Featured designer: Jesse Breytenbach

Passionate, driven and truly inspired, Jesse Breytenbach is a beacon to all of us creatives when we need a creative jolt or a potent punch of artistic vooma. Here is a little bit more about her, her massive collection of work and her views on the world of art and design. In her words, when your stuck in a creative rut, "Just start":

Tell us about yourself. What inspires you, what drives you and what challenges you?

"Most simply, I just like making things. I get a thrill from coming up with an idea and figuring out how to turn it into a real object."

Which color(s)/trends(s) would you like to see regain popularity in the design world and why?

"I can't really answer this. I don't pay too much attention to trends, beyond a sort of eye-candy approach. I'm more concerned with figuring out what I like and why - if my taste coincides with a trend I count myself lucky!"

What are you most proud of professionally?

"My graphic novel "I Don't Like Chocolate". It took a long time to do and I'm still proud that I stuck it out and finished it."

What would be your dream project/ dream client?

"Something that involved botanical illustration."

Do you have any predictions about the color(s)/trend(s) that will be dominant in 2012? What do you base these predictions on, or are they simply creative intuition?

"I'm afraid I don't! Personally I'm trying to produce fabric prints that are more intricate, simply to see how far I can push the linocut medium."

Where do you go to find inspiration/what do you do to get inspired? Where do you turn for creative inspiration – nature, travel, books, the web etc?

"I'm always online, so I'm sure that inspires me quite fundamentally. When I'm stuck for ideas, I turn to drawing plants - the shapes and textures are beyond anything I could make up."

Why color/ design? What is it about color/design that inspires, facinates or intrigues you? What is your favorite color(s) and why? What is it about that color that draws you to it?

"I studied printmaking, and specialised in black and white prints, and after university my comic work was also black and white (mainly because we photocopied comics, for cost reasons). So I didn't start exploring colour until I started knitting toys and printing on fabric. Working with 'ready-made' colours - inks, fabric, yarn - allowed me to experiment with colour combinations more easily than starting with a blank canvas and any possible colour; I just became fascinated with the way colours affect each other and how different colours can change the mood of a design."

What is your design mantra/motto?

"Just start."

Which designer do you admire the most, why and what does that person mean to you in terms of design?

"There's no one particular designer, but I do turn to the Arts & Crafts movement, and work of that era, for inspiration. There's a combination of awkwardness and elegance in some of that design and illustration that's almost shocking sometimes."

What do you feel about the current state of the design/creative industry. If there is one thing you could change what would it be? What is the one thing you admire about the creative industry?

"I think I'm very much on the fringes of the industry, with one foot in illustration most of the time, so I don't think I have an accurate sense of it as a whole."

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