Gift wrap by Design Kist
Thanks to a new local enterprise, Design Kist, the possibilities for wallpaper, homeware and decor accessories with a unique Mzansi twist are now endless. We spoke to Design Kist founder, Kristen Morkel.
NOTE: Scroll to the bottom to download two of their designs - perfect for gift wrap...
How did Design Kist come about and who forms part of the enterprise?
The seed for Design Kist was planted while I was working as a textile designer at a bedding manufacturer in Cape Town.
I saw how local retailers and manufacturers often sourced digital surface design from European design studios to print onto fabric and manufacture into products. There were no South African versions of these studios and a gap existed between retailers and surface designers in South Africa.
I took the plunge and quit my job to develop Design Kist – an online surface-design studio showcasing the digital artworks of a collection of freelance surface designers.
Design Kist was developed with the assistance of my engineer husband, John, whose Ph.D research in image processing gave us the technical knowledge to develop our online concept. Janine Brink is the third member of Design Kist. While I manage the studio and John runs the IT side, she liaises with customers and keeps our designers up to date with the latest trends.
Design Kist specialises in surface design. Which products form part of your portfolio?
The sky is the limit when it comes to the surfaces to which our designs can be applied.
We sell fabric designs for bedding and clothing, and prints for gift wrap and stationery, but our patterns can also be used on homeware, accessories, packaging, upholstery and wallpaper.
Being digital, our designs are hugely versatile and can be resized and manipulated to fit surfaces as small as a mug or as large as a duvet cover.
How does the Design Kist service work?
Design Kist showcases designs from a pool of talented freelance surface designers, each of whom specialises in different areas of surface design.
As designers submit designs, they're added to our online gallery, ready to be purchased, downloaded and printed. Clients need to register and obtain a password before they're given access to our gallery, which protects the exclusivity of our designs.
When clients are looking to develop something specific, we create customised collections that they view in their own private gallery on our website. We also tweak colours and sizes of existing designs to give our clients exactly what they're looking for.
Each designer brings something different to the collection. Because our designers are mostly South African, our designs exhibit a strong South African vernacular. Our collections reflect our motto: "If it's beautiful, or follows a trend, it will sell."
What's trendy in terms of surface design right now?
Globally, there's been a shift towards fabric designs that are printed digitally, and as a result there's a strong trend for photographic and digital prints on fabric.
Sketchy, hand-drawn flowers, ikat motifs and unusual animal skins are popular in apparel and homeware, while prints are showing a strong trans-cultural theme influenced by a fusion of African, Cuban and South American culture.
The clashing of patterns in kaleidoscopic colours is a big trend and bright colours are everywhere this summer. We love the growing trend among SA fashion designers to give their label that extra edge by designing and printing their own fabrics, often with a local flavour.
Look how cool:
We've hand-picked a few of the Design Kist designs for you to download and use as wrapping paper:
- Coathangers
Visit www.designkist.com for more information, or follow them on Twitter (@DesignKist).
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