Book design & artwork for another special, personal project.
These collaborative family book projects (first Nineteen Vignettes, and now Lifescapes One and Two) have been a lovely and welcome impetus for me to carve out more space for personal design projects and to pleasantly blur the line between my art and design practices.
My mum insisted on not interfering with the artwork for Lifescapes, but kindly provided source materials (and a listening ear) when I asked for them. We talked a lot about moving, and about how the flora, fauna, and landscapes of the places we’ve lived have shaped our sensory memories of living there.
I tried a few different approaches but the more figurative and realistic elements I started with all felt like too much. In the end, after looking at photo albums from my mum’s Irish roots, her early life in the UK and her adult life in Manitoba, I ended up with something much more minimal, much more abstract, yet still hopefully echoing the skies, grasses, and flowers that inspired us.
Beyond the covers…
The abstract drawings featured on each cover were also printed on postcard prints which my mum shared with the friends and family members she sent copies of the books to. I also created a third abstract composition – directly inspired by a photo taken during a walk through King’s Park, my mum’s favourite Winnipeg walking spot – and printed it at a larger scale for my mum to display in her home writing space.
