Wildcard: Johanna Basford

Words: Suchandrika Chakrabarti
Photography: Jannica Honey

Inspired by the natural world, this 25-year-old designer’s beautifully intricate patterns make her textiles and wallpapers true collectors’ items.

Based in Aberdeen, Johanna Basford Designs has been producing hand-printed wallpapers, fabrics and ceramics since 2006. It’s a one-girl show, with 25-year-old Johanna co-ordinating both the financial and creative affairs.

There’s nothing like a little help from your nearest and dearest, though: “I have very tolerant friends and family, who over the years have been accountants, web designers, photographers, models and box packers,” she grins.

Referencing the nature that surrounded her as she grew up on a fish farm in rural Aberdeen, Johanna’s delicate, leaf-like drawings are embellished with flowers and vines that twine together to become dense, baroque-style patterns.

“As I child I scrawled on the walls; on absolutely everything,” she admits sheepishly. “I drove my parents mad. But we weren’t really allowed to watch TV, and I think that helped feed my imagination.”

Running her own business, she confides, is a challenge: “When I first set the company up, I didn’t know just how much time it would take up. Getting that balance between the two sides is a difficult thing.” She must be doing something right though, as she won the Shell Livewire Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006, as well as securing a welcome loan from The Prince’s Trust.

Although the design side is Johanna’s passion, she’s enjoying the independence that comes from being self-employed. “You’re in charge of the direction your work is going in,” is her take on it. “The minute you start working for someone else, it can be quite restrictive.”

Just a few months after graduating with a first in Printed Textiles from Dundee of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Johanna was already attending the glitzy opening of DKNY’s new Bond Street store – freshly kitted out in her wallpaper, after she won the New Designers showcase at London Fashion Week, fittingly in association with Wallpaper* magazine.

Apart from her products being stocked from Aberdeen to Brighton, she also takes on commissions, one recent example being a handmade set of limited-edition silk-screened labels for local brewery Brewdog.
Her one piece of advice? Don’t get chickenpox just before your Award photo-shoot: “They’re going to have to Photoshop that out,” Johanna notes wryly. “Oh, and if everyone else is jumping on a bandwagon, do the exact opposite. Carve out a niche, differentiate yourself from the crowd, and dare to be different.” We’d expect nothing less from our Wildcard winner.

www.johannabasford.com