smidgen of her life sounds of interest to you, I highly recommend reading the next five Q/A's. (AW) How would you describe your aesthetic?
(LO) My style is very quirky and has an element of naivety about it.
(AW) Can you take us through your creative process from beginning to end?
(LO) My creative process. I usually spend some time researching, this is ongoing as I am always looking for new ideas. I go through my inspiration files on my computer and through magazines and books and create mood boards to give me a feel of what I want. I spend some time sketching and brain storming ideas before moving to illustrator and developing my ideas further. Once I have developed the design and looked at various colourways I move to the print studio and screen print the designs.
(AW) What is the most challenging aspect of running your business or perhaps growing your business?
(LO) The most challenging part of growing the business is finding new clients for my freelance work and also getting my work out there and recognized. I have booked a lot of craft fairs in the next few months and I spend time each day promoting myself online.
(AW) I really like the product photography on your website can you talk about your process in creating images to best-display your work?
(LO) The photography has been achieved with great trial and error. I live in a small flat in the center of Manchester so I don't have a garden and the flat isn't blessed with a lot of natural light. I have spent a lot of time working out where and when is the best time to take photographs. This did prove really frustrating as you want your products to look their best. I am lucky to have a good camera and patient fiance' who helps me. I have recently started playing around with props which has proved really successful. I spent some time researching the way products are arranged through the brilliant photography on Flickr and tried to emulate that in my photo shoots.
(AW) What's a teeny tiny thing that makes you happy?
(LO) The thing that makes me happy. A new magazine and silence.
I'm sure a lot of busy women around the globe would agree with you on that one. Thank you so much, Louise. I loved picturing you there in your Manchester flat: hovering over mood boards, screen printing in the studio, and fussing over your photography with your honey.
2 comments:
that luggage card is adorable. i also love her answer: new magazine and silence. if i could get my husband and my dog to quiet down when i have a new book...it'd be like a little slice of the good life.
Louise Owens work is neat & so inspiring! Now that I make my own products I'm really finding it interesting to read how the more experienced artists go about doing their work. I especially relate to what Louise said about photographing her products. I too dont live in a home where everything is pretty and beautiful- and so I'm planning on some seriosu experimental photography around my products.
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