Orla Kiely (Surface Decoration/Digital Media)
Orla Kiely is am Irish designer, living and working in London. Born in 1963, she attended the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, before going on to achieve a Masters at the Royal College of Art in London. Since graduating, she has achieved commercial success and popularity, with many of her designs being mass produced and replicated, and sold to the masses at a reasonable price. As a result, her designs crop up in day to day life rather often, and most of us will have someone we know who has some household item featuring one of her designs.
Kiely's designs are wonderfully simple, featuring easily identifiable and natural shapes that have been simplified into an appealing and clean image. Her colour choices are (in my opinion) quite bizarre. I find them quite hard to describe. They're not overly bright, but are quite saturated despite their darker tones. The colours used are almost retro, and for me scream 'Seventies'. I've heard them described as being quite 'mustardy' or as using pastel colours. She often uses complimentary colours in her designs and patterns too, as seen above with the navy and orange.
A lot of her patterns feature similar designs. The above leaf/plant shape being her most popular pattern. The same shape and style appears on the mugs shown above. Although similar, they are inherently different. The design (of the pattern itself) on the mug only features one colour, for example. This pattern uses a multitude of colours, and the shapes loose their outline. The order of the colours is interesting, and not immediately apparent. It's repeating, but not enough for you to notice that it's repeating. It's not completely obvious where one block ends and another begins.
Kiely's designs are created using a more traditional printing method, using stencils and screen printing predominantly. The Guardian once described her as "Queen of Prints", which considering some of the print work being done at the time, is quite a feat. Once her initial designs have been printed, the images can then be altered digitally, to change the colours and style, to edit the shapes to better fit the repeating pattern. The largest digital element of her work though is undoubted when it comes to reproduction. Her work has been digitally printed onto kitchenware and household goods, pillows, sofa's and wallpaper, and even cars and buses. Certain aspects of this would not be possible without the use of digital printings.
I really enjoy Kiely's work. I love simplicity in design, and Kiely's imagery takes full advantage of simple designs and patterns. Her colour choice, although admittedly is not one I fully understand (or feel comfortable replicating) is pleasing to look at. I'm always drawn to deep blues and vibrant oranges. It doesn't surprise me that Kiely has had such a widespread commercial success, as her designs are accessible and inoffensive. There may be people who don't enjoy her work or designs, but I think you'd find few who actively dislike her work. Kiely is the perfect example of art and design meeting the commercial world, in my opinion.
Kiely's designs are wonderfully simple, featuring easily identifiable and natural shapes that have been simplified into an appealing and clean image. Her colour choices are (in my opinion) quite bizarre. I find them quite hard to describe. They're not overly bright, but are quite saturated despite their darker tones. The colours used are almost retro, and for me scream 'Seventies'. I've heard them described as being quite 'mustardy' or as using pastel colours. She often uses complimentary colours in her designs and patterns too, as seen above with the navy and orange.
A lot of her patterns feature similar designs. The above leaf/plant shape being her most popular pattern. The same shape and style appears on the mugs shown above. Although similar, they are inherently different. The design (of the pattern itself) on the mug only features one colour, for example. This pattern uses a multitude of colours, and the shapes loose their outline. The order of the colours is interesting, and not immediately apparent. It's repeating, but not enough for you to notice that it's repeating. It's not completely obvious where one block ends and another begins.
Kiely's designs are created using a more traditional printing method, using stencils and screen printing predominantly. The Guardian once described her as "Queen of Prints", which considering some of the print work being done at the time, is quite a feat. Once her initial designs have been printed, the images can then be altered digitally, to change the colours and style, to edit the shapes to better fit the repeating pattern. The largest digital element of her work though is undoubted when it comes to reproduction. Her work has been digitally printed onto kitchenware and household goods, pillows, sofa's and wallpaper, and even cars and buses. Certain aspects of this would not be possible without the use of digital printings.
I really enjoy Kiely's work. I love simplicity in design, and Kiely's imagery takes full advantage of simple designs and patterns. Her colour choice, although admittedly is not one I fully understand (or feel comfortable replicating) is pleasing to look at. I'm always drawn to deep blues and vibrant oranges. It doesn't surprise me that Kiely has had such a widespread commercial success, as her designs are accessible and inoffensive. There may be people who don't enjoy her work or designs, but I think you'd find few who actively dislike her work. Kiely is the perfect example of art and design meeting the commercial world, in my opinion.
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