Diane Harrison
Cheshire, United Kingdom

Diane Harrison, the founder and leader of Diane Harrison Designs Ltd has always been driven by the new and the innovative. This is what inspired her to start her own studio in 1984, immediately after graduating from Manchester University. She worked like a woman possessed (she always works likes a woman possessed) and was able to present her first collection at Heimtex in 1985. The collection was well received and Diane went from strength to strength and in 1987 Diane Harrison Designs was incorporated in Manchester. At that point Diane was joined by Tristan Goodfellow in a sales capacity (he was also driven and enjoyed travelling as much as possible). Diane started to employ the best graduates and she built her team to reflect her determination to produce the best and most innovative designs for the new markets Tristan was finding. In the the 80s and 90s the sales team were regularly travelling the US, Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and South Africa, exciting their customers with the newest "design and colour" trends. They found customers for wallcoverings, printed and woven bedding and decoration textiles and for all possible product applications for the gift industry.

The studio has always been committed to creating the best designs by hand and in 1999, to better enhance the technical aspects of the design process started to use AVA software running on Mac computers.

In 2001 Greg Threlfall became a director of the company, working with Diane to help develop the studio and maintain the highest level of professionalism in the staff.

In 2010 Diane established a New York sales office run by Jaime Boulter which holds a permanent design collection open to be viewed by all our NYC customers and those visiting NYC. Then Diane introduced a design facility at the office, enabling her Manchester based designers the opportunity to design in the inspirational setting of New York.

Most recently, Diane and Tristan have been spending a lot of time in Spain, where Diane has established a studio, enabling the Manchester designers the opportunity to design in the wonderful paradise of her house there. Diane splits her time between the studio in Manchester, the studio in New York and her paradise in Spain and continues to be driven by the new and innovative.