Vicky Yorke Designs

As well as the partyware shown in my previous post, I had to design characters that would work across a variety of baking products and gift bags for the 'Spookily Does It!' brief. My background is in creating designs for children and the trick when designing characters of this type is that they mustn't be too scary. By giving them all slightly smily faces or rounder features than would normally be expected it stops even the most sinister of characters from being too alarming and adds an almost cute feel to the design. This was important for me as well as the children as I am not a fan of spiders, so by giving the spider character a happy face it made him much easier for me to work with!!! I was asked to use the characters to design some chocolate moulds. I think they work perfectly for this and as I also designed a variety of treat bags, once you have made them there is a choice of cellophane or paper treat bags in which to present them to your friends! ...

Halloween is nearly upon us, so it's the perfect time to share my brand new range for ' Spookily Does It! ' An extension of the highly successful 'Sweetly Does It' brand, 'Spookily Does It' puts an all new and slightly creepy twist on baking and partyware for the halloween season! It was so much fun creating a range for kids - a great opportunity to play with a bright and gaudy colour pallet that I wouldn't normally get away with(!) and a chance to design some cute Halloween characters! For the 'party in a box' product brief I extended my design to look like a haunted house with spooky surprises…!  …There are pop up pieces in the roof of the house so it is more 3D and it turns into a cake pop stand to make the perfect party centre piece! (The tombstone in the below photo was added by the packaging company - although I understand why it was needed due to the box having the dual purpose of also being packaging I wish they had asked me to dr...

The second of my new ranges for the World of Flavours brand is an Indian design. The illustration is a single colour pattern based on the style and colour of Indian henna tattoos. The product is a lovely mix of satin finish stoneware and wood, which I hope gives it a very tactile and authentic feel. The range includes all the products necessary for authentic Indian cooking including a Chapatti board and rolling pin, a spice store, a pestle and mortar for crushing spices and chutney serving pots. Images copyright Kitchen Craft 2013.

Kitchen Craft are soon to launch several new ranges to their successful World of Flavours range . The first of two ranges designed by me is the Chinese range, which features a delicate cherry blossom motif against a contemporary geometric background. It has a very soft and pretty colour pallet that I hope works for everyday, as well as for yummy Chinese style banquets! The range features the full spectrum of Oriental inspired ceramic serveware from plates, noodle bowls and rice bowls, to serving platters, dip bowls and soy sauce pourers. For those who want an authentic Chinese meal experience there is even a Chinese tea pot and tea cup set. Many of the sets are gift boxed, so would make a lovely gift for a friend who enjoys their Chinese food! Images copyright Kitchen Craft 2013. 

My favourite past-time is drinking a nice cup of tea... so I was delighted to be asked by Le'Xpress to design a crest for their new tea box. Drawing in black fine liner pen is one of my favourite and most natural design styles, as I love creating really detailed artwork. I was very pleased with the outcome of the illustration and now have a lovely new place to keep all my different types of tea! Images copyright Kitchen Craft 2013.

A really enjoyable brief was to design some patterns for work top savers for use in the kitchen. These can be quite wacky, so it was a great opportunity to play around with colour and shape and the theme of tea pots and tea cups seemed like an obvious choice, as a tea pot is likely to be a common hot item placed on this type of trivet.   This design was chosen for production and is now available in two different shapes. Sadly, the below fruit pattern didn't make it, because, although it was liked, there was concern that the detail of the pattern would be lost under the glass top layer. It's quite a detailed pattern so I understand the point, but I was quite pleased with it, so thought I would share it with you anyway!... and you never know the design may one day make it onto another product... My other pattern did also make it to production however! I was asked to create a modern twist on a spot pattern and came up with the below. It's quite simple, but with ...

There's a real trend at the moment for all things 'Home Made' and I was recently asked to create a set of patterns for the brand of that name!   The designs were for use on lids and labels for jam and chutney preserving jars. I thought it would be fun to give them a bit of a mid century design feel to be different to the standard gingham or polka dots that you often get and employed a slightly muted colour pallet for vintage appeal.  Images copyright Kitchen Craft 2013.