Worlds of Wonderment - Artist Sam Wilde

Sam Wilde positions his practice at the intersection of visual art and surface design, and is best known for storytelling through his signature worldbuilding approach to pattern creation. Empowering the viewer through each pattern's conceptual message and evoking in them a sense of childhood wonderment for the epics hidden within.

Sam considers the surfaces he creates as their own visually escapist worlds. Great consideration is taken so that each and every element within these worlds builds to form a logically cohesive scene, filled to the brim with nuanced symbolism and immersive detail.

An early affinity with science and mathematics led Sam Wilde to Durham University where he achieved a 2-1 honours BSc in Natural Sciences. Immediately afterwards he embarked on a three-year career in London's financial sector, where he worked as a Business Analyst and later as a Raw Materials Trader.

In his limited spare time, Sam worked at honing his craft, and without so much as an art GCSE, achieved a Masters’ in Printed Textiles from the Royal College of Art London.

Spotlighted as part of this generation's leading new designers, Sam has been commended for his outstanding artistry and has received the Marks & Spencer Fashion Fabric, Svenskt Tenn Textile Talent, TexSelect Design Futures, ELLE Decoration British Design 2021 and Saatchi Art Artists to Collect in 2022 awards.

RAINE: Can you tell us about your process of art-making?

SAM WILDE: I tend to start analogue, with sketches, watercolour, gouache and mad labyrinthine repeat maps. Then I'll translate that work into the digital realm while trying my best to maintain the hand-drawn lucidity from those earlier stages. However, the most important part of the process is transforming digital into material. As this is how the viewer will experience and hopefully fall in love with the work. Whether that's as a printed textile, wallpaper, moving-image installation or whatever else.

RAINE: Any special habits or idiosyncrasies during the process of art making?

WILDE: It's a little unusual, but I have synesthesia, which for me presents as auditory sensations generating colour hallucinations in my visual field. Whenever I'm creating a new colourway with a particular emotion in mind, I'll be sure to listen to music that evokes the sensations of seeing those colours in my mind's eye. So let's say I want the colourway to feel like you're in a night-time carnival, lost in a world that feels between reality and surreality. Listening to music that reminds me of being at the fairground would synesthetically present as hallucinations of luminescent colours bursting from a dark sky.

Sam works across a variety of mediums, including animation, digital illustration, screen printing and watercolour, and cites his personal experience as a synesthete, 90's video games and evolutionary biology as his biggest influences.