One of the special features of London’s New Designers show is its satellite exhibit, One Year On, which showcases the work of designers who are either within or without one year of graduation. The new designers who get chosen to participate get a chance to market themselves, and potential employers and clients get a chance to meet student designers.

Wallcoverings. Designed by Abigail Borg.

“One Year On is a very special part of the show and it differentiates itself from the main event by showcasing the work of a selected group of innovative, enthusiastic and creative makers who have recently started to produce and promote their creative practices.” The idea is worthwhile for everyone, since designers get business, companies find talent, clients discover trends, and schools receive attention. One Year On makes me wonder why there aren’t more savvy events like this. A 2008 graduate of Leeds College of Art & Design with a First Class Honours Degree in Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern Design, Abigail Borg is one of the ones of One Year On. Just last year she won the coveted “New Designer of the Year 2008” award out of thousands of other graduates. In 2009, she is literally One Year On, now with a textile and wallpaper business based in Birmingham, where she is available for freelance, commission, and consulting work. What she unveiled during the July show borrowed heavily from the Arts and Crafts Movement: “Peonies, Lilies and Other Pretties” was a tribute of sorts, spotlighting meandrous floral patterns in diffused palettes.

Repetition, elongation, and ornamentation intrude upon Borg’s wallcoverings in a fresh way—she uses more negative space than her inspiration and less expected color combinations. Her sinuous outlines emphasize handiwork, and the botanical themes recall garden design. Unlike William Morris papers, Borg’s patterns leave room for the eye to travel and wind through organically drawn crevices. There is more tension here between embellishment and emptiness. The hues in this modernized arts and crafts collection offer more juxtaposition: chocolate and mauve, grey and yellow, coral and pink. Always, Borg strikes a note with a subtle burst of intense color—the cerise outlines in her Rose motif, for instance. Bluey and Browny are the most uniform, but their heavy use of white and cream in the background relieves some of this consonance. Abigail Borg is good proof of One Year On’s good sense.