Journal
Not far from the Guild Anderson design studio and workshop in Tisbury lies the Chalke Valley. Surrounded by beautiful rolling countryside, an area of outstanding natural beauty. It may come as no surprise that this area is home to some really interesting creative businesses and provides inspiration on a daily basis for one such textile designer and illustrator; Fanny Shorter.
ILLUSTRATOR
Having studied illustration at Brighton University; Fanny Shorter left the East Sussex coast for London where she pursued a freelance career in illustration.
She designed a series of six scenes based on the history of tea which she then took to Twinings in the hope that they would be inspired by what they saw.
They bought the license to all of the designs to be made in to tea towels and tea pots, and this kick-started the career she had trained for; with numerous commissions to follow from greetings cards and wrapping paper to watch faces for Mr Jones Watches.
INSPIRATION
During her time as a freelance illustrator her mother became very ill, prompting Fanny to take some time away from her illustrations and focus on her family, becoming her mother’s carer until she passed away.
Fanny’s route in to furnishing and wallpaper design is testament to the many hours that Fanny spent with her mother as her love of pattern, interiors, history, art, textiles and sewing are very much thanks to her. Spending time in the family home where her mother’s love for elaborate textiles adorned the walls and hung at the windows; it is no wonder that Fanny felt inspired.
With the money that her mother left her she bought some screen printing equipment and turned her love of illustration in to three dimensional objects; printing fabrics, making cushions and wash bags.
She began to realise how difficult it was to wholesale her small collection successfully and had always loved the idea of printing fabric lengths of her own designs. Nine years ago she took the plunge and invested in her first design to be hand screen printed commercially in the UK on metres of fabric.
Fanny worked as an illustrator in London for 10 years before she began her eponymous line of screen-printed fabrics and wallpapers printing her first fabric available by the metre in 2015.
SENSE OF COLOUR
The focus of illustration is to understand and interpret a piece of text with an image; something that is clearly evident in Fanny’s work. Her designs all carry a strong narrative, each print is a reflection of a story she is wanting to tell; she describes it as her “way of expressing herself”.
The designs are thought provoking, interesting, figurative and exciting in equal measure; combined with a beautiful sense of colour. Mythical creatures, sculpture, art, stories and fables, as well as the county in which she now calls home; each element evident in the colours chosen or the imaginative characteristic of each design.
In a Guild Anderson Colour Consultancy meeting clients often arrive with a clear vision of how they want their kitchen to look. They may have instructed an interior designer to assist with making that vision a reality. Others arrive with a blank canvas. Often focusing the colour scheme around a piece of fabric can kick-start the colour process for the bespoke cabinetry.
Fanny Shorter fabrics and wallpapers are an obvious choice for these spaces; her distinctive, detailed work is largely inspired by her very English upbringing. Narratives in nature form the basis for each of her designs; what could be more perfect draped at a country kitchen window?
TIMELESS DESIGN
Fanny’s first collection was inspired by her trips to Greece. On her first trip to Corfu she read Gerald Durrell’s books and based her designs on the images that were created in her head when she read “My Family & Other Animals”. She based 5 designs on this story; she recounts that “Margo” and “Fig” are being used repeatedly in kitchen design projects. As her business has evolved, in April 2024 she took one of her key designs; “Mill Oak” on to wallpaper, now available in 10 metre rolls.
She is rightly proud that her designs are hand screen printed in the UK; a method that gives both her fabrics and wallpapers a soft handwriting, an understated quality difficult to reproduce by machine. Coupled with the fact that this way of printing is the very thing that kick-started her eponymous fabric and wallpaper business.
She is now distributed throughout USA, with 90% of her business coming through trade via interior designers such as Guy Goodfellow and Lucy Cunningham. Edward Bulmer Natural Paint has showcased her designs at a recent Pop-Up she held at his Ebury Street showroom in London, stating that “Fanny Shorter’s designs are timeless and work perfectly against pigment rich colours by Edward Bulmer Natural Paint”.
Narratives in nature and a strong passion for pattern, printing and the history of the decorative arts form the greatest influence over her vibrant, whimsical aesthetic that draws as much from a Fauvist-flavoured palette as it does from the V&A vaults.
FUTURE
18 months ago she re-located with her husband and young family from London to Wiltshire; closer to her family in Winchester and her husband’s family in Wilton, near Salisbury. Her studio is an Aladdin’s cave of colour and design; brimming with illustrations and inspiration.
Fanny confesses that “It is the absolute cherry on the cake in my job to see my fabrics and wallpapers used in other designer’s interiors”.
Her dream is to produce 2 designs a year in 4 or 5 colour ways, and with the juggle of family life, her new collection is a work in progress; she hopes to launch both fabrics and wallpapers together. Rest assured it will be full of exciting visual imagery that is sure to delight.
