lyndsay catherine - creative
“Paradise” South African born creative Lyndsay Catherine is the founder and designer behind the fledgling brand Ark Paper Studio. Embracing the future of the digital era, and at the same time preserving the papers of the past, Fine Art graduate Lyndsay founded the design studio in 2017, upon a serendipitous event and deep nostalgia for the rich heritage of the bygone paper age. The process of creating each collage involves many hours of research and referencing before the final elements are selected for use. The marriage between elements within the designs are based purely on colour and form, making them appear as if they were always entwined. Symbolism, symmetry and colour play a large role in her work as well as the influence and love of nature and form. Using imagery from that falls within the public domain, she does not work with any image older than 1900. She enjoys hiding elements within her designs and can use up to 80 different elements to create one collage. Her work has a whimsical feel that is designed to draw you closer to investigate the many different hidden aspects within the design. After a chance discovery of age old books on a dumpster, she realised that the illustrations of the paper age would be eternally forgotten unless she revived them in some way. Although this type of imagery is now more commonly used by many designers across the globe, what makes her work unique is the story
and narrative behind each design element, that takes you back on a journey through time. Working towards building a “library of design”, released in a series of chapters as open ended digital books, she hopes to add submissions from different fields pertaining to each design. She views her work as a continuous collaboration with the dead and wishes the focus to remain solely on the past. The element of education and awareness is at the essence of what she is hoping to achieve using her designs and hopes to give back through various collaborations.
“Addo”
Lyndsay Catherine
South African born Catherine studied Fine Art majoring in printmaking, with ceramics and painting as her minors. Her love for art and antiquated material stems back to her childhood where she would spend many hours in libraries. She furthered her studies later in life with a teaching degree and wrote a thesis on the importance of visual reference in the role of education. Her particular interest and passion lay in special needs education were she taught for many years in London. She lives in Cape Town with her husband and three children.
. “Fern Forest”
Her fabrics and cushions have appeared in several interior magazines such as Living Etc UK, UK Nationals, & German Deco Home Magazine and Woman and Home. A capsule collection of fabrics and wallpapers were showcased at the London Decorex Show 2018 in collaboration with UK Interior Designer Sarah Fortescue. She was also invited to design a print for the Oceanic Collection for Sarah Fortescue which was inspired by Sir David Attenborough's documentary Blue Planet II for the BBC. A percentage from each metre sold will be donated to his charity in the fight against the pollution of our oceans.
“Fortescue Bay” fabric (above on chair) is based on over 100 different elements, many found in the reefs across “Fortesque Bay” in Tasmania from prints dating 1768.
Lyndsay is currently working on a design for a Rhino sanctuary and charity where funds raised by the sale of the products will buy milk for orphaned baby rhinos who have been abandoned to the devastating effects of poaching. She hopes that through her various collaborations with designers and organisations, her designs may be used in a constructive way to generate income for worthy initiatives.
https://www.instagram.com/arkpapers/ https://www.instagram.com/lyndsay_catherine/ EMAIL - arkpaperstudio@gmail.com Stockist information - helloarkpapers@gmail.com