We're sitting down with artist, illustrator, and Joanie Print Designer Jess Williams to learn more about her work and the best bits about her job as a Freelance Print Designer!

Meet Jess, Joanie Print Designer

Hi Jess! Tell us a bit about what you do - what does a typical working day look like for you?

Hi! I design prints and spend my days drawing and painting - my dream! A day working for Joanie starts with checking in with the Design Team: we discuss ideas and come up with a print list. Then, I get to work drawing our weird and wonderful Joanie motifs - having fun with paint and ink or using Procreate on my iPad. I scan my drawings and make them into patterns in Photoshop. The Design Team sends over their feedback, and together we work to make the prints absolutely perfect for the range. I love giving our prints a real 'Joanie' feel - everything is completely unique and designed especially for our Joanie Gals!

What’s the best bit about your job?

I love the creative energy at Joanie! We are really dedicated to creating the most innovative and exciting prints - we love telling a story with our prints, so my briefs are always really unique and fun. I love meeting our customers out and about - I often have great conversations about the clothes and my design process!

How would you define your artistic style? Who are some of your main influences?

I have a real love of vintage textiles, especially designs from the 1960s and '70s. Celia Birtwell is a huge inspiration for me - her prints are so distinctive, bold and joyful. Her life and career has been so interesting, and she's still making a huge impact within fashion/textile design in her 80s!

At our Horrockses Fashions X Joanie launch event last year I got to meet one of the team who designed the original prints for Horrockses in the 1950s. She had a portfolio of her original paintings with her, which was a real dream to see. The artistry that went into the paintings for the prints is incredible. Everything was done by hand and took days!

My style is playful and feminine but also calls for a great amount of flexibility. I'm as happy painting dinosaurs for our abstract dino PJs as I am drawing bold 1970s florals.

How did you get into illustration and print design – what’s your career been like so far?

I studied Textile Design at University in Manchester. My career has been really exciting and varied so far: textile design is so wide-ranging, and through the years, I've created artwork for stationery, greetings cards, homewares, and fashion. I've got a huge archive of products stored in my loft, and my children love looking through the boxes to see all the things my paintings and drawings have appeared on!

What are your favourite types of projects to work on/prints to design?

I've been so excited to work on our recent collaboration ranges: the NHM collections and Dawn O'Porter collabs have been real career highs. I don't have a particular favourite style to design into - it's the variation that I love. I never know what wild and brilliant design ideas the Joanie Team will have me working on next!