Camelot Fabrics Instagram Take Over (Part 1)

This weekend I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to guest post on the Camelot Fabrics Instagram account. It was so much fun to share my experiences of life as a designer and to get feedback from the sewing and quilting community who will be using my designs for their fabulous creations! I loved it! 

But in case you aren't on Instagram I thought I would add some of the posts below so that you can still follow along and get to know me better! 

Hi! I’m Vicky Yorke and I’m a surface pattern designer and illustrator living in semi-rural Worcestershire, UK. I’m lucky enough to license my collections with Camelot Fabrics and I’m super-excited to be taking over the Camelot Instagram feed for the next few days so that you can get to know me better and learn more about my life as a designer! Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments section under my posts. You can also read about me in more detail on the Camelot Fabrics blog.

 I work in two ways as a designer: 1) as a freelance designer creating surface pattern designs, illustrations and new product concepts for suppliers to retail and 2) as a licensed designer, licensing designs from my portfolio straight to manufacturers for use on their products under the Vicky Yorke Designs brand. Here is a sneaky look at some of the designs from my portfolio. I love to mix illustrations with typography for patterns that are really fun. Most often I create designs that are bright, whimsical and that will hopefully make you smile!  

In addition to fabric, my designs also feature across many other types of product including stationery, homeware, gift, kitchenware, tech cases and personalised product and I have other new exciting things launching soon! It’s always so fun to see my designs come alive on product, adding a splash of colour and transforming the product into something that’s completely unique! (But I must admit that products that involve fabric are always my favourite!) 

My workspace is currently set up in the spare room of our small cottage. It isn’t my ideal studio space, but I have everything I need – pencils, pens, paper, my trusty Mac (basically my best friend!), my product samples and lots of light. 

Oh, and did I mention the beautiful view across the village allotments, which is always guaranteed to spark a creative idea or two!

My first collection for Camelot, ‘From London With Love’ launched just before Christmas and is in stock now! – Yay! 

The collection celebrates iconic British landmarks and culture and you can read all about what inspired my designs over on the Camelot Fabrics blog. For all of my collections I always start with a loose pencil sketch and then work back over the design in ink. I create drawings that are whimsical and fun! These drawings show iconic landmarks of London: Big Ben / The Elizabeth Tower, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Battersea Power Station. Also featured in this collection is The London Eye, Buckingham Palace & The Gherkin.

As the architecture drawings in this collection are very detailed I also wanted some simpler motifs to add balance to the collection. 

Once I have all my drawings together I transfer them to my Mac where I ‘live trace’ and colour the motifs in Adobe Illustrator and assemble the designs into illustration compositions or repeat prints. 

And these designs are then printed onto fabric by Camelot!