This month our Designer Feature series turns the spotlight on Marina Oliveira of Cottonflower Studio, just in time for the launch of her latest cotton collection: Watson in the Woods!

CF – Please introduce yourself and tell us what you do!

MO – Hello, my name is Marina Oliveira and I’m a Brazilian surface pattern designer and illustrator behind the label Cottonflower Studio. I started my professional life working as an interior designer for aircrafts, but about four years ago I decided to shift to an old passion of being an artist. Nowadays, I’ve been focusing in developing my techniques to achieve a desired quality in my work.

CF – What inspired you to design your first collections for Camelot – Neighbourhood and Watson in the Woods?

MO – Neighbourhood collection is about a funky colorful town that I would have loved to have grown up in. What I love in this collection is the color palette and the playful motifs. My main inspiration was to design a collection that would be joyful.

MO – Watson in the Woods is a soft collection that I designed thinking in a nursing and babyish context. It’s  about this cute squirrel Watson in his whimsical habitat. The color palette is intended to be soothing and delicate.

CF – Can you tell us a bit about your creative process?  What do you most enjoy?

MO – I usually start with an idea in mind of a scene or something else interesting I have been exposed to recently.   I refine the final idea in my sketchbook by drawing, sometimes over and over again. My favorite part is when I start combining the drawing with a color palette. This is when the original idea can have a different turn of what I initially expected.

CF – What is your creative workspace / studio like?

MO – I have a room in my apartment that I use as my studio. Since I’m a book addict, that means that most of my spaces are covered in books. They come very in handy when I need inspiration. Due to my messy creative process, I usually find myself trying to straighten up this room constantly.

CF – What are you most excited to explore in your creative practice right now?

MO – I’m very interested in learning to use other types of media to express my ideas. I would love to have more time to participate in workshops and classes to achieve that.

CF – How does your background in architecture and environment design inform your surface pattern design?

MO – I believe that my architecture background plays a big part in the structuring of the drawings and technical arrangement of the patterns.

Marina’s latest collection, Watson in the Woods, just launched today!
Browse the collection

Marina’s premiere cotton collection, Neighbourhood, arrives in stores this September.
Browse the collection

See more of Marina’s work around the web:

Website – cottonflowerstudio.com

Instagram – cottonflowerstudio

Facebook – @cottonflowerstudio

Pinterest – cottonflowerstudio