Wednesday 24 August 2011

Wrappy Wrappy

Hi again,

Thought I would just post some of the froggy wrapping paper designs I have been working on, you can double click on them to view them larger:




Aaaaggghhhh!, using grids in Illustrator to make these has made my eyes go all squiffy!

Laura x

any other Business Card

Hello,

I have to admit, I thought business cards were a bit obsolete, but then, the other night down the pub (always a good place to do business) I was asked by somebody for my details.  I had nothing on me with my details on and ended up scribbling them on the back of my coffee shop loyality card- not overly professional looking! 

Now, I know everybody has a mobile phone these days but believe me, tapping in a blog address, phone number and email address whilst standing (balancing handbag and wine glass) squished up in a crowded London pub on a Friday night leaves plenty of room for error!

My opinion of business cards I realised, has been tarnished by having really boring corporate ones in the past  They were forced upon me by the company I worked for and looked as dull and uninspiring as the job title inscribed on them.

So, I thought I would design a suitably daft business card for myself for the kind of work that I do now!  This is still a work in progress but here it is so far:



Laura x

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Love letters straight from my ...............computer

Hi again!

I'm sure everyone who reads this blog will have noticed the increasingly popular trend of having letters adorn your house. Not 'DearXXX' letters but large individual characters in a variety of materials spelling out words like 'love' and 'home' or just the initials of the people who live there.

So I thought I would have a bash at making some of my own designs to print and frame.  My initial intention was to make some reasonably large decorative drop cap style letters using (but embellishing) some existing type faces.  However... I realised that although perfect when small and in the context of a paragraph, many fonts didn't bear the enlargement and solitude of being a stand alone character.  Also, although lovely, I am really bored of seeing the same decorative type faces such as JF Ringmaster and Rosewood Std currently adorning everything from pencil cases to t-shirts.

So..........., inspired by the brilliant Jessica Hische http://jessicahische.is/awesome/ I thought I would try making some letters from scratch.  I found this a surprisingly difficult process being a discipline in which I have not worked before.  I am hoping they will improve as I do more.

So far I have a 'T', an 'L' and an 'N:






I will post more as my alphabet continues!

Laura x




Tuesday 9 August 2011

Daisy

Hello,

After a few reasonably complicated Illustrator designs I fancied making a very pared down image, for some reason, a cow seemed the natural choice of subject!




Laura x


Monday 1 August 2011

Tony and the Magic Watering-Can

Hello,

Yes, I have been scouring my local charity shops again and as usual the second hand shops of South London have come up trumps!

I found this little gem from 1978 written by Harold Shampan and illustrated by Clayton Hoyle and Peter Edwards:



This book is obviously pre the wonderful Adobe packages and therefore no text wrapping or writing on a path.  However despite (or perhaps because of this) it has been really creatively designed and the words and images play happily together on the same page instead of following the 'text on left, image on the right' format that lots of books of this period followed.

I have scanned in a couple of examples for your perusal, apologies for the cropping- my scanner isn't very large!.  Also check out all that lovely psychedelic artwork and crazy colour palette, I think kids books could do with an injection of madness again!

 



Right, I'm off to water the flowers!

Laura x