Kate Brewer, founder of Look Like Love, profiles a different new designer every week. With the tagline “support, nurture, promote” echoing confessions of a design geek’s own “discover, champion and inspire” and a similar commitment to advocating for emerging talent, the parallels between Look Like Love and confessions of a design geek are clear. Watch out for her features every Thursday afternoon. This week’s designer? The multi-tasking designer Emma Buckley…
Experimentation is key to Emma Buckley’s unique graduate collection. By challenging methods and techniques working with clay, the outcome was more than just a happy accident. Emma experimented with a new process using dyes traditionally used in the textile industry with surprisingly effective results. The range of vessels she produced for her first collection has a painterly quality producing a fresh, new and interesting range of one-off pieces.
The most exciting and unexpected element is the fact that the colour produced by the dye continues to develop and change, becoming a muted version of its former self, as water carrying particles of the dye slowly evaporates. The considered collection, all hand-thrown, showcases hues of blue and pink, often mixed with off-white and subtle detailing, a line here, a mark there. Each piece is completely unique, finished with a transparent glaze, and although styled as homeware items, Emma is clear that they are more decorative than functional.
Emma has decided to spread her wings since graduating by expanding her experience as a writer, interning at Wallpaper* Magazine and working as Editorial Assistant on coadg’s sister publication, Fiera Magazine. That’s not to say we won’t be seeing her ceramic portfolio developing – this new designer just doesn’t want to pigeon-hole herself into one creative discipline. This idea of a ‘slash career‘ is an interesting and positive shift, that has been emerging among graduates over the past couple of years.
As more confidence is instilled at undergraduate level, and universities are taking more responsibility over students’ expansion of skills rather than simply focusing on the discipline that will form their degrees, graduate designers are finishing their studies being able to forge a multi-facetted design career. A few years ago it was easy to describe emerging designers in one vein, be it, furniture, surface pattern or ceramic, but Emma is a prime example of how you can not only major in your degree-specific specialism, but also become successful in several creative endeavours.
Since graduating from Bath School of Art and Design in 2015, the subtleties in Emma’s work have been echoed in her approach to marketing her successful graduate collection, and hand-picking the right exhibitions to showcase her wares. At London Design Festival last September, she featured in the Design Junction show, Form and Seek which has led to her being chosen as one of the designers to feature in Milan Design Week in a couple of months’ time.
Unsurprisingly, Emma’s work has received quite a bit of attention, including design blog powerhouse Dezeen, Craft Magazine, and more recently featured as ‘one to watch’ in Wallpaper magazine’s annual graduate issue, proving that going against creative conventions has already started to pay off.
To find out more about Emma Buckley, and to purchase pieces from her collection visit Look Like Love.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- look like love :: samuel bellamy
- look like love :: sophie cobb
- Look Like Love launches talent search for new designers
