LCF x Smythson: A Notebook Collaboration

Dirk Vaessen – MA Footwear Graduate

My name is Dirk Vaessen. I'm a graduate of MA Footwear,  a Posture Designer and create garments, accessories and footwear that work together with these postures. My preferred medium to work with is the human body. And what I enjoyed most about working with the Smythson Notebook is the book gave me rules and inspiration to work with. Normally when I work digitally, I can do endless research into new postures, because of the limited amount of pages the research had a maximum there was still more than enough pages to fill but it was nice to stop at some point.

I used this notebook as an inspiration for new postures and identities. I used letters to create new postures, the shape and sounds of these letters guided my body into new postures. The reason I used letters, as my inspiration is because in a notebook you write things down, and the way you write things down is part of your identity. In this process, I wanted to turn this around and use the letters as a starting point for new identities.

Erica Weide – Lecturer: Fashion Design (Textiles)

Everything that inspires me, everything I take notice of in my surroundings is somehow related to colour. So therefore, this felt like a natural starting point for this project. I did have an initial idea to really embrace the Smythson blue, and only use shades of blue in the whole book. And I did start off in this way, connecting it to Maggie Nelson's wonderful book bluebirds where she everything she writes about is connected to the colour blue. But I got bit carried away and I started trying different things, different colours, different methods, and the plan shifted and it became more open.

Jana Zornik – Artist, Designer and Lecturer on UAL Study Abroad Programme

I really enjoyed working back with my camera, the scanner and all the equipment to make imagery. It became like a little dance between sectors from my life, different aspects of my life that were happening together - I could create a story out of them. One of the first things I observed was the silver edges of the notebook. This act of light blinding people. I felt like it could have a way in to the story, to blind the visitors outside look and for them to take their attention to the inside.

Jane Yoo – Ma Fashion Artefact Student

I'm an MA Fashion Artefact student and before this course I studied Ceramic and Glass whilst working at Swarovski’s Luxury B2B collaboration segment in Austria. I really liked the tactility and the material of the Smythson sketchbook. Sometimes it didn't fit into my bag, so I had to hold it when I was commuting, and the texture of the leather the paper inspired me a lot. Notebooks are usually a tool that we document inspiration or ideas, but with the fine materials and craftmanship, this notebook became the inspiration itself.

Jessie White

I'm a leather worker, I make sculptures out of leather and wood. I work in restoration, and we're always incredibly careful with pens and inks in case they stain one of the objects. So, I started with this idea of being able to stain this beautiful book. I really wanted to make something 3D and work with leather, but actually, as I continued working with the book, it was just really nice to work directly on the pages and stay within the book itself – which is quite strange for me because I'm a very 3D maker!

Michela Carraro - Senior Lecturer: Fashion Design (Textiles)

I feel very privileged to have been given this book, the Smythson project has been very good. I enjoyed the freedom it gave me to play and be spontaneous. And I wanted it to be quite instinctive and a reflection of what I like myself. The sketchbook isn't your usual sketchbook so at the start, I had to test it and get used to it. It challenged me to explore mediums differently, creating unplanned outcomes. The quality of the paper is interesting, and it's got a very good resistance to water. I didn't start with an idea in mind. I was doing pottery at the time, so it was a perfect way to begin. I started to record ideas, form shapes and patterns to use and develop in the studio. After that, it completely unraveled and ventured into other areas of interest - colours, patterns, fabrics. If I was to summarise the work, I would say the colour mark making, mix medium materials are probably consistent ingredients in my work.

Sonia Alvarez

What I really enjoyed about working with this book is experimenting with different media to find  the right medium for the Smythson paper. Also the freedom to design and draw my print designs with an indulgence in colour mixing. My work tends to start with colour and then with the patterns. What really surprised me about the paper is how absorbent it is. Originally when you use inks, it tends to crease and wrinkle a little bit but then with the weight of the book and as you keep closing the book, it just flattens out again so that really surprised me. And also the blue colour - when I drew with some different colours, the colours looked different against the blue instead of white paper.

Lu Yihan

When I received this notebook, at first, I was trying to find a way to connect with my background which is Leather craft so you will find that I did a lot of experiments inspired by leather work. The results, however, have been unexpected and I have had to adapt my work based on ongoing experimentation. For this notebook, I have used a pen, knife, hammer, hole puncture, pricking iron, needle and thread to work with. The thing I enjoyed the most about working with this notebook is how strong but thin the paper is. Whilst working, I've used some of my heavy-duty tools but was very surprised by how resilient it is. The most surprising thing from the process was when I punched holes in the paper, I didn't expect that to create amazing shadow through the light. The shadows then started to differentiate when I weaved the paper.