Design Stories - John Booth Collaboration

Design Stories - Nicole Watson - John Booth Collaboration

 

This year, we add two new John Booth Art Blankets to our artist series collection. The “Graffiti Blanket” and the “Collage Blanket”, both inspired by the artist’s sketchbook, provide the canvas for a playful pop of colour and a celebration of line and mark making. We caught up with Begg x Co designer Nicole Watson to discuss the creation of our new John Booth collaboration blankets for 2021.

 

Can you tell us a little about the design process for the John Booth blankets?

 

Any John Booth project that comes through the studio is a creatively exciting project to work on, as these projects tend to have a lot more creative input and freedom. The design process begins with the collages and stetches John has given us, and the final design idea we are looking to achieve. From then design select the best quality that is suited to the artwork, that’s enhances the type of strong graphic and colour.

 

What did you enjoy the most?

 

What makes this process exciting is the approach we take to creating the artwork in our jacquard programme, usually with John’s work I try to take a multi-media approach, collaging the sketches together to help bring the vision to life. Working with painterly sketches and bold colour is always fun! Which is why I love this type of project.

 

Were you faced with any challenges?

 

Woven cloth always has its design limitations in terms of colour. John’s designs always incorporate a large amount of colour (which makes them so interesting!), however it can be tricky to try and fit all the colours in. This is a challenge, to make the colour placement look like a bold print, it usually means some sacrifices along the way – but we enhance the colour through clever placement to make the most and very best out of the design.

 

Why did you choose this quality to interpret John’s sketches into? (e.g colour variety, composition, edge detailing?)

 

The Valatzu was selected because it’s a very good quality for allowing colour play. The quality uses weft rich structures which allows us to really experiment with a lot of colour in the design. The quality also has great artwork clarity, which allows John’s sketches to really come to life! The Valatzu is the perfect weight for a throw or wall-hanging to really showcase the artwork in all its glory.