HISTORY

Artist Andrea Evans launched Andrea Jayne Illustrations in Bath two years ago after more than 10 years freelancing in the publishing industry.

The company produces original character ranges with potential for various licensing opportunities. It is run from a studio in a renovated Victorian dispensary that houses creative businesses.

Andrea comes from a graphic-based background - with a BA Hons in Graphic Design from the University of West England in Bristol.

She started her career in 1988 leaving West Wales for the Derby dales to work for Royal Doulton, painting designs for china from original metal etchings. Here she learnt the discipline of producing intricate decorative artwork for plates, teacups and ornaments.

Andrea then went further north to work as a designer/illustrator for Fine Art Graphics in Burton-on Trent and this is where her passion for designing cards began, illustrating gift-wrap, calendars and boxed cards for Marks and Spencer and Boots.

She returned to the West Country in 1992 and worked extensively for Hallmark and Andrew Brownsword, illustrating in-house ranges, Forever Friends and Country Companions for cards and gifts. The disciplined critiquing process taught her how to design characters for a target audience and provided a good grounding for working in the licensing industry.

Since then she has designed Winnie-the-Pooh stationery ranges for Clinton Cards and has had success with her own character ranges for stationery and toys in WH Smith and other retail outlets. She has just finished working on four new ranges which are selling in The National Trust, Wyevale Garden Centres, John Lewis and Waitrose. A new decorative everyday collection is due to go into Clinton Cards as a Specialist Birthday Range in 2009.

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