Annie Chen is an artist based in Vancouver & Squamish. She created LEMONNI – an art and design studio in 2013 with the idea of bringing happiness to home through patterns and colours. She loves using motifs with crisp lines and colours with a soft retro palette in her designs. Annie’s style has been described as whimsical, playful, and reminiscent of the 60s. Her work is often inspired by nature and her love for animals.
LEMONNI also represents Annie’s alter ego – an identity that she adopted to represent who she is under the Eastern and Western influences. She was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Canada at the age of 15. As a kid, Annie loved collecting beautiful paper and packaging. Her parents thought she was hoarding junk. In retrospect, she was just trying to appreciate good design.
Annie’s creative journey has been a long and winding one. Like many other Asian kids, she was expected to do well in school so that she could become a doctor or a lawyer. Getting good grades was all she knew. She wasn’t given much freedom to find her passion, until after university she spent some time in London working and traveling. London’s art and culture scenes helped Annie discover that she loves design, and inspired her to pursue a creative career. She spent the next few years honing her design skills. It was in 2015 that she started to focus on surface pattern design, where her true passion really lies.
Collecting beautiful paper and packaging is still one of her hobbies. She loves mid-century modern design. She’s an old soul when it comes to music, and a dog mom to her fur babies Sammy and Emma.
CONTACT
By email: annie@lemonni.com
By snail mail: 990 Nicola Street, Vancouver, BC, V6G 2C8, Canada