Meet the Designer Behind the Checkered Prints You've Been Seeing All Over Instagram

You may not have heard the name Katherine Plumb [1], but I can guarantee you've seen her designs all over Instagram. The textile artist, who is from London but based in Stockholm, Sweden, has a knack for creating cheerful prints that just spark joy. She's even teamed up with online retailers like Lisa Says Gah! [2] for limited-edition capsule collections featuring her dreamy prints. (I'm personally obsessed with the silk pajamas!) The checkered print has quickly become the trend of the year, and Katherine's designs pretty much work on anything from towels and pillow cases to shirts and iPhone cases.

I spoke with Katherine and learned that she actually stumbled into the screen printing business: "To be honest, it kind of happened by accident! I like to use the process of screen printing as a design tool, so I usually play around with cutout paper shapes and stencils when I start working on a pattern — which I think you can see through the sometimes slightly wonky graphic shapes. Sometimes I like to go through my degree work and take elements from those unfinished patterns/ideas, and then I might rework them digitally to play around with colours, scale, etc. I also love to look through interior design books to get an idea of how my work would look in different homes and through different periods of time. You can take a look at this Instagram post [3] to see the process behind the 'Celeste' print!"

Since so many brands are trying to figure out how to avoid creating excess waste and how to be more sustainable [4], it was nice to see that the topic was top of mind for Katherine. "Knowing how to screen print and having the facilities to do so has allowed me to create a business without dealing with huge minimum orders and a load of waste stock if a design isn't popular."

Since she has teamed up with a few of our favourite brands, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask for some of her favourite up-and-coming fashion brands. "I love LF Markey [5] for its luxury utilitarian aesthetic, Pêche [6] for cute knits and, of course, the responsible-design-focussed Carnations London [7], which I recently collaborated with. Otherwise, anything Ganni [8], Stine Goya [9], or Rixo [10]!

Keep reading to see some of our favourite prints that she's created and shop some of her pieces as well.