Michelle Nilson
71 // Michelle Nilson is from Vancouver, Canada. She studied at the University of British Columbia for a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in Painting. Michelle loves whimsical, playful and ethereal design. She is inspired by children’s literary classics, fables, Greek mythology, and design motifs from past eras, such as Victorian fashion and French Regency. Other references include vintage botanical and sea-life drawings, confectionery-based design, and modern visual art by Damien Hirst and Piet Mondrian. Michelle would like to work with more licensees to bring her designs to market on a variety of products such as wallpaper, home decor, textiles and fashion. Her dream commission would be to design a collection of cocktail dresses.
Design Heroes: Orla Kiely, Kate Spade, Jonathan Adler
Gemstones
A study of colourful jewels illustrates a selection of the cuts that can be made to gemstones.
Raindrops
In this print, Michelle has united all the designs from her geometric collection by using them as fun fills for raindrop shapes.
Autumn Floral
Here a quatrefoil motif is created by overlapping four circles. Michelle has outlined them in black for a modern graphic look.
Confetti
Randomly tossed dots make for a fun pattern and are enhanced by Michelle’s pleasing colour scheme. Her confetti designs in the past have been described as ‘polka dots gone berserk’.