Tuesday 12 May 2015

Wednesday 25 March 2015

New Website...

My new website is nikkiupsher.com, it should be finished in a couple of weeks and my blog will be transferred over as well :)

MATS B... WK 3 Scrapbook Project

Week 3 of Lilla's MATS course was Scrapbooking…for me this was the hardest week so far! The mini assignment was based on airships… and if I'm totally honest, I wasn't loving it. This then led onto the main scrapbook project with the theme of Vintage Communication, including airships. Although I struggled more with this brief, I'm glad I persevered… I definitely enjoyed it more once I started putting colour down. 
Here are some initial sketches and my final piece…






Thursday 19 March 2015

MATS B wk 2 continued...

For my final babywear project, I went back to illustrator... I just feel more comfortable using this software and I seem to get a more contemporary look. I am pleased with my final project, but I think that maybe it is more toddler/ young girls rather than baby wear and the characters need to be cuter and more stylised.
I have set myself a task, to do a character a week day starting next week…so watch this space:)


MATS Week 2...

The second week is Baby Apparel, which is my absolute favourite area…the brief is seahorse's …so cute!
I wanted to practice my character development for this…I always struggle between photoshop and illustrator, I am naturally drawn to illustrator, but I like the way you can achieve a more painterly style/textures in photoshop.
The image below was done in photoshop, it's not finished …just wanted to experiment, to take the pressure off…


Freelancing and Lilla's MATS course part B...

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted...I left my full time greeting card design job to freelance...a big decision, but something I have wanted to do for a long time. This also mean't I was able to move back to my home town of Bath... it' s great to be home!

I have been freelancing since January and there has definitely been some up's and down's! :)

I have also been doing Lilla's Roger's MATS course part B...the first week is paper products, the brief is toy trains... design a portrait Christmas card. Tricky as a train is horizontal, but the greeting card is portrait. Here is my final piece...hope you like it :)



Thursday 11 September 2014

Here's my semi final entry for the Lilla Rogers Talent Competition 2014...

The brief was to design an animal character for a child's t-shirt. The top 6 get announced next week, so I'm keeping everything crossed it's good enough!

You can vote on this link if you like it :)

http://lillarogers.com/gts-2014-round-2/



I got through to the top 50 in the Lilla Rogers talent competition, I'm thrilled! :)

The brief was wall art, based on a terrarium theme. My style is quite colourful and I wanted to keep the flowers simple in shape and contemporary, I also experimented with various hand lettering styles...



A floral repeat pattern...

Playing around with modern floral shapes…



Some character developments ...

Characters are my favourite thing to design, I love doing people or animals. I have been experimenting with different styles over the last year…




Hello Birdy...

A surface pattern I created last year :)


Lilla Rogers MATS PART 1- The brief was to design a collection of plates.

I wanted to add some of my older work...

I designed a range of plates with a theme of bromeliads, this project was set by Lilla Rogers in the MATS part 1. This is my favourite plate from the collection...


Thursday 8 May 2014

Cuckoo Clock Pattern

A step repeat pattern based on my cuckoo clock phone cover design below …




Lilla Rogers Bootcamp - Cuckoo Clocks

My first assignment for Lilla's Bootcamp was to design a phone cover, the theme was Cuckoo Clocks... hope you like it :)




Wednesday 19 March 2014

Welcome to buttercup & dot...

I have named my new design studio after my beautiful greek rescue dog Dotty, who is now in doggie heaven running through buttercup fields...