About
Lorna creates stories which delight in the magic of the everyday, and provide comfort for the tricker parts of life, told through short stories, beautiful illustrations and heartwarming animations
Behind Toots Design is me, Lorna Gibson, an author, illustrator and animator. I'm entirely self taught and began creating cosy wintry illustrations in the long winter evenings while I worked as a ski instructor in the mountains. Sharing my illustrations on social media, I began to grow an audience and decided to establish this business, selling cards and prints to begin with. In time, I began to create stories as well as illustrations and went on to self-publish four books; Just As You Are, The Tales Of Mr Bear, Love Never Dies and Hidden Monsters.
Beyond the lure of Christmas and snow, I have always been inspired by the magic of the everyday; cosy, heartwarming moments with those that you love and the beauty of the countryside around me. While there is a certainly a child-like joy to my work, I also write about more challenging topics such as grief and anxiety in a gentle way, accompanied by heartfelt, magical illustrations.
In 2020, I had a notion (seemingly out of nowhere) to create an animation of one my much-loved stories - Mr Bear’s Christmas. Armed with a dose of naivety, believing it would be a quick and simple process taking perhaps a few weeks, I embarked on a labour of love, figuring out how to create a stop motion film as I went along... A project which, in fact, took six months. It was worth every minute and I was delighted that Stephen Fry narrated my film last year and it was subsequently shown on the BBC. You can read more about my animation journey here and my second animation, Mr Bear's Day Out is due for release Winter 2023.
Sometimes I'm able to take on commissioned illustrations around other projects. For more information, click here.
You can also hear from me via my weekly newsletter which comes out every Friday where I share more in-depth insights into my work and my inspiration, alongside a mini email on a Tuesday with a product focus. You can subscibe to my emails here:
For any other enquiries, please get in touch with Lorna here:
