Isobelle Farrar: the young illustrator standing with the old

Congratulations go out to Isobelle Farrar, the newly graduated artist who won the Association of Illustrators' Spotlight Award at New Designers 2024, held at the Business Design Centre in London this July. In due course, the AOI also named Isobelle one of its 10 UK Illustration Grads to Watch in 2024.

These accolades are merited by Isobelle's growing portfolio of projects driven by strong concepts, executed using a varied range of media and materials, and which softly suggest a different way of looking at things.

One that really catches the eye is HAG, which began as a young person's perspective on feminism but evolved into a project aiming to give older women a stronger voice in society. "It got me thinking about textiles and how they are associated with women and older women but aren't as celebrated as finer forms of art," says Isobelle.

Isobelle often explores fantasy and folklore in her work, and her research led her to the Celtic character Cailleach – the crone goddess. "She's an outspoken yet nurturing old crone goddess who guides the heroes on the right path or punishes them if they stray," Isobelle explains. I made her the main figure in this project and had her retelling these tales to modern audiences."

The aesthetic, meanwhile, was inspired by feminist artists of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Judy Chicago and Miriam Shapiro. However, there is a modern element to the look through Isobelle's digital drawing techniques. The imagery was printed onto fabric, then stitched and quilted to tie back to traditional storytelling.

"The banners feature Cailleach front and centre, taking back the word 'hag' and encouraging audiences to listen to older women and not see them as meek or bossy but simply as people with wisdom to share and people to learn from," says Isobelle.

Another strong project in Isobelle's portfolio is 'This wonderful disaster', which comes from a line in the poem The Kitchen Table by Lureen Kithen. It's the perfect starting point for a tableware collection Isobelle is creating, which imagines the kitchen table as the meeting place of love and chaos – where we not just eat but work, talk, laugh, cry, and celebrate.

"The collection draws on that nostalgia with designs in colours reminiscent of vintage homeware but with a modern vibrancy and objects representing those different occasions littered in the design in organised chaos," says Isobelle. "I would love to collaborate with a company and create a collection, whether homeware or textiles, although plenty of friends and family have been after a tea towel or two!"

Alongside working at a children's publisher to learn more about the children's books market, Isobelle would love to progress further in surface design and try her hand at murals. Already, she has been experimenting by designing patterns that might be applied in future tableware projects or on garments.

"So far, my designs take inspiration from nature and natural forms as I find them calming, and you can be quite abstract with the shapes. Nothing in nature is 100% perfect, so I find the practice of making these patterns quite therapeutic, and they allow me to just have fun and create," she says.