About me
About Susan
Susan Bradley is an award winning British creative talent. Her eponymous studio was established in 2004, and she won the prestigious title ‘Graduate Designer of The Year’ in 2005. Susan's designs have since achieved international acclaim being sold in select retailers and museum shops around the world and winning further prestigious design awards. You have most probably seen her work in leading interiors, architecture and style magazines or the Sunday supplements where her designs are a real favourite with design and style journalists and stylists.
Susan’s work has been exhibited in museum and art galleries around the world. She has also been commissioned internationally by companies including Donna Karen New York, Urban Outfitters, Christian Louboutin, P&O Cruise Ships, Selfridges, Caesars Palace, and Harvey Nichols (for who she designed the backdrop to their infamous Christmas windows 15 years ago) as well as by individual clients too.
Her work has been sold in galleries and museums including the V&A, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, National Maritime Museum, The Baltic, The National Gallery and London Transport Museum. And in prestigious shops including Liberty, Magma and Foyles.
Current Practice
Susan Bradley is a British contemporary artist based in York, UK.
Working primarily with the printmaking techniques of linocut, letterpress and intaglio to create her striking monochromatic silhouette prints. Each print is created by hand in her Yorkshire studio, using her collection of small table top presses or even sometime just a wooden spoon! Her love of the analogue and handmade is a key driver in her practice. Each original print she creates is completely unique and of limited edition.
Susan takes inspiration from diverse places - womanhood, Matrescence, song lyrics, poetry, senses of place, folklore and protest art. She is deeply interested in typography and the power of words and how they create meaning - as tongue-in-cheek wordplay or wry comments, as protest and defiance, as philosophical reflection, as cultural references, and as affirmations for resilience.
She is revered for her unearthing of simplicity and distilling the essence in her graphic monochrome (usually) work - some metallics and occaisioan pops of colout are employed too. Her work is instantly recognisable.
Form and silhouette are key. As are the lo-fi and traditional techniques (letterpress is actually an endangered craft) she employs to create her art work. These analogue techniques create artworks that continue her distinctive graphic style yet also celebrate the beautiful and soulful imperfections of the handmade.
Previous Work As Creative Director
Susan has always created original and innovative work with a distinctive graphic quality. She is best known for her award-winning intricately cut silhouetted metal designs, for both interior and exterior spaces. Her work has encompassed furniture, interior and exterior accessories, products and lighting.
Her innovative British design work has been sold and exhibited all round the world.
A graduate of London Guildhall University and BCUC, Susan has garnered significant acclaim over the years. Her work has been displayed in selected galleries and private collections internationally.
Her current printmaking work translates her love of graphic silhouetted forms and simplicity into the realm of analogue, lo-fi, and handmade.
Mentoring & Lecturing
Susan has been a mentor to new graduates through the ‘Mentoring Matters’ scheme and has also had a number of students on placement to help aid their career development.
She has also guest lectured for numerous university courses (including textiles, product design and graphic design) at various institutions including Leeds Beckett University, Swansea University, BCUC and London Metropolitan University.
Susan grew up in, and currently lives and works in Yorkshire.
Her work is inspired by artists including Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, designer Katharine Hamnett.
Bespoke Commissions
In addition to her own design collections Susan has provided a consultancy and commissioning service for both private and commercial clients, working with architects, interior designers, garden designers and retailers to create bespoke designs for a wide range of settings both in the UK and around the world.
Susan Bradley Design has expertise and capacity to take on large-scale architectural and interior design projects. The studio experiments with the relationship between function and form, between the traditional divisions of art and design.
