Hey! Let’s get to know you a little better. Introduce yourself and tell us more about you as an artist.
Hi, I’m Naomi Anderson-Subryan and I am an illustrator and maker based in South London. I predominantly work with paper-collage, piecing together complex collages with brightly coloured hand-painted paper. I am a kitsch enthusiast, a lover of colour and a collector of bric-a-brac. My work is often inspired by the objects I collect and the television shows/films I love to watch. Having previously trained as an actor, theatricality is at the heart of my work. Playing with themes of nostalgia, I like to create dynamic, expressive characters and worlds that feel both vaguely familiar and yet unlike anything else.
What was the inspiration behind your collection?
I thought it was important to showcase my love for creating expressive characters, and for this collection I wanted to bring together four very unique designs each with a different character at its centre. There isn’t a theme tying them together per se, but I think they each encapsulate that late spring/early summer feeling, when the days are longer and the sun is brighter, when your house and garden are filled with the colours of blooming flowers and fruits. I wanted to capture this feeling and allow people to carry a little piece of this with them into the colder months.
Tell us a bit behind how the design process worked?
Typically all of my collages start as very small thumbnail sketches in my sketchbook, which I then neaten up on my iPad and add colour. Once I am happy with the design, I cut out all of the pieces using a selection of hand-painted papers, before everything is stuck down and then scanned and edited on my computer. Because all of my work is made using paper, it is a lengthy process from sketch to finished artwork, and so for this collection I chose four pre-existing collages. Once the designs were chosen, it was a case of editing them to fit the appropriate size - keeping the shape and the camera hole in mind - and removing some of the background colour on photoshop to create negative space (to reveal your phone beneath the design). Having the negative space works really well, and gives the designs some depth - which is super important. Then everything was ready to go, and was set up beautifully by the design team!
If you could describe your collection in 3 words what would they be?
Playful, bright, and joyous!
What's your favourite design from the collection and why?
I think that would have to be the Yeehaw Cowboy. He just makes me smile, with his cheeky little expression. The “Cowboy” character appears frequently in my work - so it only felt right to include it in the collection. I think the design has translated really well onto the case. I love how the piece plays with scale, with the lasso sweeping across the summer sky.
