In This Colour

Aya Labib is a young artist who has determinedly stayed true to herself and her art. Her passion for creativity is overflowing and clearly abundant, and her story is one that she hopes will inspire future generations to follow their dreams. After a childhood spent living and travelling abroad, Aya and her family settled in Okehampton, which is where I met with her on a rainy day.

Aya begins: “My dad's Egyptian, mum's English. They met when my dad was a steward and my mum was a passenger. My dad was working with British Airways at the time and as he moved up with his career we all had the opportunity to live abroad – Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia. The culture was amazing, but my grandma, my mum's mum, lived in Holsworthy. In the Middle East we were getting incredibly long summer holidays; we spent 10 weeks of our summer in Devon. I absolutely loved it, going to the beach… I remember when it was absolutely hammering it down, my mum would let us jump in the sea, so we just made the most of it. The school I was in out in Kuwait only went up to Year 9; I was 13 and I loved it over there, but it wasn't the norm to just walk to the shops or whatever, so I didn't have as much freedom. My mum had lived in Middle East for 20 years by that point and when she said we should move back to England, we all said ‘Devon’, couldn't even pick anywhere else, to be honest.”

Aya joined Okehampton College just in time to start her GCSEs and stayed on at the college.

“For my A level, I did art, textiles and photography. I also did psychology, didn't do very well in that one! I was thinking, oh, if I'm not an artist, I'll be an art therapist. And then I decided to study fashion design. I don't really know why, I think it just looked really cool. And being a teenage girl into clothes, all that stuff. There was a point in my life where I really thought I'd be a stylist for a band. And hopefully marry a band member and then that would be it.”

Having gained good grades, Aya turned her sights towards higher education.

“I always knew I wanted to go to university and do something creative. We looked around and fell in love with Leeds, really liked the city, really liked the uni and the uni itself was just an arts university, which was quite nice. I think what really sold me was when they offered the student accommodation and said ‘you could be sharing with a photographer, textile artist, graphic designer'. So I knew for any future projects that there would be contacts. Even if it's not your roommate, it could be someone they know or whatever, but I would have those contacts. I got my offer and moved straight up there. I just turned 19, and thought I was so grown up.

“I really loved it. I really got my teeth into it the whole three years. And then in your final year you make a graduate collection for a six outfit collection. And basically I just started painting onto fabric. I was doing really random patterns, really abstract, you know, even just dots here, there and everywhere. I got really good feedback on it. And I will admit that final year was tough. I was incredibly burnt out by the time it ended. But what we also did was graduate Fashion Week in London. It was really good getting to see all the different universities’ work.

"However, I was a bit disappointed because there were opportunities to show your portfolio to people within the fashion industry. I did sign myself up for a couple but pulled out later in the week. A few of my friends who went first, they said it was brutal. Like, “I showed my work, something I'm so incredibly proud of. And they'll be like, yeah, that's ****”.

So I did chicken out. I didn't go in the end because I just didn't want to be upset with something I was really proud of. And I think the atmosphere itself, it was very 'Devil Wears Prada', I just didn't like the environment.”

Aya's collection which is on sale in John Lewis

Aya graduated and I moved home, planning to stay for a month or so before leaving to start her career. Two days in, she met her partner, Josh.

Aya tells me: “I never really left again, but actually, thank God I did that because then COVID happened and I didn't know where I was gonna end up.”

It turned out that things came full circle when Aya returned to a job she'd had all through school and college – working at the town's Waitrose supermarket.

“Throughout my whole education, I worked at Waitrose down the road, pushing trolleys, stacking shelves, cleaning aisles or anything – bakery, where I would wear this little hair net, which I hated! But I really enjoyed it. I’m very grateful that I always had something to fall back to when I came home. I ended up becoming a supervisor during COVID which was tough because obviously everyone wanted to buy toilet roll. But I still needed that creative thing in my life. And to be honest, I hadn't really picked up a pencil since graduating. I did actually end up working in an office just for better hours. I think I didn't know where I wanted to go, creatively. I felt just like I was putting it off every time. So, I then got a part-time role at the seamstress in Honiton for a curtain maker. I’d never made curtains before, but I picked it up really quickly. Really enjoyed it, enjoyed looking at all the fabrics, which I think sparked that a little bit inside me. Like, oh OK, this is where I’m meant to be - sewing might not be it, but it's a starting point, I guess.

“I then worked for a little fashion studio in Exeter, in a little warehouse, sewing a little bit here and there, but mostly cutting out the patterns and packaging the orders. And that was for festival/rave clothing. It was really fun. And then in my own time, I was trying to build up my business. I think I knew I wanted to do something for myself because I was so tired of working for other people, and people tell me what to do. And my parents own their own little business selling handmade glass baubles all the way from Egypt. So I knew if I need a business advice, I could go to my parents.”

Slowly but surely, with support and encouragement from her family, Aya began to create her own work and found her style.

“My boyfriend came with me for my first ever market, actually. I’d never seen that sales side of him. That did really, really great. One day I'll actually hire a him as a staff member, but not yet. I'll pay myself first! I've been very lucky with a lot of my friends. They live all over the country. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of creative markets down here in Devon. So, I’ll think I need to go visit that person, so let's do a market up there - free accommodation! It's a nice way to catch up and try to get my name out there. But at the same time, Josh and I really wanted to grow a family so I had to prioritise that and I thought, oh, I think being a mum must be easy. Everyone else manages it, my mum's got four kids, you know, fine. And I thought - my maternity leave, that's when I'll build the business up again. No. Yeah, I tried! Ultimately, Kai is my highest priority. He just turned two in December. When he can properly speak, I'll get him to be my inspiration – he’ll probably be my biggest critic! But it's not actually looking after them that’s tough, it's trying to be your own person at the same time.”

About 6 months after having Kai, Aya was feeling the need to regain some of what made her, her. She tells me that she didn't have much time to be creative whilst looking after a new baby, but an opportunity arose that she felt she couldn't turn down.

“I've always wanted to do Top Drawer, the major trade show in London because I follow a lot of illustrators on Instagram and they've all done it. It was a big jump for my little business, but I felt like I could do it. I think by that time, being a mum, I was like, yeah, I just pushed a baby out. I can do anything, you know, can't stop crying for some reason, but I can do this. And I just thought I'll apply, that's all I'll do, apply. Not going to get it. I'm so small, nowhere near where I want to be, but I'll apply just so that I've done it. And instantly they accepted me and what was really great actually, is what they offer. For the startup companies they have cheaper stands, it's called the Launchpad. Then right at the start of the show is where they'll put all the new businesses. And I will be honest, it still was incredibly expensive. So I thought that I'm not going to do it now because I don't have the money for it. But my boyfriend really encouraged me to do it. And actually I did need that push and I thought right, OK, just do it and see where it goes. I spent my time in the next few months designing the stand for it, printing everything.

“When you set it up, on the first day I just thought ‘Oh my God, I actually can't believe this'. It is so weird seeing my stand design on a flat bit of paper to then think, 'Oh God, it's all come together and it looks exactly how I want it to be’.

"If it wasn’t for one of my best friends, Sophie, who came to visit me at my stand then I would not have my designs in John Lewis. Sophie kindly brought her boss, Nicola, over before browsing tableware items for their upcoming collections. Sophie has always been unbelievably supportive and encouraging when it has come to my small business. Nicola and I briefly spoke but she does tableware. I only did prints and greetings cards, didn't really think anything of it. And then three months later I got an e-mail, and it wasn't like 'do you have any ideas?' It was 'I really want you to design a collection of 6 mugs'. I thought it was a scam, I was about to delete the email! Then we had a call, they made me feel very welcomed. They said 'do what you want, you have free reign'. The only thing they changed was, I did a colourful inside for the mug to match the outside and they said their target market is really particular about their tea, so they want to see the colour of it. So that was the only thing they changed. So, they're now in store, in every John Lewis. I did go into the store the other day and I was like, no way. The fact that I'm on the same shelf as Emma Bridgewater, it's insane. I did have a little cry. I have my own collection, but they're currently in bubble wrap in a box that I'll never drink out of because God forbid I drop them!”

And as for the name of her business?

“I literally put colour onto everything. Each print I do comes in different colour combinations because some people are more into pink, more into blue or very monochrome or incredibly bright and colourful. So that was really how I came up with the name. That was the hardest bit; I'm so indecisive. I really like everything in life. I'll buy it all rather than just one – probably why I've got no money! I remember I did a print in six different colours. I was asking Josh – do you like it in this colour? In this colour? In this colour? It just clicked and I thought - that is the name.”

After moving into a smaller house, Aya realised she didn't have space for all her coursework and so contacted her old teacher at Okehampton College, Miss Murray, and asked if she would like it to use as examples in her lessons. Her teacher asked Aya to visit the college and give a presentation to the students. Aya explains to me why this part of her journey, in particular, feels very important.

“I think if I inspire someone to do it as a hobby, or whether they want to do their own business... we had to fight to keep textile A level because there were only two of us that wanted to do it and they said no - it was two students, it's not worth it. But then again, they had French A level and only two students in there and they kept it. So we really fought for it. And yeah, fair enough, they kept it on for us. People said there's no career in art and as much as I really wanted to prove people wrong, part of me thought 'God, what if there isn't?' But I think people have that mindset that it's only if you do, say, fine art, where you could really be your own artist. From school, they're like, well, you can't really get a job in fashion, it's so rare. But somebody does!

“You do have set backs; I think with art, like music and anything creative, it's all a matter of opinion. You might like one thing, I might like something completely different. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with either. And actually, especially with what life is like now, everything's so digital. I design everything digitally on a little pad, straight onto my MacBook. There are other options. You don't have to do screen printing, you don't have to do just standard photography. You can literally take it however you want to go. And like I said, I studied fashion design, I'm now doing illustration, something so different. I'm still making career out of it. So you can do it.

“I won't lie, it is hard. I can't tell you how many jobs I've applied for, with a degree which people said you needed to get for a creative job, and they don't even get back to you. You do have to keep pushing. It's so hard now with social media - it's over-saturated, you just can't stand out any more. You can put the right hashtag for whatever, but then again, there's millions of that same hashtag. It's normal that you're going to get down about yourself 'cause there was a point where I was like, I need money, is it actually worth it? I'm not getting anywhere. But then suddenly when you're least expecting it, that's when it's all happens.”

Aya has an online shop where she sells her prints and cards, and is planning to attend markets this year to further spread her joyful work. She explains that it's not just a job for her, it's vital to her mental and emotional well-being, and she hopes to show the next generation in her old school, and further afield, that not listening to those who tell you you can't make a career out of doing something you love, is the truest path to follow.

You can view Aya's collection and purchase prints and greetings cards at inthiscolour.co.uk and find her on Instagram @inthiscolour.