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  About   
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(Portrait by Rosa Fay Photography)

RACHEL

 

Rachel creates surface pattern design for textile, home interiors, company branding and a variety of consumer products. Her work takes the form either of pattern commissions or the licensing of existing designs from her vast and growing personal collection. Alongside her creative work, Rachel has extensive experience directing design projects for companies. In support of such project work, she deepened her skills and qualified as a Prince2 Project Manager in 2021.

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Companies and brands Rachel has worked with include Charbonnel et Walker, The Art Fund, Warner Textile Archive and Paul Smith for Leica. Her designs have been featured in The Sunday Times, Homes and Antiques, Country Living, The Telegraph and Country Homes & Interiors, to name a few. Her work has been exhibited at trade and retail shows from London to San Francisco, and is featured in The Pattern Sourcebook, A Century of Surface Design by Druscilla Cole.

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She started out as a high end gift packaging designer in 2001, and ran a successful company for many years. More recently Rachel's work has developed into Pattern for products, textiles and home.

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Rachel lives in Bristol, England and is married to William Goodchild, a composer for film and television. They have two daughters, Rosa and Eleanor.

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Upbringing

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Rachel cites her parents as being both inspiration and catalyst for her love of art and design. Janet and Peter met at art school in the 1950s. They married young and had five children together.

 

After a spell as a commercial artist, Janet became a seamstress and dressmaker, opening up her own shop where she sold the clothes she made. She is an avid collector of textiles and vintage clothing. Her impressive collection contains items from the Victorian era to the present day. As youngsters Rachel and her sisters would dress up in vintage clothes from their mum's collection at any opportunity.

 

Rachel’s father, Peter, is a fine artist. Whilst Rachel and her siblings were growing up, Peter lectured in Fine Art. His painting studio has always been in the family home and now, well into his eighties, he continues to paint with a passion, as he has throughout his life. Rachel’s father is always been on hand to pass Rachel the right art book at just the right time.

 

Rachel's parents have lived in their large Georgian house since the 1960's and it is the home Rachel was also born in. The house is still to this day full of beautiful paintings, a vast array of art books, antique furniture, period china, patterned wallpapers, victorian wall tiles, voluptuous textiles and an overall abundance of colour in every room.

(Rachel's parents and Rachel wearing  a 1950s dress aged 13)

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Design

 

Rachel has always had a love of pattern. Her interest extends from ornamental designs of the 1700s through to the clean lines, distinctive shapes and muted tones of Mid-Century designs from 1933 to 1965.

 

Rachel prefers to draw by hand, rather than use computer generated shapes. Her approach often begins with a rough sketch, and a colour pallet that she puts together. She is inspired by her love of vintage textiles and wallpapers, but her patterns are unmistakably contemporary in feel, and she loves to incorporate the use of bold, tertiary colours.

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It's all an ongoing experimental experience for Rachel, and she feels she is learning all the time.

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Rachel Goodchild's Studio 06
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Studio

 

Rachel's studio is based in her family home in Bristol, England.

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2006 Top Drawer (Rachel Goodchild)

Exhibitions

  

Rachel has exhibited regularly at various shows over the years, both trade and retail.

Here are some examples:

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San Francisco International Gift Fair  | Moscone Centre, San Francisco

  

Top Drawer Spring | Earls Court, London

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Top Drawer Autumn | Olympia, London

  

Progressive Greetings Live | Design Centre, London

  

Summer Fair  |  Excel, London

  

Best of Britannia (BoB) | St Georges, Bristol

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Select @Bath | Assembly Rooms, Bath

  

Bristol Guild Gallery  |  Bristol

  

Christmas at the Orangery  | Goldney Gardens Orangery, Bristol

  

Clifton Gallery | Whiteladies Road, Bristol

features

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Over the years Rachel has featured in various magazine and press.

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To see her Press Page

click HERE 

  Testimonials   
  What People Have Said  

You can also view books that have featured Rachel's designs here:  Book Features.

Pattern Surface Design (Rachel Goodchild)
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