Freyja Dorren

Freyja has started her journey into Ceramics after coming from a background in Textile Print Design graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2021. After gaining experience within the print sector, working for designers such as Zandra Rhodes, she wanted to explore other pathways of design. 

Born and raised in Edinburgh and living in London for the past few years, Freyja has always been influenced by the life of cities. Exploring the marriage of old historical aspects of architecture with new and modern developments into our ever-growing cities. Her interest in architecture stems from taking walks through the city of London, discovering old classical buildings, brutalist creations and high-tech features all within a short distance walk from each other. This led her to create work that is a nod to the past and the present, with a graphic style and finish, combining, to some, the undiscerning elements of a city. 

Freyja was the recipient of the Charlotte Fraser Award which allowed her to develop and create work freely. She now looks forward to joining a studio to develop her practice within ceramics, creating her designs into sculptural functional ware.

Within Freyja's creative practice it is beneficial to understand a brief sense of the world that surrounds us, enriching a practice that naturally evolves whilst considering contextualisation of design. 

In relation to her own practice she finds it important to place relevance on the past and present of our environments we locate ourselves within, specifically the ‘ever-evolving’ city. As technology and design is enhanced and rapidly developed how do we still pay homage to what has come before? What would the world we live in entail if we charged forward without looking back? When placing this in a design context it is important for Freyja as an artist and designer to consider classical design elements from our past.

Freyja takes a large amount of inspiration from the city, immersing herself in the rich history and observing the natural diversity of a cityscape, highlighting the proximity of old historic beside new and contemporary, specifically within architecture. She enjoys the storytelling nature of a walk through the city, questioning what we may pass and easily dismiss on our everyday commute, beginning to encounter the captivating blend of high-tech and brutalist architecture, co-existing harmoniously with traditional buildings that have stood unwavering, preserving their authentic character and design through the years. 

Each piece she has created is influenced by interior detailing, deriving from places such as the V&A, and other historic landmarks within London. Freyja's textile print background enables her to transform the tactile surface to create a unique interwoven surface, giving a current relevance to the object, bringing a contemporary twist to each landmark detail, magnifying repetition and significance of history when we design.