Today’s featured designer is Textile Design Lab member Aïnhoa Landa Imaz, a surface/graphic and motion graphics designer who hand-paints beautiful silk scarves and kaftans under her brand name Amai. Read on to learn more about her process and the influences on her work:
“In this life there are coincidences, but most of the decisions made are not random, because they are fed from the environment in which they grow, and I was born into a family of artists. Family environment very visual, verbally stimulated, pure art, which led me to study Fine Arts in Madrid.
I extended my studies in California at Art Center College of Design, majoring in Graphic, Packaging Design and Motion Graphics, which gave me a much broader vision of design, its possibilities of media, dimensions and movement.
For several years (more than 12) I worked in Motion Graphics in the United States at Warner Brothers, and when installed back in Spain, I decided to diversify my business between Motion & Graphic Design and a new canvas, silk, allowing me to customize the learned design skills.
With silk I have found that I can also bring art to the street through pieces that reflect the way I see and feel the colors, forms and movement, creating unique handmade pieces.
Thanks to the silk I discover the limitless possibilities of the surface design, which seduced me at first sight.
I gravitate towards well defined shapes with solid & flat colors, I also love to experiment with shibori techniques, because the results are amazing, very fluid, organic & with lots of movement. My process of creation is different depending on the final style I want to achieve. If it is the very defined shapes & colors, I start researching & interpreting trends, my photos, my drawings, etc… sketching them by hand or directly on the computer.
And if it is very loos, with a lot of movement, & mixing colors, I start sketching, and experimenting with shibori techniques, and import them into the computer for pattern design purposes.
When I work with silk, I usually make a template on the computer to have a guide when I direct paint on the silk.
Everything that surrounds me is a source of inspiration.”
See more of Aïnhoa’s work at http://www.a-mai.es/ or visit her Facebook page.
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