Childhood Favourites

We tend to look around us for inspiration, but a great starting point can be our past. What designs do we remember from childhood? A favorite curtain pattern or tablecloth, favorite artists and illustrators?

Back in the summer I had a deadline to create a piece and was feeling rather uninspired. Like writer's block for designers? I had sorted through some of my childhood books a few weeks previously and had come across 'Thorn Rose' (The original name for the tale of Sleeping Beauty) by The Brothers Grimm illustrated by Errol Le Cain. How much I remembered this book! It was one of my favorites.

I love that it is a crab that informs the queen that she will have a daughter. Not forgetting the charming rabbits.

All the fairies are invited to the ball to celebrate the birth of the new princess. But one certain fairy was forgotten!

I love the prints on their garments. Not one decorative opportunity missed!

Le Cain was a British animator and children's book illustrator. He grew up in India, before settling in the UK after World War 2. Drawn to film he made his first animation with an 8 mm camera when he was 11! That must have been delightful fun. He was awarded the Kate Greenway Medal 3 times (for outstanding works of illustration in children's literature) for Thorn Rose and other publications.

Le Cain's illustrations jogged my memory in many different ways. I love the flat perspective he uses in his foregrounds. How he invites you into the illustration, this rich world with so many detailed happenings in every part of the page. And the vital element that it all relates to a story...

So don't forget about your childhood favorites, you never know where they made lead you. It might just be somewhere lovely:)