18 May 2015
Redesigning Alice: Etsy and British Library competition winners
We’re delighted to announce the winners of our Redesigning Alice competition, run in partnership with Etsy UK and to celebrate the 150th anniversary of this much-loved character. We gave designers and makers the challenge of creating products inspired by our original Alice manuscript, Alice’s Adventures Underground. The hand-drawn illustrations penned by Charles Dodgson (AKA Lewis Carroll) are a wealth of creative inspiration.
The winners will see their products sold in the British Library Shop later in the year, to coincide with our Alice in Wonderland exhibition in autumn 2015. We already stock a popular Alice range, and these products will be a fabulous addition.
We received hundreds of fantastic applications and a judging panel of industry experts (including representatives from Etsy, the British Library, Liberty and Michelle Mason) helped us select five outstanding winners. So who are they?
Chá com Letras is an illustration-led lifestyle and publishing venture started by James Barker and Joana Pereira in 2013. James (from England) and Joana (from Portugal) met at university where they both studied graphic design. After working on several projects together, they decided to take the plunge and start their own company. All their products are designed by them and carefully sourced and produced in the UK whenever possible. They created three different collections inspired by Carroll’s book, as well as fresh interpretations of the Alice world as visualised by Tenniel.
Rentaro Nishimura is interested in the fusion of traditional craft skills and digital fabrication. He draws inspiration from wood joinery, origami, architecture and self-assembly design. After finishing an MA in Product Design he started his own business with the remit of creating beautiful but affordable jewellery using laser cutting and 3D printing. He designs and makes all his work from his studio at Cockpit Arts in London. His crown rings are inspired by The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland.
Lewes Bow Ties by Dina Malkova
Founded by Dina Malkova, Lewes Bow Ties are hand-made from vintage fabrics in limited numbers. The bow ties are self-tied, adjustable in length and each bow tie is packaged in a vintage style gift box made of recycled paper. Dina is a designer, maker, writer, businesswoman and wife. Her career has been varied, from running a big hotel in Tashkent, running a fashion design business and studying Enterprise Management for the Creative Arts at the University of the Arts in London. As you can see by the image below, she has used a fragment of the original book illustration to create new fabric for this bow tie.
Founded by Emily Winter, Pobble and Ping is a pencil printing establishment run in a small village in the chilly north of Scotland. All her pencils are hand stamped using a hot foil stamper and are made from fast growing and renewable farmed linden wood. As she says on her website, her mission is to get people writing by hand again and to use more pencils. Her designs feature four well known quotes from the original manuscript.
Gunna is a Danish textile designer who lives and works in North London. She is a Chelsea College of Art & Design and a Royal College of Art graduate specialising in printed textiles and illustration. She is inspired by the constant changing nature of the city which contrasts with her rural upbringing in Denmark where she spent most of her childhood. She has a natural passion for Nordic folklore designs and ethnic patterns, which constantly inspires her work. She has created a new range of dolls (currently in design stage) of Alice and the rabbit which will be screen printed by hand.
Fran Taylor
Marketing Manager