About

I'm Kym and I am the artist, maker & surface pattern designer behind Kilo Papa Studio and I'm based in Glasgow, Scotland.

I've been running my business part-time since 2017, finally making the jump to full-time in 2021

The name Kilo Papa comes from the phonetic words for my initials K - kilo and P - papa. I never liked the idea of my name being the brand name so I figured this way my name is technically in there, just not literally out there.

Back at the beginning in 2017, off the back of a single commission for a friend, which led to more commissions and more, I accidentally ended up with a body of work. This work was highly stylised and detailed, totally monochrome and focussed on Scottish Landmarks and cultural subject matter. I'd hand draw each piece to create a linear image and then meticulously fill the space with swirling whorls or geometric forms of patterns and shapes. Some would take me over 50 hours to complete. I loved creating pieces that brought joy and connection to people, be it a landmark from Glasgow that would be gifted to a friend who no longer lived in Scotland. Or a can of Irn Bru or bottle of Buckfast that would hang proudly in folks kitchens to add some fun into their homes. It was all about connection.

My Map of Scotland was my best seller and was the first piece where I'd applied my now signature pattern of flowing free-hand organic lines filled with beautiful little details. The movement created by the lines of the piece (which often get mistaken for Paisley - a happy accident) reminded me of topography and land contours I'd seen on OS maps. And it brought back into my mind a project I'd done at University, where I studied textile design and where I'd looked at patterns in nature and organic forms in nature. Nature has always been a great source of influence and inspiration for me and this project was full of imagery of agate rocks and topography! and experiments with the movement of paint to simulate oil on water.

I like to think of this as a bit of a full-circle moment, as clichèd as that sounds.

My aim is to always try and create connection between the viewer and my art and to help tell the individual stories of my audience and their connection to Scotland. So I wondered if I could apply my style to actual land contours from actual maps. And then I had my lightbulb moment - munros. Hand drawn illustrated contour maps of Scotlands Munros. Folk love a hill - connection, boom. Micdrop

And THEN I had my second lightbulb moment - COLOUR 🧡

I love colour. Adore it. It's one of my favourite things to play around with. My work until the commission era of 2017 was always full of colour - my university projects, my personal work, my work from way back in school - all very colourful. I even got hired straight out of uni because of my skills with the ole colour, thank ya very much. So yeah it was something I loved and after a couple years of monochroming it up, it was something I missed deeply. So I put down the oodles of doodles and hours spent hunched over my drawing board and I started adding colour to my maps...

...and it's safe to say I haven't looked back since that moment.

It didn't take long to stray from just doing Munros, there are A LOT of hills in Scotland and although not all are Munros, so many are cherished. From engagements, to weddings, to memorials, to holidays, to challenges, to charity fundraisers, to family bonding trips - there are so many different ways that people connect with mountains, hill walking and the land in Scotland. 

It also didn't take long to stray from making paper-based products. As a textile designer I pined for fabrics and made a goal to find my way back to it. So I did, with the humble, yet mighty tea towel. My lord do folk love a tea towel!

They turned out better than I could have hoped and have opened up a world of possibility

So that is currently where we are at. Prints and tea towels. 

But fear not, I have not been sated on my quest for more textiles, not even close. There are projects in the works as we speak so keep those eyes peeled!

Thanks for reading my ramblings, I hope you've learnt a bit about me and my work and stay tuned for new things. And get your arse up a hill so you can commemorate it with a tea towel...

If you have any other questions, you can contact me on my social channels or via email. Check out my contact page

Kym