Newcastle-based freelance graphic designer Millie Carmel Jobson turns a sketchbook collage experiment with GF Smith Colorplan paper samples into a four-colour screen print made at Incubate Printmaking in the Ouseburn, letting imperfection and intuition do the heavy lifting.
It started with paper samples. A set of GF Smith Colorplan swatches arrived from Millie Carmel Jobson’s local consultant, she began tearing them up and playing with colour and composition in her sketchbook, and a few weeks later she was at Incubate Printmaking in the Ouseburn with Nick, translating those intuitive collages into a screen print.
The process moved through several stages, each one adding something new. The original collages were scanned, layered in Photoshop and given typography. The shapes and the kisses scattered through the design are scanned from childhood birthday cards, kept out of sentimentality and repurposed here because old print has its own texture that new material cannot replicate. With each pass through the press, new imperfections emerged and were kept rather than corrected.
“As a designer I am less precious with rules and more about enjoying the process,” Jobson says, “especially in printmaking when you never know how imperfections and unpredictability can elevate a piece and give it character.”
The result is a four-colour A3 print in a limited run of twenty, carrying the warmth and looseness of a sketchbook idea that was allowed to stay loose throughout. you are very nice is exactly what it says it is: a piece of print designed to spread some joy, made by someone who let the enjoyment of making it show.
Millie Carmel Jobson is a freelance graphic designer based in Newcastle upon Tyne, with a background across design, fashion and contemporary art in London, Brighton and the North East. She writes for Northern Design Festival, interviewing Northern creatives.
Website: hello-millie.co.uk Instagram: @milliecarmel
you are very nice, 2024. Four-colour screen print, A3, edition of 20. Screenprinted at Incubate Printmaking, Ouseburn, Newcastle.
