Boutique online shop Howkapow has teamed up with a new wave of designers to launch a colourful pre-autumn mini-collection of jewellery, prints, home and kitchenware.
Run by husband-and-wife team Cat and Roger How, the online shop sells quirky, affordable design products while also serving as a showcase for its family of breakthrough illustrators, designers and artists.
You'll find all the latest designs for sale on the Howkapow website. In the meantime, we caught up with co-founder Cat How to find out what inspired the new range…
Computer Arts: Your new mini collection is bold, bright and beautiful – is there a common theme running through the different items?
Cat How: Yes. There is a theme but quite a loose one. Mostly I tend to curate collections in terms of colours. Our June / July or pre-autumn collection is still in the throes of late summer so there are a lot of reds and greens. Nice, fresh colours that sing of summer! Well… perhaps a Spanish summer over an English one.
But there also seem to be quite a lot of animal-related products that have popped up this time. Paul Blow's Tiger Feet print, Paul Farrell's Summer Fox and Silver Golden Bear cushions, and some lovely new ceramics from Fenella Smith featuring dogs and foxes.
CA: Tell us about your tea towels – what inspired the designs?
CH: We've got a range of new tea towels from some of our most long-standing designers. Stuart Gardiner's new Tea towel and Coffee towel are really fun – but educational too! – homages to the lovely leaf and bean; while Sarah Knight's tea towels are again nicely themed for summer and we always love the names she comes up with – this time around it's ‘Sweet Strawberries Sour Cream’ and ‘Lovely Limes, Bitter Lemon Tea Towel’. Last but not least, we have our new Vitamin Chart tea towel, which is a loose alphabet of vitamins and the associated vegetables that they are found in. Neat.
CA: Which is your favourite piece and why?
CH: I think it might have to be the Tiger Feet print. Why? Because I've always wanted to know what a tiger looks like in trainers.
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CA: What can we expect from Howkapow next?
CH: We've got a new website launching in August which we are… Very. Excited. About. And we have lots of lovely new pieces coming out in our autumn / winter collection in September too. The chromatic theme emerging seems to be orange, brown and blue… and it's chokka full of glasses, prints and lovely new jewellery… watch this space!
