I went to meet Clare Youngs with my photographer Antonia Attwood to interview and photograph her in her Thanet home. Clare writes craft books for the publishers Cico, and whatever the subject, they are always of the highest standard, beautifully styled and informative. I was curious how Clare had got into the business of being a craft author. She works from a studio at the bottom of her garden.
J.B. Tell me about your design background.
C.Y. I did an art foundation course in London and then I went to Canterbury to do a degree in graphics and packaging design. It was a great course very creative we covered lots of skills as well as graphic design, including styling and art direction.
After art school I worked mainly for small design groups designing packaging.
J.B. How did you get into writing books?
C.Y. My husband, Ian bought me a book on vintage style and I was flicking through it when I had a light bulb moment. I have always made things including curtains cushions and blinds. I had an idea for a book on making things for the house out of paper. I went to Hamlyn and my first book was published by them. Then Cindy Richards the M.D. of Cico books got hold of me and asked if I would like to write a book for them. The first book I did was on making bags out of recycled materials.
J.B. Do the ideas for your books originate from you or from the publisher?
C.Y. It is half and half, sometimes I come up with proposals and sometimes they do.
J.B. How long does it take to produce a book.
C.Y From start to finish probably 4-5 months, but that is working full time on it. From the concept to publication is usually a year.
J.B. Who does the photography and styling?
C.Y. I do the styling and Jo Henderson does the photography and my husband Ian does the illustrations.
J.B. What are your favorite and your least favorite parts of creating a book.
C.Y. I love making things, so the designing and making is what I enjoy doing best.
When I started, I found writing step -by -step instructions challenging. The secret is to write them as you go along.
J.B. What and who inspires you?
C.Y. Vintage Children’s books,particularly those published in the 60’s and 70’s. I like the work of Brian Wildsmith, and Eric Carle, Alice and Martin Provensen an American couple who illustrated more than 40 children’s books together. Mostly between the late 1940’s and the 1960’s.
J.B. Are there any modern illustrators you like?
C.Y. I enjoy the work of Joohee Yoon
J.B. What other things or people inspire you?
C.Y. I like old bannisters. I love humour in design. I like the textile designer Marimeko. Scandanavian design and Japanese crafts both interest me. I like the work of the following painters and designers. Howard Hodgkin, Ben Nicholson, Robert Tavener, Edward Bawden, Eric Ravillious and Charlie Harper.
J.B. Are you a collector ?
C.Y. Yes I am a collector I have 23,000 czechoslovakian matchbox lables that I bought on line. I will probably sell some as many are duplicates.
J.B. What are the benefits and drawbacks of working from home?
C.Y. It is great to have a purpose built space that is just at the bottom of my garden. So I don’t waste time travelling. My husband who is also a designer works in the house so we often meet up for lunch. However the down side of working from home is it is sometimes isolating as you don’t have feed back from other designers. As a result of this, last year I took an on line course called ‘Make Art that Sells’ . I wanted to study illustration as my craft projects have become more illustrative, for example I produce designs to embroider or collage. The boot camps that the web site runs are excellent and give you prompts rather than teaching as such. They have a face book group so that you can get feed back from like minded designers.
J.B. Apart from the boot camp do you use other social media?
C.Y. I do instagram and find that is a very useful way of making contacts in the design world. Last year I participated in the 100 day project.
J.B Do you teach workshops ?
C.Y. When we first moved out of London, our kids were young and we thought it would be nice to move to the Kent coast. At this time I ran a few family craft workshops at the Turner Gallery.
J.B. If you hadn’t been a graphic designer what would you have studied or done as a career?
C.Y. I think I would have done a craft, been a print maker or a potter.
J.B. What are you doing next?
C.Y My latest book by Cico came out in October it is called The Mindful Maker
J.B. Clare thank you very much for letting us have a glimpse into your working life.
creativecolour.org 