creative spaces :: rebecca hoyes

I wrote a post back in March 2013 in about Habitat‘s return to form, and Senior Design Rebecca Hoyes is one of the reasons why. She works one day a week teaching textile design at Central Saint Martins, and splits the rest of her time between the Habitat head office and her Shoreditch studio. It’s the latter where the magic happens and I was very honoured to be invited in for a little behind the scenes tour.

I started writing the creative spaces series because of a belief that people’s working environments affect their creative output, but in almost three years I have never such a true example as this. You can almost see the inspirations in this room coming together (a bit like the tidying up scene in Mary Poppins!) to form the next Habitat collection – the colour, the pattern, the texture, the energy that has returned to their products is all in evidence here.

Rebecca’s background is in printed textiles, but she’s developed a keen interest in other methods of textile production such as weaving and is fascinated by the point where traditional craft and cutting edge technology meet – one of the things she’s brought to Habitat is the replication of very painterly or hand crafted patterns using digital printing techniques.

In the words of First Eleven Studio… “The patched lining of a silk kimono, fading images of botanical prints, a cracked bowl – just the perfect shade of green, the jewel-coloured ribbons in her grandmother’s sewing box, the silhouette of a bird against the wide open sky. These varied and eclectic sources provide the starting point for Rebecca’s collections, which reinterpret traditional imagery in a fresh and contemporary way.”

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• creative spaces :: mia fleur
• creative spaces :: club workspace by tilt
• creative spaces :: falcon
• creative spaces :: bulldog drummond

Further eye candy for the especially visual:

There are photos of this space and lots more creative spaces on the confessions of a design geek Pinterest page. If you’re not a member yet, click here to join.