Artist Interview with Jacqueline Colley
This month we caught up with London-based freelancer Illustrator and Pattern designer Jacqueline Colley, We are in love with her botanical style, use of colours and highly admire her work ethic. We discuss how she got started, where she finds her creative inspirations and find out all about her design process!
Luxury wallpaper for Milton & King
Hi Jacqueline! can you tell us a bit about your backgrounds?
I studied Graphic Design at Chelsea Art College - UAL mainly because it was a vocational subject and I thought
I would get a job! But I spent the whole time drawing and had more of an illustration portfolio when I left,
which showed where my heart really was. I wasn’t very confident in my work however so I was relieved when
I got a job in Textile Design and I worked for different High St fashion companies for 6 years. I then went freelance
to pursue a career in illustration. I’ve now been working for 4 years freelance gradually progressing away from
high st fashion and into illustration, though I still love to make patterns! 🙂
What’s your favourite design tools / application and why?
I work by hand a lot with felt tip pens but everything ends up in photoshop which I love as you can do so much in that one application! I make my patterns in there, change colours, re-draw things touch up photos for my online shop and just recently I’m learning to make GIFs which is an exciting new thing to learn!
You sell your art; tell us a bit about that?
Selling my work has been a great way to get to know people in my creative community, freelancing can be solitary so doing events is great! I’ve also learnt a lot about refining my style and products from seeing what works and doesn’t work / sells and doesn’t sell!
Collections of pins, patches, posters and cards available at her shop
Do you have a go to colour theme?
I LOVE colour! I actually regularly pin or photograph things just for the colour combination. Sometimes I want to work with a colour combination so bad I will design a screen print specifically for it so that I can play with it. My go to is shades of green with shades of pink, so many possibilities!
What advice would you give to people trying to get into the creative industry?
I think the best advice is keep going, I see a lot of people talking about this idea that if you don’t make it in the first couple of years out of university or when you are super young then it’s over for you. That is ridiculous, the first 3-5 years out of uni I was in different jobs where I learn SO much about my visual taste, then when I started freelancing I was and still am developing my style. My role models are people like
Lisa Congdon and Jane Foster whose creative careers happened and blossomed later on in life, that is so inspirational to me .
Thanks so much Jacqueline for sharing your story and providing us with use-full tips and advice! You can stay inspired by following Jacqueline on Instagram and check out her beautiful portfolio on her website.
If you are a creative or know someone who you really admire and would love to see being featured, please don’t hesitate to let us know: [email protected]