Decorque – Intro Blog post – by Harriet Stevens, Designer

I have a treat for you this morning in the form of a guest post from the wonderful 'Decorque'! Harriet Stevens is going to introduce you to her fabulous re-invention of cork on beautiful home accessories and tell you a bit about the background of the company, enjoy!

Hello! Firstly a big thank you to Laura for getting in touch with us and offering a guest blog swap. We’re delighted to be here, and similarly excited to tell you a little bit about who we are.

Decorque is a family-run business which launched last September – comprising of a talented team of four that manage all areas of the business; from graphic design, eCommerce & SEO, social media & surface pattern design. We are pretty lucky to have such a multi-talented team with diverse skills!

Decorque’s founder & head designer Lesley Rudman Stevens has been working in the textile and fashion industry all her life, and decided to apply her unique and highly decorative fashion-led designs to home, wall art & stationery products through an eCommerce business.

Lesley’s mission for Decorque is based on her love of pattern; the business ‘seeks to bring that creative touch of colour into your home’.

We aim to bring a stunning range of tableware with an innovative twist to what might seem to many as a mundane material.  Using cork as the base the company brings a fresh, fashion-edge design look to this most environmentally-friendly of products. We digitally print our designs onto the premium cork surface to create hard wearing, heat resistant, and practical yet warm & beautiful decorative items for the home.

We turn this……into this! 

But there’s more to Decorque than just the cork product range. The carefully crafted, versatile designs carry through to other products including plastic placemats ,art prints , greeting cards and tags .  Mouse pads even get the Decorque design touch.

We are always inspired, whether that be through fashion or interior trends, graphic design, things we find on Pinterest, artists or via other retailers, for example. The main thing you can say about Decorque is that we LOVE pattern! We also love to combine media – by mixing hand drawn & painted elements with Photoshop & Illustrator components to create that unique design full of depth & interest. We like to take surface pattern to a new level!

 The ambition of Decorque is to expand its range to become ‘a treasure trove of beautiful, original and practical products for the home’, concludes Lesley. We have been working hard over the last few months to build our brand awareness and will continue to develop our ranges into 2013, as well as expanding our outlets over the next year or so, and currently welcome any creative & licensing opportunities.

 Along the way we have had the opportunity to work alongside some hugely creative and inspiring individuals and small businesses, and have formed a strong network of creatives who inspire us daily! We’d like to thank them all for their continued support and look forward to more collaborations this year through our creative blog .

Other ways you can contact us are through:

Links:

Blog

http://decorqueblog.com/

Website

http://www.decorque.com

Twitter

https://twitter.com/Decorque

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/Decorque

Pinterest

http://pinterest.com/decorque/

Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Decorque

Folksy

http://folksy.com/shops/Decorque

Email:

info@decorque.com

Fashion Prints

Over the past year or so I have been lucky enough to work with a very special client. She is a fashion designer based in a Mauritius and specializes in high-end resort-wear including items such as kaftans and maxi dresses. Although I can't share her name with you, she has given me permission to show you a small selection of the prints I have done for her which I am very excited about! and will be great for the new website I'm trying to sort out at the mo. I've loved working for her as its so different to my usual interior projects, but still has the tropical/exotic feel to it which you may know I absolutely love. After these have been digitally printed they will also be embroidered! I can't wait to see them made up in to the final garment and hope to share this with you too.

Guest Blogger coming soon!

Over the past few months I have crossed paths with some fabulous new homewares and surface pattern designers and have decided to blog swop with a few of my favourites. The first is a company called 'Decorque'  who have reinvented cork! Their beautiful designs are printed on to cork placemats and coasters with the addition of cards, tags and art prints to compliment the collection. I'm looking forward to their post which is coming very soon.. If any other designers wish to become a guest on my blog please get in touch at sales@lauraolivia.com.

Spring Fair

This week I got myself down to down to Spring Fair to see my new products that have been launched with 'Artistic Britain' , meet some of my clients and gain loads of inspiration on new trends and surface pattern.

This is Artistic Britain's first show ever and they pulled out all the stops! The stand was huge with all 40 designer's pictures displayed and I got to see a first glimpse at their new range of cushions, glass placemats, coasters, and chopping boards. They represent some of the UK's top artists such as Paula Oakley, Bree Merryn, Julia Burns & Innes McDougall, plus a select group of textile designers including Rachael Taylor, Louise Tiler, Jane Bridges & yours truly!. Above is myself with 'Barry Minal ' the man behind AB who already runs a very successful soft furnishings business but has created this amazing new brand out of his passion and support for British Talent.

One of the best stands was from a  from a company called 'Miho Unexpected Things'. There may be lots of stag heads and bird houses around, but this shows its not what you do (as it has all been done before) it is how you do it! These are such a different take on those things, and I also love the branding which ties in with the quirky products. You can buy their products online here .

Another lovely stand was that of a French company called 'Baobab'. They produce beautiful clothes, accessories and homewares which involve combining co-ordinating fabrics and trimmings to give a patchwork type feel, but in such an effective way that really makes the colours and prints sing. You can see the rest of their collection here.

I'll be posting more from my trip in the next few weeks so please come back for more!