“My work is as eclectic and diverse as my interests and background!”
Award-winning textile designer Tania Grace Knuckey created her first scarf collection in 2015 as a one-off – mainly with friends and family in mind, and now she can’t stop! Fantastical creatures, exciting graphic colour mixes, and nature-inspired motifs are the focal elements of her playful creative world of silky scarves that are as much heirloom pieces of art as they are wearable accessories, with a contemporary and truly uplifting spirit.
She graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2009 with a Cum Laude BA in Design and from The Royal College of Art London in 2012 with an MA in mixed media textiles. Her artistic practice is playful with an unapologetic bold use of colour, and yet behind this aesthetic, more often than not, is a level of seriousness borne out of steady research. She seeks to surprise at times, to titillate perhaps, but always to unsettle the norm, questioning conventional notions of form and function.
Tania is winner of numerous prizes including the Marianne Straub Travelling Scholarship from the Royal college of Art in 2011, the ‘The Future of Beauty’ prize in 2012 awarded by International Flavours and Fragrances (IFF) as well as the first prize for Best Interior Fabrics awarded by Textprint. She was awarded an atelier space at the Maison des Arts du Grütli from 2016 to 2019 by the city of Geneva and in 2019 she was selected by the Istituto Svizzero for a seven month residency in Milan. She is a guest editor of Make Space Journal and a member of the association Exodes Urbains.
Our lifestyle editor, José Berrocoso, chats with Tania Grace Knuckey to find out about the scope of her exciting creative world in a new chapter for fashion & design.
CityPages Magazine: Working backwards a little, could you tell us a bit about you? How did you come to do what you do today? What routes has your career taken?
Tania Grace Knuckey: I am a multi cultural designer based in my hometown of Geneva, Switzerland. I was inspired by my brother’s love of art to pursue a creative career and study design at the Design Academy of Eindhoven. Once in design school I wanted to specialise in something more artistic and less technical so I went on to do a Masters in textile at the Royal College of Art in London.
CPM: Does drawing play an important role both in and outside of your working life?
TGK: All of my work begins with ink and paper. Drawing is primordial to my process! Not only do I love drawing but it helps me think and develop ideas further. If I am not drawing for work, then I am sketching for pleasure. I try to keep my work as hand made as possible before anything is digitalised. Nothing beats paint, pencil and charcoal marks for perfect imperfections!
CPM: What did your creative journey look like and how did you begin designing textiles?
TGK: Textiles felt like a good marriage between the world of design and that of art as it is versatile and swings into many fields ranging from fashion to interior, industrial and artistic whilst being both two dimensional and three dimensional. The diversity of techniques is varied and fascinating to me.
CPM: What does a day look like in your studio? Do you have a routine to follow or do you work in a more ad hoc way?
TGK: Lists! I am a very organised person and segment my days and weeks with several tasks oscillating between working for clients and developing my own line of scarves, carpets, blankets and developing new projects. I also take meditative breaks to refresh myself… it’s important not to get stuck in a rut!
CPM: Can you take us through your design development steps and which is your favourite and why?
TGK: I love every step of designing from concept to finalisation as all aspects allow me to work at varying speeds and in different manners. The diversity keeps me on my toes: the concept development is exciting, the fine-tuning is challenging, the production is scary and the finalisation is a relief! A roller coaster of emotions!
CPM: Where do you get new inspiration from?
TGK: Everywhere! Listening to people’s conversations, books, galleries even music. Both humour and things that irritate me inspire me as I feel the need to respond to them creatively.
CPM: How does your personality translate to your designs?
TGK: I am serious about being playful! My work is as eclectic and diverse as my interests and background!
CPM: Can you share your go to online resources for textile design trend research and inspirations?
TGK: I might be revealing my age here… I can share a book about colour I currently find very inspiring: The Secret Lives of colour, by Kassia St Clair.
CPM: What do you find most rewarding, as well as most challenging, about your work?
TGK: The freedom to work on topics I find fascinating, the liberty to express myself and the people I get to meet are a massively rewarding. I sometimes I feel that the work load and efforts put into the creative process is not respected as much as in other professions.
CPM: If you were to start your creative journey all over again, would you do something different and if so what would it be?
TGK: I think that if I knew how hard it would be I might not have started in the first place! I would therefore rather remain ignorant and trek on! Perhaps that the only thing I would change is to worry less about the outcome and more about the development of my work.
CPM: What skills do you think are necessary to have in order to become a textiledesigner that specialises in developing fabric prints for the fashion market?
TGK: Flexibility, openness and a a defined aesthetic as well as awareness about the environmental impact of textile.
CPM: What is your all-time favourite design from your own collection?
TGK: My first collection of scarves is special because of what it represents whilst my Asafo scarf collection is very dear to me because it is inspired by my Ghanian roots. I don’t produce anything that isn’t meaningful and a reflection of where I am at in my life… my newest pieces are my favourite pieces!
