It’s been a little while since we last sat down for a chat with Claudia, and safe to say, a lot has happened since then.
Our first collaboration, Postcards from Paradise, launched in October 2025, and since then Claudia has continued to grow Designs by Claudia, create plenty of beautiful things, and, most importantly, become a mum to little Paddy.
Now, we’re back for round two.
Our newest collaboration, Solara, has been a very different creative process from our first rug together. It started with a detailed concept and creative brief from me, before Claudia worked her magic illustrating all of the individual elements that would eventually become the finished design. From there, it became a genuine back and forth process between the two of us, piecing everything together, rearranging, layering, and refining, until all of those individual illustrations came together to become one cohesive rug.
So before our Solara Rug officially makes its way out into peoples homes and lives, I thought it was time for another catch-up with Claudia. This time, we’re talking motherhood, creativity, business, Cairns, the coming together of Solara… and whether there might just be a collaboration number three.
Well… a lot has changed since our first collaboration, Postcards from Paradise, was released in 2025. You became a mum! How has life changed for you since welcoming Paddy, both personally and creatively?
Yes I am a mum now! And that title is still feeling quite new to me, but I’m loving this new era I’m in. Personally, motherhood has definitely taught me to be more patient, flexible and definitely more quiet (use my “inside voice” haha). Creatively, it’s taught me to be more productive with my time, especially when Paddy has gone down for a nap, because you never know how long the “free time” is going to last. Lots has definitely changed int the last year, it’s been a challenge but definitely for the better. Motherhood is still very fresh for me, only being 5 months in, but I’m trying to take everything in my stride, and just do the best I can.
Have you found motherhood is starting to influence what you’re drawn to creatively, whether that’s the subject matter, the direction of your work, or even the kinds of projects you want to say yes to?
I’m still learning to balance my creativity along side nappies, feeding and everything else that motherhood throws at you. I would say the last month or two I have been gravitating more to painting, and trying to put my phone and iPad away. Painting and drawing is so therapeutic for me, and it’s my “me time”.
Creative work often requires a lot of uninterrupted headspace and time, neither of which new motherhood is particularly famous for giving you! The juggle of motherhood and running a business is reeeaal. Have you found a balance that allows you to still make time for your creativity and business, while also soaking up as much of that precious Mumma-and-Paddy time as possible? Or are you learning to find those little pockets of creativity in a completely different way now?
Uninterrupted time is quit non existent with a baby, and I’m still trying to find the time and balance between everything to be creative. I have always been a nocturnal person when it comes to work, and that’s when I’ve been my most productive catching up on emails and design work. But since having Paddy, it’s a little risky staying up late when you may be waking every few hours with baby, so I’ve had to become an early person now. We have been quite blessed with Paddy’s sleeping that he goes down for the night relatively early, so my husband and I can have some time together, usually watching a tv series, and that’s when I’ll try get some work done. During the day, I put Paddy in the baby bouncer and rock him to sleep while I’m creating on my laptop, and that’s been the trick for getting work done. I’m also incredibly lucky that my husband has a really good job where he is home by mid afternoon and also works from home 2 days a week, so that can give me a couple of hours for myself.
Okay, let’s talk Solara. This rug started with a fairly detailed creative brief from me, including many of the individual elements I wanted included and the overall mood I wanted to create. What was your first reaction when I came to you with the concept, and which parts were you most excited to illustrate?
I was so excited to design a ‘European summer’ design, as I’ve never really gone down that style of illustrations before. Seeing the variety of elements listed, like the lobster, oysters, olive branches, sun and the bougainvillea, I had an instant vision of what the rug design was going to look like. With the Mediterranean vibe, I instantly thought of Greece where they have gorgeous tiles in their villas, so that’s where I got the inspiration from for the background of the rug designs and also the blue tone.
You’ve become so well known for your tropical subject matter and signature retro-style colour palette, particularly since moving to Cairns, so Solara was definitely a bit of a departure from that. How did you feel when I came to you with such a strong Mediterranean-inspired brief?
I was feeling a little hesitate, like I always do with a new project, but I’m my worst enemy sometimes. I overthink everything, but once I start sketching ideas down and begin the design process with illustrating the different elements, it builds my confidence, and then I think, “why was I worried for?”. I think my signature palette is always going to be my niche with any design project. Creating a colour palette is probably my favourite part of any design job.
This collaboration ended up being a really hands-on process for both of us. Once you’d worked your magic creating all of the individual illustrations, it became a bit of a puzzle working out how everything was ultimately going to come together as one cohesive rug design. How did this process feel compared with creating Postcards from Paradise?
Our first collaboration ‘Postcards from Paradise’ was quite a straight forward process, as it was a design I just illustrated on a whim. The only thing that was worked on, was the colour palette for that design, and it was good to go. Whereas with this collaboration, I had a specific brief to follow, with certain guidelines and a style to follow. Some people say more information that better, whereas for me I like to outline the main targets in a brief, and keep it as simple as possible for my creative brain. The main things I focused on for this design was ‘European Summer’ and the feelings of leisure, resort living, and destinations.
One of the most interesting things about this collaboration was just how much the design evolved along the way. Once we started arranging, rearranging, resizing and layering the individual elements, the original concept went through quite a transformation. What was it like watching those illustrations evolve into what we now see as the finished Solara Rug design?
From this whole design process, I would say apart from selecting the colour palette, this part rearranging and layering the illustrations into the one design was quite exciting. It definitely required a bit of a brain switch for me! Usually I’m designing and illustrating artwork that’s made to be looked at, but with a picnic rug/throw, I had to imagine the whole design being used, folded, sprawled across the grass and actually living in someone’s space. It needed to be practical as well as pretty.
Solara has so many little illustrated details, from the hero lobster through to the oysters, bougainvillea and all of the decorative elements surrounding them. Which part did you enjoy illustrating the most?
This is great question, I would say illustrating the lobster and the bougainvillea were my favourite to illustrate, but for different reasons. The lobster was so fun to illustrate, and I tried to have more fun with it, then just drawing a sea creature with its claws and many legs. Adding little details here and there, and adding different colours has made it look more playful. The bougainvilleas were a challenge to draw, as they are such a complex flower, pretty much coloured leaves really, but I tried to do the same as the lobster, adding some cute details like the centre white flowers and using different shades of magenta to give interest and depth.
You’ve developed such a recognisable illustration style since being in Cairns, and living here has obviously played a huge role in your subject matter and artistic direction. What do you think Far North Queensland has given you creatively that you might not have had if you’d stayed in Victoria and built your business there instead?
I think Far North Queensland completely changed the way I see things creatively. The tropical colours, palm trees, Queenslander houses, beaches and lush landscapes gave me a whole new visual language to work with. It also taught me to see the everyday things around me as something worth illustrating — turning places and little moments that people might overlook into artwork and keepsakes; especially keepsakes they can relate back to their travels here in tropical far North Queensland. I always wonder where my art would of headed if we did stay in Victoria, but I am a big believer in things happening for a reason, and our move to Cairns has been the best thing we have ever done, especially for following my dream of selling my own artwork.
As your business has grown and life has evolved, has your own definition of success changed with it?
It most definitely has, I would say only recently it has changed. I recently had a mentor chat with Alex Mason who is now quite a well known textural painter on instagram, and she asked me at the very start of our session, “What’s your goal for your business? Do you want to go nationwide? Or global? How far do you want your success to go?”. Of course every artist, and small business owner would love to go big one day and get to that ultimate dream of being rich, but I’ve learnt since having my baby boy, that there is so much more to being rich, than just money. I want to be rich by doing what I love, making my art, going to markets on Sundays, having the freedom to create, being the best mum, loving wife and person to my family and friends… that’s my definition of success.
You’ve pretty much cracked the code in as much as you've managed to turn your creativity into a successful business, which also means constantly switching between 'artist brain' and 'business owner brain'. Which side comes more naturally to you?
This might be surprising to some, but I would say in the last couple of years since taking my business full-time, my business brain has become way more natural than the creative side…. Shocking I know! I didn’t study business at all, but I’ve definitely learnt quite a bit throughout my journey of ‘Designs by Claudia’. The creative side of my brain, sometimes has to be forced into action and doesn’t come as natural as I would like, but I do hope now being a mum and taking more of a slow approach and being more patient, I can hopefully step back from the business side and focus more on creating new art weekly. I have started using the account app ‘Hnry’ and that has really helped me tackle the admin side of things. That’s one of the best business decisions I’ve made for sure.
What’s something about running a creative business that people probably don’t see on Instagram?
There’s a lot of admin involved (quotes, invoices, bills), many instagram post drafts, DMs filled to the brim, packing orders, packing the van, stocktake, individually packing products, folding out tables and drilling down the marquee at the market so it doesn’t fly away. Lots more to what I just show on instagram, but maybe I need to make more of an effort to show the ‘boring’ jobs that happen behind the scenes…. Maybe?
We’ve now worked together on two rugs, which means plenty of creative conversations, messages, ideas flying backwards and forwards, and catch-ups along the way. What have you enjoyed most about working together?
I have just really enjoyed getting to know Jess, especially as a small business owner herself and as a beautiful mum too. From our first meeting at our Smithfield Shopping Centre Pop-ups, we definitely hit it off straight away. It’s being really cool to get to know Jess and hear her business journey as well, from doing markets herself to then going to big design markets down south. That’s one thing I never take for granted as a small business owner, having such a great community of friends that I’ve met at pop-ups and markets along the way, who are also small business owners, grinding, getting up early to set up, doing all the tasks themselves, and seeing how passionate they are.
We’ve now shot both of our collaboration rugs together, but our most recent beach shoot for Solara was a fair bit different from the picture-perfect day we had shooting Postcards from Paradise out at Palm Cove 😂 Since we’re very much glass-half-full kinda gals, and there’s always a silver lining, what did you enjoy most about our slightly chaotic morning at Half Moon Bay?
Our laughs while we were trying to stay dry under the new Solara rug, and watching my NEW gormon umbrella flip inside-out in the blowing gail. I was quite tired that morning before our shoot, but gosh I really needed a good belly laugh and a beach walk. Seeing the Solara rug for the first time in person was pretty special too.
And now that we’ve successfully completed collab number two, the big question on everyone’s lips will be… would you be open to a collab number three?
What type of question is that???? OF COURSE!!! 1000%... Hurry up and send the brief already!!! 😉