Amy Choi OUIL505 Applied Illustration: 150th anniversary Beatrix Potter book covers Brief + Initial Research Initial research: Brief: to recreate 3 book covers: The tale of Peter rabbit, The tale of Jemima Puddle duck, The tale of Squirrel Nutkin in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter. Target audience: Beatrix Potter fans, adults and children
Category: Publishing and book design Context: bookshops, Waterstones and WHSmith, independent gift/homeware shops, online or at Beatrix Potter hilltop museum gift shop Aim: To recreate book covers that still remain traditional but have a modern twist
Initial sketchbook: Over Easter break I intended to have a catch up with this work however responsive took over and I fell back in this project. I carried on exploring the famous collectors and cabinets of curiosity by sketching designs for ceramics based on the idea that this would be created for collectors. I was inspired by a quote from one of the documentaries I watched being a ‘miniature universe’ and thought this would be ideal inspiration for a range.
Book
Initially I began this project with the theme of collections I was very interested in this topic but didn’t know what to explore for this. I discovered cabinets of curiosity and started researching into this by watching a documentary and reading up on this through books and on websites. From here I found a list of famous collectors mainly researching Beatrix Potter I continued this by watching a documentary on her.
BBC documentary
Amy Choi OUIL505 Applied Illustration: 150th anniversary Beatrix Potter book covers Contextual Research + change of plan Additional research: Change of plan: I decided after a while that I should just concentrate on one of the collectors instead of creating a ceramic collection that it would be best if I created a series of book covers for Beatrix Potter and since I had done most research mainly on her it seemed right but also it would have taken way too much time to research properly into the others collectors as it’s very broad and at this point it would be much more achievable for me to do with the time left. With the 150th anniversary coming up I thought this would an appropriate time to do this.
After this I spent some more time researching Beatrix Potter and her collection of books analysing the covers and reading brief descriptions of her stories choosing popular ones. I found a set with re designs of the book covers by penguin random house set to release in July in celebration of the 150th anniversary. I gathered some imagery of her characters from the books using this as reference for my sketching.
Penguin random house covers
Serene Ng
Beatrix Potter imagery research Contextual research: I knew when approaching the book covers that I didn’t want them to be to overdone since the original’s are quite plain and simple but still effective. I was mainly inspired by Abigail Halpin, Serene Ng, Uguisu and Yumiko Higuchi and how they applied their embroidery skills and techniques to various products as well as book covers.
Abigail Halpin
Yumiko Higuchi
Amy Choi OUIL505 Applied Illustration: 150th anniversary Beatrix Potter book covers Visual investigation
Embroidery tests
I carried on investigating this project by sketching and experimenting with different medias and materials settling on the integration of watercolours and embroidery on canvas. I tried having a little go at embroidery alone but it would have taken a long time and wouldn’t be the best decision.
Amy Choi OUIL505 Applied Illustration: 150th anniversary Beatrix Potter book covers Book cover planning + final outcomes
Final designs
I made some roughs for the book covers trying to remain at some level cohesiveness keeping to a similar formation. After I got to grips with the first cover I found it easier to complete the rest.
Final outcome
Amy Choi OUIL505 Applied Illustration: 150th anniversary Beatrix Potter book covers Final range Once I had completed the final outcomes I started applying them to various products then witling down the application accordingly so that it would work in accompany with the book. I had a go at applying to some products but they looked a bit odd so I scraped those and included what would work and be right for the range.