Kate Shaw says she founded Cordello Home out of love: her love for property, mid-century furniture, eclectic interiors, vibrant household objects, and all things Italian – the name Cordello comes from two Italian words, ‘cuore’ which means heart and ‘modello’ which means pattern. I’m a sucker for a anyone that passionate about what they do for a living, so I was keen to find out more…
What’s the most important thing to know about you?
I love all things to do with property and interiors, whether that’s renovating them, revitalising interiors or searching for eclectic and original homewares, from art deco to mid-century design classics. I adore colour and pattern and am fascinated at how certain combinations can make you feel. I am also in love with all things Italian, especially the design!
How did you get in to design?
My parents owned a product and graphic design business, called Living Designs, so I have been surrounded by design all my life. My husband and I bought them out 10 years ago – today it is called Living Group and is our branding and communications agency. The logo is the original one my Dad designed back in 1972 and contains a heart, so Living has always used a heart device, in some form, as part of our visual brand.
Tell me about the inspiration behind the Cordello Home collection?
I wanted to bring my love of graphic design, pattern and colour to life on everyday homeware products by creating our own unique patterns, using a heart as the foundation and basis for each design. Even the name Cordello is inspired by hearts: ‘cuore’ is Italian for heart,. Seeing our patterns on daily objects and how they transform a room is really my vision.
Talk me through your design and making process – how do you get from that initial inspiration to the final products?
Everything starts with the heart icon, so the design process is about exploring the infinite patterns that can be created – it’s so flexible and adaptable as it can be rotated, manipulated and look so very different depending on the use of colour and scale. Colours can be overlapped and can be vibrant or fairly muted and toned down. Working with my design team, we spend a lot of time playing with different iterations of colourways and patterns before selecting the final range.
Then it’s about developing the patterns for the product, from textiles to ceramics. The launch collection of fine bone china and satin cotton fabric, hold the bold and colourful patterns really well. I also wanted them to be playful and fun so people can experiment with colour and pattern in their homes on relatively inexpensive objects they can change regularly. Our future designs, already in the pipeline, can be applied to large and small scale homewares. There are so many products I’d love to see them applied to.
What’s your favourite part of the process?
Definitely when I see our designs come to life on a sample product. Having something tangible rather than seeing it on a screen or on a moodboard is so exciting.
Describe a really good day and a really bad day in the life of Cordello Home
A really good day would be brainstorming new patterns and products, exploring new manufacturing processes to complement the patterns and sourcing specialist suppliers.
A bad day would be finding out the long lead-times on some products and getting bogged down in the operational side of running a business, rather than the creative side.
What are you most proud of?
Cordello Home has been in my head for the last 18 months, so seeing every aspect of the company come to life has been so rewarding. And hearing lovely comments from customers is wonderful – that’s what it’s all about.
What advice would you give to an aspiring designer?
Have belief, vision and a good strong work ethic. Success doesn’t happen overnight.
And finally, what’s your favourite colour?
That’s easy – purple. It’s a fabulous base colour!
Further reading for the especially geeky:
Loving the patterns. So pretty, yet not fluffy! Would appeal to both genders 🙂
The idea of creating a design and forming patterns out of it was a brilliant idea and its really working well especially on the fabrics.