Our Story

I am an Illustrator and Surface Pattern Designer based in the coastal town of Whitby, on the North Yorkshire Coast. I was born and raised in Robin Hood’s Bay, a picturesque fishing village famous for its smuggler past. After a childhood spent roaming the village’s atmospheric streets, I moved to West Yorkshire to study Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern Design at Leeds College of Art.

 

I graduated with a first class honours degree in 2010, after spending three years developing the distinctive linear artistic drawing style that I have become known for today. I spent the first eight months of my career working in-house for a design studio in Manchester, before returning to my beloved homeland to become self employed. It was a desire to combine my artistic skills with a keen interest in business that led me to set up on my own.

 

 

My early work was largely inspired by my coastal upbringing and was the focal point of my first product range which launched at the British Craft Trade Fair in April 2012. The seaside and my Yorkshire heritage remain popular themes in my work today. Every design I create begins as a simple black pen illustration on paper, before being digitally enhanced with stylish colour schemes. The products I produce myself and sell in to retailers around the world include greeting cards, art prints, tea towels, melamine kitchenware and my ever popular Coastal Cottages tote bag.

 

 

The range has been stocked on the shelves of Fortnum & Mason, Liberty of London, Oliver Bonas, Paperchase, Daunt Books, Paper Source (USA) and Scribbler, amongst many other independent outlets.