JOAN CHARNLEY TEXTILE DESIGN prize

Every year we award the Joan Charnley Textile Design Prize to a textile graduate from Manchester School of Art; the winner is awarded £500 and commissioned to create a one-off textile design based on Joan Charnley’s archive, held at the MMU Special Collections Museum. Their winning design then becomes part of the Joan Charnley Contemporary Textile Range.

When selecting which graduates should win the prize, we are reminded of how Joan talked about the importance of integrity and hard work in textile design. She said it was easy to create something aesthetically pleasing, but if there was no hard work behind it, you could always tell. So we choose designers who have completed in-depth research and have a visible story behind their work.

2022 WINNER
HARRIET PEACOCK
”Urban flora scopes”

CONCEPT

Harriet’s creative design was inspired by Joan Charley’s previous works featuring botanical prints and drawings, fusing her signature style and love of colours, abstract shapes and textures. She took inspiration from her 2022 degree show work using a similar style of bright colours and shapes, showcasing a different more organic subject matter. Harriet liked the contrast between urban and natural and wanted this clash of themes to be apparent in her process and final design, showing organic yet intentional shapes. Harriet noticed that throughout Joan’s work she often used contrast as a tool in her designs whether that being with colours or using bold and delicate shapes in unison.

Some of Joan Charnley’s designs studied by Harriet included classical motifs and mosaic stamps of florals and botanicals, giving the impression of a tile that could be a single piece or equally replicated multiple times in a pattern for impact. Her final piece “Urban Flora Scopes” reflects a contemporary approach to a botanical theme following this method. The plant and floral concept included in her design highlight the more every day, less glamorous varieties of flora to be seen throughout our inner cities and urban landscape. These plants include weeds, moss, lavender, ferns, nettle, dandelions and grass. To represent and re-energise the images and outlines of these plants, Harriet used her signature style of the use of bold, bright colours which bring vibrancy and energy to the overall design.

Harriet has shone a spotlight on Joan Charnley, a talented designer, her life’s work, heritage and her legacy. Her love of botanicals and motifs has been colourfully re-imagined by Harriet via an interpretation that whilst paying homage to the original designs contemporises the approach via focusing on urban and everyday botanicals and bold colourscapes.

INSPIRATION

COLOUR PALETTE

MOTIFS

VISUAL RESEARCH

FINAL DESIGN

WARREN REILLY
”MODERN HALLOWS”

“It was a pleasure to be given access to Joan’s Portfolio. I believe myself and Joan shared a passion for British History. I was most inspired by a simple collage of a church with monochrome, brown and pink hues. Modern Hallows reflects on what has been, while projecting clues of what is still to come... ”

megan ditchfield
”The Charnley Crane”

“The Charnley Crane’ is inspired by a variety of drawings Joan had created throughout her time living in Saddleworth and the wilderness upon the moors. The colour palette represents the moors and links closely with the colours used throughout Joan’s work.

HANNAH SHELDON
”THE ENCHANTED GARDEN”

“I was really inspired by Joan’s traditional botanical drawings and the mixture of colours and dark backgrounds she used when layering. I also really loved her sketchbooks with the mushroom drawings, it brought back memories of my childhood and fantasy stories about fairies.”