Vicky Yorke Designs

Happy New Year everyone! I thought I would begin the new year by revisiting a project from this time last year! Regular followers of my blog may remember me talking about getting my paint brushes out for a really fun brief. As always with product development it's taken a while, but I can now share with you that these designs were to be part of a new range of mugs. The first mug captures the ever popular subject of British birds ( - one of my favourite subjects to draw and paint!) ... and the second mug, which I call 'Haberdashery' captures the current British trend for all things craft. I originally painted the design in a vintage colour pallet of red, blue and beige, but Kitchen Craft asked me to digitally recolour it to be more of a pinky / purple colour pallet and this was used on the final design above.  Images copyright Kitchen Craft 2014.

Christmas is nearly here and if you're still looking for last minute Christmas presents, my 'Let It Snow' patterns are available on a large selection of products that would make lovely gifts, including 5 different but complimentary porcelain mugs. There is also everything you need to make your Christmas table beautiful, including felt coasters, place mats, napkin rings and place mats!   ... and a choice of either a felt cut out table runner... ... or a printed cotton one! In addition to all the serving platters that I showed you in my last post, there is also a matching snowflake platter and gravy boat to complete your Christmas setting. Have a magical Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!! xxx Images copyright Kitchen Craft 2013.

As I have mentioned before I absolutely love Christmas, so I am always very happy when asked to design a Christmas product range! My new design for Kitchen Craft is called 'Let it Snow' and was inspired by snowflakes and beautiful Christmas poinsettia flowers. The main designs are below ( - although the blue pattern is uploading in the wrong colour for some reason! - See the photos for a more accurate colour match!) In addition to the three patterns above there is also a more uniform tiny snowflake pattern and a stripe motif. I am a big fan of mix and match patterns within product ranges, so had great fun placing all the different variants together. I think it has worked particularly well on the 3 nibble bowl set below, where the patterns combine with the wooden tray for a delightfully warm Christmassy feel! The range has a two tier cake stand with matching cupcake cases, and a selection of different sized cake plates for all manner of Christmas tre...

For their new novelty Christmas range I was asked by Kitchen Craft to collaborate with the work of another designer, who had created concept artwork for them. I am a huge fan of the illustrations of Susan Wheeler, so was delighted to add snowman and robin characters to match in with her lovely Rudolph and Santa designs. The new additions were needed when taking the range from flat artwork into a whole product range to create a bit more depth and interest. I also added in a gingham print as a contrasting pattern against the main motifs. Above are name place cards and Christmas tree decorations featuring Susan Wheeler's original Santa and Rudolph designs and my new Robin and Snowman characters, which I hope fit in well. I simplified the characters slightly so that they could be turned into felt napkin rings and also used the basic shapes to design some new matching cookie cutters.   Images copyright Kitchen Craft 2013.

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! ...