Anika Starmer
04 // Anika Starmer was born in New York and raised in Maryland, USA, where she now lives in Gaithersburg. She studied Visual Arts, concentrating on Graphic Design, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Anika currently works as a freelance graphic designer. In addition to her client work, she creates art in the form of patterns. Anika is inspired by collecting found objects, both natural and artificial, and uses them to draw from or to have on hand for inspiration. She also loves photography, particularly macro photography and the fascinating details that can be discovered when you look at something up close. Anika’s ambition for the future is to see her patterns and designs on products that people use and look at every day. Her dream is to see her designs on rugs and to see her work in Ikea or Anthropologie.
Design Heroes: Anni Albers, Marian Bantjes, Luli Sanchez
Inverted Steps
There is a beautiful balance between broad colourful strokes and delicate black lines in this design, hand drawn with markers and black fine liners whilst Anika was in Arizona.
Shape Collection
This piece was hand painted with gouache for the 2013 ‘Delaware Fun-a-Day’ exhibition in Wilmington. All of Anika’s featured works were created as part of a larger personal project in which she designed a pattern every day for a year, changing the medium or technique each month.
Triangles Grid
Hand drawn with markers and black fine liner pen, this pattern is heavily inspired by the environment and culture of Arizona with its Native American pottery, textiles and ancient ruins. Anika created it spontaneously without in-depth prior thought or sketching.