We are pleased to announce the first of our new 2016 / 2017 Artist Collaborations - Natalie Born. Our goal at ZigZagZurich is for our customers to understand more about the artists we work with on our artist bedding and textile collections, going into their minds just that little bit more. The first work of Natalie Born x ZigZagZurich includes three bedding artworks, Alphabet City, Crazy Girls and The Lovebirds plus the woven artwork of Lining Up as a New Zealand Wool Blanket ( and just voted the top gift by Elle Decor for this Xmas ! )
Enjoy the work of Natalie Born where her pen meets playful humour.
Who are you ?
Natalie Born
Where do you live?
I currently live in Lucerne, Switzerland
What do you do ?
I work as an illustrator and design anything from stationery to textile prints and I also teach illustration, textiles, art and design .
Who & what inspires you?
My son and his fantasy. Endless possibilities of beauty in this world. Construction De-construction. Cities and Nature. Paper ,pens and markers.
What doesn’t inspire you ?
Rules
What projects have you been recently working on?
More illustrations applied as patterns, a new greetingcard collection. Possibly a fanzine and maybe just maybe a... ‚’ (oh no not another ...) colouring-in book’.
What projects in your lifetime have the most significance in both of your work?
Early assignments at school where I would papercut and decorate an entire project, mostly when I worked in Fashion the process of constructing a garment shape and style and all the tools and skills involved in executing it.
Where is design & art heading?
I think it’s either or ...which is handmade long-lasting super expensive luxuriousiouly crafted or cheap quick and fast lived.
What’s wrong with design?
That it can be overdesigned and contrived.
Who do you think are the most influential artists & designers in recent years?
Sacai, Rodarte, Prada, Ai Weiwei, Jeff Koons, Marina Abramovic, Louise Bourgeois ,Elizabeth Peyton, Zaha Hadid,Jonathan Ive
What artists and designers have inspired you in your lifetime?
Balenciaga, Jean Paul Gaultier, Isabel Toledo, Commes des Garcons, Martin Margiela, Matisse, Sonia Delauney, Paul Klee, African Art, Alexander Girard, Bauhaus and Zero movement, Eva Rothschild, John Stezaker, Andreas Gursky, Cindy Shermann,Aubrey Beardsley,Paul Rand Howard Tangye and many more.
Three things that you couldn’t be without?
Pen, paper water
What is your favourite colour & why ?
Red- it sets strong positive and negative signals depending on how it is perceived
Natalie Born Bio Below:
Natalie is an illustrator and designer currently living in Switzerland. Her work is a playful exploration of humorous characters, whimsical animals and graphic botanicals that crosses over from fashion into art, influenced by her own unique humour and character.
By cutting, pasting, slicing, manipulating and coloring paper into simple shapes and forms, she experiments with hybrids and contrasts that curiously fascinate her, finding endless possibilities . She loves to continuously create and invent, finding it necessary to be hands on with her work while using her beloved scalpel, pattern-cutting tools, fine-liners, brush pen, colourful markers, adhesive-roll and correction tape.
Natalie’s illustrations reflect her long time involvement and passion with fashion, starting from her studies at St. Martin’s College of Art & design in London, a celebrated school where she also lectured. Her sketchbooks embody treasures where her artistic innovations and narrations are let loose and developed. These unique paper-cut illustrations, linear drawings, doodles and patterns are then fine-tuned to form compositions which are used as prints for textiles, stationery and apparel.
www.natalieborn.com
