Okay okay so it’s not properly an announcement because it has already technically been announced but I got to design an advent calendar with Qing Fibre (one of my fave yarn dyers!) and it is freshly available for preorder today!
They gave me the opportunity to design my knit-weirdo dream advent calendar inspired by the word ‘fireworks’ and I think maybe you would love it too!
I know it’s maybe not everyone’s fave to hear about promo type stuff, but obviously we will do our absolute best to keep this kind of stuff minimal! If you do, however, want to hear more about this dreamy colab, read on!
I’ve been making projects with Qing Fibre since I first ventured into indie yarn. Their riotous colourways, joyful weirdness, and lovely friendly vibes have always drawn me to them, and I think it’s those similarities in our creative directions that’s made us really good collaborators!
Over the past few years Layla has given me the absolute privilege of creative directing and shooting a couple of their new collections. I wanted to take the inspiration of the themes of the collections and try to treat them kinda like fashion editorial photos, I’m really particuarly in love with all the weird gloves ones haha.
I also did the graphic design for their ‘embrace’ advent last year! I really appreciated them asking me along for that. In lockdown I studied web design with SuperHi (highly recommend) and really loved it. At the time my pain was really bad and I had just quit making lingerie and was trying to pivot into a new, creative job that could be easier on my body. I haven’t ended up pursuing it much in the end but I really enjoy when I do get a chance like this to flex those digital design muscles!
So anyway yea when they contacted me about actually getting to design a whole advent this year I was like YES YESSSS PLEASE it’s such a dreamy project ahhhh! And then instantly I was like OMG NO I AM FILLED WITH TREPIDATION- because like, you’re designing a secret surprise present for people you don’t know! What if they hate it? What if they feel cheated out of their money???? But then I decided to try to be brave and confident, Qing trusted me and my vision and that gave me a lot of confidence!
They gave me the word ‘fireworks’ to take inspiration from, and of course I went straight to vintage packaging design bc I’m nothing if not predictable and endlessly inspired by 20th century and early print design. We started with a collaborative pinterest board and then I went straight to my notebook and then chart minder to build from that inspiration!
QF gave me a lot of freedom with this project- obviously I can’t be in control of EVERYTHING but I got to be involved with the design of the colourway, the little gifts, the graphic design, and of course my main contribution: the pattern! I am really proud of it, and can’t wait to see it all come together irl!
I thought you might find it interesting how the colab goes financially, as a lot of this is often shrouded in mystery, and I often struggle when doing work-based collaboration to figure out the money side of things. In this case, Qing paid me an up front fee for the graphic design work, and for each advent sold I will be paid my set price of what I would charge for the pattern, then on top of that- if they sell enough to meet their sales goal- I will be paid 10% of the full price. This seems like a super good deal to me and I retain the full rights to the pattern to sell on my own shop after an agreed upon period of time. I appreciate that they are putting in a big material investment and have much higher overheads and I feel it’s a fair deal, I’d love to hear from any of you about how your work-based colabs have gone in the past!
Anyway, I think that’s probably enough chat for now hehe! I’m off to go run the test knit for this secret pattern! A peek behind the curtain and insight into our work relationship that’s hopefully interesting to some of you!
Love
From
Lydia
(this is how I used to sign all my letters to my childhood best friend [co-writer of Circling Studios ] and I think I’ll always sign off like this now 🥰)
Oh no it’s sold out!! Will there be another drop? ðŸ˜