Sukie designers Darrell and Julia Gibbs appreciate the stories told, so to speak, by objects that have lived a long life and, more importantly, are skilled at imbuing their work with this same sense of character. Beside the sea in Brighton, the Gibbs are a pair of illustrators behind Sukie’s neo-nostalgic notebooks (made from recycled paper) and printed textiles. All the vintage sweetness, muted colors and bygone naivété of their retro-modern home is inspired by ephemera and found objects and expressed in their boldly graphic and softly chubby illustrations. In the beginning, Julia was working as a buyer for Liberty while Darrell studied at the Royal College of Art, where he produced a series of sketchbooks made from old envelopes for his thesis project. When Habitat ordered 120,000 of them, Sukie was born. It seems fitting that the studio operates out of the sun-filled front room of their home where they are raising three children, including a girl named Kitty, and a cat who responds to the name Satchel.