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Lifestyle
Behind the Design: Blossom Meadow
FEB 02|6 min read
Meet Kelsey Elliston, our in-house designer, and discover the story and creative process behind her designs for the Blossom Meadow collection.
We sat down with Kelsey to talk us through her process - from coming up with the initial design concepts, to executing the final artworks that end up on our shelves.
We spoke about the inspiration behind the beautiful Adairs Kids Blossom Meadow collection which includes a Sheet Set, Quilt Cover Set, Teepee, Cushion, Swaddles, Flip Out Sofa, Wall Art, and Pillowcase.
Join us as we take a look behind the design and find out more about Kelsey’s art style, and what she enjoys the most about creating her designs.
What inspired this collection? Tell us about your illustration style.
The Blossom Meadow collection was inspired by the autumn and winter seasons; I wanted it to feel whimsical and magical to make it fun for kids.
I get my illustration style from looking through old children’s books. I think they have such nice colour and flow, and they’re a bit messy - which makes it look like a big garden or forest. I’m always going to Op Shops, so I look through the books there. For this design, I looked through books of flowers and wildflowers in particular.
I find that the closer you look at the imagery in kids’ books, the more extra little elements you can see. I wanted to take that idea and put it in my design so that when you keep looking at it, you find little critters and more animals.
What can you tell us about the animals in your collection?
The animals I drew for this collection were autumnal and woodland inspired. I started with rough sketches and refined the faces to feel like they each had a bit of personality. Sometimes they felt too serious, so I tried to make them a bit sillier or add a little smile. For example, the bear is holding a bouquet of flowers, I felt like that made him look so much sweeter.
"I loved drawing these animals and I think you can see the joy in the design.”
What’s your creative process when designing a collection?
To start with, I roughly sketch all the elements separately in pencil on A5 paper, which takes about two to three days. For this collection, I drew the animals, like the fox and bear, separately.
Then, I take a photo of the sketches on my iPad and import them into Procreate. I go over the sketches digitally with thicker, more complete lines to create a secondary sketch, add colour and edit them if needed. Sometimes I'll completely fill the shape with colour and then erase bits to mould it to look like the shape or the animal I want, then I add in extra digital layers to create fur and texture.
I then spend about a day moving the sketches from my iPad into Photoshop. I use Photoshop to play around with all the separate elements to then create the overall scene. For this design I created multiple little groups of animals, there's a rabbit and a bear walking together, and the hedgehog has a little snail next to him. I tried to make it feel like they were interacting a bit, while keeping a flow throughout the whole design. At the end, we put the pattern into repeat.
The whole process ends up taking about two – three weeks to complete.
“My designs always feel a lot more joyful when I'm really enjoying creating the artwork for it.”
How do you work with colour?
For this collection, I wanted to use autumnal colours that were quite sweet, soft, and pretty. I wanted it to feel cosy, peaceful and gentle.
In terms of distributing colour, I try and use every little bit of colour and place it throughout the whole design, so it feels balanced in the end.
Can you describe the colouring process?
The colouring happens more towards the end and there usually ends up being a lot of recolouring. For example, the bear initially started out as brown but ended up being grey instead. Once the first finished design is complete, I’ll print it out on our big printer, look at it, and can then see which parts look too strong or if it looks like the colour balance is wrong because there's too much brown or pink. That’s when I keep going back and changing things.
Are you a digital artist or do you prefer traditional illustration?
When I started, I really liked doing just digital work. Around the time I designed the Blossom Meadow collection I was way more into using my iPad for designs, but recently I’ve been trying to switch to doing more hand-painted designs. I like working digitally but I'm trying to build up those skills a bit more by pushing myself to do more hand-painted designs.
Do you usually design for Kids collections, or is this a newer area for you?
I design across adults and kids products, but I think designing for kids is fun because you get to draw characters. I like both, but I feel more comfortable with kids’ designs because I’ve done that the most.
"Seeing your designs in store is one of the most enjoyable things about working as a designer.”
Enter a world of whimsy when you discover Kelsey’s Blossom Meadow range. Inspired by picture book pages and designed with little ones in mind, this magical collection will bring wonder right into your child’s room. Let them cuddle up with new furry friends in soft, gentle colours for a cosy bedroom look.
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