An Eye for Design

As mentioned previously in numerous posts, many of my design and decor ideas come about organically.  They are discovered or inspired while going about my every day life- often while doing ordinary tasks.  A certain fabric or pattern catches my eye, the label on a bag of tortilla chips inspires a whole project..... you artists know what I'm talking about.  However, I love opening up a design book and getting transplanted into a particular designer's psyche.  It's so interesting to me to see how artists cultivate their creativity.

{The Glitter Guide}

Allegra Hicks is a London-based fashion and lifestyle designer well known for her textiles and patterns.  Her luxury line of fashion, home wares, and accessories is sold in department stores and boutiques around the world.

{Allegra Hicks wallpaper}

Recently, I opened up Allegra Hicks: An Eye for Design and instantly felt a connection with much of Allegra's ideas.

{A favorite page in Allegra's book}

"The idea of art and life being fused harmoniously together has shaped my work.  I let designs evolve out of pleasure, out of seeing something that I find inspiring and beautiful..."

{Allegra Hick's dining room}

"Our inspirations are never direct.  They come from multilayered places, from something that is embedded in the mind and remembered in such a way that it becomes one's own. "

{Allegra Hicks designs for West Elm}

"Some designs are abstractions based on specific rhythms that come from deep memories.  These memories start early in life.  Their exact source usually remains elusive, but they progressively take shape and become a part of yourself, eventually expressing themselves through your creations."

"Interiors should trigger curiosity and lead the eye to wander from corner to corner, surface to surface, shape to shape, and be open to the space in all it's multiplicity.   Patterns and combinations of patterns achieve this effect."

{Allegra Hicks carpet}

"Inspiration can come from many places- from a mood, or way of life, or a memory- but sometimes it is straightforwardly visual.  Sometimes an image strikes us because of its purity- not because it is beautiful, but because it creates a new dynamic within our senses, shaking up our usual mode of perception and making us see something new, or anew."

{Allegra Hicks' home.  The banquette is upholstered in Hicks' fabric}

"A harmoniously decorated room embodies the spirit of its owners and creators, like a self-portrait.   A very well-designed room evokes and involves all the senses, from the visual to the physical.  And the scent of a room can be as powerful as its colors and shapes:  the old consoling smell of leather books in a library, or a room of velvet where wood fires have been frequently lit, or a room where there is a jasmine or wisteria flowering outside so that the scent, the place, and the memory of time spent there all fuse together."

{From Allegra's portfolio}

"Beauty can be found in unexpected places and in memories of sights that might resurface out of the blue, in ways that have nothing to do with the place or thing remembered.  I love to play with selective memory, to act on a creative impulse that allows me to construct a fantasy or fairy tale around an image.  A detail from such memory or sight can trigger a process of experimentation that is far removed from its origin, like a building block.  The result can be quite startling."

{Allegra Hicks' home}

All her quotes are so rich with thought, I couldn't help but share them.  I hope they have inspired you!