I cannot believe who is filling the blog with joy and happiness this week! Katie Abey is one of my all time favourite illustrators. My house is FULL of her work. I have her two of her awesome prints (this one and this one) framed on the wall in my study, her cards and postcards are on display throughout my house and I have her “I am simply magical” unicorn mug in my kitchen. To top it all of she is a massive Harry Potter fan too – woop! Now that I have got my fan girl happy dance out of the way, let me introduce Katie Abey…
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Who are you and what do you do?
I am the illustrator and founder of Katie Abey Design Ltd. We create motivational and positive products usually involving puns and/or strange (and sometimes slightly disturbing) hybrid animals. Alongside the products I am also a children’s book illustrator. I proper love my job! |
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How/where/why did Katie Abey begin?
| I started working self-employed straight after I finished uni. I had fun doing band t-shirts designs and the odd logo and dreamed of it becoming enough to be a career. And I still can’t get my head around the fact that it now has! Now my husband and me are both working full time on this llama and dinosaur filled madness. Even better, our little company is gradually growing and we are recruiting likeminded weirdos along the way! |
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What inspires your designs?
 SO much stuff. I like envisioning my head as a sort of blender and just absorb loads of random objects and see what comes out. The blender brain can sometimes be a bit scary though. |
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Who inspires you?
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So many lovely small business owners that I have come across inspire me. I’m part of a creative gang called ‘In Colourful Company’ who are all super amazing people. We meet up and explore different cities every few months and all wear bright colours. Its so much fun and its good to be around other oddballs and share ideas and stuff. |
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What tools do you use to create your designs?
| I have recently discovered the majestic delights of the Ipad pro and will not be looking back! (Reading back over everything I’ve written so far and I’ve just realised I use way too many exclamation marks)
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What is your favourite item to make?
 I enjoy drawing cats. The process of drawing a cat genuinely soothes my soul! Or any other animals for that matter. I just enjoy everything we do as it is so varied. |
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What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
| Your self care is important. Make time for whatever makes you happy and put time into yourself. |
Oh man… I love Katie’s wonderful illustrations. If you would like to see more of her epic work please follow the links below:
Website: http://katieabey.co.uk/
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KatieAbeyDesign?ref=condensed_trust_header_title_items
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katieabey/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katieabeydesign
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katieabey
