Out now: the first of my series of participatory bicycle artworks, 'For the Love of Urban Bikes'

If you follow my blog, you know that I did the first shooting for my series of art projects around bikes and participatory urbanism last November. (You can read up on the open call here, if you are visiting my blog for the first time.)

I'm excited to say that the artwork is out now as a limited edition of 100 giclee fine art prints (594mm x 840mm)that are all signed by me and are available exclusively on my website.

So here's a bit of background on the making:

On an empty parking lot off Broadway Market in Bethnal Green, my sister and I set up a white backdrop for everyone to ride onto and pose for me. Can you tell from the picture below that the day started bright and was nice and cold? It was freezing.

 

Lots of lovely people came, and just to give you a taster, I show you a few close-ups from the day below, starting with the fabulous Della Tinsley of ELDS.

 

The gorgeous lady below had come across my open call flyer and when she read up on the project on my blog, she noticed that I had photographed her 'lone' bike, so that enticed her to come along to be photographed with it ... aren't they a match?

 Fancy helmet ...

 

... a bike for good measure ...

Bonny and Clyde on bikes?

Respect!

The day made for much laughter and joy and I enjoyed focusing on the connection between the owners and their two wheels - in most cases, as we also had a uni cycle and a three wheel scooter. 

The most noticeable aspect for me as the photographer was how the bicycle worked as a  prop that brought out everyone's unique smiles and happy attitudes. That's why I decided to align all the portraits on one large sheet ... it was lots of work to clean up every shot, so the whites are all equal. 

And here it is: 'For the Love of Urban Bikes'!

To purchase a print or to check it out in more detail please visit my website.

Thank you to all who came along and a special thank you to ELDS for helping to spread the word, and make us cups of tea all day to keep me smiling and warm inside :-)

Bye for now

Ella
x

The Making of a Trade Show Stand - for Home Show 2014 in London

So we have returned from our first trade show of 2014, HOME London, and have been busy sorting out all our orders and new contacts from the show. The response to the new products has been beautiful and once again I got lots of compliments for my stand design. Since I always put a lot of thought into my stand, I feel like sharing a bit more about the process of making it ...

 

 

To begin with, we took polystyrene letters from polycraftsupplies and decorated them with newspaper and the best neon acrylic around, Daler Rowney number 544, so they would stand out from the back wall that we covered with black board paint. It's a wonderful mat black that makes every colour stand out against it. Below you can see the letters lined up, as we prepared to stick them onto the wall.

I have used the concept of vibrant colours on mat black background also in one of the designs of my Pop Art goes Design collection. It's called 'Pop Art Dots' and the original art work, which you can see below, is made up from hole punched magazine clippings. Thinking about the positioning of the products on the wall, I realised that I liked the randomness in the 'Pop Art Dots' a lot. So I decided to allow my gut feeling to guide me in distributing the products across my stand. But it wasn't supposed to look careless, so I wanted to hang everything with beautiful hooks, nails, zip ties and ribbons.

Below you can see what I found as I raided all my boxes ... and my friend Andrew Stafford who helped me with my stand planning and building gave me some crown silver light bulbs for the lampshades that added an extra special touch (you can see them in the picture of the whole stand at the bottom of this post)

Below, some of the products attached to the back wall. The cushion on the stool in front of the wall is a new addition to the range of Cameras designs of the 'Pop Art goes Design' collection. It's a digitally printed, 40x40cm linen cushion called Camera Play, and it's now available on our website. The design references Joe Tilson's photo collages of the 60s. If you're interested you can read more about my inspiration for 'Pop Art goes Design' in an earlier post I did on my blog. 

 

Below a close up - yes, I am rather pleased with how it turned out :-)

But to move on: I wanted to use a collection of chairs to offset all the different cushions and ranges, and to give the buyer a feel of how these products might sit in their stores, and indeed their customers' homes. The Thonet bentwood armchairs fabulously showed off my Bike wheel cushions ;-)
And who needs a carpet when you have gorgeous concrete to begin with?

  

 

Especially since the concrete made such an effective backdrop for my first 'Bicycle' rug, which you can now order from our website.

The chair to the left, above, is one of the pieces that Galapagos Designs have upholstered for us as part of our collaboration with them to illustrate to the buyer how my designs can be used on fabric for upholstery. And below I show you another one, of a different model, but with same fabric and neon accents. It's called 'Pop Art Circles Armchair'.

'Pop Art Circles' overall had a fantastic launch: I was very happy that KentLyons (the designers of the 3 shows Home, Top Drawer and Craft) asked to use my Pop Art Circles wallpaper to decorate the pillars at the entrance to the shows.

Here it is in close up: 

And we also make Pop Art Circles cushions, with extra special neon piping. They are available in 3 different shapes square, oblong and round.

Here with another Thonet chair accentuating all the circles..

And here is the full stand at the opening of the show - thanks for reading and I would love to have your comment if you can take the time - 

 

Love,

Ella x 

Pop Art goes Design

 

Welcome to my new collection 'Pop Art goes Design' - with my subject: 'The Camera'!

Below is a bit of background on what I have been working on these last few months in preparation to launching my new everyday collection @ Maison this September. 

My approach to 'Pop Art goes Design' was through the eyes of POP ART from the 60's – an era when artistic impulse and experimentation began to take hold of the art community – so I approached this collection very much with an open mind, experimentation being key, and a desire to play with paint, paper and photography and screen printing.

' Camera Portraits'

As a starting point I wanted to capture vintage analogue cameras in their raw beauty as the wonderful crafted objects that they are, aware that they are about to become extinct in our fast track digital age ... - ironically these were photographed on my (now considered old but not yet vintage) Nikon D300 with my favourite 60mm Micro Nikkor 1:2.8 D lens.

 'Camera Groupshot'

One of my main influences was Joe Tilson, with his wonderful mix of photography, news print, graphics and paint.

 

'Cut Out and Send' Joe Tilson 1968

The two designs below will launch in stationery products in early 2014

'Pop Art goes Design Model III '

 

 'Pop Art goes Design - Click Print and Paint'

Richard Hamilton was another great source of inspiration for me - there is a quality to his work which I find captivating - the space around his pieces speaks to me and holds my attention just as much as the paint and collage.

 

'Study for a Fashion Plate' 1969 Richard Hamilton.

Here is another design of my collection.

 

'Pop Art goes Design - Cut out Camera'

 

'Look' by Joe Tilson

I love this piece as it reminds me of how I have tended to draw and 'LOOK' at things when I was a child - close up - attention to the graphic detail of things - bold and strong. 

My childhood in the early 80's was spent busily drawing with 'Rotring technical pens' in varying thicknesses, which is in part the inspiration behind my 'Pop Art Circles' design (pictured below), along with old graphics from that era, with an echo of pop music and the camera lens in mind ... and a nod to Lichtenstein's 'Dots' after visiting the Tate this year :-)

'Pop Art Circles': cushion screen printed cotton with neon piping.

Wanting to bring the design into the 'NOW'! I instinctively added the neon accents on the cushion pictured above – neon is present in our everyday lives, both on our bikes and safety wear, and in our fashion with an emphasis on standing out. 


I then continued to play and added the classic Brownie Camera; the coloured filter lenses help form abstract circles for what became the signature design of the 'Pop art goes Design' collection (pictured below) that features on stationery and notebooks.

 

 'Pop Art goes Design' - Notebook cover design

 

Hard back Notebook and Sketch books available from mid September here!

 

'Pop Dots Art' close of up A5 Sketch book

Designing 'Pop Dots Art' was fun as my team & I playfully collected hole punch colours, letters and graphics in order to form an off beat pattern and spell out the words of this collection!

As I mentioned at the top, when I was designing my new collection I wanted to include playing with screen printing as this creates a special feel that is very different from the digital printing we usually do today, so all the fabrics of my collection are screen printed. 

'Camera Stack': Screen printed Tea towel 100% Linen

I hope you enjoyed this little background story about what I have been up to with my team over the last few months, and I look forward to seeing you over this next 'month of Design' both here (in London) and in Paris from the 6th- 10th September.

Bon Jour!

Ella Doran.
Special thanks go out to:
Kaja, Jess, Anne-Sophie, Debbie, Asa and Joelle, for all your support on this collection.

Vital Arts Printathon and Peepshow for the Royal London Hospital 2013!

Rainbow Flowers a series of 5 prints.

A sneak peak before they go off to the charity Vital Arts

 

These images were taken about 10 years ago now for a project that my glass designer friend Amy Cushing and I were working on at the time.
 
I have donated them to the charity Vital Arts for their printathon 2013 - to help uplift and brighten some hospital waiting and treatment rooms....

In their words:


Selected prints will be featured in an exhibition at the Royal London Hospital Vital Arts Gallery in Whitechapel and will then be installed for permanent display in consulting and treatment rooms for children attending appointments at the hospital. Artwork makes an enormous difference to children facing the stressful and frightening experience of attending hospital and it's a great chance for a huge audience to directly benefit from your work.

Vital Arts are doing great work in commissioning many artists and designers to enhance and lend their creative imagination to the Royal London Hospital in all areas, from the wards, to the halls and waiting areas, it's a treasure trove to behold!
 
happy bank holiday everyone ;-)
 

And the Winner is.........

Thank you everyone who took part in our Ella Doran competition, we put all your names in the pot

and...

the winner is ... Anja!

Congratulations!

Please email sales@elladoran.co.uk with your address so we can send you your Ella Doran Pinky umbrella!

Thank you everyone who took part and well done Emma for knowing so much about my first exhibition.

And best wishes to you all for a lovely week ... Spring has sprung!

Let me introduce the very talented Asa Wikman....

 

Asa Wikman on my bespoke stand @ Maison 2011  

 

It's high time I wrote a little post on the very talented Asa Wikman who is my right hand woman in the studio helping me make my designs come to life! 

Above and below are a few of her own beautiful designs, I have a   T- Shirt with this Budgie on that i LOVE.... you can buy them from her Etsy shop here

Great Moose design..... ;-)

Asa and I have a great working relationship, we tap into each others creative talents and inspire new techniques and ideas... she is also great at styling ranges and coming up with ideas on how to shoot our new collections.... so keep a look out for her as she has been busy outside of my work with lots of new things coming out like this new children's book in Swedish and English.

Go Asa!

xxx