About Louise
Louise is a graphic designer and lecturer from the West Midlands, UK. Over the last twenty years she has produced work for the CBSO, Greenpeace, Médecins Sans Frontières, Stafford Borough Council, The British Institute of Musculoskeletal Medicine, Rug Couture, The Natural Rug Store and British Athletics among others. She holds a BA in Graphic Design from the University of Wolverhampton and an MA in Communication Design from Central Saint Martin’s – UAL, London. She has taught at The Universities of Wolverhampton and Worcester and Birmingham City University.
Her illustration of the British Athletics Muscle Injury Classification has been published worldwide in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and used in many international presentations, including at the world acclaimed Isokinetic Football Medicine Conference at the Nou Camp Stadium, Barcelona FC’s home ground. Her work for the The British Institute of Musculoskeletal Medicine was published in ‘Diagrams. Innovative Solutions for Graphic Designers’ her packaging design in ‘Bags, Labels and Point of Purchase,’ and her work as part of the agency Rechord in ‘Layout: Making It Fit. Finding the Right Balance Between Content and Space’. For ten years until 2017 she worked closely with Rug Couture; creating their brand identity, printed and online publicity material, exclusive colour box up through to the second iteration of their online store. They have recently opened their first central London showroom on Portobello Road.
More recently her love of drawing has led her to explore surface pattern design and complete Rachael Taylor’s acclaimed ‘The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design’ e-course. Her first collection entitled Sumi 墨 has been beautifully hand crafted into eight rug designs and is available from Rug Couture.
Louise’s love of art and design was first inspired by her family. Her mother worked as a draughtswoman and her father as an engineer; both producing incredible drawings through the course of their work.
“It was their handwriting which really fascinated me. I didn’t know there was even a typographic field as a child but I couldn’t take my eyes off it. My Mom could render what looked like Helvetica freehand with an ink pen while my Dad’s writing was incredibly expressive yet still totally even and rhythmical.”
“Like a lot of young people growing up in the 80’s I developed an obsession with bubble writing which via music led to an equal obsession with magazine’s. I kept every copy I bought of Melody Maker, NME, Select and The Face until one day my Dad became really concerned my ceiling might fall in. This led to a general curiosity for magazine design in general and the hunt for even rarer titles in the UK like Ray Gun.”
“Except for a few subjects I was interested in most things at school and was totally flummoxed when it came to choosing my options. I was advised against pursuing anything artistic because of the lack of work and ended up on a Chemistry Degree. I was really unhappy and came home in the summer before my second year. Over that summer I gained a place on a new course; Multi-Media at Wolverhampton and out of pure curiosity took a typography module. I was utterly enthralled and decided, probably causing lots of headaches in the process, that I had to change again but this time to Graphic Design. Thankfully that year one person had dropped out and I was very lucky to take their place. It was everything I was looking for in a course and funnily enough I also found a lot of other people like myself; all with diverse interests, with a real curiosity and a want to explore that in their work.”
“I believe in the ability of design to ignite a spark just as it did in me. The advice I received when I was young was correct; this hasn’t always been an easy route but what is? I feel very fortunate to have found something that I love. I try to bring that passion and care into every project I undertake.”