Emma Jeffryes designs vibrant fabrics that sell like hot cakes. Joanna Watt  meets a young talent with a cool head.

It is one thing for an artist to admit that “conceptual art frightens me”, quite another to confess that “my work doesn’t have any meaning”. For her honesty alone, Emma Jeffryes is an unusual artist. She is young (in her mid twenties), which might explain her frankness; the confidence of youth, after all, can breed great courage, particularly when coupled with the desire to fly in the face of convention. But Jeffryes’ brave words speak of more than a young artist wanting to be different for the sake of it. Here is an artist and textile designer who has a rare, single-minded vision and a talent to match. 

It partly explains why success as a designer of printed textiles has come quickly to Jeffryes. She graduated from the Royal College of Art only two years ago, yet she already has several textile designs and a major collection behind her. She started working for the international design agency, Artisan, when only a student, and is still regularly commissioned by it. She was also discovered by the leading fabric firm, Monkwell, when at the RCA, and with two other students was invited to submit designs for a collection. Jeffryes’ fabric sold the best. As a result, Monkwell has commissioned from her a whole collection, Postcards, which is to be launched in March at Chelsea Design Week, in London.

It is not just the natural desire that her designs should be individual that distinguishes Jeffryes from her peers and explains her success (she realised early on that since fashions in art and design come and go, the most important thing was to remain “true” to your own ideas). It is the recognition that they must also sell- that they must be, horror of horrors, commercial. “Some people left college thinking they could do their own thing,” says Jeffryes. “But that’s not practical. What you want to do and what you can do are two different things.” Where others would wilt at the very thought, she thrives on “the challenge of trying to be commercial as well as ‘true’”.

Jeffryes’ fabrics, in both subject matter and style, are hugely influenced by her paintings - sweeping images of the sea and coastline around Britain. The sea is her greatest source of inspiration, and she has become particularly drawn to St. Ives, in Cornwall. “The colours are so pure by the sea. It is a complete challenge to try and do them justice.” Although Jeffryes does not describe herself as a “fine artist”, her paintings - distinctive for the essence they capture of the British coast - would put the work of many artists to shame. They are colourful and fluid pictures of beaches, the coast and fishing boats. The tradition of the St. Ives school of artists is obviously a strong pull.

She paints “on site”, down in the harbour among the fishing boats, and on the beach and clifftops. She paints on her knees, the paper spread out before her on the ground (very uncomfortable, she admits, but using an easel has never appealed). “You look at things differently [from the ground upwards]. It means you’re not working too literally, and it helps you with the composition.” Her paintings are far more spontaneous as a result. “I never go back to a painting. I do them in one go, otherwise they would lose their spontaneity.”

That quality is carried into her textiles, which have a painterly feel to them, and are made up of what she calls “summery colours”. Her latest collection, Postcards, developed with Monkwell, is her most ambitious yet. There are four fabrics in all: St.Ives, Kew Gardens, Brighton and Postcards, which brings elements of the first three together. She started by painting each location on site, just as she paints at St. Ives. “From that we came up with the summer holiday theme. Monkwell was then very good at letting me develop my own style.” Jeffryes admits to being influenced by 1950s fabrics for this collection. “I like them for their colours and because they are nicely drawn - and because there is a quirkiness to them.”

Despite her single-mindedness, success seems to have come as a surprise to Jeffryes (“I would never have imagined it,” she says incredulously, eyes open wide). She cannot believe what she sees as her “luck”. But companies, such as Artisan and Monkwell, see something else - a young designer who has a knack for designing colourful, original fabrics that prove extremely popular - not that any of this has gone to her head. Behind her talent lies a realistic approach to work. “I don’t see myself as a fine artist; I think of myself as having a skill that applies to different things.” It is an understatement that speaks volumes.

Joanna Watt - 1997