OMG Kitty

OMG Kitty is an illustration based art prints and lifestyle brand, specialising in playful and richly illustrated hand-drawn art prints and silk scarves designed to be a cheery and colourful addition to your wardrobe and interior.

Being creative has always been a constant in Kitty Bardsley’s life. Growing up, she used to make magazines as gifts, paint, and customise anything she could get her hands on. At school, her passion for creativity further developed, and she thrived in her studies of Art and Design and Textiles. However, after suggestions from teachers, Kitty ended up going to Durham University to study English Literature and Art History, as “the idea of going on to study something that didn’t sit as comfortably with me as art did felt challenging but exciting“. Although grateful for her university experience, upon graduating in 2012 Kitty was itching to get back to the practical arts that she had always taken so much comfort in. For the following three years the artist enrolled in a series of extensive courses in Textile Design, Surface Pattern Design, screen printing and Graphic Design, so that she was equipped with the skills she needed to enter the working world in the creative industries.

Kitty landed her first job as a graphic designer for an agency designing the promotional materials for a popular confectionery brand. For the last four years she has been successfully self-employed as a freelance designer, and gained invaluable experience from working with a variety of clients on their projects.

“I always knew that I wanted to be a designer in my own right and it is my dream to be able to create art that I love and make a living from it” states Kitty. Thus, this year Kitty decided to bring her dream to life with the creation of her brand; OMG Kitty. With OMG Kitty, her colourful and playful illustrations are digitised and bought to life as fine art prints and digitally printed 100% silk scarves.

Her illustrations begin as simple outline drawings in pen on paper, which are then scanned into Illustrator to refine digitally. Kitty then uses her tablet and pen to work on her initial sketches and add to them with digitally drawn elements. “I find the process of drawing and re-drawing, changing colours and playing with compositions takes time but is a rewarding and enjoyable process” describes the illustrator.

Taking inspiration from everyday objects and experiences, Kitty reworks these ideas into patterns and imagined scenes. Sweet treats area a regular motif in her work, with a pastel candy land pattern filled with biscuits and sweets, and retro desserts inspired by her love of 70s dinner party cookbooks proving popular.

As a brand, OMG Kitty is still in early stages of development, and Kitty plans to continue to evolve her style and build upon her range of designs available. As well as fine art prints and silk scarves, she is also working on producing a range of digitally printed silk items such as cushions and hair accessories. Kitty is also keen to expand her printmaking repertoire and explore the possibilities of Risograph. She concludes; “For now though, I am excited to keep creating more illustrations for my art prints and accessories brand that I hope can bring a bit of joy and cheer to people’s interiors and wardrobes“.

You can shop the OMG Kitty range on Department Store here.

@omgkittyclub
www.omgkittyclub.com

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