Simi Gauba
86 // Simi Gauba is originally from New Delhi, India, but now lives in Malmö, Sweden. Simi studied at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, and won a scholarship to ‘The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design’ – a course run by Rachael Taylor (see page 236) and Beth Nicholls. Simi worked in the design industry in India and in Paris before setting up Simi Design in 2012. Clients have included Keka and the Swedish companies Pura and Alice&Fay. Simi’s inspiration comes from her mother’s kantha saris as well as the minimalism of Scandinavian design. For the past few years, Simi has been inspired by the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. She loves ‘playing’ with geometry – mixing organic fluidity with geometric shapes, adding florals to rectilinear designs. Simi would love to design wallpaper for Starbucks coffee shops and scarves for Hermès. She hopes to continue to expand with new licensing partners and to freelance for companies with whom she feels a synergy.
Design Heroes: Hanna Werning, Simi’s mother and grandmother
Mosaic
Created when Simi was cutting some pieces of paper that accidentally became glued on top of another piece of paper. Simi then created a version in Adobe Illustrator and kept it as close to the original as possible.
Ribbons
Conceived as wrapping paper, this design was inspired by satin ribbons on a gift. Simi gave the stripes their satin look in Photoshop by experimenting with the Gradient tool.
Happy
Simi presented a simpler version of this design, inspired by rice grains, to her client Alice&Fay, who immediately licensed it for a collection of scarves. The present design was also made into scarves and sold through Alice&Fay’s online store.
Mesh
Optics have always intrigued Simi, and her 3D rendition of an expanding mesh was created as part of the Let’s Fly blog hop.