Dots & spots! Who doesn’t love them? Designer Holly Canham is definitely partial to this simple yet effective graphic element, as shown by the title page she contributed for the interview with Women in Business‘ Clare Lancaster.

Holly says:

I wanted to create a fun and feminine illustration for the title page for Clare Lancaster. I used watercolour paints to create a hand-lettered title, and multi-coloured polka dots surrounding Clare’s name to give a fun mood, while also leaning on the idea behind the name of her online workshopping company dot marketing.

See more of Holly‘s work at her website.

Graphic designer Kirsty Eckard was challenged with creating the title page for Graphic designer and creative director Grace Camobreco for the CWC book. Here she tells us about her concept and creative process:

I spent a good amount of time researching the work that Grace had done, and it took me a while to work out her style. After reading the blog and her many posts about craft and the handmade style, I felt that whatever I came up with had to be beautiful and structured typography, which reflected her studio work, with a hint of the handmade touch, reflecting her obvious love for the it. 

I began by experimenting with watercolour, and thought it would give Graces’ title page a little touch of handmade. I chose a beautiful font, Bulmer as it has a gorgeous lowercase g, and referenced a previous work of hers through the use of strong shapes and bold colours.

Thanks, Kirsty. Did you know Kirsty also has a lovely accessories label, So Little Time Co? I highly suggest you check it out (she will be at the Harvest Xmas Market too!).

Mila went all the way to Italy to be inspired to create the title page for The Design Files’ Lucy Feagins (okay, that may not have been the only reason she went there!). Maybe I should let Mila explain in her own words…

I was in Italy at the time of designing the title and spent a lot of time admiring all the old signage and hand painted shop fronts, some beautiful, some had seen better days, but all interesting and different to anything we see today. There was one in particular that stood out to me on the wall of an old toy store, a patch-work like sign, but it was old, rustic and worn, and I couldn’t help but think how striking it could look restored! I used this as inspiration for designing Lucy Feagins title page and found it so fitting as it was difficult to pick one direction to approach Lucy’s introduction as she is so passionately involved in all areas of art and design. After some sketches I created the title digitally designing the type to be modern but organic in it’s curves and deconstructed it into many different coloured facets representing the areas of Lucy’s involvement and appreciation, and played around with colours and compositions to represent the quirks and new age art and design we see Lucy appreciating and supporting on her website The Design Files!

Thanks Mila! Or should I say, ‘grazie tanto’!

Well, the book is officially out and launched but I’d still love to share with you more of the designers who contributed title pages to the book over the coming weeks.

The Hungry Workshop are a letterpress-loving duo who have recently relocated to Melbourne from Brisbane. Jenna Hipgrave of THW contributed this title page for Brisbane-based musician and textile artist Seja Vogel.

Here, she tells us about her design concept and process:

I really like the fact that Seja has both a cool synth-punk music style and a soft and squishy plush crafting side which all comes together with her carefully crafted felt synthesizers. I wanted to represent the two very different sides of Seja typographically, while also showing how they aren’t that disparate. The thread and the amp cable are from different worlds, but are still quite similar. 

I sketched out the basic type layout the good old fashioned way: by hand (about 1,000 times) with a pencil and paper then scanned a few of my favourites in, mushed them together and refined the outline in Adobe Illustrator. From there I fleshed it out, added a few fuzzy bits on the thread and the shading on the chord.

Thanks, Jenna. The Hungry Workshop have also designed and produced the beautiful letter pressed bookmark included with the CWC book. More on that later in the week!