Month: September 2018

Projects

“Oh dear, Oh dear,” said the tiny mole

Designer Mum

Well. Those few words put together and read out loud are among one of the most emotive passages in my memory. The story of The Little Mole is famous in my family, and was always told to us at bedtime by our Nan whenever we used to go and stay.

“Don’t bother me!” the white rabbit said

Several years ago we also recited it out loud at her 80th birthday party to a room full of bemused faces and giggles. Now, 9 months after we said goodbye to her, I am still transported to a little bedroom in her old bungalow in Bettisfield, Shropshire, listening to Nan’s soft voice telling us about that lovely little mole and why he was so upset.

10_the-little-mole-b

I promised several times that one day I would illustrate this story, and now, finally I am. It is a gorgeous poem about a little mole, and a fairy who gets stuck in his mole-hole. There’s a white rabbit, and a brown rabbit, and a happy ending. Perfect!

A little brown rabbit popped up from the gorse,

“I’m not very big but I’ll try of course!”

I have often thought about how I would illustrate this story, and I have mostly only fretted about how I could possibly ever do it. It is so embedded in my mind, I have always worried that if I ever tried to draw it, I wouldn’t be able to bring the characters to life in the way they are stored in my memory.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

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I have nearly finished creating all the roughs for this new book, and actually, the characters in their simple line form, have mostly flowed out. I haven’t had to spend hours researching what they should all look like, and what kind of characters their faces have, or how big they are. I just know. What a joy.

But he caught the fairy tight by the hand

And he helped her get back to fairy land

The poem itself however, is something with a bit more mystery. Very little is known about the origins of The Little Mole, also known as Grey and White, and it is thought to be written by a poet named Charlotte Druitt Cole, who’s work was published in several children’s poetry anthologies in the 1920s and 30s. Whenever I research this poem, I see that others are looking for it too, knowing it as I do, simply from hearing it being recited over and over. How wonderful, the power of rhythm and rhyme – that a story so simple can transcend time this way. Also, in case you were wondering, I don’t think there will be any copyright issues with this poem – Charlotte Druitt Cole died in 1943. Also, I will in no way be claiming that I wrote the poem – instead I see myself as bringing this perfect poem to a host of new bedtimes.

I don’t have a full timeline of when I hope to publish this book yet. It will take a while I think. I have quite a few other book projects that I am working on at the moment, and will probably be pretty busy with them until December. But that is ok! I always promised that I would do it, and Nana Eileen, do it I am.

Mindset

The measure of success

Designer Mum

As I come to the final, crucial stages of my first indie-publishing adventure, I find myself struggling to switch off from thinking about work.

At the moment I am nervously awaiting my proof from the printer; hoping madly that I won’t spot any terrible errors; that the PDF settings were ok; the fonts were embedded properly; and all the images were bleeding correctly!

So far most choices and decisions have all been made from the safety of my desk

Then, once I have my proof, I will be taking it nervously to some lovely local book shops to see if one of them would be happy for me to do a book launch with them. Suddenly, this step feels the most scary to me. I think it is because so far, most choices and decisions have all been made from the safety of my desk – no one able to judge me or my work to my face. Now I have to go out into the world, with my book and see what actual, real people think.

Again, this is silly, and I know it is. I have been professionally designing books, magazines and educational content for children for nearly twelve years now. I wouldn’t be publishing Reynard the Fox if I didn’t believe it was any good. Feedback I have had from publishers and creative directors has always been positive – the ‘negative’ I have had received a couple of times is that isn’t very ‘mass market’. Even that comment in itself is nothing bad – it just means that it is an unusual, niche product.

So what am I worried about?

I am a little frightened that people will buy my book and be disappointed and not like it. Then I might feel that I had let them down somehow. But I am not going to force anyone to buy it, so that is not really a problem. Am I worried that no one will buy it? Weirdly no! That eventuality doesn’t really bother me at all.

My nervousness is more to do with the book’s success. My success. I have never actually sat down and thought how I might measure the success of this book that is so precious to me. With most of my work, I consider it successful not if I am pleased with the final product, but instead if my client wants to work with me again. If my client wants to work with me again, it means that they deemed the product a success, and the partnership a success, and they valued the work that I did.

Here, how will I measure my success? Will I be satisfied if I have a successful book launch and sell 30 copies? Will I feel successful if I sell the initial print-run of 150 copies in 6 months and have to order more? I believe the answer to both of these questions is no. As with how I view my client-work, I believe that I will view my beloved Reynard in the same way. If he leads me onto more books of my own, then I believe that I will consider him and me a successful team.

I know that my finally being able to invest in this story is a massive achievement on its own

I will admit that my standards are high. You may well be thinking that as you read this. But I will also say that if I don’t sell many copies, I at no stage will consider the book a failure. I know that my finally being able to invest in this story is a massive achievement on its own. I have been etching away at Reynard the Fox for so long, that to reach its conclusion is a great success, and for that I am truly proud.

Successfulness though, that is something different entirely. To feel successful. Do many people genuinely feel successful? My guess is probably not. Many of us are always looking to the next step, we have been trained to do this from very young ages. So here, I need to think about what success for Reynard and myself really look like. Success targets I can quantify. Publishing it is the first step. And the next step? Not sure yet, but whatever it is I will aim high and work hard.

As I read these words back I am mindful that many of us may operate in this way. We are often goal/target orientated, and so miss out on the feelings of success that we should feel, as we are too busy pushing for the next step. Perhaps then, let us think about it another way. The success is not in the quantifiable data we can measure, but in the effort and the passion that drives us forward. To be sure, that is a great success indeed.

 

Design tips

Colour me Autumn

Designer Mum

The days are starting to shorten, and the evenings are getting chillier. Things are definitely Autumning up around here, and as the colours and the light are changing too, I felt this Autumnal theme could make for a good post about colour.

I genuinely fell in love with colour, and the incredible power that it can have

Colour is something that is very important to me. During my first year at Camberwell studying Illustration, I spent an entire term learning about colour – how it works, how it can be manipulated, and generally loads of great things about it. It was during this elective that I began developing my monoprinting technique, which ultimately led me to create Reynard the Fox in the way that I did. I genuinely fell in love with colour, and the incredible power that it can have, so I am going to share some of that love with you – and perhaps it will help you to make choices in your own books and business branding, maybe even your home interiors too!

One of the loveliest ways that we can see the light around us changing at this time of year, is the way in which leaves on the ground reflect much more light than dark grass and grey pavements or roads. Yellow leaves especially can seem to light the world from the ground up. The atmosphere is given a warm, often matte and a smoky sort of look. Look at these two images:

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Next time you are walking along a tree-lined street, or park full of trees, really try to notice the light around you. Look and see where the light is coming from.

Thinking about Autumn’s wonderful colour palette is a happy, indulgent place for me

As a parent to young children, the part of me that used to love the onset of Autumn, and the re-introduction of my scarf cupboard, now instead sighs at the onset of the snot season and the amount of tissues that I will find in my pockets at the end of every day until March. (Does really big sigh). So thinking about Autumn’s wonderful colour palette is a happy, indulgent place for me.

Whenever I am designing anything, thinking about the colours I use is a crucial stage. Something that is slightly too yellow, or a purple that is too heavy can really affect the success of a page. But it is not the heavy purple that is doing the damage. Or the yellow that is too yellow. Instead, it is how that purple or yellow is acting next to the colours that sit alongside it. A colour can totally change its appearance based on where and how it is placed. Take a look at these oak leaf graphics:

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Both of these leaves are the exact same tones and shade, but they appear completely different depending on what colour they are placed with. When placed on the deep burgundy, the oak leaf appears to be much brighter than when placed on the pale blue. When you are choosing colours for your brand, or even your bedroom wall, it is not always about choosing ‘the exact colour’. It is about choosing a colour that looks the way you want it to, when it is placed in context alongside something else. Here is another example:

08_colour-me-autumn-graphics3

Again, its tricky to see that both words are the exact same tone of yellow. The top one, sitting on the cool shade of green looks like a colder image, and the yellow itself looks a more ‘muddy’ yellow. The lower graphic generally feels warmer, with the heat of the burnt orange. Yet the yellow text actually looks ‘cooler’.

one colour used on two different backgrounds, could have a very different meaning

If you are clever about your colour choices, and you choose three colours to be the core colours for your business, those three colours could actually become many more than three, when used alongside each other. And therefore, one colour used on two different backgrounds, could have a very different meaning.

Autumn is a special time of year, even though it brings with it the onset of Winter, and also SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), something I can definitely relate to in the slog that is January and February. In order to help combat this, let us think about the joy of colour, and how this time of year can actually bring a warmth of yellow, orange and deep burgundy that is a true feast for the eyes. I am going to try and spend a few moments of every day observing the light and colours outside … And maybe I’ll pull out a good scarf or two – just for a treat!

Parenting

Gender awareness rules (when you’re 3)

Designer Mum

Recently, girl things and boy things have become a thing in our house. Not boy’s actual thingys and girl’s actual thingys – those don’t seem to be of any import whatsoever. No. The supposed rules of things that boys can do, and girls can’t. Colours that boys like, and colours that girls like.

This morning Sidney asked me if I liked pink

This has come about over the summer. For the record, until he was, let’s say, 3 and a quarter, Sidney’s favourite colour was actually yellow. Now its blue. This morning Sidney asked me if I liked pink. I said I did, and that I liked blue as well. Sidney does not currently like pink.

We also had a weekend a little while ago when Noel’s parents came and stayed, and gender roles unwittingly came to the forefront. Noel and his Dad are both pretty handy when it comes to building, and spent the weekend constructing a wonderful wardrobe to fit within the sloping ceiling of our bedroom – no mean feat let me tell you! … So Noel’s mum and I did the lion’s share of the children duties and the cooking for the weekend. Also no mean feat. And this was basically the simplest, and most effective way to get the weekend’s main task of wardrobe creation, done. However, this meant that by the end of the weekend, Sidney was convinced that only men could be strong and wield tools.

Mummy was fixing the pipe, with tools

At this point, I am going to add that we also had a leaking waste pipe from our bathroom, (don’t worry, it wasn’t the poo pipe), which needed fixing. This pipe runs between our house and next door, and me, being a skinny sort of bean, was the only grown-up person who could fix it. So, fix it I did! Noel was on hand to assist, and we made a point of showing Sidney that mummy was fixing the pipe, with tools.

Noel and I have never sat down and discussed how we should go about teaching Sidney and Harriet about gender. Its never really been a thing. I am mindful that I don’t say that ‘Sidney is handsome’ and ‘Harriet is pretty’ – instead I tell them both that they are cool dudes. And that they are gorgeous. Or, that they are both ‘as noisy as each other’.

Harriet knows that the most coveted toys in the house are Sidney’s racing cars

And, for the most part, their toys and bedrooms are pretty gender neutral. There are a few pink, Harriet things, and a few blue, Sidney things, but they both play with everything regardless of what colour it is. … Also, Sidney is very partial to Shimmer and Shine (Oooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh) and gets pretty excited when he sees it on the telly! Likewise, Harriet knows that the most coveted toys in the house are Sidney’s racing cars. So, like most gender ‘consciously-unconcsiousing’ parents, we encourage Sidney and Harriet to play with whatever they enjoy playing with.

However, I am not a total hippy either. I’m afraid that I don’t dress them as completely androgynous child X’s. Sidney’s clothes are standard boy clothes; jeans, shorts, t-shirts and the occasional shirt for parties and Christenings. Harriet’s clothes are mostly leggings, shorts, tops and – I confess – dresses too. I try not to pink or blue them too much, and Harriet has as many of Sidney’s more neutral hand-me-downs as I think we can get away with. But of course I am guilty of genderising them by this – even though my main aim is for both children to look and feel like they could go out to play or have an adventure whenever – because thats what I want them to do. But yes, I still like Sidney to look like a cool boy, and Harriet to look like a funky girl.

Is that so very bad? I think Sidney’s sudden awareness of boys and girls has mostly been learnt through interactions with his peers. He is learning that there are differences between himself and others. He is also learning about where he wants to fit in. A few weeks ago he told me that he wanted to wear trainers to nursery instead of sandals, ‘because everyone wears trainers’.

I see it as our job to nurture their individuality

I guess the important thing is to allow them both to try all sorts of things, and then let them find their own preferences. If Sidney decided that he really wanted a Shimmer and Shine (Oooh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh) doll for his birthday, would I let him have one? Yes, probably, why not! And if Harriet decides that she wants to only play with racing cars, would I suggest she has a doll instead? No, of course not. I see it as our job to nurture their individuality, and also help them to fit in where they feel it is their place to be.

I wonder if it is hypocritical of me to dress them as the genders that they are, and not androgynous siblings? No, I don’t think so. As long as they feel happy and comfortable in the clothes they are wearing then thats great. If at some stage we come to a point that they should wish to identify as something other than what they look like, then we’ll adapt. I don’t dress Harriet in anything that she might feel physically limited in, compared to her brother, so I know that they are equal. And if Sidney thinks that only strong men can use tools, mummy will always be on hand to show him that puny women can fix stuff too.