Paul Williams (He/Him)
I am a textile designer combining traditional and experimental knitting techniques to create bold, fun and tactile knitted textiles for both fashion and interiors. My work is influenced by unconventional sources of inspiration which I use to develop an overarching theme to guide my creative process, with my latest project focusing on a sense of play and childhood nostalgia.
A lover of both monochromatic and multicoloured palettes, I enjoy researching colour through photography and digital manipulation before bringing them to life through collage and yarn wrapping to define the colours I’ll be working with.
I enjoy exploring and adapting different approaches to the development of my designs, through both traditional, digital and 3d drawing which is then translated into knitted structures to produce unique constructed textiles that challenge the traditional notions of knitted fabrics.
Play
I was inspired by the Memphis art movement’s bold use of colour and geometric shapes, and I wanted to capture the sense of fun synonymous with this style, so I developed an overarching theme focused on ‘play’ to influence the direction of this fashion focused project.
Using circular toys, household items and found objects I used these as the subject of my drawing investigation before creating 3d structures and surfaces that carried through to my technical exploration. This developed into constructed textiles combining knit, felt and wadding to create a more prominent 3d appearance.
Play project development
Unconventional beauty
I wanted to combine my passion for knit and love of print into one project and explored the application of screen and digital printing onto knitted textiles in this interior focused project. Inspired by urban decay, graffiti and fly posters from around Glasgow city centre I developed print designs by digitally manipulating primary research photography to create layered prints for interior soft furnishing products.
