SugarLoop : a Passion for Print.

Design, Notable February 20, 2008

Today I stumbled over this beautiful airy and positive site of Bernadette Sipkes from sugarloop©

The visit was one of these nice surprises when you fall onto a site and find yourself lingering longer than originally planned. Bernadette is a mother of a (now obviously lively) toddler and a printmaker/illustrator in Auckland, New Zealand.

While snooping around I began to think a little about why this site stood out for me.

It is a Google Blogger site. So I assume it is a given template. It is a clean template at that, not overly crazy designed, and yes, I am known to like something the like. One of the things that makes the site special is that the design is wisely chosen and complements her beautiful illustrations perfectly. Light and airy. As are her photographs and postings.

The one, single thing that beats all other single points though is the common denominator of them all and it took me a while until I was able to put my mental finger onto this exact point which holds it all together: consistency.

It is consistency which made her choose this template, consistency you can find in her choice of colors and items. Her illustrations fit with her garden - or vice versa. Her photos talk the same language, and it would not surprise me if her kid fits just as consistently into it all. The end result is a beauty of its own.

You can buy her limited edition prints at Etsy, ‘your place to buy and sell all things handmade’ (which is a worth a visit all by itself).

As a side note (to myself): I don’t know if it is because I design for many different types of clients and challenges or because I feel I want to explore and discover many different ways of what can be and where I can go, but in any case, my work - especially compared to somebody like Bernadette - could be considered “all over the place” and the consistency (and personality) of it not as easily to be found.