Misha Mackay

LIVING AND DEALING WITH MY CHRONIC ILLNESS: ENDOMETRIOSIS You're not well, again?! Those words sometimes hurt more than my disease itself, which by the way is saying something considering every day my body fights itself until something gives up.   Yes I'm ill again, and I never stop being ill - that's exactly what it means to be chronically sick. Of course I have days where I won't mention it because the thought of being a burden tears me up from the inside but I promise that every day, even with a smile on my face, I'm still hurting. The pain is paralysing; as a matter of fact, very few see the real side effects of my illness. Not many have seen the times where I am screaming into a pillow, doubled over in pain, counting down the minutes that feel like hours until the pain passes. The problem is, this isn’t always in the comfort of my own bed. It’s the times where I’ve told you I’m going to use the restaurant bathroom before our food c...

Why is it that, in a society ever adapting to accepting and exploiting individuality, we still design in such a shortsighted manner? In the ever developing world it almost appears we are two steps ahead of ourselves, designing and creating resources to improve our living conditions yet, in doing so, we seem to miss out the most important factor which is us as humans and the way we are affected by the things we do to ourselves and the environment in which we live in. They say “the home is where the heart is”, but how do we really feel in our own homes? Homes should be at the centre of our lives, a place to feel many types of emotions depending on a situation - the home should have flexibility to adapt to our daily changing lives. It is most definitely a mistake to believe that every individual in our society would want the same thing and so why, in this case, do the housing bureaucracies  our time still design to only achieve overall efficiency and minimise costs...

As a designer who loves to play with colour and works with an understanding of how colour affects the human race, I am so excited to review the latest colourful trends that we will be seeing over the next few months. Spring/Summer 2018 is going to see the explosion of all things bright, bold and colourful; it's all about making a statement through texture, colour and use of pattern. http://www.designloversblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Collages47.jpg Reinforcing the maximalist move, punchy floral prints will litter both the catwalk and the high street stores; likewise it will see a huge increase within the interior decoration field. The zesty floral tones will blow away the typical delicate spring botanics. The more is more will be the biggest must have stores have seen for a long time. Elegant, elongating lines are also on the increase - we will be seeing a decline in the previously popular bold, wide stripes in turn for the thin and vertical bands. Inspired by slee...