Today we welcome Camille Condon to the blog, who is probably better known around the internet as Ms Curlypops! Cam designed the title page for the interview with illustrator and artist Dawn Tan in our new book Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two.

What is your art/design/career background? I’m a self taught designer. I studied art through my early high school years, but then chose to focus on maths and science and received a Bachelor Degree in Manufacturing Technology.

The creative bug always remained within, and although manufacturing was my day job, I spent any free time painting, drawing and creating.

A few years ago, I decided to teach myself to sew, which in turn led to an obsession with fabrics. It seemed to be kind of a natural progression to move into the world of fabric design.

What drew you to the work of your interviewee, illustrator and artist Dawn Tan? I’ve been following Dawn’s career online for quite a few years now. I love her playful, joyous sense of style, and of course, I’m drawn to her wonderful use of colour!

Tell us about the development of your title page design and how you arrived at your concept. I really wanted to design a title page which fitted Dawn’s aesthetic while still staying true to my design style. Luckily we both love colour, and I think we both have a really fun style.

What materials or computer programs did you use to create the title page, and how did you then prepare it to be submitted for the book? To create the title page, I really wanted to combine all my creative skills, and I definitely wanted to design a fabric especially for this project.

The concept sketch was designed using Illustrator. I then created another Illustrator file with all of the elements that were needed to create a digitally printed fabric. I fell in love with Dawn’s Native Flower print so I tried to colour match my fabric designs to that print.

The next step was to send my fabric printing file to Frankie and Swiss in Melbourne to have it printed onto their 295gsm 100% cotton canvas base cloth.

Once the fabric arrived in my letterbox, I put my sewing skills to use and turned it into personalised bunting for Dawn. It was then just a matter of photographing and editing to match my initial concept.

Of course, an original concept drawing doesn’t always end up being as perfect as I’d like! I wasn’t happy with the bunting just hanging in a blank space, so I took my finished photo and digitally added a frame. I’m really happy with the end product.

The extra bonus is that I can gift the personalised bunting to Dawn to keep :)

What other fun projects are your working on now? I’m a bit of a multi-tasker, so I’m always working on lots of things at once. I’ve just designed a new fabric which I’m waiting to have printed. I’ve branched out into wallpaper design and I have a new range of brooches featuring my own laser cut designs combined with my wallpapers.

I also have a stall at The Finders Keepers market in Brisbane this weekend!

Well Cam, we'll miss you at our book launch but if you happen to be in Brisbane this weekend, pop along to Finders Keepers and check out her wares. You can also purchase the book at the Follow stall at the market.