Sania Pell

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Your time at the University

Edinburgh is such a beautiful city it captivated me the first time I walked out of Waverley train station, and it was such a wonderful place to study. And once I visited the College of Art with its impressive sculpture hall and friendly staff, I could not resist it. It was my first choice and I was delighted when I was offered a place.

The drawing trips to Carlton Hill, Portobello and Ben More with guest lecturers were memorable and we learned such a lot during them. On Fridays I studied printmaking as my second subject. We were a conscientious class, spending full days at our desks designing and drawing but we also had fun.

I remember one party at our flat on South Clerk Street where the floor bounced so much from the number of people dancing we were worried we might all fall through to the flat beneath.

Tell us about your Experiences since leaving the University

I was spotted at the New Designers show in London by a few textile design companies and ended up working for Whiston and Wright, a London-based textile design studio. I worked in-house as a print designer producing textiles for the fashion and interior market and loved my years there.

My designs sold throughout the commercial market, to companies like M&S and Monsoon. One of my happiest moments was opening up Vogue magazine to see a double page advert for Armani with super model Nadja Auermann wearing a dress with a print I had designed on it.

Then I needed a new challenge and began to retrain as an interior stylist for magazines, and began assisting other stylists on shoots. Eventually, I was to be given my own small features at Elle Decoration, progressing to larger ones, front covers and major spreads.

One of my happiest moments was opening up Vogue magazine to see a double page advert for Armani with super model Nadja Auermann wearing a dress with a print I had designed on it.

Sania Pell

After the birth of my second child, I made the decision to spend more time with my children, so cut back on styling work. But the ideas kept coming, so I jotted them down in a notebook that I always kept in my bag.

This developed into an idea for a book and I approached a publisher who loved the idea. My book, The Homemade Home, came out in 2010 and is now a best seller for my publisher. I followed it with a second book, The Homemade Home for Children.

I am still friends with many of my old classmates and love to catch up them and also with the Edinburgh lecturers at the New Designers show, which I return to every year to support the latest talent emerging from the School of Art.

Alumni wisdom

Love what you do and always give your absolute best to anything you approach. This then shines through your work.