Interning at KAROLINA YORK, Sydney (Australia)
I have just completed a 3 month internship at print design studio, ‘Karolina York’ in Australia. The studio itself is based near Manly Beach, and is under an hour from ‘The City’ itself.
Not too good to be true!
I have always dreamed of going to Australia... in a non-committal and abstract way! (As I think a lot of us have....) I remember reading ‘Teen Vogue’ when I was little, and there was an article on the surfer John John Florence... and for years he embodied my dream boyfriend!
Before I went out to Australia, I was looking at instagram pictures of the Aussie beaches, and it seemed far too good to be real! When lying on your bed in London, on a gloomy and grey November day, on the slippery descent in to the depths of another British Winter, you can’t even conceive that a sky can be that blue right now; the sea so sparkly; the leaves so tropical and green; and multicoloured flowers and birds are everywhere! OR.... that you can walk out the house without: a vest... a top.... a jumper... jumper 2.... (maybe jumper 3?!)... a coat....(maybe coat 2!!!) a scarf... a hat.... gloves... and an umbrella! by which point you can’t even turn your head without losing valuable body heat, let alone have any possibility of an active lifestyle!
On arriving in Australia, and people asking me what I wanted to do or see, I realised I actually knew nothing about the country! Perhaps because I am ignorant and didn’t do my homework.... or more likely because no one returns to tell the tale!......
And NOT because of the deadly spiders and hungry sharks... but because it’s SO AMAZING that it becomes impossible to return to live in the UK as a content human being!
Certainly the most common response (yes I counted...) to ‘I’m going to Australia’, was ‘oooo..... you’re not going to come back” (and yes, this did start to annoy me, especially when they had just met me, it all seemed a bit presumptuous!) 
I have to admit, I did envision that four months was enough to be adopted by a group of surfers (or dolphins) and in no time would be gloriously tanned and ‘one with the ocean’. It wasn’t quite THIS epic, but I did feel like I was in a parallel Universe... like in the films where they end up high (for whatever reason!) and space hop from cloud to cloud, singing an dancing with birds and fantastical creatures and frolicking naked in liquid rainbows (you get the gist).
Everything was just warmer, brighter, easier, happier, freer, better and more colourful!
Take anything we have in the UK- do it twice as well and twice as colourful in a twice as inspirational way, and boom! it’s now Australian.
(*disclaimer: this is just my perception and may not be reality, although I promise I wasn’t actually high).
But!... all good chapters come to an end, and I AM back in the UK! (you don’t get rid of me that easily...)
I don’t feel sad to be back (yet!) as I feel a better person for my experience. Drawing from what I have seen and done, I am feeling utterly inspired and enthused by all of it; and I want to draw from my experience and bring that in to my life in England!
I do of course fully intend to go back for work and play in the future! (Maybe not to become a fully fledged Australian citizen, but I will happily miss every single English winter for the rest of my life in exchange for an Aussie Summer! #noregrets)

The Karolina York Studio lived up to all expectations!
On my first day -(I clearly hadn’t done enough research again... assuming that- like ‘Amanda Kelly’- ‘Karolina York’ would be in the studio herself!)- I asked which one was ‘Karolina’. I then learnt that ‘Bronwyn Ferguson’ is the REAL Karolina! (please stand up....) 
She is in her second decade of the Karolina York studio, which she started in her 20s (!!!!!) and is doing such an impressive job running a phenomenally successful business, whilst also living family life with her husband, three girls, a dog and an (apparently) beautiful house up near Palm Beach (a very desirable place to live in the area)...... #lifegoals!!!! There really is something signifiant about being able to meet the brains behind a brand, seeing how they work and live their lives and ‘run their ship’- this was incredibly inspiring to see everything she has done and is doing to make KY as successful as it is, first hand.
Australian Market Research... The studio itself is a few minutes walk from a Westfields Mall (the same as the London branded malls), known as ‘Warringah Mall’. Although a bit further away from all the action in central Sydney, this mall is probably better than the city one, and I got to spend hours exploring the Australian brands/ market for inspiration and research! There was even time to dash over on lunch breaks, as well as after work, especially for late night shopping Thursdays.
It has every Australian brand and shop you could wish for! For example Mimco, Zimmerman, Seafolly, Rustys, Country Road, Kikki.K (all brands I had never heard of before, but after hours spent doing Research/Inspiration visits to the mall, I soon got to grips with what was what; what each brand had to offer; their reputations, and what I liked and didn’t like.) It’s probably worth mentioning that their version of Primark is probably Cotton:On... (but of course so much more colourful!) 
In Australian fashion there are prints... EVERYWHERE!!!!!! Not only in the shops though.... everyone actually wears prints all the time! Most men wear printed shirts, with anything on them from surfboard pictures to birds, to watermelons and pineapples! You name it, I probably saw someone wearing it in repeat pattern form. And long flowing summery vibrant printed dresses are the norm... this vibrancy reflected in people’s faces, glowing from the sun, salt water and active, healthy lifestyles! (unavoidable with such an incredible climate!)
The sun just brings everything alive! And encourages such playfulness and energy... all of which get suppressed in the rain and cold of the UK.
It really is a whole different market compared to the navy blues blacks and greys of the UK (especially in London... and especially in Winter!) There are colours, fabrics, textures, embellishments and accessories in abundance!... and with no compromise on the environment, as the Aussies are so environmentally conscious and in touch with nature that everything seems to be made in harmony with, if not directly from, the earth itself.
This is not a novelty that wears off either... it just meant that I maintained a constant state of inspiration and happiness the whole time I was there- and judging by the residents of the country, this incredible state of bliss is actually the norm!
Sometimes if you do feel a bit low on energy or positivity, you literally step outside and are immediately invigorated by the nature, the plants, the animals, the bird calls, the shops, the design, the fashion, the lifestyle, the people, the community... it’s all utterly infectious and it all seems to bounce off each other, generating an overall common ‘enthusiasm for life’. And this is further evident in how creative and expressive everyone is! Creativity is not granted to a select few, it is utterly abundant and everyone seems to have permitted their own creative outlet. 
The perfect studio balance between Professionalism and Happiness...
At the Karolina York Studio, the designers all hop in their cars on lunch breaks during Summer to go to the beach! For a creative Print Design Team, surely there can be nothing more productive for an afternoon of creative work than some vitamin D, a stimulating salt-water swim in the powerful Australian surf (aka the waves!), combined with generally basking in a seaside paradise!!!
Overall the studio seems to have a really perfect balance between professionalism and happiness. The designers all get their work done, whilst seeming to really love what they do! They don’t have to sit in silence to get their work done... and their positive attitudes are utterly infectious! Their work ethics are totally enviable, and clearly all are inspired and talented ladies! They share skills and tips, and really work as a team whilst playing to their own different strengths! I have left this internship with a determination to learn to work as hard, and at the same time as light-heartedly as the KY team!
 *Ayako, Lexei, Helen, Me, Anna, Emma, Nicole, Zina*
It was such a privilege to be able to spend hours doing the drawings for the designers, and then having the luxury of seeing how they skilfully transform your work in to beautiful, completed repeat patterns, ready for sale in the fashion market! Then each week you tended to see at least one or two of your drawings in a finalised design on a printed sample, freshly printed from the factory to sell to clients!
This professional, industry process is something you don’t get to experience at University- Yes, you may not get paid on an internship, but it is such a fair trade of skill for knowledge! Far more than can be said for the extortionate money universities demand for your design education. Plus, whilst interning you get to experiment with your strengths AND weaknesses, without the pressure of performance, and the ability to get it wrong with minimal real consequence (unlike if you go straight in to a job you are under-qualified for).
Karolina York is an incredible learning environment for an intern…
If you had any questions at all, the designers made you feel totally comfortable to ask how they did something, or what they did with your work- and never made you feel like they were too busy to help you. I always felt at ease engaging in conversation, which unfortunately isn’t true for all/many internships! Ultimately the designers respected our role as interns, realising that they are asking for free work, and therefore emphasising that they want interns to enjoy their time and that ‘the most important thing is that you have fun’. (In other internships they literally want to suck you dry, because you ‘deserve to even be there!’)
What you do on your internship
The team ensured that we were drawing as much as possible, as that was what we wanted to do and were good at. We would always have at least half a day dedicated to a brief for one designer at a time... and we rotated between the different designers, ensuring we gained a range of experiences across the spectrum of commercial designing! They also made sure we got to try every brief and every style of print. (including paisleys, scarves, painterly florals, vintage florals, mark making, conversational, botanicals.... the list goes on!) Of course we had some ‘chore’ tasks, but they were quite fun to change things up a bit, and then we could chat more freely than when we lost ourselves in our artwork briefs!

I was asked to do gouache paintings, watercolour paintings, fine-liner drawings and copic pen drawings the most…. But I also did some collage and painterly work for example. We did endless florals of course, in a range of styles including stencil, ditsy, painterly and realistic. Emma Johns, one of the designers, was in charge of organising work for the interns, and she also asked us what our goals were and what we wanted to get out of the internship. She was INCREDIBLE at being fun, friendly and approachable all the time, and she proactively ensured that we got to meet our personal goals during our internship.
I really enjoyed getting to know the other interns too... and interns come from all over the world! Ayako, from Japan, was learning English and it was so fascinating talking to her about Japan, and hearing her perspective on our language that naturally we take totally for granted! She is super talented and hard-working, and had a great knack for inventing awesome ‘life-hacks’ to make the tedious jobs much cooler! (so of course we had to teach her what words like ‘life-hack’ meant…)
What I learnt
As well as honing our drawing and painting skills through hours of focussed work, we learnt to adapt the original drawings to work best in digital design; we learnt how to clean up motifs; how to make them look professional, and colour them in the colour palette of the design flawlessly; several different ways to make a repeat pattern; and how to prepare the completed files ready for print!
These are definitely all skills that seem simple, but when you then try and do the same up the standard of the studio, you fully appreciate the hours, days, weeks and years that each designer has invested to get their standards and fluid autonomy to where they are now! You can learn these skills; you can be shown how to do it…. But to become professional these skills have to become part of your lifestyle!…..
In my last couple of weeks, I was granted ‘computer time’ to make my own designs from start to finish for the KY collection, using the skills that I have learnt.
In retrospect, if I had been a bit smarter, I would have spent more time on evenings and weekends ensuring that I begun practising all the new invaluable skills I was learning; committing them to long term memory and getting the ball rolling immediately! However, in retrospect, I am very happy with my work-happiness balance, and it’s never too late to start practising!
On ending my three month internship, the team presented me with one of my favourite books from the studio book collection!
I am so grateful for my experience, and although this could just be a one way relationship, I have come away feeling like I made friends, and that the Karolina York studio will always be somewhere I could approach in the future! I am totally inspired to have the work ethic and positive attitude that the designers have, and I really hope that one day I will be able to work in a team environment like they do. Or that one day I could have my own business as successful as Bron is running!
I can’t recommend this internship to any enthusiastic or adventurous aspiring digital textile designer enough!
The time I spent and the skills I have learnt are invaluable to my next stage as a freelance designer…. And I am excited to put everything in to practise now that I am setting up my new studio in the North of England!
I can’t wait to show you my new work!
Watch this space :D