Rachel Westhead
79 // Rachel Westhead is a designer based in Liverpool, UK. She studied Textiles and Fashion Design at the University of Leeds. A recent trip to South America directly influenced her latest geometric designs; the markets, architecture, people, colours and culture all had an impact on her work. Rachel is also inspired by organic shapes and forms she sees whilst out walking – a leaf on the ground, or a piece of fabric or coloured glass in an old junk shop. Many of Rachel’s ideas take flight as she is just doodling, based on what she has seen that day. She is also inspired by the work ethic of her good friend Rachael Taylor (see pages 236–7), and being surrounded by creative people. Rachel works with design agency Cinnamon Joe, and through them has sold work to Paperchase, Target and Hallmark. She would love to see her designs on products such as wallpaper and cushions in people’s homes. Her dream would be to design for companies such as Marimekko, Habitat or John Lewis.
Design Heroes: Marimekko, Lucienne Day, Leah Duncan (see pages 172–5)
Little Bird
Rachel says she is obsessed with birds and spends hours thinking of and drawing new bird designs. She also loves drawing them from old illustrated animal encyclopaedias. Here she has created a colourful and striking bird using only geometric shapes.
Diamond Sky
Hollow pyramids and a mixture of shapes fill every inch of this pattern, but because they are linear forms it retains a feeling of space.
Inky Circles
Inky Circles was initially created using a circular piece of cork and some black ink. Rachel loved the faded texture produced and decided to colour it in Adobe Illustrator.
Stripey Leaves
Little striped bars of various colours are overlaid on a simple grey-and-white leaf arrangement. The overlapping of the bars outside of the leaf edge gives the design movement.
Triangles
Multidirectional pyramids accentuated by stripes are arranged with only narrow gaps between them in an all-over print.