This week's Inspiration Profile is Katie Treggiden, a writer obsessed (her words!) about design. She writes for several publications, including her award winning blog,
Confessions of a Design Geek. I particularly enjoy her
Interviews with all the cool designers (she even has one with the much admired
Ilse Crawford). Enjoy this profile and happy Friday.
Name: Katie TreggidenWhat do you do: I edit a blog called confessions of a design geek, which I have been doing since April 2010 and I also work as a freelance design writer, which I’ve been doing for almost a year. Where do you live: I live in a little village in Surrey, I spent a lot of time in London and my heart is in Cornwall where I grew up. (All in England!)
What are you working on: Lots of things! I write for LivingEtc, WRAP Magazine, London Design Guide, Design Milk, We Heart and Heart Home Magazine – and I’m also working on a few new projects for my blog, so watch this space!
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| Cornwall |
Who/what inspires me: I can be inspired by absolutely anything as long as I am in the right frame of mind. To get in that frame of mind I need sleep, food, exercise, time and the great outdoors! I work best: I’m not sure it’s a time of day thing for me – I think it’s about getting into the “flow” which has to do with the above and working on something that is both inspiring and challenging.
What I do when I’m stuck for inspiration: Change something – whether that’s getting up and going for a walk, working on a different project, or just sitting somewhere else in my studio or changing the radio station.
The best advice I have been given is: If you’re half excited and half terrified, it’s going to be one of the best things you ever do. My step-dad told me this as I set off travelling around the world on my own aged 19. I don’t think I’m as brave as I was then, but this advice has definitely stood me in good stead in all sorts of situations.
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| No. 2 chalked on a egg in Thailand. |
Books that I get inspiration from: Any and all of them. I have just got back from a week’s holiday during which I devoured seven books, from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, to a travelogue I picked up from the hotel’s book swap called ‘Lois on the Loose’. I learnt something from all of them.
Magazines that inspire me: Elle Decoration, LivingEtc, WRAP Magazine, Coast, The Simple Things…
Blogs that I enjoy: It’s a terrible thing to admit, but I don’t actually read that many blogs! I don’t think you have time to read blogs when you write one – if I’m on my computer, I’m usually writing rather than reading. I think in some ways that’s a good thing, because it stops me making comparisons. I do a run a networking group for design bloggers though and we have some fantastic bloggers as members – check out it out here. My favourite room at home is: My studio at the bottom of the garden. It’s a little world away from it all that’s just mine.
My office is: …a bit of a mess at the moment! The London Design Festival sort of exploded in it and then I went on holiday and left it all! There’s also a bureau I’m halfway through renovating in the middle of it on newspaper, surrounded by paint tins and paint brushes. A tidy up is required to turn it back into the calm inspiring space it is supposed to be!
What am I looking forward to: Seeing my Dad tomorrow. My parents live in Cornwall which is such a long way away! We’ve got a fab weekend planned and I can’t wait!
All photographs, unless specified, are by Katie Treggiden.
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