Designer Tidbits: Ampersand Design Studio

Count down the days of the week with this fun new collection! Eight Days a Week by Ampersand Design Studio is a bold, graphic new collection that will have you feeling crafty! Morgan and Carrie of Ampersand Design Studio are here to share more about Eight Days a Week, so keep reading for a treat!



Q: Tell us a little about the 8 Days a Week collection.  What were you inspired by?
A: We believe that every day of the year is cause for celebration so we built this collection around that idea! 8 Days a Week is a group of playful, hand-painted prints highlighting the names of months, days of the week and dates on the calendar! We even included a blank calendar grid and tons of fun icons so any important date can be commemorated. Then, we threw in some stripes and dots for good measure and voila! We absolutely love typography and hand lettering (we even met in typography class in college), so it wasn't a surprise that lettering was a focus of this group. For the color palette, we knew we wanted to mix it up a little and work in a more limited palette than our last line, Cream & Sugar (which was super colorful). We were both loving bold black and white with a few colorful accents so we just ran with that.


Q: What is your design process when beginning a new collection?
A: We begin by giving ourselves some time to just play, do some research and get inspired. We build style boards and pin things that we're loving. Then, the two of us share our first round of ideas and we decide what we're both most drawn to. Often, it's some combination of our two points-of-view. At this point, a theme usually emerges and we begin to flesh it out and play with color and scale. For 8 Days a Week, we went a few different directions before coming up with the theme, but we were so happy with where we finally landed!


Q: What design trends are you currently exploring?
A: Right now, we are loving going crazy with mixing patterns — graphic with florals, ethnic patterns with stripes, etc. We think this could be a pretty fun one to explore with a fabric collection. We're also having fun with light-hearted and optimistic prints...things like inspirational quotes and hopeful graphics like hearts.


Q: What projects do you hope to see made with 8 Days a Week?
A: Anything and everything! Honestly, we're just so flattered when people choose our fabric for their projects! We love seeing the results. We love this group because we feel like it is so versatile. We can't wait to see how people get creative with the calendar grid and make their own keepsakes out of the different elements. We also love the idea of this group as nursery fabrics and kid's clothing, but feel it works well for home and grown-up pieces, too. How's that for indecisive?! We just love dreaming up all the different possibilities!

Q: How do you describe your style?
A: We would call our style a modern and clean, happy and colorful.


Q:What is the biggest sewing faux pas that has happened to you?
A: Well, not sure about a true faux pas, but we will just admit that, although we enjoy it, we are not the best seamstresses in the entire world, despite having it in our genes (both our moms and our grandmas are/were great sewers). We sewed most of the pieces for our first fabric collection catalog ourselves and on one bag, we actually sewed the straps on in a way that would make it almost impossible to carry. Oops! We have come a long way since then!

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