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Alison Mc Kenna is an artist and textile designer living between Sussex and Andalusia. She's been working on textile designs for different fashion companies. Her work is characterized by balance, feeling and composition exploring forms, colours and brush strokes. Her practice often works within the narrative of transformation as an artist and individual. She tries to create a sense of space and energy in her drawings and paintings transmitting feeling into form.

Who are you?

Alison Mc Kenna.

Where do you live?

Between Sussex and Andalusia.

What do you do?

I am a painter and fabric designer.

Who & what inspires you?

Fashion, art, music, travel, things of the spirit, elevation.

What doesn't inspire you?

Brexit.

What projects have you been recently working on?

I am an artist and freelance fabric designer. I have been working on fabric designs for Spring Summer 2019 for fashion companies. I have completed a series of 34 large paintings on paper which I hope to show soon.

What projects in your lifetime have the most significance in both of your work?

I am still waiting.

Where is design & art heading? 

I hope there will be greater equality and diversity within the art and design world in the immediate future. 

Who do you think are the most influential artists & designers in recent years? 

Rei Kawakubo (Comme Des Garcon), Ai Weiwei, Nan Goldin, Madonna, Judy Chicago, Jamie Reid, Tracey Emin, Carmen Herrera, Rose Wylie and too many others to mention. 

What artists and designers have inspired you in your lifetime? 

Too many to list but most recently: Georgia O'Keeffe, Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine De Kooning, Luchita Hurtado, Sonia Delaunay, Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Lee Miller, The Black Mountain School, Textiles of the Wiener Werkstätte. All the women throughout recent history that were over looked and disregarded because of their gender but carried on painting regardless. 

What would be your best destination in the world?

It changes from day to day, So today it would be the walk from Charleston Farmhouse where the Bloomsbury Group lived in the twenties to Firle Village on a sunny bright Sussex Day.

Stuck on a desert island, three things that you couldn't be without?

Yoga mat, The Yoga Sutras of Master Patanjali which is a collection of 196 Indian Sutras on the theory and practice of yoga and water purification system.

What is your favourite colour & why?

White. Because the world needs more light right now.

CHARLESTON - Cotton Blanket by Alison Mc Kenna

FARLEY 2 - Cotton Blanket by Alison Mc Kenna

FARLEY 1 - Cotton blanket by Alison Mc Kenna

BYZANCE is a creative studio based in Paris and founded by Laïs Duruy and Claire Le Bouteiller. Constantly abreast of new experiences, they work in the fields of identity design, art direction, graphic & pattern design and illustration. They collaborated with brands like Kenzo, Universal and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their work for ZigZagZurich is inspired by journeys and landscapes.

"We wanted to play with the strands that become the edges of the brush drawings. Also, we imagined it as a framework, not a repeated pattern. It makes it a piece that is in between decorative and purposeful." - Byzance. 

Who are you?

We are Byzance, a creative studio founded by Laïs Duruy and Claire Le Bouteiller.

Where do you live?

We are based in Paris but we've been living in different countries before. 

What do you do?

We try to do what we love which means we open our practice of design as much as we can. Byzance is situated at the cross of graphic & pattern design, art direction and illustration. We also like flirting with other fields, as object and space design. 

Who & what inspires you?

Laïs: "I enjoy architecture and design".

Claire: "I love XX's century paintings".

We can name some great inspirations as Ettore Sottsass, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Serge Lutens, Viviane Sassen, Malin Gabriella Nordin.. The list is quite infinite. We can also be inspired by anything that surrounds us: a stormy sky, a wired fruit or a discussion. 

What doesn't inspire you?

It will sound mad but Graphic Design! It can be well done and beautiful but we like to look everywhere else for our inspirations. 

What projects have you been recently working on?

We are directing few photo and video campaigns for small and bigger companies. We are also working with art institutions on their global identity. Aside, we continue working on personal projects.

What projects in your lifetime have the most significance in your work?

We try to commission at least once a year a collective or personal exhibition. Last year, it was all about collaborations with craftsmen around the world. 

Where is design & art heading?

We like the fact that design and art are converging. We split our atelier with designers and artists friends. That gives us the possibility to push collaborations and share a common vision. 

What's wrong with design?

In France, there is till a tendency to label a designer with a distinct ability. "You are good in typography so you should work in the field of culture". We tried since the beginning of Byzance to extend our practice. As creative we have an artistic vision and we will collaborate with technical expert (scenographer, set designer, etc.) in each project that we start over.

What do you think are the most influential artists & designers in recent years?

Lately, we feel a return to the basis. We like the idea that contemporary artists might be inspired by their grand ma' needlework, the shape of a canteen carafe..

What artists and designers have inspired you in your lifetime?

To be a jack of all trades. The movement Art and Craft being a great example since XIX's century.

What would be your best destination in the world?

Both of us are globe-trotters. We are getting all around the world as much as possible. This year we are heading to Japan and Mexico.

Stuck on a desert island, three things that you couldn't be without?

Two bottles of water and a phone to call help?

What is your favourite colour and why?

Our favorite colors are always changing depending on our mood. 

Corinth 2

Corinth 1

Tripoli

The year 2019 marks the centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus, one of the 20th century most influential cultural movements. 

The German art school was founded in Weimar by Walter Gropius in 1919 and it moved to Dessau first and then to Berlin. Although the Bauhaus was closed because of the Nazis in 1933, its ideas continued to spread all over the world along with emigrating Bauhaus members to Switzerland, Israel, USA and other countries. 

The intention of the Bauhaus school was to reunite the arts that were previously separated in the academies in order to arrive at contemporary forms of art and architecture. The Bauhaus style became very influential in modern design, art, architecture, graphic design, interior design and typography. 

In occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, Michele Rondelli & Sophie Probst continued the series of "Bauhaused Blankets", now available also in cotton. Geometric patterns declined in bright colours, celebrate one of the most important movement of architecture, art and design of the whole 20th century. 

DISCOVER THE BAUHAUS COLLECTION

"Sierra Morena" is a natural and historical region in Andalusia, Spain, north of Seville. The average elevation is 1,200 metres above sea level. Where as you can find plantations of olive trees, grapes, citrus and other fruit on the lower levels, the highland is much more arid and hills are covered with snow in the winter leaving its habitants focusing more on indoor labor. 

We collaborate and support a small handweaving studio by producing "BALADE", a colorful and joyful round carpet using jute and braided fabric which are left overs from the nearby textile mills. Extremely sturdy "BALADE" will create a moment of joy in any interiors.  

Handwoven in the highlands of Spain;

Diameter 160cm;

Composition jute and braided fabric;

The "Artist Cotton Blankets Collection 2019" has been named a NYCxDESIGN Awards Honoree! Thank you NYCxDESIGN & Interior Design Magazine.

We are so proud! The "Artist Cotton Blankets Collection 2019" has been named a NYC x DESIGN Awards finalist in the accessories category. 

Take a look at the 2019 NYCxDESIGN Awards Product Finalists.