LUCY HOOK

Happy happy Friday! Settle down with your takeaway of choice and have a read below of our Creative Q&A with Lucy, of Lucy Hook Designs – a super fun greetings and gift brand based in Yorkshire!

These gorge products are a result of a magical combination of digital illustration, paper cutting and collage, and leave us feeling uplifted and full of smiles!

So let us give a super sunny & warm welcome to lovely Lucy!

LUCY: Hello! I’m Lucy, the gal behind Lucy Hook Designs. We are a luxury greetings brand selling greetings cards, recyclable wrapping paper and gifts. We like to find joy in the everyday and bring a smiles to people’s faces through fun, bright, relatable illustrations.
For as long as I can remember I have always been creative. Growing up, I’d always be making something, whether it be homemade cards or jewellery or sewing! When I was little I remember making a catalogue on Word of all my jewellery, adamant that I now had a business and was going to sell my makes!
I started selling my illustrations at the start of the pandemic as something to keep my busy and it has all blossomed from there really! It’s coming up to a year now and I’m loving it.

JANEY: Please can you talk us through your design process?

L: My design process involves a mix of both hands on creating and digital. As a lot of my work is inspired by the everyday, and the things we love all around us, I’ll normally start with a specific thing in mind, say a cocktail or recipe and draw from that, or if I’m designing for a certain occasion for example, a new baby card, I will use everyday baby objects as a starting point.
If I’m working hands on it tends to be through paper cutting and collage, so I start by painting up papers as the textures from painted paper as opposed to normal coloured paper work really well. I will then scan these in and clean them up using photoshop and arrange them in to a composition, adding some digital elements along the way such as hand lettering, or finer details which can’t be achieved through paper cutting.

J: I love the idea of creating your own textures and papers and then playing around with the composition – I can imagine lots of happy accidents as a result of that method!
Where do you tend to find most of your inspiration?

L: I’m very inspired by everyday objects and the things I see day-to-day. If I’m not designing you can normally find me in the kitchen baking, so a lot of my work is inspired by food and drinks, because that is a huge passion of mine. And who doesn’t love a bit of cake and a glass of wine! So I use this theme throughout my illustrations to make my products relatable to my customers.

J: We are huge fans of your paper collages, especially those food and drink inspired pieces that you mentioned! I bet that is a technique that can get messy – would you describe your workspace as super-duper organised, or more creative chaos?

L: Aww thankyou! It can get very chaotic especially as I only have 1 small-ish desk, but I try and keep it as tidy as possible. My workspace is definitely not what I would describe as super organised by I like to think of it as organised chaos! I like to experiment with lots of different mediums so my workspace is full of lots of different paints, papers, books and samples of products, but it’s all organised and I know where everything is. I also pack all my orders on the same desk so it’s a painting/ working/ packing desk all in one!

J: Goodness me that would all be absolute mayhem if I got my hands on it, so kudos for you for keeping it all in order!
Everything about your brand and your work makes us beam – what are 3 things that make
you smile?

L: That’s exactly what the brand is all about, so I’m very happy it makes you feel like that! Apart from being creative and creating products that make people happy, baking is definitely my go to when I’m in need of some downtime. Creating beautiful, yummy bakes always puts a smile on my face and of course eating them makes me smile even more! I also have a border collie pup called Bob who never fails to put a smile on my face, he has so much energy but is the most loving pal and often keeps me company when I’m working. I’d say the 3rd thing that makes me smile is receiving parcels that I’ve ordered from small businesses – just the time and effort that you can tell goes into making the items and packaging them so beautifully makes me so happy! It really is happy post!

J: Anyone that follows my ramblings over on Instagram would know that I 100% agree with that – the happiest post has to be from a creative small business! Also, Bob sounds like a class act.
So out of all of your beautiful creations, what do you reckon is your absolute favourite thing to draw?

L: As I am a huge food lover, I’ve got to say anything foodie. One of my favourite products to work on was my new notebooks, especially the pizza and pasta one. All the illustrations are paper cut and I just loved making the little pizza and bowl of pasta!
I’d say florals are a close second. I use a lot of florals within my paper cuts by painting loose floral patterns and cutting shapes out of it which gives such a lovely texture. I use this a lot if I’m drawing clothing for example, on my new baby card, the baby grow is cut out of a lovely floral pattern, which I think looks really cute!

J: I am in LOVE with that pizza & pasta notebook (2 of the main food groups I would argue…), and the extra depth and texture that the collage technique brings!
So what is next??

L: I’m really loving the organic development of the business right now: testing different products and designs, seeing what my customers are engaging with – so I really hope to hone in my style and theme even more in the future to offer a really concrete range of products that I know my customers will love. Lucy Hook Designs is also branching out into the wholesale world, with a couple of lovely Yorkshire businesses now stocking cards and prints, which is something I’d love to continue and keep growing!

J: Eek this all sounds very exciting!
Self-confessed baking fanatic Lucy has also combined her illustrative expertise and culinary know-how, and has designed some beauuuutiful organic cotton aprons. These are launching tomorrow (Saturday 10th April) at 11am and are available on her website!

Head over to lucyhookdesigns.com to browse all of her charming products – we’re talking cards, we’re talking prints, we’re talking wrap & notebooks… what more do you need?
Lucy even offers 4 non personalised cards for £10!

She has also created some adorable free, printable Easter/Spring bunting to download here! You can either choose the colour in option, and take some time to get creative, or the ready to hang colourful flags, and print as many as you want to fill your home with sunny, spring loveliness!

Anyone else starving after reading that? I may have to go and bake up a storm… who am I kidding, Easter egg it is.

I hope you enjoyed that chat with fabulous Lucy, I’m super grateful to her for being part of our lil project and for answering those questions!

Have a fabby week, I’ve got everything crossed for a bit of a rise in temperature (pleeeease), I’m not sure how many more chilly garden visits I can handle!

See you next week for another Creative Q&A!

Janey