Author Archives: Louise

About Louise

Louise Kirby is a Dundee based designer who creates bespoke print designs that capture a sense of place. Her work has a positive playful feel which is created by contrasting patterns and meaningful references to place, nature and culture. Louise designs prints for products that have a range of applications. From decorative pieces to functional wayfinding installations within public spaces, her work enhances the everyday, and makes the world a little brighter.

Launch of new Dundee Delights collection by Louise Kirby

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Dundee Delights is a new illustrated greeting cards collection by designer and illustrator Louise Kirby.  Launching on Friday 13th October by giving a fresh and positive image of the city.   Louise will place free cards around the city hoping that the finders will send them to friends and family locally and to the far corners of the globe.  Louise would love to hear of where they end up be it an Aunty in Australia who loved days at the ferry beach as a child, an old school or university friend in another city that you want to hello to, or invite your granny in Lochee for a coffee and cake.  To share where they end up either email Louise Kirby on hello@louisekirby.com or #DundeeDelights on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Louise Kirby Dundee Delights greetings cards celebrate some of the delicious delicacies and iconic places in and around Dundee.  Her designs have a fresh approach to the city whilst retaining the hand drawn qualities.  Designs include Broughty Ferry Beach + Castle, The Dundee Penguins, Dundee cakes, Frank Gehry’s Maggies Centre, Dundee Contemporary Arts and The McManus.  This collection is in the World Favourite Colour of Marrs Green and sunshine yellow to capture the positive direction the city is heading.  Dundee, the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design. 

The Dundee Delights collection is available to buy from her Etsy online shop, the Dundee Contemporary Art shop, Pretty Fly in Broughty Ferry and coming soon to Visit Scotland (located in the city square) and directly from Louise Kirby at the WASPS Open Studios on 28th & 29th October 2017, Makers for Maggies on 2nd December 2017.

Designs include:

Broughty Ferry Beach + Castle

Patterned sand looking over to Broughty Ferry castle with a happy sun shiny Dundee cake sky, evoking memories of days at the beach.

The Dundee Penguins

The characterful 5 bronze penguins by sculptor Angela Hunter that make people smile as they walk past and sometimes they have been known to adorn clothes and hats.

9 Dundee Cakes in the Bakers Shop –  available in sunshine yellow + marrs green

Local delicacy of the Dundee Cake, with the lovely pattern of the almonds on top.

Frank Gehry’s Maggies Centre

Maggies Centre designed by world renowned architect Frank Gehry here in the city which I believe is evidence of how good design changes peoples’ lives providing a place of calm, support, nurture and tranquility created within a purposeful space. Externally, I enjoy the shape and movement of the roof which I feel echoes the local landscape.

Dundee Contemporary Arts

Creative and cultural hub in Dundee with the curved face of different surfaces which is invites you in to the space which houses 2 cinemas, print studio, galleries and a bar and a restaurant.

The McManus

Dundee’s art gallery and museum in the fantastic gothic revival architecture, I love dramatic staircase and the detail in the architecture.  So many stories lye within this building I particularly love the ceramics, Dundee and the World exhibitions and the Tay whale.

Loved Dundee Design Festival 2017

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I’ve loved Dundee Design Festival 2017 it’s provided me with inspiration, professional development, place to work, networking and nourishment for me and my practice – just what I needed!

Here are some highlights

Pecha Kucha, with a line up of 13 interesting speakers, my favourites were Leanne Fischler and views on consumerism and the mesmerising sound of Panda Su.

Creative Dundee created a WRKSHP space for designers to work during the festival.  I used for for a couple of days which was great to be part of the whole event as well as tap into things happening.  With Make/Share round the table, I particularly liked the passion and perseverance of Steph Liddle with ceramics.  Great to hear Brian and Mark from McGinaly Bell architects on the start of the journey imaging what the West Ward Works could be in the future and Biome Collective and the creative, interactive and varied work the gaming collective get up to.

My Make/Share was about the process of creating the 12 hand printed patterned illustration wooden panels for last years Dundee Design Festival chatted about the initial conversation with Sion, mind maps, sketches, screen printing, tests, decisions I had to make including the happy accidents and many late nights to pull it off!
There was lots of things take part in, dicsuss and hear about.  Print City was amazing, I love screen printing and the giant 3d shapes really created a interesting space to walk around and loved that the community had a part to play in the creating the visuals.

I chose a blue triangle for Silent Monitors, where the colours and positions were decided by people opinions of how you felt on how your data was being used.

I ate popcorn and drumstick lollipops while watching Graphic Means film brought to the festival by D:Screening.  The documentary was on the history of graphic design production, I didn’t realise how technical it used to be, I bet folk are happy with their apple macs now, even through I’m more of a cut and paste type of person!

Discussion of Why Should we make more with the cool brand Trakke, historic and very profitable Johnstons of Elgin, Clare Cooper and designing aides for the elderly and the inspiring Fi from Make Works.  It highlighted my feeling that we are consuming too much and really should by things that you love with a quality to last or be repaired.

The building is such a great space with the real industrial feel with the exposed pipes and extractors, faded painted lines that separate area and the lovely sunshine shining streaming through the coloured windows.

This worked well with the simplicity of the bright tables legs created by Old School Fabrications showcasing the Factory Floor exhibition bringing together a collection of makers, materials and machines from Orkney to Detroit.  Great to see the links with music and design as well as technical advances of the Ninewells x DJCAD radiotherapy mask and familiar faces of Hilary Grant and her beautiful knit patterns.

There was so much more to see from family workshops, talks, demonstrations, DCA shop with exclusives from Tom Pigeon and Whimsical Lush, tours in the building and factories in the area, Mak Lab workshop, Factory Floor Exhibition, live recording of Creative Chit Chats with a range of questions – looking forward to hearing them!  Not to mention the cool opening night with delicious cocktails on the opening night! Loved the colour combination of the new branding by Sooper DD and Fleet Collective.

Well done to Sion Parkinson and the team that brought it all together!  For more info on the Dundee Design Festival 2017 follow the link.

bespoke wall hanging design commission

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I wanted to share a bespoke wall hanging I did a while ago that I forgot to share.

A private client asked me to create a wall hanging for the stairs area in her home that would brighten it up.  She’d seen my work at Wasps Open Studios in Dundee and liked my style.  We discussed what she liked about it for me to create a clear brief for the project.  In particular she liked circular shapes, movement, curves, mark making and feathery grasses with a natural flow of patterns merging into each other (nothing sharp, or dense).  We then talked about colours, type of fabric and finishings.  I visited her home so I could get a feel for the space and to measured up.

I did some sketches that include different composition, colours and imagery (probably more than I needed to as I really got involved in this project – wee problem when you enjoy what you do!)   Continue reading →

Commission for The Wine Press

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The Wine Press 3

The Wine Press commissioned me to create artwork for their wine bar in Dundee.  I was delighted to create not one but four bespoke pieces for their interior space that would lead the eye round and add as an accent colour, imagery and joy.The Wine Press

The process involved an informal meeting with owner Patrick Rhode to discuss the brief.  This helped me to drill down exactly what he wanted.  The brief was to have a celebratory feel, be colourful, to include the colour gold and to have the latin phrase ‘in vino veritas’ which mean in wine their is truth.  We talked about where wine came from and his love for gnarly grape vines.  He send me some photos of vineyards from his business trips which I included some of the imagery in the final images.

The Wine Press drawingFrom our meeting I did lots of sketches of different compositions and imagery ideas.  I love drawing, markmaking and patterns so I created some interesting relevant images and marks and movement that would compliment the design.  Then I exposed the images onto screen.  I did colour tests, then started hand screen printing onto the wood panels.The Wine Press 1

I chose to hand screen print as I love the flatness of the colour and clear lines and textures it has without loosing the quality of the drawing.  I am very experimental and playful with the way that I screen print using lots of stencils and overprints.  I do love getting my hands dirty in the studio!

The Wine Press 2I work well to a deadlines and it was tight as I had to have it completed so it could be installed before their 1st Birthday celebrations.  And I did it !

Patrick knew of my work so trusted me to come up with something.  And he was delighted when I dropped it off – phew!

Patrick Rhode says ” Louise did a fantastic job and more than delivered on her remit.  Her work is beautiful and has brightened up the bar which is exactly what I’d expected and hoped it would do.  Oh, and she delivered on time!!!  Very professional.”

I think The Wine Press is a lovely space for an afternoon coffee, or a glass of wine or bubbly with friends and the platters are delicious!

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think when you see them.  You can follow me on Facebook or TwitterThe Wine Press 6

The Wine Press 5

 

Dundee Design Festival

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West Ward Works
I would like to invite you to the Dundee Design Festival, from Thursday 26th – 28th May in West Ward Works.  I was commissioned to create a series of surface patterns to tell a contemporary Dundee design story.  All my designs are hand screen printed on wood and dispersed through gallery, can you spot them all?

Dundee, the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design is hosting the first Dundee Design Festival from the 25th – 28th May 2016.  The theme for the first Dundee Design Festival is “Place. Work. Folk. Design.” through it explores the potential of design to connect the city’s communities and improve our everyday lives.  This exhibition weaves together some of the great design stories currently emerging from the city, including new innovations in textiles, games design and design for health and wellbeing.

The event is FREE but you need to book tickets – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dundee-design-festival-tickets-24394298002

There is a real mix of things in the exhibition so it allowed to use my design skills to create images that brought it all together to tell the story, things included: eeGeo 3d mapping, sonic pills, bullet proof vests, fashion + textiles, Hand of X, tools of makers, the changing landscape of the V&A coming.

Frank Gehry Maggies Centre Dundee

I have used the CMYK colour palette to make references to printing methods.  In the image above of Frank Gehry Maggies Centre.  Chosen not only as it represents a building designed by world renowned architect but because I believe it evidences how good design changes peoples’ lives providing a place of calm, support, nurture and tranquility created within a purposeful space. Externally, I enjoy the shape and movement of the roof which I feel echoes the local landscape.

Within the imagery and patterns there are deeper meanings, for instance the colourful pattern is cancer cells, the teacups and books to show support and lavender to give a sense of calm, the sky is a positive sunny yellow patten to show the positivity of space and support.

“It’s very difficult for people to go through experiences like this, and I wanted to create a building that would be calming and accommodating, and one that would be a fitting tribute to Maggie. I think it’s an inviting building, I think people will want to come inside and spend time there, and I really hope that in some small way it might contribute to a sense of rejuvenated vigour for moving forward and living life.”  Frank Gehry, (October,2003)

Let me know what you think of the designs in the show – can you find all 12 of them?

Pieces are for sale, please contact me directly for a price list.

You can keep up to date with my work on

Instagram – kirbyrecipes  https://www.instagram.com/kirbyrecipes/

Twitter – Kirbyrecipes https://twitter.com/KirbyRecipes

Facebook – LouiseKirbyDesign https://www.facebook.com/LouiseKirbyDesign/

Drawing Dundee by illustrator Louise Kirby

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Dundee PehToday I’m starting a new project called Drawing Dundee.  I am going to draw local products and places in the city and around the city and post every Wednesday on my social networks –  so keep your eyes peeled. (starting Wednesday 2nd March) Continue reading →

Vote for the Oak

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I am delighted to be commissioned by The Woodlands Trust Scotland to help draw attention to an oak tree in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park to help it win European Tree of the Year. Continue reading →