Lovely Lisa Congdon Art!

Although her name is familiar to me, I’ve never actually taken a good look at this talented girl’s portfolio. The American artist and illustrator has such a huge array of bright and cheery drawings paintings collages and patterns to pour over. Her work is so uplifting, here are some of my favourites….

View more of Lisa’s beautiful work and products right here

Macaroons Wallpaper (the result)

So you may remember I posted a few months ago about a project where I was creating a bespoke wallpaper for an artisan macaroon bakery in Berlin. Well here it is…..

Inspired by 1950s pattern, pastel colours and Parisian treats I hand drew, digitally finished and printed this unique design onto a lovely pearlescent ground paper to reflect the light and add a touch of luxury.

The bakery interior has a lovely relaxed and inviting appeal, and our wallpaper adds a little something unique and special, used as a backdrop for the counter.

Visit Makroenchen Manufaktur here for more info on their Macaroons.We are now looking for similar commercial projects to work on so if you have an idea you would like to discuss, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can call Kate on 07446004449 or email studio@kateusher.co.uk.

In Love With Ruben!

I just had to share with you all my new found love, the work of an artist I’ve been following for some time, Ruben Ireland.
I first his discovered his surreal and somewhat disturbing paintings over at Society6 ( where you can find a wealth of original, affordable art in the form of handy household items) whilst in search of a more “interesting” ipad cover than what was on offer in Currys, and have been hooked ever since.

This is surrealism, digital collage and painting at its finest. I only hope I have the pleasure of owning one before the year is out (take heed husband!) and it would have to be a really BIG print, because the quality and detail of his work is so awe inspiring it needs to be noticed! (An iphone cover would not suffice, but I wouldn’t turn it down!) My bedroom walls are crying out for Ruben Ireland!

Macaroons!

Apologies for the long silence, I’ve been busy doing nothing! Honestly, October was a painfully slow month for business and it really got me down! But you know what they say, you wait ages for a bus and then three come along at once! In other words I have plenty of projects to keep me busy in November! And I wanted to share the most exciting one with you, I am creating a custom wallpaper design for a boutique bakery which is opening soon in Berlin. Its called Makrönchen Manufaktur and they specialise in organic, handcrafted macaroons. With flavours like ‘Honey and Lavender’ and Pistachio on the menu I may even have to take a trip there myself (we’ll call it “research”!) MMmmmmm!

Image copyright of Makrönchen Manufaktur

Watch this space for a beautiful macaroon and sweet themed wallpaper in gorgeous pastel colours! For more info on my bespoke wallpaper design services please contact kate.usher@live.co.uk. Other projects I have in the pipeline at the moment include some community art work and a range of musical greeting cards for a record label. All exciting stuff!

Dress Print Designs for Asos

Beta Fashion Projects have been running a competition to design a collection of four dress prints for A/W to be sold by asos.com. The brief was to take inspiration from traditional wallpaper design just as the likes of Jonathan Saunders have done for their Autumn Winter 11 collections.These are my favourite pieces from his collection.

So anyway I put together a last minute application for the project and am praying my work gets shortlisted. Watch this space…..!

Here are my four designs, 3 of them are allover repeats and one is a placement dress print. I took inspiration from William Morris style flora and fauna and did a lot of hand drawings of different flowers and leaves, I then used photoshop to inject some vibrant colour into the designs and add a contemporary twist.

New Design

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, things have been piling up! Anyway thought we’d give you a peek of our newest design, which we’ve yet to find a name for, its a Henri Rousseau-esque jungle scene filled with monkeys and lemurs. We wanted to give it a zooilogical feel and hopefully we have achieved this with intricate studies and paintings of primates by the highly talented Sarah Fleming and Sarah Crosbie who have both been working extremely hard on placements with us over the past few months.

Our latest children's wallpaper design

This paper will soon be available to buy from our online stockists NotOnTheHighStreet.com for £165.00 per 10 metre roll. For samples and enquiries please contact Kate on 07500004178 or email studio@kateusher.co.uk

Coming up…The Late Shows @ The Shed

It’s that time of year again, when everyone at The Shed Studio is preparing for the Late Shows; the North East’s fantastic Museums at Night event.  This event includes “46 popular venues in NewcastleGateshead opening their doors to revellers on this legendary culture crawl.”

For one night only The Shed is being transformed into The Adelphi Fim Theatre, with lots of activities to celebrate the glitz and glamour of 1920′s cinema!  There will be a costume store, a workshop to make your own bow-tie/head dress and a Hollywood film studio complete with scenery and props!! Members of the public will have the opportunity to feature in their own black and white movie which will be broadcast live on the screen downstairs and accompanied in true silent-movie style with organist Carl and Lady Koo and her band playing the hits of the 1920s!

Here at Kate Usher Studio we have been busy creating a 1920′s ‘Art Deco’ themed wallpaper to be used behind the bar on the night.  This wallpaper was designed by our current intern Sarah Crosbie.  We wanted to create something that captured the exotic and flamboyant colours from the Art Deco movement and would provide a jaw dropping backdrop for serving cocktails!!

Here is a sample of the wallpaper, we are having it printed on a lovely pearly paper which should make it look even more luxurious!!

And this is how it will look repeated on the wall…

Please let us know what you think!!

The event is on at The Shed on Saturday the 14th May from 7-11pm, everyone is welcome!! It’s looking like it’s going to be a great night with lots of talented designers contributing, so come along as see what The Shed has to offer!!

Visit the Late Shows website here, to see what venues are taking part and how to get around!!