Marbin

 It's one of my best friends 20th Birthday coming up super soon, and I have been browsing the inter webs for days now trying to find something good to send as a present, and although I came across a few contenders I couldn't choose. In the flipped a film on and got my craft on and ended up making a paper cutting piece of her nickname.

Final piece in decorative frame

Paper cutting in process (8x6 inches)

'The Blue Pet'

We were all given the same piece of text and given the task of interpreting it into something suitable for a 5 page baby book [including the cover page]. Each page was 16.5x16.5cm and we weren't allowed to use any text on the pages. They had to purely be illustrations which would easily convey what the character was going through. 

COVER PAGE - Rendered text will go in the clear space without the snow

PAGE 1 - Lonely and Lost but finds the house

PAGE 2 - Inside he meets the dog by the fireplace

PAGE 3 - he then meets the cat on the sofa

PAGE 4 - he finally feels comfortable sleeping in the washing basket

It was a very interesting task because you'd think simplifying something for a young audience would be quite easy, but because you were simplifying things that you knew about it made it tricky. I especially had trouble making the animals fit in with the style of my blue pet character which was very "blobby" and made up of rounded shapes.

I ended up taking the Christmas setting from the text and the meeting of all the different animals, but then having it that the Blue Pet was lonely and lost on Christmas, and he's wandering around in the snow and finds the house where he meets a few of the animals. He tries out their sleeping positions and places but doesn't feel very comfortable; until he finds his comfortable sleeping spot which ends up being the washing basket.

Oh I do like to be beside the Seaside!

Choosing the location of the beach, the theatre or the zoo we were tasked with making a 10 panel [including the front and back cover] concertina book from the characters we have previously developed from ink  "squiggles".

We were allowed to use any mediums, work on any surfaces, as long as it had the correct number of panels, they were all 10x10cm and the whole book stood up when open.

I based mine at the beach and went for the motion that over the period of panels it would have a separate narrative for each panel, but would also have an overall narrative across the book. This was also illustrated using a wave motion, where on the first page the wave started in the lowest corner, progressively rose so that two pages were fully underwater scenes, and then decreased back down again, over the 8 panels. 

I ended up working on cardboard and painted the illustrations using gouache.

Front cover onwards...

...to back cover

the "wave" rising over the panels

...and decreasing again

the concertina effect

I used two lengths of string from the front cover all the way along the back of each panel, to the back cover, top and bottom so they were all secure, and would also stand up when open.

#MoxonWedding

Invitation

Over the summer I had the honour of designing the stationary for Amy and Josh's wedding. 

This involved their invitations, an order of service, the seating plans and the table number cards. 

I was given the colour of the bridesmaid dresses to base the work on, the scrabble lettering to reflect their love of board games, and the general colours of the flowers which were to form a wreath around the text. Then with each extra piece of work I just developed the original invitation design to keep a clear connection between each, but with a slight difference to create a piece which could stand on its own as well.

It was such a great project to be producing something for such a wonderful event and for such a good friend, but it also was a great learning curve. I have made cards for many years now, but never have I had a real "live-project" and worked to someone else's brief. I learnt a lot about crop and bleed of printing specifications; making sure that type would be readable and so on. 

All pieces were done using a drawing tablet in photoshop where the flowers were sketched and drawn in and all the type hand drawn as well.

Order of Service

Seating plans

Hannah, Bamber and Biccie

Happy 22nd Bamber, and 21st Biccie! For once I'm the baby of the group!

Mediums used: drawing tablet in photoshop