He can do cool things with wood and now he has a website! After much anticipation, the wonderfully talented Mr McCance now has a showcase of his work on the interweb under the guise of his business name, Board Stupid. A friend of mine from our Art School days, Lyle and I teamed up last year to make a one-off collaboration piece in the form of a Chess Set. He makes truly beautiful pieces of furniture with a bespoke twist. Lyle says:...read more.

Comments (1)     Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

I’ve done a few talks recently about my work and how I got my studio and business off the ground after graduation. You definitely need to be really thick skinned at the start, but there’s plenty of help if you look for it in the right places. To save you a few hours on Google, I’ve put together a shortlist of my top 10 websites and organizations. In no particular order...read more.

Comments (1)     Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

In one of those bizarre little round-about ways, I came across the fantastic work of illustrator / graphic designer Duncan Macdonald this week. His hand drawn linear work and edgy typography make for a super cool blend of visual nice-stuff. Check out his website here. Duncan also has a blog, Draw Forever, which he says is “a space where drawings, or images created by hand are collected, for no reason other than them being nice things to look at.” Lovely....read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

I had my picture snapped last week with some of my work as part of the new Nesta Campaign (I was in the Sunday Times!). The article was to launch this year's call for applications for their Starter for Six Programme. The scheme runs in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow and offers people with cool ideas some business training...and the opportunity to pitch their idea in front of the Nesta panel for funding up to £10,000. Yip, that's 10K! The business training isn't the usual bog standard cash flows and spider diagrams, they take more of a creative (maybe even quirky!) approach and tailor the advice towards the type of business which think a bit more outside of the box. Nesta are a fantastic organization to get involved with; enthusiastic staff, great contacts, sound business advice, big cash investments and a super-cool HQ in London that's straight out of Ugly Betty!...read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

WGSN (Worth Global Style Network) is an industry biggy, a super huge, subscription-ony trend forecasting website for the fashion and textiles industry. The WGSN team first spotted my work at New Designers in 2005 just after I graduated and have popped along to all my London shows since to say hello and check on recent developments. A couple of their journalists even have Johanna Basford prints on their living room wall! I was chuffed to bits when they listed me in their Top 10 spotted talents over the last decade, (along with Christopher Kane, Giles Miller and fellow Aberdeenshire lass, Donna Wilson). The title of the article, “Before They Were Famous” made me giggle a bit… but I’m glad to say fame hasn’t changed me… where the hell is Jeeves with my morning de-caff soya mocha choca latte frappiccino bellino? ...read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

I’m delighted to welcome Mr Smith Interiors as the newest retailer of my hand printed wallpaper collection. This funky little store tucked away down in Brighton is run by Mr Ben Smith (funnily enough) and his family. They specalise in all things interiors from flooring, cabinet furniture, paint and of course, lovely wallpapers. A proper one stop shop, the friendly people at Mr Smith advise on Interior Projects big and small, as well as having an experienced team of curtain makers, carpet fitters and upholsters on their books. What more could you ask for? Black and White ceramics perhaps? If you happen to pop in, please let Mr Smith know you are hungry in Brighton for some fabulous black and white mugs and plates and kindly ask him to consider stocking those also… (they make magic Christmas Presents!)...read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

Hello Denmark! I’m very pleased to announce Tapetmageren as my agent in Denmark. Run by wallpaper expert, Peter Soerensen, Tapetmageren will be introducing Johanna Basford Wallpapers to the Danish design scene at Formland, Scandinavia’s largest design and interiors trade show. Pop along and see Tapetmageren at Stand K8192 from 15th-18th August....read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

We’re a talented lot at Duncan of Jordanstone, so teaming up with Lylc McCance, a furniture designer who graduated the same year as myself was a perfect chance to combine some nifty printmaking with top-notch craftsmanship. We got together last year and made this one off bespoke chess set. ...read more.

Comments (1)     Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

New Designer, Tom Gyr contacted me a few months ago with an interesting proposal. As part of of his degree show collection he has created furniture pieces with an interesting little twist...read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

A big thank you to Suzy at Love Surface Design (UK based design blog featuring print and surface pattern design) and Lyall at Creative Dundee (website featuring all the creative goings-on in the City of Discovery). Cheers guys :)...read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links

A big thank you to Design*Sponge for featuring my work on their action-packed blog today. Lots and lots of really cool stuff here....read more.

Post a comment

Posted in - Friends & Links