Pencil, paper, fabric. The evolution of our brand.
What separates Moobles & Toobles from other Irish baby clothing brands? Our designs & design process.
Brands use the phrase 'design led' a lot but I put it into practice. I consider myself a designer/maker/craftsperson. I've been behind every design aspect of my brand from clothing, prints & styling, down to my logo. I've never outsourced design work. I've always been quite focused on the brand image but also let it develop organically with each collection. Each of my print designs start out as a pencil sketch on paper. I then digitalise and create my prints. I create my screen print layouts, and I then hand print my samples. I mix colours and test them on fabrics, I create as I sample. I choose my colour palettes carefully, considering our aesthetic as a brand, practicality for our customer and also garment care and washing. We want our clothes to look brand new for as long as possible.
A Facebook memory popped up on my feed recently from 2010 saying 'I've started drawing again'. It had been ten years since I graduated from NCAD. As soon as I graduated I went on a girlie holiday, moved out with my friend and got a job in visual merchandising and display. The last thing I wanted to do was draw, for a while anyway. I was listening to ‘Lungs’ by Florence & The Machine and looking at all the bare branches of trees in winter while travelling the country with work and it got me wanting to draw again. Very random. So I started drawing organic shapes and skulls, Tudor style jesters and stylised anatomy. I then set up a profile on Society 6 and began to sell some of my prints on t-shirts. When my little girl arrived, my focus shifted to all things baby, so I decided to get printing myself. Babygrows and blankets were perfect for screen printing so I went with that and created characters and illustrations based on vintage imagery I always loved. We've moved on from that and introduced allover prints but I may revisit my original theme in the future. Below are some old shots.
Nadia
