UK based design studio Rafale proudly welcomes 3 new designers to their close-knit group. Melissa Crowley, Stephanie Ackerman and Ceci Bowman begin this month and bring their diverse styles, experience and talents to an already well-known company. Rafale has been successfully licensing in the US for 20 years. The new designers are based in the US and are well suited to the studio’s character and design portfolio.
Melissa Crowley
Melissa is an Australian graphic designer and illustrator now living in San Francisco. She creates highly stylized compositions characterised by rich illustrative detail, ornate lettering and dreamy, almost surreal, colour. She is inspired by art nouveau, nature, geometry, vintage textile design and architectural ornament. Her work has been featured in over one dozen design books and may be found in stationery, other paper products, wall coverings, pillows, tote bags, surface graphics and wall art.
Stephanie Ackerman
Stephanie is a very hands on designer/maker with plenty of experience in the Craft sector. Whether it’s designed with a paintbrush, art marker, watercolor pencil, or made with a sewing machine and a needle and thread, somewhere there will be scissors, paper and some sort of textile. Felt is good! Her work features on scrapbook designs, rubberstamps and steel ruled dies. Stephanie’s hand painted whimsy doodle style is very popular on high end handmade and hand finished products.
Ceci Bowman
Ceci combines wit and whimsy in her fine art illustrations for children’s books, fabrics, ceramics and paper products. Her fanciful artwork is seen on wrapping paper and greeting cards. Her designs combine her lifelong love of hand-drawn and paper-cut images with computer-generated designs and patterns. Ceci says, “I love using the computer to expand my drawings and paper cuts into colourful illustrations and repeats that can be applied to a wide range of products.”
