Glasgow based Liverpudlian and graphic designer Geraldine Traynor tells us about her work…

I’m from Liverpool, originally, and I came to Glasgow in 2007 (via Barcelona) with a view to getting back into education and to pursue a more creative career. In 2011 I left Cardonald College, (at 29) with my HND and an Advanced Diploma in Visual Communication, then went straight into full-time work as a Graphic Designer.

In my spare time, I rent a space in MANY studios in Merchant City. I try to get in there a few times a week to get some ‘illustrations’ done. At present, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of what I do and where I want my work to go. I get distracted at home really easily so having a studio space has really helped me. Recently, I’ve found that I’m able to experiment more freely and I’m finishing work much faster. By nature I’m averse to any kind of routine so my process (and thought pattern) can be, sometimes, chaotic. Having somewhere to go, to sit with a specific purpose, has helped me to improve my discipline drastically.

I guess what I do could be described as a combination of Graphic Design and Textile Design, though I wouldn’t say it’s that complicated. I’ve no clue what to call what I do, I just do what I enjoy and that’s simply stitching into cardboard. I take something cold, and two-dimensional, and add texture. I find I’m drawn to making straight, hard-edged things look and feel more organic. I like giving my subjects a tactile quality. This then makes them more accessible to me. If I see an object, a phrase, or a word (or even someone else’s work) that I like I have to bring it out of the page so I can touch it. It’s almost like Braille. That probably seems odd but I just feel that if you can interact with something by touch, it makes it more real.

Before my HND, I did an Access to Design course. I loved it. Part of the course was a Design Process for Fashion and Textiles. During this time I learnt different methods of drawing that I’d never considered before, like continuous line or using my other hand. This really loosened me up and opened my eyes to different ways of looking at form and line. This is the base for all of my projects. If my subject can’t be simplified into lined shapes, I won’t stitch it. Filling in blocks of colour with thread is more like embroidery and that’s not what I’m trying to do, I feel that would overcomplicate my work. I’ve never been interested in the end result of garment construction either, only the mechanics of the process.

As well as giving something texture, I like to simplify it with colour. As a rule, I generally don’t tend to use more than two colours for most of my work. I like to keep things looking clean, lots of white space, because I don’t like anything distracting from the stitches. I’ve been experimenting with very contrasting colours, layering card and cutting out sections with a scalpel. It seems to give my work an added dimension. This also helps to cleanly fill in blocks of colour instead of having just stitched outlines. I recently acquired a mountain of old card and paper samples from work, so I’ve been able to try some new things like incorporating slightly different textures of card. I like to scan my work at very high resolutions and zoom in on details, showing the differences in the card as well as the different stitches.

I do everything by hand because using a machine disconnects me from my work. If all of the stitches were uniform, it wouldn’t look or feel like I had worked on it. Those imperfections are important because I feel that they make my work unique and individual to me. I’ll always have the compulsion to do this it’s something that comes very natural to me, even if everything goes in a bag and no one ever sees it, it’s something that keeps me happy.

See Geraldine’s showcased work on Central Station here.

More: Website | Facebook | Behance

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