Two Years/A Lifetime in the Making- The journey of Loud Pigmnt

“Allure” Monoprint, 2013- College Art

✨ The Spark

My first serious foray into surface design/pattern design was working with Wild Isle swim in 2021. Months prior I had created a sunray pattern that I had printed on a tapestry for my home office and hadn’t thought much about it. The owner of Wild Isle, had seen in on my instagram and DM’ed me, asking if we could do a limited edition run of swim wear with the pattern. I said yes, of course. This partnership got my brain sparking- I love patterns, I love adorning.

I began sketching, dreaming, creating prototypes, getting fabric made to chase the delusion that I’d go into fashion design. That balloon deflated fast. I realized while I love fashion, and making- I had no desire to actually make clothing. It was the pattern making that kept me hanging on. 

I am a pattern girlie. Simple as that.

Now, 2 years and over 80 patterns illustrated and carved later, I’ve done the work of narrowing down designs, prototyping and getting samples of dozens of colorways of each pattern. 

 Why Loud Pigmnt Exists

I wanted to see if I could create bold, artistic, unique feeling patterns that infused a love for color, nature, and lineage. Something that sometimes felt like an evolution of a William Morris- art and design as function. Something felt honored yet accessible. Patterns that walked that line between fun and elegantly eccentric. Loud. Unapologetic. Refined. 

I want these patterns to adorn the walls of joy-filled dining rooms, and to provide warmth, emotionally and literally to the fabrics and textiles within the homes. But I am also painfully aware of how fragile the idea of home is right now for the global majority. To be open and frank- It’s also why this has been two years in the making.

Going back and forth about the merits of/shoulds if a patterns//textile company is needed in the world right now. When so many people's sense of homes and being housed is so precarious, but then I remember little me- finding bits of joy of investing in my sense of self and home, even with nothing. If I could provide just a bit of that, something that folks would want to invest in to bring a bit of daily joy into their day- and remain accessible, I’m okay with that balance. 

That’s what I hope I am achieving with the launching of Loud Pigmnt. As Loud Pigmnt comes to life, I see it as an offering;  a love letter to color, resilience, and the artistry of making home, wherever we are. I hope these patterns remind you that beauty, too, can be a form of care.

— Leeya Rose Jackson, Founder & Artist, Loud Pigmnt

Loud Pigmnt began as a quiet whisper; a desire to bring story, color, and cultural elegance into the spaces we live in. This is the story of how a love for pattern, shaped by lineage and survival, turned into a design practice two years (and a lifetime) in the making.

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🌱 Where It Began

I’ve led many creative lives, had many ADHD-fueled artistic pivots and the one constant, has always been a love of pattern and decor. This urge to beautify the space around me, with whatever means I had. 

I grew up in a disordered environment, a home with too little space for the amount of people who found refuge in its walls. Open, welcoming yet chaotic. Always in a state of almost repair - my grandad, a handyman who loved starting projects more than finishing them- and would often spend his energy fixing other people’s houses/problems rather than our own. We lived in that state for years, so in order to control something, anything in our space- I’d often use my artistic talents to try and decorate halls and my bedroom.

As a young teen, my glamorous and elegant Grandma Alice handed me a display case of Yves Saint Laurent nailpolishes, likely around 50 of them of every shade- and in them I saw an opportunity. I used those nail polishes to paint a bubble mural on my bedroom wall (I did NOT think through the fumes/smell and had to have a cracked window for a few days). I also used them to paint our entertainment center with an Egyptian hieroglyphic pattern motif.

Looking back, the murals were hideous. But taking adornment into my own hands, felt like power. 

🎨 From Paint to Pattern

In college I studied Painting and Printmaking, where I further explored pattern and design motifs. In printmaking I learned techniques of mass printing- linoleum and woodblock carving, lithography, etc. (this comes back around, I promise- it’s not just my random resume). 

Fast forward, in my career as an Art Director, Graphic Design/Brand Designer, and even Visual Artist- pattern has remained a common, distinctive thread in my work. The stories, emotion, fun that can be interwoven into a pattern design has always called to me.

“Vanishing Women”, 2013- College Art

Wildisle Swim - Bottom Pattern Collab