The Wilderness Press: Wild Ilk - Created in Birmingham

Moseley based Wild Ilk Design Studio have just launched a new self directed project in the form of a limited edition run of screen prints.

From Birmingham design duo, Wild Ilk, comes a limited edition art print based on the idea of a labyrinth. Labyrinths are amazing and ancient structures with many uses. The obvious one being the labyrinth that housed the minotaur on ancient Crete. More modern uses of labyrinths are recreational, for contemplation and reflection.

The structure of this labyrinth breaks with traditional and historic geometric labyrinth designs with the goal being less about finding a way through the maze and more about appreciating what the maze itself can convey.

The pseudo-geometric artwork has been developed by repeating processes of hand drawing and digital editing before being screen printed in two variations on GF Smith ColorPlan by Mission Print, Birmingham.

We asked them a few questions about the project:

CiB: How often to you plan on releasing prints?

WI: We’ve got lots of ideas for where to take The Wilderness Press and work lined up to release but we haven’t really fixed down a structure for how often we’ll be putting prints out. Although there’s a close link to our studio work, this is our platform for more personal and experimental work than what we do commercially as Wild Ilk so we want to be able to put things out that we want to see in the world. We’ve had a really good reaction to the Labyrinth prints, which is great, so hopefully we can build on that and get some more work out soon.

CiB: What else are you working on at the moment that you’d like to share with our readers?

WI: As mentioned we’ve got more planned for The Wilderness Press but that’s top secret of course. The studio is also working on some interesting projects; we’ve done some graphics for an upcoming short film, shot in Rhyll, with a producer from London and we’ve also been working with Birmingham-based photographer, Andrew Pilsbury on a very limited range of handmade catalogues for his upcoming exhibition Baba Namdev Marg at Birmigham Institute of Art & Design. Our ongoing relationship with Espirito Brum Festival is also producing some really great work for some fantastic upcoming events around the city.

We recommend staying up to date with Wild Ilk’s happenings by following their twitter.

The Wilderness Press project can be found here: thewildernesspress.com

Virtual high-fives to everyone who can tell us what the posters say (it took us a minute or so!)