Our Designers

Designer from 2024-present 

As Erstwilder's 'Creative Lead', Hannah spends her days designing the banners and graphics that enhance your online experience, as well as the packaging that houses your adored accessories. She love creating, viewing, and reviewing all things art and animation! And she also loves shopping for crazily patterned shirts. Outside of work, you can find Hannah at home playing point-and-click puzzle games, doing a jigsaw with her family, or reading poetry by the sea with a cup of chai.

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Designer from 2015-present 

Carmen is an illustrator and artist based in Sydney’s inner west. She has a passion for drawing and is inspired greatly by animals and botanicals. A typical day for Carmen consists of running her online shop, working on commissioned artwork and creating super fun and colourful Erstwilder accessories. When not drawing, you can find Carmen hanging out with her cat Miso, visiting all the galleries or enjoying a Bloody Mary with her bestie and partner in crime.

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Designer from 2024-present 

Shea is an illustrator and designer currently drawing up a storm in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She is inspired by all things dripping in vintage glamour and joy, and fears no sparkle, of course. When she's not creating, you can find Shea complimenting the plants in her garden, singing and whistling to her two fur babies, watching old musicals, or reading voraciously with a piping hot coffee. We first collaborated with Shea when we brought her existing designs to life through wearable art for the Love Everlasting collection in 2023, but her first Erstwilder original collection was Atomic Abode in 2024.

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Designer from 2021-present 

A Melbourne-based designer living with her family and fur baby Pepsi, Halena (or ‘Hallie’) helps illustrate the visionary concepts briefed by Erstwilder's creative team. Hallie loves the creative energy at Erstwilder and describes it is like “designing in sunshine ALL THE TIME!” Her favourite places to be include vintage shops or markets and she loves finding unique treasures that can be a source of inspiration. A few more of her favourite things include horses, in all forms - unicorns, Pegasus and seahorses! And her favourite movie is Xanadu which she describes as ‘…the mixed tape of movie greatness - 80’s, 50’s, roller skates, romance, music, dancing, Greek mythology and LA architecture.

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Designer from 2022-2024

During her time at Erstwilder HQ as a Product Developer, Holly created and designed a number of wonderful and whimsical illustrations across various collections. Holly will tell you that she was born in the wrong decade, because she’s always loved everything from the '50s. This may be largely due to her ‘Nonnie’ who opened her eyes to all things glamorous. In her spare time, Holly is all about watching old romantic musicals and classic horror monsters, pet sitting fur babies and dreaming about living in a Disney fantasy land with her cat, Dinah.

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Designer from 2015-2023

Living in a green and hilly areas of the outer suburbs of Melbourne, amongst many birds, kangaroos, horses and even alpacas, Elena is not short on inspiration and often carries a little notebook on her daily walks to jot down ideas that come to her while out and about. When not outdoors, Elena spends her time painting and illustrating, often until very late at night. Designing for Erstwilder allowed Elena to combine two of her favourite things - her love of nature and her love of colour.

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Designer from 2021-2023

For approximately two years, from early 2021 to early 2023, Catherine led the Erstwilder Design Team, having significant influence over the creative direction of collections and contributing to illustrative art as well. Most days, Catherine would spend time developing new concept sketches and illustrations, liaising with the production team to bring these designs to life. Having always possessed a passion for vintage fashion, Catherine loved Erstwilder’s modern take on eras gone by. Outside the office, Cat loves cuddling her two fur-baby Lagotto Romagnolo’s, baking something delicious in the kitchen, or sipping a Pina Colada in her Palm Springs landscaped garden.

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Designer from 2015-2021

Growing up in a sweet little town by the seaside, Sally spent a lot of time drawing and playing with her bunnies. It was love at first site when Sally stumbled across her first Erstwilder brooch in a curious little shop in her hometown but her journey really began when she joined the design team in 2015. A few years later Sally secured a dream job - a permanent role at HQ as the ‘Head Designer'. And she proudly held the position until she was called away to explore other personal artistic pursuits in early 2021.

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Designer from 2015-2020

In what Jess decribes as her ‘past life’ she worked in children's book publishing sales and marketing, while also secretly working on her own illustrations at night. She now works on a wide assortment of illustration projects which included Erstwilder collections and projects between 2015 and 2019. In her time with the label Jess points to her work on the May Gibbs collection as a highlight, especially given her love of books and picture books in particular.

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Designer from 2018-2018 

A graphic designer from Sydney, Lori may be busy designing for corporate clients one day and working with musicians and performing arts organisations the next. But every day she’ll be wearing a brooch! Lori achieved a dream come true in working with Erstwilder after presenting a pitch to them out of the blue for a collection she had conceived, and the creative team at Erstwilder HQ loving it so much they decided to work together to bring it to life. When not designing Lori is spoiling her guinea pigs, going to galleries or the theatre, making polymer clay jewellery or creating content for the Facebook page Patrice the Guinea Pig.

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Designer from 2014-2014 

Born to an artist father and ceramicist mother, Cat was destined to be an artist. Cat illustrates all sorts; children’s books, stamps, logos, greeting cards, magazine covers and even pet portraits! Living with her husband and two children her spare time is rare, but when she happens upon it she tries to spend it painting. Her works are gentle and whimsical, with use of strong bright colours and polished vectors. Cat designed two collections for Erstwilder, both were released in 2014.

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Pete Cromer is an Australian designer, illustrator and happy art creator with a truly distinctive style. Celebrating the coming together of Australian creatives (and often celebrating native Australian animals), Pete’s bright and colourful designs have been transformed and brought to life as wearable art in multiple ERSTWILDER x PETE CROMER collaboration collections. These ranges have developed a dedicated following of their own, and even resulted in the creation of the term ‘Petewilder’.

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Jocelyn Proust is an Australian designer living on the north coast of NSW. With an international reputation for creating striking abstract prints in a clean graphic style, her designs are often a fine balance between simplicity and complex detail. Jocelyn draws inspiration from her vast collection of art and design books and her natural environment, including the plants and birds in her garden. These natural elements are used to create the unique designs Jocelyn is now widely recognised for, her Australian Native Flora and Australian Birds Collections. When she’s not busy designing, you can find her enjoying a morning walk or ocean swim.

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The epitome of cool creativity, Katherine is adored for her show-stopping desserts and quirky style. Once a high school teacher, Katherine is now a celebrated cake creative globally with three best-selling cookbooks, TV appearances (notably Masterchef Australia and Dessert Masters), viral social media posts, fashion magazines and more.

VIEW THE ERSTWILDER X KATHERINE SABBATH COLLECTION

Australian artist and creative Fleur Harris is celebrated the world over for her highly detailed illustrative patterns of spirited woodland creatures. Fleur's passion for producing whimsical creations and a sense of wonder in the hearts of all those who encounter her work perfectly aligns with our own ethos, and the results are magic!

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A descendant of Ngarabal who has bloodlines to the Torres Strait Islands, Lauren Rogers shares her art to celebrate and honour her Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. Her work, which draws inspiration from the rich cultural traditions of her people, is infused with vibrant colours, intricate patterns, and organic linework.

VIEW THE ERSTWILDER X LAUREN ROGERS COLLECTION

Clare Youngs is a designer maker who primarily works with paper and fabric. Originally trained as a graphic designer, Clare has had a life long interest in everything handmade and has enjoyed making handcrafted objects since her childhood. She not only creates artwork, but has also written books and runs workshops from the Kent Coast, United Kingdom.

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Kasey’s purpose has always been to ‘live bright’ and inspire others to do the same. It’s this philosophy that inspired the creation of her comforting and colourful critters, each with their own unique biography, personality and pronoun, who all reside in the imaginary and totally adorable world of ‘Kutopia’.

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Terry Runyan is a Kansas City, US-based visual artist and former long-time in-house illustrator for Hallmark. Renowned for her happy, playful art, Terry's work often explores a menagerie of animal life bursting with personality and character, which was a delight to transform into Erstwilder wearable art. A cat lover and creative encourager, Terry enjoys teaching and sharing her passion online.

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With inspiration drawn from personal experience and a deep love for the Australian outback, rainforests, and reefs, Indigenous artist Melanie Hava’s artwork is a captivating combination of colour and pattern. A homage to Aboriginal art and culture, this collaboration features an assortment of Mel’s unique and distinctive character design, brought to life as wearable art.

VIEW THE ERSTWILDER X MELANIE HAVA COLLECTION

A proud Melbournian, just like us here at Erstwilder, Laura Blythman is an artist, designer, illustrator and Creative Director who enjoys any and all art that makes her eyes and heart happy. This release seamlessly replicates her recognisable collage-style aesthetic for a collection that captures the joy of all four seasons, in stunningly vibrant resins.

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Mimsy Gleeson is a Brisbane-based tattoo artist and illustrator. Well known for her distinctive cute, quirky and colourful artwork that draws inspiration from classic cartoons and Japanese culture, Mimsy was the perfect collaborator for our 2021 Halloween release, a collection of wearable art aptly titled ‘Cute & Spooky’!

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Stephanie is a New York based painter, illustrator and designer. Inspired by old story books, vintage design, monsters, halloween and circus sideshows, her work can be seen everywhere from picture books to fashion. Stephanie has worked on a wide variety of projects, from picture books, comic books, licensing, character design to accessory and textile design. Erstwilder collaborated with Steph’s own small business ‘Kitschy Witch Designs’ on a special Halloween-inspired collection in May 2019 to much fanfare from the communities of both labels, as well as our December 2021 release of Alice's Wonderland, which will be updated on the museum soon.

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Mel Stringer is an Australian Artist and freelance Illustrator now based in the Pacific North West where she resides with her husband and their ever-growing plethora of plants. Mel's style can be described as cheeky, playful, empowering and with a strong focus on women and body positivity. In May 2019, Erstwilder released a range produced in collaboration with Mel, bringing some of her most-loved character art to life in a range which was, in essence, an ode to self-love. 

VIEW THE ERSTWILDER X MEL STRINGER COLLECTION