Gillian Arnold is a British artist with a passion for design and technology, her innate creative curiosity has been pushing the boundaries of digitally printed textiles forward for the last 20 years.
Working alongside her husband, this talented team make the perfect partnership. Their journey began digitally – they even met online and now lead a thriving designer brand from their design studio and in-house production facility.
This is a story of innovation, Gillian has been exploring dye sublimation printing for her entire creative career, thinking outside of the box. “I was always fascinated by sublimation printing since I was at art college, back in the early 90’s. I just knew it was a magic formula that had so much to explore, and sort of legs to it. So, I used to do a lot of textile projects that were sublimation based in primary schools in London, and I’d even go for funding to hire equipment, so that the schools could actually continue to print mugs and print cushions” added Gillian.
As a creative the digital technologies at her fingertips have become an extension of her work, they don’t define her style, quite the opposite – Gillian has taken advantage of the creative freedom that digital enables and her work continues to evolve beyond technology. In her work Gillian captures the very essence of nature and distils it through her own lens. Digital technology facilitates an absolute printed mirror of her creativity with no compromise.
The business began selling direct to the consumer from a market stall in Greenwich, London and has now grown into a very successful designer brand trading online and via a network of independent retail outlets. Over the years the collection of printed products available for purchase has grown substantially and now includes artwork, canvases, printed home furnishings, cushions, lighting, accessories and even jewellery – all printed using dye sublimation technology.
As the pandemic hit early last year, they expected the worst, and braced themselves for a slow-down in orders, in fact the reverse happened. As an online business, orders increased, and the company recognized that they needed to re-equip to meet growing demand – and fast.
The Gillian Arnold team are well versed with dye sublimation ink-jet equipment and recognized that it was time to make the shift to wide format textile technology. Choosing RA Smart as their preferred supplier, the team began to explore the latest technology and critically, how they could add new equipment with no business interruption. Working closely with the team at R A Smart, Gillian and her partner Johnny decided to purchase the HP Stitch S300 to replace their existing dye sublimation equipment. The HP machine being much quicker than their existing technology, more sustainable, and importantly intelligent and intuitive. “We are definitely happy with the HP Stitch S300 machine – it’s got some amazing features that are just really impressive, especially in terms of the print quality, ease of maintenance and intuitive servicing” added Johnny Arnold.