FEATURE // CONNOR MILLS DESIGNS
CONNOR MILLS DESIGNS STYLES COME AND GO, BUT good design, it’s a language and one that Connor Mills is fluent in. Connor Mills Designs is a one man brand lovingly born through the joys of a covid cancelled wedding & a renewed sense of a lifelong dream. So, how did the business first begin? Technically the business first began back in 2017. Having had crafted seasonal designs and artworks the business started to take shape, yet after a mishap with a dodgy hard drive and an even more unreliable laptop all was lost and Connor’s dream was put on the shelf a shadow gathering dust but always in the back of his mind. Cut to 2020, the year the covid pandemic had robbed everyone of something and in Connor’s case it was a wedding five years in the making. It was from this that Connor and his partner decided to instead use a portion of their wedding savings to achieve a dream. Connor bought the best design setup possible and began once again to flex his creativity honeing his skills and preparing to shine a light on the dream which had seemed like a lifetime ago. The business started small, making art prints of digital illustrations Connor created. The first series was “Unseen Home” a series in which Connor took inspiration from well known Northern Irish landmarks and weaved in more mystical element’s, for example a ghostly apparition at the Dark Hedges or an impending falling moon at Ballintoy Harbour. The series captured a sense of what was already there just what isn’t easily seen. Running prints on these artworks they sold out within the first week and currently even the reprints have sold out. People mesmirised by the bold creativity presented to places already common place in peoples perceptions. Wanting to create something more personal and hands on Connor then began work on his
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next series of works. Taking inspiration from his interest in items with a spiritual meaning Connor began to create designs which were visually impactful yet simple. Wanting to tackle a more manual creation process he began printing his designs through the method of “Lino-Printing” a process which involves carving a design into lino blocks, inking these with a specialised ink and printing onto your medium. Wanting to create designs with an impact this is when Connor had an idea. Using a specialised ink lino printing can be used to make custom garments. Taking his most popular design “Leaky Ticker” he released his first t-shirt a play on wearing your heart on your sleeve. This proved to be the perfect choice for a tee as it not only sold out in it’s first batch but is now currently on it’s sixth reprint. The business was gaining an unexpected momentum with the Instagram reels of Connor’s process gaining thousands upon thousands of views. “I like to set goals, and then overcome them” was Connor’s motto, he had dream’s of hopefully selling over a hundred t-shirt’s by his first year and was already on the way. “It was like walking on air every time I got an order, I know the feeling of finding a tee that represents you and makes you feel like you can take on the world and it brought me so much joy to be involved in giving this feeling to others” Connor states his personal favourite design being one called ”Lucky” which shows a “Maneki-neko” but with a twist, the reverse of the cat mirrored showing the idea of ying and yang and how a luck can be carried everywhere, sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down. With a popularity towards Connor’s Tarot work he felt it was time to try his most ambitious goal yet. He ran a Kickstarter campaign in which he would try and produce a large batch of t-shirts based on his reimaging of
“The World” tarot card. “It was alot of work,I mean ALOT of work, I didn’t even think it was possible so I set a short campaign time and wanted to see if there was a responce more than anything.” Of course though with Connor’s new take on classic tarot design the t-shirt was funded within only two weeks of it’s launch and well established Connor past any of the goals he had set. ”I really would put it down to being true to yourself and hard work, I juggle two jobs ontop of nurturing this business, it mean’s late hours but the one thing that always remains is the thrill of carving out a path in the world based on something I love and that is completely my own”. From this Connor has continued to grow his business having created a website for himself and taking some time to hone his craft he has found joy most recently challenging his design creation. “I wanted to start making design’s that brought the skill’s I had learned in studying hyper-realism and that simple impactful style of lino work” the conclusion of this being his most recent run of t-shirt’s “Strength” (pictured left) a tarot card which shows the conclusion of events and a quiet inner strength it’s beautiful design also symbolically shows where Connor has been and where he plans to move too. “It’s nearly coming up to the business’s first year and I can’t even begin to thank everyone enough who has supported me personally with this journey and everyone who has bought either a print or a t-shirt or both, I wouldn’t have achieved so much joy and growth without you, so thankyou. There’s big plans for the future so stay tuned and stay positive.” With Connor’s favourite time of the year, Halloween, right around the corner and with his current work designing promotions for Omagh’s first Pride were sure he has plenty instore to delight our eye’s and grace our backs. WWW.CONNORMILLSDESIGNS.CO.UK INSTAGRAM.COM/CONNORMILLSDESIGNS
