Camille Walala has pattern-bombed a shopping center in Melbourne, a rooftop in Manhattan and a department store in Paris, and, this fall, takes on the task of completing two works for the annual London Design Festival.
"I love working with volume – transforming space and perception – and with the angles and corners of a room," says CAMILLE WALALA, whose peppy installations have earned her legions of fans in the worlds of fashion, design and visual art. The Londoner's punchy work – Google the Dream Come True building in the city's Shoreditch neighbourhood for a visual primer on her traffic-stopping aesthetic – recalls a mix of influences, from the Memphis art movement to the motifs created by the Ndebele tribe in Zimbabwe.
Walala has pattern-bombed a shopping center in Melbourne, a rooftop in Manhattan and a department store in Paris, and, this fall, takes on the task of completing two works for the annual London Design Festival. One is a floor-to-ceiling graphic for a bar that's part of Clerkenwell London's Design Undefined space. "It's quite full on," she says. "It's only there for a short period of time so I really wanted to push it and not be shy with my designs." Walala also created a zebra crossing concept in collaboration with Better Bankside, a neighbourhood improvement initiative, for Transport of London.
While these recent undertakings will introduce Walala's work to the masses, her followers (over 61,000 on Instagram) already know her well for stylish partnerships with street-wear label New Era and footwear-brand Caterpillar, a rug collection with British brand Floor Story, and a magazine cover for Marie Claire. "The greatest part about doing collaborations is when I give a design to a brand and they play with scale and placements," she says. "I love when they come back and use the prints in a way I wouldn't have thought about!" The next creative mash up on the horizon is a 500-square-foot space within Selfridges on Oxford Street. "It's great that I can finally choose whom I want to work with," she says. "At the beginning you say yes to everything – you are just happy to be able to work!"
While her boisterous designs can be seen in both advertising giant Sid Lee's agency offices and the Converse headquarters in Amsterdam, London has proved the most fertile landscape for Walala, who came to the U.K. from France to study Textiles with Business Studies at the University of Brighton. "London is an amazingly creative city. You meet so many people who have the same desires as you," she says. "It can be overwhelming at first, but it is also so inspiring!"
The rebellious energy of East London, where Walala has lived for a decade, is obvious in her efforts. She created a greasy-spoon restaurant outfitted in her signature squiggles in Dalston, which served dinner for one night only, and painted a boat docked near hipster hotspot Broadway Market. "It's almost become like a village and everyone is very supportive and offers you opportunities to do things," she says. "They're not paid opportunities at first, but eventually people start to recognize your work and things start to pay off."
The London Design Festival runs from Sept. 17 to 25. For more information, visit www.londondesignfestival.com.