Olle Eksell

I've been enjoying going through my reference book collection and recently rediscovered a lovely book about Olle Eksell, a Swedish graphic designer and poster artist who made a big impression on Swedish advertising history during the 1950s. His most famous creation was his "Cacao"eyes, designed for Mazetti's cocoa packaging and now an iconic design classic. I bought this book when I was living in Japan and I love his quirky style and use of colour blocking and line work.

His use of perspective is playful.

Iconic buildings of Sweden come to life with detailed ornamentation mixed with simple blocks of colour.

A pared down colour palette of pink, blue and yellow allow the images to come to life.

 I have been inspired by Olle's style in some of my design work, such as this collection of fabrics called A Walk In The Park that I designed for Makower UK a while ago.

Maze and Vale

Melbourne-based Leslie Keating describes herself as a graphic designer with an intense love of fabric. For years she made soft toys and quilts using other people's fabrics but in November 2011, she decided to follow her love of hand printing and launched Maze and Vale, a line of screen printed fabrics. The designs are beautifully simple in soft, muted colours and are made using hand mixed inks on natural cotton and linen.

You can find more of her beautiful items here.

Yellow Heart Art

I recently came across this lovely shop on Etsy that sells fun prints for your home. The shop is run by Leonora Jennifer and was set up in an effort to "stop suffering from the white wall blues". She is a graphic designer, photographer and fine artist and creates beautifully simple graphic pieces that would look lovely on any wall. I particularly love the yellow and grey colour palette of these pieces.

You can see more of her work here.

Simple Domesticity

I was drawn to these gorgeously simple yet effective retro prints by Patrick Edgeley, a graphic designer turned print maker based in Brighton. He loves to bring type and vibrant colours into his work and each piece is hand printed. I love the retro feel yet the bold and vibrant colours give it a modern feel. Patrick sells his work through his website, but you can also buy it as framed artwork at Heals.

I'm also loving this simple Butcher print from Flavor Paper. They produce unique vintage, contemporary, and custom handscreened wallcoverings in bold colourings and funky images. On closer look, this one has a rather dark side to it, but I love the bold colour and graphic images.