Featured Designer: Susan Fitzgerald

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When I look at Susan Fitzgerald’s patterns I find myself feeling comforted and calm, while simultaneously inspired and joyful. The feeling is as unique as her work, and there is a peaceful quality to her work that is lovely.

Susan owns Spin Spin and is a Melbourne, Australia-based freelance graphic designer and illustrator. According to Susan, “I spend a lot of my time designing and screen printing textiles, making things from clay such as earrings, spoons, and homewares, and designing art prints and cards.

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“I try to spend at least one hour a day drawing, as I’m pretty obsessed with it. At times, this means staying up late until I’ve ‘done my time.’ This is the link to some of my illustration work.”

I asked Susan where she received her best inspiration and she said, “I love taking photos, so as a side-side project I started visiting other creatives’ studios and photographing them, for a project called Studio Space. You can see the blog here and the Instagram account here. It’s super inspiring to see how others work, and is a source of constant fascination for me.

“I also love having real, tangible products at the end of the creation/making process, like the stools in the second photo, some of which are designed and made locally in Melbourne by Like Butter, and upholstered using fabric I designed and then screen printed. The others are vintage stools, because I’ve got a thing for mid-century design.”

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With Susan’s obvious joy for her work, we wanted to know what she really gravitated toward heavily. She shared: “I generally love imperfect things, as it’s a nice reminder that a real person made them. My drawings often have lines that aren’t straight, and my ceramic spoons and earrings are always a bit wonky. I’m really not a fan of the vector look, and sometimes wonder if that can make my work even wonkier… 🙂 The first photo shows an illustration of mine from last year, of fish, brought to life in a two-color screen printed tea towel. The misregistration of the print is my favorite part.”

To see more of Susan’s amazing work visit her website or follow her on Instagram.

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