Snowden Flood works in her studio-shop at the OXO Tower on London’s Southbank. After completing a Masters in sculpture at New York’s Parsons School of Design, she worked at Brooklyn Museum and then for prestigious architecture and interiors firm Peter Marino Architects. Moving back to London, Snowden set up her own business to design and sell her own range of beautiful household products, and also to carefully source the very best gifts and souvenirs she can find by others. Snowden often champions new and emerging designers who share her values, creating products with a strong emphasis on quality and care.
Snowden will be part of the Design-Nation group stand at Decorex in September 2017 where she will launch her new range of furnishing fabrics, inspired by vintage patterns in the amazing collectionamassed by Print Archivists . She is also collaborating with furniture designers Arlo & Jacob to present these new fabrics onbeautifully upholstered chairs.
Design-Nation asked: Who has been your most influential teacher or mentor?
Snowden Flood: My mother. She has an amazing sense of style and of colour and pattern. She loves
to use different fabrics and wallpapers together in a room (even on the ceiling), combined with
perfectly picked out colours – it often looks a bit bizarre in the planning, but really works when it
comes together. Also she is the best read, most knowledgeable and most curious person I’ve ever
met, and through her I learned curiosity.
DN: What inspires you?
SF: I’m inspired by everything, but particularly art, shadows, nature, random juxtapositions of colour
and light, music, books, travel, stories and good conversations.
DN: If you weren’t a designer what would you be?
SF: I never liked the idea that you are supposed to be one thing and that from an early age people
ask you what your one profession will be because I always wanted to be lots of things at the same
time. So, I have to answer in multiple! Artist, psychologist, singer, gardener, cook, or writer.
DN: Do you work hard on your PR or do you work with others on marketing?
SF: I work on my own on marketing but I admit I constantly feel I should be doing SO MUCH MORE. I
try not to let it give me cold sweats at night though and do my best.
DN: How do you find the experience of returning to textile design?
SF: It feels like a perfect fit as I’ve always loved textiles, colour and pattern.
DN: Can you tell us a bit about the collaborative aspect of your new work for Decorex?
SF: Visiting an archive of vintage textile documents is heaven, so working on this project with Print
Archivists has been exciting. Initially I chose a collection and they then suggested other pieces to
add to it… and I was off and running from there.
DN: What are the main challenges in your practice?
SF: The main challenges in my practice are time and money. I’ve always wished to have a business
partner who’d invest in my business and run the admin, accounting and business sides so that I can
do more of what I’m best at.
DN: Where would you like your practice to be in 10 years?
SF: In 10 years’ time I’d like to see my design practice working more freely and conceptually, perhaps
by not manufacturing but by licensing my designs to others to manufacture. And hopefully more
collaborations!
DN: If you could collaborate with someone who would you like that to be?
SF: I’d love to work collaboratively with any of the many companies and people I admire that create
beautiful things – especially Hay, Faye Toogood, SCP, Retrouvius, Kit Kemp, Rhonda Drakeford or
Persephone books. And if I could go back in time I’d work with Wiener Werkstatte, Sonia Delaunay
or Schiaparelli, to name just a few!
Interview by Laura Jacometti. Images courtesy the artist.
Snowden Flood will be exhibiting her new collection at Decorex 17-20 September, on the Design-
Nation stand F17. She will also be showcasing her recent collaborative projects in her Oxo Tower shop .
