Designer Desire: George Westren

This week, we read a fascinating and, at the same time, sad story on the Guardian website about the virtually unknown op artist, George Westren.

Apparently, he died in 2021 and his housing association home was recently being cleared out. A mere week ago (20^th June 2022), near neighbour, Alan Warburton, happened to see all his artworks being dumped in a skip by the removal company. Luckily, Alan managed to retrieve his portfolio; alas, not all of the artworks.

Alan didn’t know George all that well in life, but after rescuing some of his work, he embarked on a mission to find out more about him. Thanks to a Twitter post that went viral, George Westren has gained global recognition. Friends and family have been contacted and they have shared their information and stories.

The artworks in the portfolio have been made into prints and are now available to purchase. Prices range from £70 to £100. Proceeds will be going towards mounting an exhibition of George’s work and securing its preservation and safe storage.

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Geometric lines kept me on the straight and narrow

All other images: © George Westren

Designer Desire: Malika Favre

Malika Favre is a French-born, London-dwelling illustrator and animator. We’ve featured one of her works here in the past – but she’s so good, she deserves further investigation.

Her use of bright colour, sensuous shapes and geometric, Op Art pattern is wonderfully eye-catching and enticing. Her designs are Pop Art inspired and are incredibly well suited to magazine covers and wall art. She has a prestigious client list which includes The New Yorker, BAFTA and Vogue.

She says she is influenced by the female form – something that’s very evident in her impressive body of work. Check out her shop where you can get limited-edition screen prints giclée print and luxury playing cards.

Her Vimeo stream offers further insight into her product & process. Also, have a look below at the short interview she gave – you’ll need to watch it at least twice to fully read the sub-titles, gorge on all her wonderful designs and glimpse her lovely home!

_{© Tom Robinson}

Designer Desire: Barbara Brown

I went to a Barbara Brown exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester last week. I was already quite familiar with her work, but seeing them up close and in the flesh I was completely blown away!

Seeing images of her designs in books or online can never do them justice. The sheer scale of the many op art patterns – 1¼ metres wide – make the mind boggle!

Originally from Manchester, Barbara Brown attended Canterbury College of Art and then on to the Royal College of Art. It was at her degree show in 1953 that she was discovered by Tom Worthington, Artistic Director of Heal’s. The rest, as they say, is history. She produced many designs for the company (where she was a contemporary of Lucienne Day) in her two-decade career with them. Her designs won the Council of Industrial Design (COID) award on three occasions.

You can usually find lengths of her fabrics (and ready made soft furnishings if your sewing skills are anything like mine) on eBay and Etsy.

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Additional image credits:

Pinterest | V&A

Etsy List: What’s the angle?

I could never get my head round geometry when I was at school. Pythagoras, pi, trigonometry, algebra, calculus, equations… it’s all Greek to me! 🙂

I loved all the tools in the Helix Oxford maths set that my parents had to buy me; the divider, protractor, set square and compass. I made lots of pretty drawings, but perhaps I should have been spending the time actually listening to the teacher instead!

Nevertheless, I might not understand any of it, but I can still admire the forms and patterns, shapes and angles that are created!

What’s the angle?
Curated by H is for Home

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: op art

Designer Desire: George Westren

Designer Desire: Malika Favre

Designer Desire: Barbara Brown

Etsy List: What’s the angle?