Major project journal by Stephanie Hardy

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT PROCESS BOOK STEPH HARDY 2017

MAJOR PROJECT

CONTENTS PILOT PROJECT ONE Page 6-11

PILOT PROJECT TWO Page 12-17

PILOT PROJECT THREE Page 18-21

PROJECT PROPOSAL Page 22-23

RESEARCH Page 24-31

CONCEPT & DESIGN Page 32-49

CONCLUSION Page 50-51

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & REFERENCES Page 52-53

PILOT PROJECT ONE I was unsure what really interested me at the start of this semester. A major project is an opportunity to explore something that you really enjoy, find fascinating or want to find out more about. I wanted to base my major project on something that I am thoroughly interested in. So with my first pilot project, I made it my task to visualise my interests, ask friends and family what they thought I was interested in to get a new perspective and categorise and sort my interests into options and reasons. Each pilot project were one week long experiments to quickly explore ideas and interests to see how they might unfold as a project for the weeks to come. After the 3 weeks of pilot projects, hopefully a project will be chosen that is good enough to sustain interest to keep the project going and is able to unravel into a fantastic piece of design to exhibit at the end of the year.

PILOT PROJECT ONE

Throughout week one, I was asking friends and family what they thought I am interested in and what makes me the person I am today. They all said video games, and mostly organising and Harry Potter. People who know me the most know that I love being organised and organising things around me. Most of my things are labelled or sorted and categorised. I find it therapeutic tidying and coordinating things and often find myself cleaning and tidying when upset or angry. I have also loved playing games since I was a small child. It is something that was (and still is) a bonding experience with my Dad and Sister. Games like Tomb Raider and Bomberman hold nostalgic value for me. I appreciate the artwork and dedication that is put into creating a game too and I would love to be part of that process some day. Playing video games is both a social part and anti-social part of me. I play games with friends a lot but when I play alone, it is like escapism from reality for a little while. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great feeling to get engrossed into something and be creative or explorative. I connect being organised and gaming together by making lists of things to do for a game and make little maps and drawings of ideas etc. keeping a little diary specifically for a certain game. Harry Potter is like a comfort blanket for me. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the first book I ever got really hooked into and have loved the wizarding world ever since. I still re-read the books and listen to the audiobooks and re-watch the films often. There are other things that I also enjoy, for example, I love powerlifting, watching films, tv shows and anime. I go to Comic Con in London every year and cosplay.

PILOT PROJECT ONE

For my first pilot project, I started to design a sort of infographic to display and visualise my interests in order to find a viable major project subject. Quantifying and organising my interests and facts about them was harder than I thought. However, for the purpose of this project I simplified

things and kept it fairly brief. The sizing of each circle isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t indicative of importance at this stage. At this point I was just trying to get a rough idea of layout and putting down essential facts and ideas. The text that isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t within circles express themes and feelings about the thing it is orbiting.

I feel this infographic will never truly be finished, there will always be something add and expand upon, but it has helped to indicate and show me which subject I should pursue for my major project.

PILOT PROJECT ONE

This is a final version of the infographic. The three items in the middle orbit are the things that my family and friends collectivley said were my main interests from their point of view, and I do agree with them. I fill my spare time with these three things. The items in pale blue show ideas for the project and routes I could take, for example, I could design packaging for the different shops in Diagon Alley if I chose to go down the Harry Potter route. Or design limited edition packaging for games. The middle ring is the primary ideas part, and the outer ring is the secondary. This one contains things that I do enjoy but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do as often or arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as important to me.

RUNNING HEAD

PILOT PROJECT TWO After working on the first pilot project, I have decided to conduct this second pilot project involving the Harry Potter world. It was clear from the first pilot project that I had a few ideas that seemed fun and interesting involving Harry Potter. I have decided that I am going to rebrand the Weasleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wizard Wheezes Skiving Snackboxes. I have always had some issues with the Harry Potter films with its visual representations of the books. As much as I enjoy the films, the books will always be the source of truth for me. For instance, the Weasley twins in the fifth book invent the Skiving Snackboxes which enables students to induce illness to be excused from class and once out can cure the illness to go about their skiving business. In the books they are described as double ended, colour coded sweets. One end is orange, which will induce the illness, and one end is purple which will cure the illness. In the films, they look nothing like they are described as in the book. The packaging is big and bulky which would counteract the idea of sneaking one into class to administer a sweet to skive class. So for this project I am proposing to rebrand the sweets to resemble those from the books but also add a more practical packaging system. The books do not go into detail about the packaging, only that the sweets are slipped from a pocket or a brown paper bag. The purpose of the packaging would be an alternative prop for the films as if they were to appear on set, keeping in mind that the use of magic is permitted (and therefore CGI would be used to create this illusion).

PILOT PROJECT TWO

I conducted quite a lot of extensive research to find out as much as I could and document it to get a better understanding of the differences between the two sources. First, I looked into all the different products the Weasleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wizard Wheezes actually produced. For this project I would just focus on the Skiving Snackboxes but if I were to take this project further for the duration of the major project, I could branch out and brand/re-brand all of the products. I documented a timeline for the Weasleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wizard Wheezes to help get a sense of time scale and to pin-point specific facts and events that happened that may be important to the creation of the branding.

PILOT PROJECT TWO

I looked at logo design which didn’t seem to have much consistency and I also looked at visuals from the films of packaging and posters etc. Something that I just don’t understand about the films is the time period in which it seems to be set doesn’t correspond to the time period it is actually set in. The Harry Potter books take place from 1991-1998. I would imagine that

the films are supposed to be set then too. However, the wizarding world in the films appear to be set in the early 20th century. The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film was set in the 1920’s and looked as though it were, even in the wizarding part. So why 70 years on, are the wizards still stuck in the early 20th century? I know electricity doesn’t work in the

wizarding world but I’m not talking about that. The art style is so dated but I really don’t think it needs to be. J.K. Rowling said that wizards are quirky and don’t make a lot of sense (they still use the imperial method of measurement) but I still feel like they could have progressed along the timeline in some ways.

PILOT PROJECT TWO

To get into the process of designing, I looked at the ways in which students carry their belongings with them from day to day. They all have bags, which do differ in style, there is not one uniform style of bag. Hermione favours a satchel type tote bag whereas Harry likes a slouchy overthe-shoulder kind. I think the packaging would have to be fairly small as to not take up too much necessary space in their bags.

While at school, they obviously have to wear their uniform. I thought about the ways in which they could store the sweets if they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t carry their bags with them. Would Hogwartsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; uniform have pockets? And where? In class, it appears they wear their robes which have a wand pocket on the inside and pockets at hip height accessed on the outside. Boys have trousers, and girls wear skirts which have pockets too. The packaging would have to be small enough to be concealed within a pocket.

PILOT PROJECT TWO

I also began sketching different ideas for how the sweets would look and how they would be wrapped. Would they be double ended or separate? Individually wrapped or collectively wrapped in a bag/pot? I looked at ‘muggle’ sweets to get some inspiration as I really don’t like what they used in the films and felt like they were illogical, so by looking at our sweets that already exist, I can make a better judgement on the practicalities of packaging sweets and the actual sweets themselves.

PILOT PROJECT THREE I would like to continue with the Harry Potter theme with this third pilot project, but take a different approach by looking at wands. Wands are an important tool in the wizarding world and they all vary in materials, size and shape. I am proposing in this project the idea of what wands would look like around the world. J.K. Rowling has released the fact that there are wizarding schools around the world, in addition to the two other European schools we learned about in The Goblet of Fire and the North American school Ilvermorny that we now know of due to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This got me thinking that these witches and wizards around the world would need wands. Would they travel all the way to Ollivanderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just for a wand? We know that there are other wandmakers other than just Ollivander, like Gregorovitch, but are there more? What would their wands look like? Are they all as brilliantly skilled as Ollivander? All these questions, I believe, need answering and would possibly make for a great project. In this project I will research into the wandlore of Harry Potter and find out what kind of materials are native to these countries in which the wizarding schools reside. I am posing as a wandmaker and will design what I think these exotic wands would look like.

PILOT PROJECT THREE

This pilot project is mostly research. I needed to find out as much as I could about pre-existing wand lore within J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. Pottermore has been possibly the best source for information as I know it is a legitimate source because mostly all of the extracts I found were written by J.K. Rowling herself. She has written quite a lot about wandlore and Mr. Ollivander and even written some extracts from Ollivander’s perspective. I found information about wand lengths, flexibility, cores and wood. I also found that there are more wandmakers than just Ollivander and Gregorovitch, there are some 20th century American wandmakers and some medieval wandmakers. This was promising information as it is perfectly viable to invent other wandmakers from around the world and even use the existing ones and design some wands in their name. To find out where witches and wizards actually live elsewhere around the world, I began researching the new schools J.K. Rowling released to get a better idea. I found that there are magic schools in Japan, Uganda and Brazil. She has stated that there is a Russian wizarding school but there is no other information about it and there are also other magical schools outside of general education, which offers a specialised source of learning as well. These include the Academy of Broom Flying, Charm School, and the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts.

The format for this project will likely be a book, a catalogue type possibly, to show all the different regions from where wands are used and what they look like. I would like to include wandmakers in this project too. It might be interesting to include famous witches and wizards’ wands, for example, like the talented Quidditch player Viktor Krum’s wand. One thing I need to consider is the context in which this book would be made. Whether it would be a book that exists in the real world or a fictional book that exists within the Harry Potter world that maybe regarded as a prop for a film for example. I think it would be rather interesting to try to design a prop, to keep in mind what it should look like etc. I would have to keep in mind when it would have been written. If it is a fairly recently written book, Harry Potter’s wand could be included. If it is an old book, certain wands and information wouldn’t qualify for the book. Also due to the fact that I have an issue with the old fashioned styling of most artifacts in the Harry Potter films, I would like to design something a little more modern looking.

PROJECT PROPOSAL

WHAT?

WHY?

Throughout this Major Project, I am going to investigate the world of Harry Potter, looking specifically at Wandlore. Wandlore is an ancient, complex, and mysterious branch of magic dealing with the history, abilities, and actions of wands, quasisentient magical tools used by wizards and witches to cast spells within J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter World. Harry Potter is still a highly regarded entity and is forever growing with new material being added frequently by J.K. Rowling. It has a place within pop culture and is still enjoyed today. I intend to create a book about Wandlore in a way that would inform and excite fans of Harry Potter. It maybe designed so it would have appeared (or at least look as though it fits) in the films.

There is a vast wealth of information about the Harry Potter universe in general that is accessed from places like Pottermore and there have been a few books published about the imagery from the films etc. However there isn't a book about Wandlore. There is plenty of information about Wandlore, which is broken up around Pottermore but there is no significant book about it nor is there a logical way of reading about it on Pottermore, it is disjointed information in different sections of the website. The benefit would be for fans (such as myself ) to have another “feature” from the Harry Potter universe to gain and broaden our knowledge further and also to have as a keepsake, another collectible to add to all the existing memorabilia we Harry Potter fans like to collect. It would be great to design a book that would fit rather well into the films themselves as if it were an artefact from the film (like the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them book was an actual textbook that Harry had to purchase in his first year which is now a real book you can buy) to feel better immersed into the fantasy world.

PROJECT PROPOSAL

HOW?

WHO?

IF?

I intend to do as much research as possible about the wandlore in J.K. Rowling’s books via Pottermore, the actual books and reliable websites. I intend to look further than just Wandlore and look at the different wizarding cultures around the world, look at the different magical schools and then look at cultural differences in architecture and folk art to see how different cultures could’ve made wands and design appropriate versions to incorporate within the book. I will incorporate as much of the information I have found about the magical qualities in the different kinds of woods and cores from Pottermore (legitimate information from J.K. Rowling). I would like to proceed in defined phases and try to conduct each section logically but I feel that will be revealed once I have more content. I will know if I have succeeded by asking for feedback from other Harry Potter fans if they feel that it is worthy of existing within the Harry Potter universe.

This book is aimed at Harry Potter fans (or anyone who is interested in Harry Potter and wants to learn more). It needs to feel authentic to the books/films for them to believe in it. Their expectations may be that it has to look exactly like any other Harry Potter items from the films (like the Daily Prophet or a textbook like Advanced Potion Making) or have the iconic harry potter “lightning bolt” font on the cover. I would like to conform to certain conventions so that it would fit into a Harry Potter film but I also don't agree with some conventions that are used within the films so I would like to challenge those conventions but still produce something that can be enjoyed by a fan of Harry Potter.

This would be a huge achievement for me to have created a book within a context that I love and it would be a proud possession to own. I would love to create graphic design props for films and/ or games as a career and producing this book I feel would give me a solid piece of work to add to my portfolio to show to prospective employers of that area what I can achieve.

RESEARCH BEHIND THE SCENES: HOW THE WANDS WERE MADE Extracted from Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey. www.pottermore.com Each wand in the Harry Potter films was developed with its fictional owner in mind. ‘I think it must be a wonderful moment for the actors,’ says concept designer Adam Brockbank, ‘when they put on their costumes for the first time and wield their wands, which are the sheerest expressions of their characters.’ Snape’s wand is slim and spare, with no embellishments, while Bellatrix Lestrange’s has a curve in it, almost like the talon of a bird of prey. Embedded in Dolores Umbridge’s wand is a jewel - pink, of course. ‘On the handle end of Horace Slughorn’s wand,’ art director Hattie Storey notes, ‘are two little antennae, like a slug or a snail.’ Brockbank designed Narcissa Malfoy’s wand to echo her husband, Lucius’s. ‘I took the same black wood that was used for Lucius’s cane,’ he says, ‘and embedded silver studs, essentially doing a more feminine version of his wand.’ Brockbank also designed Voldemort’s wand. ‘I had this idea that it was carved to resemble a bone, probably a human one. The tapered tip leads to a thicker section, where you can see the honeycomb of the bone. That comes to a ‘knuckle joint’, and then there’s a hook on the end, like a claw, which Ralph Fiennes actually tucks around his little finger. It’s quite an evil shape.’ Some wands were immediately fixed upon first design, but others evolved during the course of the films, including Harry’s. While directing Prisoner of Azkaban, Alfonso Cuarón offered the young principal actors a selection of new wands to choose from.

Art director Hattie Storey approved of Daniel Radcliffe’s choice of a wand with a tree trunk-type handle. ‘I think the more successful wands are organic looking, maybe whittled out of a bit of root or branch,’ she says. ‘To me they are more mysterious and magical.’ The Death Eaters’ wands, in contrast, exhibit ‘showy aesthetics,’ says Storey. ‘Their masks are made out of filigreed silver, and their costumes are quite intricate, so the idea was that they show off with their wands too.’ Once the look of each wand was decided, a master copy was made - which often occasioned a search for special materials. ‘We looked for interesting pieces of precious woods, with burrs or interesting shapes,’ says supervising modeller Pierre Bohanna. ‘Then we’d make a mould and replace it in resin. Duplicates were created in case a wand broke, and rubber versions were made for stunt work.’ Not all wands were tailored to their owners, though. For crowd scenes, such as the gathering in the courtyard after Dumbledore’s death in Half-Blood Prince, where more than 150 additional wands were needed, Storey admits there was a selection of generic wands. ‘We had three different types of handles and sticks that Pierre cast in different colours and materials,’ she recalls.

RESEARCH

Top from left to right: Dolores Umbridge’s wand, Lucius Malfoy’s cane & wand, Narcissa Malfoy’s wand, Horace Slughorn’s wand. Left: Death Eater’s wand concepts.

RESEARCH

During this project I will be designing wands from around the world. I will need to find an appropriate way to display the designs. I like the idea of having illustrated versions within a book. The design needs to be clear and well illustrated so that it shows the details and defining features well. Wands are fairly delicate looking objects and if drawn incorrectly, can look disfigured and ugly. The proportions have to be right and the styling must be able to exhibit the wands features well.

RESEARCH

As part of this project, I would like to include the pre-existing wandmakers into the regions from where theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re from and design wands in the name of them. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve tried collecting as much information about each wandmaker to get a better idea of what their wands would look like due to the materials the wandmaker prefers using etc. I have found four American wandmakers from the 20th century, a few European wandmakers and Ollivanders family of wandmakers.

RESEARCH

To further my research, I looked at where J.K. Rowling has created magical locations and stories etc. I pinpointed roughly where the wizarding schools are, and countries that have magical creatures, their own Ministry of Magic, Quidditch teams and Wandmakers and highlighted them on the map. I wanted to go into a little more detail and annotate the map with all the different information about the wizarding world so I know specifically where the demiguise live and where Johannes Jonker, a wandmaker, lived and so on just so I can

have all the information available to me very quickly so I can make a convincing and informative wand book that is close and as true to the original Harry Potter world as I can. I want this book to be enjoyable to read and as accurate to canon as I possibly can make it, hence why I am trying to pool as much research and information about the wizarding world as I can so I can design convincing wands that fit into the culture/region that I am designing them for, using the right materials that are native to that region

or even explain that something has been imported from it’s native country for a specific reason. If I were to make a wand out of bamboo and say its an African wand, it wouldn’t make much sense as bamboo doesn’t grow in Africa. I would like to pair my deisgns with flavour text and explanations about the wand so the more I know about the materials and structure of the wand, the better my descriptions are going to be.

RESEARCH

I have gone into more depth and honed in on each continent that has magic recorded within it and broken the research down even further, specifying where each country is and what is specific to that country. North America has a lot of information about it now that the Fantastic Beast film has been released. It has too much to list on the map so I have only selected information that I think will help with wands. There is a lot about the Ilvermorny school and its founders etc. but I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s necessarily relevant at this stage.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

Now to the designing part. I was a little apprehensive to start designing wands outright as I have never drawn wooden textures or wands before and I don’t claim to be an excellent artist either so I was unsure how to start the process. So to get warmed up, I started drawing pre-existing wands in different styles to get used to drawing wands. Harry Potter’s wand is very organic looking, a knobly handle that is smooth towards the point. I just copied pictures and tried to replicate the effect within my drawings. Hermione Granger’s wand has a vine-type detail that wraps itself around the wand. This is a more carved and intricate design so would need a different approach to Harry’s wand. Sirius Black’s wand has runic-like symbols carved into it and is squared at the handle and cylindrical towards the end. This is also different from Hermione’s as her wand is more of an outward carving where Sirius’ is a inward carving. This requires different shading to denote this. Viktor Krum’s wand is more like Harry’s in the respect that it is organic looking but Krum’s has a roughly carved bird head at the handle. It is also lighter in colour so therefore needed less heavy shading than Harry’s but enough to get the wooden texture across. These wands took me hours to draw which worries me for the rest of the designing process. I’m worried it’s going to take a lot longer when I come to designing my own because not only do I have to think of how they will look, I have to execute the design and get proportions right and shade it to look like a wand.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

I started designing my own wands by selecting one of the North American wandmakers, Johannes Jonker, and creating wands in the style of how his wands are described. His wands have his signature mother-of-pearl inlay which makes his wands highly desirable by many. I found out that in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them the character Queenie is said to have a Jonker wand so I thought

it would be helpful to draw her wand and use that as a basis for style for the wands I will design in his name. The first wand below is Queenieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wand with a motherof-pearl shell on top with a gold detail leading down to a dark rosewood shaft. In the same vein, I designed the rest using a dark wood and mother-of-pearl inlay. The second wand has a single strip of motherof-pearl inlay from tip to base, a gold detail

at the handle base holding a pearl. The third is thinner with seven small bands of mother-of-pearl inlay at the handle end. The fourth is a squared handle wand with diamond shaped mother-of-pearl inlay and the last is a bit of an experiment. If he did more organic looking wands, this could be an outcome where the mother-of-pearl is inlayed within the natural cracks and knots of the wood.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

THOUGHTS ON THE WAND BOOK... I am trying my best to keep as close to the original universe as possible because I want it to be as believable to fans as possible. I personally haven’t read any fan-fictions for Harry Potter as I love the original story and have no intentions of reading about alternative universes that involve things like Hermione and Draco being a couple or Hermione going back so far in time that she is at Hogwarts at the same time as the Marauders are which are two of my sister’s favourite fan-fictions, who is also just as big of a Harry Potter fan as me. I respect the fact that fans enjoy writing and/or reading fan-fictions about Harry Potter as it keeps the universe alive for them and enables creative writing using J.K. Rowling’s world that they love so much as a basis. I, however, love her universe and that is enough for me. There are a few flaws that I have found while researching for this project and the second pilot project such as dates and timings and the lunar calendar doesn’t seem to sync up to our real world times but that is just me digging really deep for this project and doesn’t diminish my love for it as it is only fictional at the end of the day. However, for this project, I am having to invent a character that could exist but does not actually exist in J.K. Rowling’s original universe. I want to write this book as though it actually exists within the Harry Potter World and a fictional character has travelled in order to research wandlore from around the world and is a commercially viable object rather than other fan-fictions which isn’t. I want it to be a present day book, (like The Cursed Child was set in 2017 onwards) and is from a young persons perspective travelling the world, meeting new witches and wizards, having recently graduated from Hogwarts and only having experienced magic in school and within a family of witches and wizards.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

I have always just imagined within this project this person being from the Ollivander family. Garrick Ollivander is a world reknowned wandmaker and is highly respected by many. Witches and wizards all around the world do travel to London to purchase an Ollivander wand. Garrick does have a son and a daughter, although she died in 2011, but their name’s are unknown. That is the extent of the Ollivander family that is known so far. To me, it makes sense for someone who has grown up with wandmaking in the family, natural intelligence and genuine interest in the craft to want to travel the world and explore more. Maybe not Garrick’s son as he would know so much about wandmaking from Garrick and would possibly be pointless for him to travel because Ollivander is very knowledgable about wandlore and probably knows all there is about other wandmakers and how wands are made around the world. But as this hasn’t really been explored in the Harry Potter universe (other than European wands like Fleur Delacour’s and Viktor Krum’s and the wandmaker Gregorovitch) I feel like this would be a great little extra to the world of Harry Potter and for Harry Potter fans to enjoy. If I were to create this book as if it were written in 2017-18, due to Garrick Ollivander being 110 at this time, his son would be quite old too, possibly too old to want to travel the world and explore wandlore. Even if Garrick’s son had a son, and due to the fact I would prefer the book to be written by a young, recent graduate of Hogwarts around the age of 18-19, Garrick and his son would’ve had to have been in their forties when they both had children for this to be logical. I’m assuming Garrick Ollivander is still alive, the last ever mention of him tells us that he resided at Aunty Muriel’s house until the end of the war in 1998.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

He could’ve possibly gone back to work at the age of 91 (given that wizards usually live longer than muggles anyway, Dumbledore was 115 when he died and in different circumstances (no wizarding war) he probably would’ve lived a lot longer. Ollivander had been tortured for over a year so probably wouldn’t want to return to work after such a horrible ordeal. He would have probably passed the business down as it has been the tradition to do so in the Ollivander family since 382 B.C. He could’ve handed it down to his son or using my addition to the universe, he could hand it down to his grandson who would’ve studied wandlore since graduating from Hogwarts for at least a decade (we know that Ollivander was working in the shop right up until 1996 when he was kidknapped and no one took over the shop in his absence - it remained closed and people had to get their wands elsewhere). After/during the second wizarding war his grandson could’ve taken over the shop in 1998. Shortly after this, Garrick Ollivander’s great grandson would’ve been born. In my universe, Garrick’s great grandson would’ve graduated Hogwarts in the summer of 2016 at the age of 18 and embark on his quest for knowledge very soon after leaving school. He would travel for a whole year finishing in 2017 and would publish his book in 2018. I’m going to name him Garrett Ollivander as all of Ollivander’s male family members seem to have their first name start with a G and I want to keep with tradition. I have constructed a timeline and plotted out a few characters’ birth dates and major events in order to get some perspective on Ollivander’s prospective family line and when he could’ve had his son, and when his grandson could’ve been born and then in turn when his great grandson could’ve been born. This has been most helpful and gives me a better foundation for my ‘storyline’.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

Timeline of a few characterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life events and major wizarding events to work out Ollivanderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family timeline.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

One thing I have learned from this project is to not reject work and scrap it straight away. Throughout this project I have drawn many wands, and most of them I have hated. Either the proportions weren’t right, the shading and textures looked bad or even just the general shape of the wands were terrible. Instead of keeping them to collate and put in this journal and reflect on why they don’t work and how I could fix these problems, I just threw them in the bin. This was totally the wrong thing to do as I don’t have as much process to show as I have actually done. I shouldn’t let confidence issues get in the way of showing progress. I was just so embarrassed to show, what I thought, was really bad work and sketches and thought that it would hinder my process and didn’t understand how bad sketches are still very useful for this process journal. I just believed that because they weren’t good enough to put in the wand book, they should be scrapped and hidden so no one could ever see the embarrassing wands I drew and that they were no use at all. I was wrong. I needed them to place in this journal to reflect, show what I’ve done throughout the project, no matter how awful I thought the work was because I could evaluate in an objective manner why they were awful drawings and show progressive work from there. So I have decided from now on to keep all the not-sogreat drawings and talk about them.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

To the left, I have two African wands that I’m not so sure about. One is just an outline that I maybe able to make work but I’m not sure what to do with it at this stage. The second one I tried to design a shorter, chunkier wand that looks very angular as though it has been roughly carved. African witches and wizards have only just adopted the wand this past century or so and they only really use it as a useful tool because they are quite adept at using magic without the use of a wand. Keeping in mind that it is a tool, rather than the powerful instrument that the European wizards deem it as, it seems like it could almost be like a throw away item and they go through wands fairly regularly because it maybe a mundane (yet useful) object to them so they may not take much pride in it. So this was my reasoning for making a roughly whittled yet slightly varnished stumpy wand. However, I just feel that my drawing doesn’t do it justice and it doesn’t look so impressive. I don’t think it looks how I imagined it to be and I think that’s why I’m disappointed. I realise I am not an illustrator, I merely just draw in my spare time because I find it therapeutic so I know my drawings are not going to be masterpieces because I am not a trained illustrator and do not probably use the right techniques as I taught myself to draw.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

Europe

Wands around the World

Viktor Krum Viktor Krum is a famous Quidditch player, a world class seeker. He grew up in Bulgaria and attended the Durmstrang Institute, one of the European schools. Viktor purchased his wand from the famous European wandmaker Mykew Gregorovitch. His expert skills rivalled those of my father. Both excellent craftsmen but differed in opinion and styling. Sadly, Krum tells me Gregorovitch died twenty years ago so I was not able to meet Gregorovitch himself but he had been in retirement for years before because Viktor Krum was one of the last people to ever purchase their wands from Gregorovitch. Krum’s wand is crafted from hornbeam and dragon heartstring. It measures at 101/4 inches and is rather thicker than the usual wand, making it a very sturdy and very rigid wand. It is a beautifully organic looking wand, light in colour and seems to be all one piece rather than a separate handle, another of Gregorovitches differences from my father’s styling but I think it works. A roughly carved face that resembles a bird at the handle end is an interesting and almost subtle addition. He has taken good care of his wand as it is still in excellent condition. My father always said that hornbeam wands generally lean towards wizards with a lifelong obsession. It has been said that Krum is and always was obsessed with Quidditch and I think I must agree just from interviewing him, I found that he was truly passionate about the sport.

Hornbeam Dragon Heartstring 101/4 inches

Here is the first spread I designed for the wand book and I started with Viktor Krum’s wand first for a few reasons. First reason being it was a wand I had already drawn to get some practice in for drawing wands. I hadn’t drawn wands before and before I practiced drawing pre-existing wands, I sketched some really awful looking wands. The texture

wasn’t right and the proportions were all wrong and they just looked terrible. The second reason was due to drawing Harry, Hermione, Sirius and Viktor’s wand I decided to do a mockup spread to set the tone for the rest of the book. Initially this was just going to be an exercise to practice and mockup ideas etc. and I was going to scrap this and not include it in the book.

However, it came to me that Viktor would be in his late 30’s - early 40’s in this part of the timeline so after doing some research into what Viktor did after the Triwizard Tournament and Bill & Fleur’s wedding, I found that he participated in the 2002 Quidditch World cup and then retired and then came out of retirement for the 2014 World cup. I found this quite interesting

CONCEPT & DESIGN

wands around the world

europe

Viktor Krum Hornbeam Dragon Heartstring 101/4 inches, very rigid

Viktor Krum is a famous Quidditch player, a world class seeker. He grew up in Bulgaria and attended the Durmstrang Institute, one of the European schools. When he was 18 years old, and still at school, he was selected to play for Bulgaria in the 1994 Quidditch World Cup. He was an extraordinary player and was considered such a fascinating and exciting player to watch. Later that year he competed in the Triwizard Tournament. Krum had a great professional career in Quidditch but after a very close match between Bulgaria and Egypt in the finals of the 2002 Quidditch World Cup, he announced his retirement at the age of 26. Viktor decided to come out of retirement to compete in the 2014 Quidditch World Cup with the desire “to win the World Cup before I die”. Bulgaria won the cup against Brazil, fulfilling his dream. Viktor purchased his wand from the famous European wandmaker Mykew Gregorovitch. His expert skills rivalled those of my grandfather. Both excellent craftsmen but differed in opinion and styling. Sadly, Krum tells me Gregorovitch died twenty years ago so I was not able to meet Gregorovitch himself but he had been in retirement for years before because Viktor Krum was one of the last people to ever purchase their wands from Gregorovitch. Krum’s wand is crafted from hornbeam and dragon heartstring. It measures at 101/4 inches and is rather thicker than the usual wand, making it a very sturdy and very rigid wand. It is a beautifully organic looking wand, light in colour and seems to be all one piece rather than a separate handle, another of Gregorovitches differences from my father’s styling but I think it works. A roughly carved face that resembles a bird at the handle end is an interesting and almost subtle addition. He has taken good care of his wand as it is still in excellent condition. My great grandfather always said that hornbeam wands generally lean towards wizards with a lifelong obsession. It has been said that Krum is and always was obsessed with Quidditch and I think I must agree just from interviewing him, I found that he was truly passionate about the sport.

that he had a life after the Harry Potter books had ended and I realised I could tie this in quite nicely into my timeline as he is a very famous Quidditch player, and that the author could interview him about himself, his life and his wand (being a gregorovitch wand). Viktor’s spread is more of a special, admitedly, but I have included the basics that I would like every

passage of writing to have. This has given me a good basis to work with and has set the tone for how I would like to write the rest of the book. These two examples are iterations of the spread. The first is how I intially designed it. I was unsure about the specific wand facts in italics at the bottom. It seemed lost but I wasn’t sure where was appropriate. After discussing it with Nick,

he suggested it go before the excerpt about Krum which was absolutely perfect. He also suggested I change the running heads to all lower case on small caps and don’t use drop numbers as it aligns better. These small details have improved it no end. I am much happier with it and it has given me a good foundation to work with for the rest of the book.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

More wand sketches. Some successful. Some not.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

Something that I wanted to investigate was the way in which I would display the wands within the book. I really like the charm of my sketches, I think it makes it feel like more of a travellers notebook that has been edited and published with its original drawings. I contemplated on learning how to 3D model and actually render the wand designs in 3D but I don’t think that fits my theme of the book. Wizards wouldn’t use 3D rendered imagery in a book so I haven’t pursued this idea any further (also learning a new skill is a big task for such a limited time scale). 3D would’ve looked great for the degree show but it really isn’t a priority. One idea that was feasable was to photoshop colour onto my sketches to make the wands a little more colourful and maybe more appealing. I wasn’t confident with actually painting the wands and I didn’t want to destroy/ruin any of my original sketches to try to see if painting was a good idea. I know I am fairly adept with photoshop and wouldn’t take me long to see if this idea was a good one or not. I selected the colour from a picture of the wood that the wand is supposedly made out of (in the first two is Swamp Mayhaw and the third is Vine) and used it to tint the drawing. I quite like the effect of the first two as it does look more realistic and because they are such simple wands, they look a lot better but the problem for comes when the wands are a little more complex and have a lot more detail like the third. I feel that a lot of the detail is lost and doesn’t look as impressive. I can’t just colour some in and not other. I have to also weigh up the extra time I have to allow to photoshop all of the wands.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

wands around the world

Grace Gilley Rosewood Wampus Cat hair 101/4 inches, fairly inflexible

A beautiful wand crafted from rosewood and Wampus Cat hair with a thin ribbon of mother-of-pearl inlay running from base to tip and gold detail at the handle base holding a single pearl. Delicate and sleek in design and is fairly inflexible. A standard size at 101/4 inches. Most likely good for charm work, due to the delicate structure and rosewood, which has a strong sweet smell, it does lend itself nicely to charms and rosewood often favours a female owner. Grace seems to take good care of her wand and was very proud to show it to me.

Joseph Norton Black Walnut Wampus Cat hair 101/2 inches, firm

This elegant wand is crafted from black walnut and Wampus Cat hair with seven bands of mother-of-pearl inlay. It measures at 101/2 inches and is a nice firm wand. This is a handsome wand and is also good for charmwork due to the black walnut structure. My great grandfather told me that owners of black walnut wands have good instincts and a powerful insight.

Daniella Piper Rosewood Wampus Cat hair 10 inches, solid

Another great rosewood and Wampus Cat hair wand. It has a nice weight to it and measures at 10 inches exactly. This wand has a squared handle with diamond shaped mother-of-pearl inlay on one side of the wand. It's in great condition too. These Jonker wands seem to lend themselves quite nicely to charmwork.

north america

CONCEPT & DESIGN

Another spread from the book to show how multiple wands will fit on a page. I didn’t want to have one wand per page especially if three of them are from the same region or wandmaker. I wanted to group them together. I alternate which page the wands are on to reduce some monotony. I tried to make the amount of writing for each person/wand similar, but I found this fairly difficult. I just hope it’s not too bad looking. I hope its also clear the the first person’s wand is the first on the left, the second’s is the middle wand and the last person’s is the wand on the right. That seems most logical to me, I hope everyone else agrees and isn’t confusing to read.

CONCEPT & DESIGN

north america

As I neared the end of my travels, I visited

The other two wandmakers unfortunately had

North America. I heard there were four famous

passed away without handing down their legacy.

wandmakers working in the 20th century and

This has even led to a certain type of core never

so I sought out to find their legacy. I also visited

to be used in wands again. I was fortunate

the American school Ilvernmorny, a beautiful

enough, however, to be able to examine a

granite castle that sits upon Mount Greylock

wand from each of these wandmakers. Like

in Massachusetts. Not as historic as Hogwarts

Europe, it is not uncommon for wands to be

but still very impressive and insightful. I met

handed down through the family in North

many gifted young witches and wizards who

America and amongst the thousands of

were pleased to speak to me about themselves

students at Ilvermorny, two students had their

and their wands.

wands handed down to them by their parent's who owned a wand of these two deseased

I was pleased to find that two of the

wandmakers.

wandmakers' legacies had been continued by their family and was grateful that I was able to meet them, as I am destined to take over the Ollivander business it was a great opportunity to get some insight on what it is like to take over the family heritage. I found that they both wanted to keep with tradition as their parents were well reknowned for their signature wands.

This is a region introductory spread, this one specifically North America. It is a text only spread so I wanted to make sure the type set well. I don’t usually like justified text but I think for this specific project, I think it is appropriate. The purpose of this spread is to indicate when the ‘author’ travels to a new continent and just to

summarise each region. I did ideally want to write a little more on each introduction spread but I found myself lacking in words and didn’t want to keep repeating myself. I decided on the first version to have the title placed where all the other titles throughout the book sit. However, there’s a lot of white space underneath the text which I think

CONCEPT & DESIGN

north america

As I neared the end of my travels, I visited

The other two wandmakers unfortunately had

North America. I heard there were four famous

passed away without handing down their legacy.

wandmakers working in the 20th century and

This has even led to a certain type of core never

so I sought out to find their legacy. I also visited

to be used in wands again. I was fortunate

the American school Ilvernmorny, a beautiful

enough, however, to be able to examine a

granite castle that sits upon Mount Greylock

wand from each of these wandmakers. Like

in Massachusetts. Not as historic as Hogwarts

Europe, it is not uncommon for wands to be

but still very impressive and insightful. I met

handed down through the family in North

many gifted young witches and wizards who

America and amongst the thousands of

were pleased to speak to me about themselves

students at Ilvermorny, two students had their

and their wands.

wands handed down to them by their parent's who owned a wand of these two deseased

I was pleased to find that two of the

wandmakers.

is a little too much. To counteract this, I decided for these introductory pages to bring the text down more allowing more space around the text to frame it better. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult to judge on this page because there only crop marks to denote the edge of the page but I have printed them both off and I think it looks a whole lot better.

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION All in all it has been a very enjoyable, yet challenging project. I have thoroughly loved researching for book. It has allowed me to delve into the world of Harry Potter again but from a different light. I have never written fan-fictions (or read them) but this has been a new opportunity for me to express myself in a way that I have never done before. Expanding on something that has been part of my childhood and has been with me ever since has been really lovely. Using my imagination based on what I already know about the Harry Potter universe and what I have recently researched, to design wands and create a book has been a really great prospect. However, I have struggled throughout the proces too. I am nearing the end of my degree and have worked so hard during this course and therefore have put huge expectations on myself to achieve the best I can possibly achieve. But as I am in the final year and I have gotten to the point of being burnt out and exhausted from the pressure of uni and that I have put on myself. I have struggled immensely with motivation and drive to achieve what I know I can. So I am truly glad that I picked a lovely project that I do want to work on, otherwise I would definitely be in a worse position. I have found that getting lost in research is a relief from feeling so exhausted. However, I feel that I researched for far too long and shouldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve started designing wands weeks for I actually did. I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t drawn in a while so I found my confidence quite low and was apprehensive to start drawing and when I did I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to keep what I had drawn. Once I started practicing drawing wands

CONCLUSION

by sketching pre-existing wands I found myself feeling more positive about the outcome and was eager to carry on. If I could do this project again, knowing what I know now, I would start designing wands a lot sooner and draw a lot more than I have. I would keep even the ugliest of wands that I had designed and show that some wands aren’t all wonderful and pretty and that some of the less attractive wands deserve to be included within the book as it is a true representation of the cultures they are from. I have thoroughly enjoyed creating a book. I have only ever designed magazines before so this was a nice change. Similar things apply but the conventions are slightly different with some things. I would try to create different style wands and illustrate them with different mediums to create a better spectrum to choose from but due to my poor time management and lack of motivation I only have pencil drawn sketches to choose from. I still like the sketches I have done and I think most of them are successful but it probably would’ve been nice to have more of a choice and variety. Writing this process book has been a very useful exercise as it has allowed me to reflect on what I have done, and then to see clearer what my next step is to take. It’s easy to say “I wish I had done better and I should’ve done a lot more” and I do wish those things but I am proud that I have produced something that I am pleased with, regarding Harry Potter too, and I have learned a lot of lessons along the way which will hopefully help me to develop into a better graphic designer.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all those who have helped and supported me through this project. It has been an extremely tough semester and I couldn’t have done it without your support. I would like to thank my sister, Molly, for giving me constructive feedback about the project as a huge Harry Potter fan. It was most helpful to have another fan’s input and encouragement to tell me what looks right or wrong from a non-designer but Harry Potter fan’s perspective. Also a thank you to my friends and family for encouraging me, especially with the designing and drawing of the wands. A biased opinion, but all the same it was helpful to keep me going. And just for keeping me somewhat sane. I would also like to thank Nick Jeeves, for putting things into perspective for me and having confidence in me too, which allowed me to carry on with this project.

REFERENCES Pottermore. (2017). How the wands were made - Pottermore. [online] Available at: https://www.pottermore.com/features/designing-harry-potter-wands [Accessed 21 Mar. 2017]. Due to Harry Potter being fictional, information resources were limited. Research and information for the wand book was sourced from: www.pottermore.com www.harrypotter.wikia.com

The wand book is an extension of the Harry Potter universe and is not canon, only based upon it. The fictional character who is the author of the book is of my own imagination and the wand designs, descriptions of the wands and cultures are only based on the research I have found about the wizarding world.

www.cargocollective.com/stephhardygraphics stephhardygraphics@gmail.com @steph_graphics