Emma-Jayne Parkes and Viviane Jaeger are the brains behind the Jackson Pollock-inspired umbrellas using ink that changes colour when wet.
The co-founders were studying product design and development at the London College of Fashion when they were told to rethink the 1950s overshoe – a protective shield to prevent your ankles from getting wet.
They were so impressed with the American’s artwork and creativity, they decided to take it further by exploring the use of colour, the different ways in which colour can be used, which then lead to them finding a way in which ink could be integrated to other materials in similar ways in which ink were been applied to clothes.
They soon approached an ink manufacturer about their product and had to wait a while being allowed to develop their ideas but after a huge amount of persistentence and hard work, they were finally allowed to start testing and they started on the development of the new ink idea which will work on fabrics.
During the time, they won a business plan competition organised by Deutsche Bank that gave them £1,000 and a business course at the East London Small Business Centre which could not have come at a better time they said.
They have also took part in the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship’s Flying Start programme which proved timely as they were days from launching the first trial collection of their umbrellas and ended up selling their first ever umbrella at the programme.
After being featured on the Sunday times after the release of the squids 100 limited umbrellas, it was sold out within 11 days.
They have since gone on to Design the costumes for the London Olympics handover ceremony in Beijing, announcing their first stockist Beyond the Valley, being commissioned by Tate to create an umbrella collection inspired by the Colour Chart Exhibition and having a collection sold at the world famous Art Basel, fair
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