During the recent London Design Festival I luckily managed to pop into Anthropologie, Regents Street, to see talented Parisian artist Florence Balducci work in the store’s window.
It was a really short encounter but, for me, it was so enriching and inspirational.
Florence, hugely talented, spent 20 years in art direction at advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi in Paris, before she turned illustrator and ‘professional visionary’ (according to Anthropologie). Florence mixes different techniques and medium for illustration, ceramic and textile.
Meet Florence.
Passers by were treated to some wonderful black and white illustrations. Here Florence used some wasara biodegradable paper tableware from japan.
There is a real sense of vintage and mystical imagery here. It reminds me of the world of Tim Burton and a touch of Aubrey Beardsley. How beautiful are these?
Lovely touch of using black and white MT tape on the table lamp.
Window drawing.
Ceramics and more of the wasara biodegradable paper tableware from japan made the window installation feel homely.
These black and white botanical illustrations and folk-inspired animal drawings are screen-printed on to both sides of the cotton-and-silk cushions and are a collaboration between Anthropologie and Florence.
Some of Florence’s tools of the trade.
How inspirational is this? Some pages from Florence’s sketchbooks.
Florence is definitely a professional visionary and it was an honour to meet and spent a little time with her. I hope we will meet again very soon. Merci Florence! À bientôt…..
This post will stay live until Monday 3rd November.
