Wicked & Weird: Lara Cameron Proteaflora Prints

I love these beautiful graphic prints of the protea flower by Australian designer Lara Cameron. The bright colours, graphic shapes, and striking typeface on the softly graded background are so eye-catching, and the choice of protea is so unexpected (at least for us North Americans).

I had actually never sean a protea until I lived briefly in South Africa (the King Protea is South Africa's national flower). We lived there during the South African winter in 2000, and one of my favourite memories is when it SNOWED high up in the mountains around Cape Town and everyone went berserk. It was nuts. We joined the throngs of cars and people parading up into the hills to take a look at what was really a light dusting of snow. There were hundreds of people who had never seen snow in their lives, many taking handfulls back to their car (to take home?) while Chris and I watched in amazement. One of the images that has always stayed with me was people picking proteas and using them to carry the snow back to their cars - packing it in to the middle of these huge, beautiful, strange flowers and carrying it like gold down the hill. It was just the most bizzarre combination... and it is sort of representative of our experiences living there. Since then I have always had a strong attachment to proteas!