MONDAY MAKER – HANNAH STEVENS

Today we are meeting Hannah Stevens. Hannah creates quirky, illustrative, personalised tote bags and greetings cards from her little home studio in Nottingham. Her illustrations are so cute and fun especially her new and very popular beard range, you got to love a beard!

How would you describe your style?

Weird, geeky, quirky and fun

Where do you work and does your location influence your work?

I currently work out of our tiny spare bedroom, there’s not much space and I’m always making a huge mess… I’ve filled the walls above my desk with photos, old cards and pictures for inspiration and to make the space a bit more cheerful!

How did you get started as an artist/designer?

I studied Decorative Arts at NTU and after leaving decided that I wanted to run my own business designing and making quirky products. At uni I specialised in screen printing and carried on with this for a year or so after leaving uni but I have since changed the way I work and my style has evolved quite a bit too.

Can you give us an idea of some of your creative processes?

I tend to come up with ideas at random and scribble them down in my little sketchbook, these ideas then sit around for a while and then I pick and choose the best ones to illustrate digitally using my drawing tablet. These designs are then edited to become either tote bags, prints, greetings cards or even jewellery

What is inspiring you or your work right now?

At the moment I am loving spacee travel and the idea of jumping into a spaceship and travelling the universe!

The best pieces of makers advice you have been given or can give to others?

Create an online presence, everyone is online at the moment, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. It’s so important for people to be able to find you online as there are just so many different makers around the world and you need to stand out!

Also have a website that’s nice and clear and easy to navigate, I’ve come across fab designers and makers who’s websites are so dated and hard to get around that I just get put off. You need to make it easy for buyers and potential stockists to find you and to see what you’re about.

You can view Hannah Stevens over on the website here and in our online shop.