Title page designer: Louise Walker

Today we welcome Louise Walker to the blog. Louise designed the title page for the interview with designers Kat Macleod, Chloe Quigley and Simone Elder of Orotolan in our new book Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two. louise-walker-1

What is your art/design/career background? In 2011 I completed year 12 with a perfect score in Visual Communication Design and was chosen for the VCE Top Designs Awards. In 2012 I began studying Visual Communication Design at Monash University, a course that I am very passionate about.

Alongside university I work as the Graphic Designer for Salvatore Malatesta, the successful owner of many Melbourne cafes such as St Ali. In this job I have designed everything from café menus, to merchandising, vehicle ‘wrap’ designs, cycling gear, and been the Creative Director of the St Ali food stall(s) at Melbourne’s Big Day Out music festival 2013.

I have also been involved in design/art competitions, group exhibitions, and have had work featured in various publications. I was most recently selected for the Melbourne Threesome Typographic Exhibition (2013) where I worked along side Hofstede Design studio and a successful design graduate to produce a fantastic collaborative poster.

What drew you to the work of your interviewees, the ladies at Ortolan? Out of all the women interviewed in this volume, I felt the three women working at Ortolan design studio were one of the most relevant and relatable to me. I love their use of bold patterns and illustrative designs. Illustration is one of my favourite parts of being a designer, so I really admire Kat Macleod’s strong talent in that field. It’s such an inspiration to see how successful Kat, Chloe, and Simone have been in achieving some wonderful graphic designs.

Tell us about the development of your title page design and how you arrived at your concept. To begin my creative process I researched Ortolan’s website and familiarized myself with their particular design style. It was evident there was a strong collective input into their designs, as they clearly work well together as a team.

With these concepts in mind, I began sketching. I initially started working in the hand-sketched style that was used in many of Ortolan’s brandings, but I found my designs just didn’t suit the look I wanted to achieve. Leaving the ink and watercolours, I went back to basics using pencil and paper. I began sketching the three names in a design that joined each name together and weaved all the lines around each other. I wanted to emphasis the collaborative nature of Ortolan’s beautiful studio work.

My best sketch was then scanned and used as a guide for creating a digital version in Adobe Illustrator. From there, I went back and forth between Illustrator and Photoshop until I was happy with my final design.

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? I usually begin a project manually with pen or pencil. So for the title page, I started by playing around with pencil and paper and, after a few roughs, came up with a more consolidated idea. Though still in it’s rough stages, I scanned in my sketch and brought it into a new file in Illustrator. I made it my bottom layer, and built up my layers on top. Using a drawing tablet is essential for this stage. I then use other programs like Photoshop to make further edits and play around with colour, scale, and texture. I decided to add some patterns from Ortolan’s work into my title page design, as to better illustrate their bright and friendly style. Then it was just a matter of sending it off, ready for print!

What other fun projects are your working on now? I am always working on something new and interesting, whether it’s designing tattoos for a university project, creating a logo for an upcoming event in Melbourne, or working on some business cards for a new client. I always enjoy what I do as no two jobs are the same!

Thanks Louise! There's less than a month until 'Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two' is released, and I can't wait to see this page in print. Have you ordered your copy?.

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Title page designer: Jessica Hyde

Jessica Hyde has designed the title page for the interview with book designer and illustrator Michelle Mackintosh in our new book Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two. Today we chat to Jess about her background and future! Jess Hyde cwc_office shot

What is your art/design/career background? I originally studied Architecture and since graduating in 2007 I have been combining working in that field and exploring my real passion for illustration, paper and graphic design. All of that exploration is channeled into my own little creative studio TRUTH.BE.TOLD, which now includes freelance illustration, custom stationery design, as well as the TRUTH.BE.TOLD stationery and paper goods range.

What drew you to the work of your interviewee, book designer Michelle Mackintosh? I have always dreamed of one day being a book designer, so when I was doing a little research on the talented ladies being profiled in the book and saw that Michelle had my dream job I had to find out more. I also absolutely love her illustrative style. Tell us about the development of your title page design and how you arrived at your concept.

After doing some initial research to find out more about Michelle and her work, I was a little stumped about what direction to take – her work is quite varied and I didn’t want to try and replicate Michelle’s work but I wanted to try and instill a little of the whimsy I saw in her illustrations. I decided to draw inspiration from her choice of mediums and colour palettes in her illustrations and incorporate some of these into the title page design.

I went through many ideas before settling on the simple idea of an open book as a sort of canvas for ideas and allowing the watercolour and textured style be highlighted. After that all of the elements came together pretty quickly.

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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? I used a combination of hand and digital elements to create the title page. I hand painted a series of watercolour washes to create the book pages and accents, which I then layered and shaped in Photoshop. I also drew and painted the lettering by hand before adding it to the digital collage. Finally the grid and background colour was added in Photoshop.

What other fun projects are your working on now? At the moment I’m working on custom stationery for upcoming spring and summer weddings and events, as well as designing my own collection of event stationery, which I will hopefully finish off very soon! I’ve also been working on a whole bunch of new designs and experimenting with screen-printing for my TRUTH.BE.TOLD range.

Thanks Jess! See Jess this Sunday at the Greville St Market (perhaps pop over after our event on Sunday morning!).

And you can pre-order your copy of 'Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two' featuring Jess' title page design now at our online shop.

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Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two... the FINAL reveal!

As if the women we announced last week and the week before weren't enough, today we are revealing the final three talented women who are interviewed for Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two. That makes 16 women in total working in about 14 different creative industries (though many of them cross-pollinate, as we often do!).

Without further ado, here is the final reveal...

Maker Madeleine Sargent of Made By Mosey

Book designer Michelle Mackintosh

Natasha Dumais, Graphic Designer (Magnetic Design) and Furniture Designer (Ubabub)

If you'd like to see all the featured interviewees listed in one place, visit this page or the Conversations with Creative Women website. It makes me tear up a little knowing all these amazing women took the time to answer my questions for this book. I just can't choose a favourite!

Before I go, a quick reminder that today is the LAST day we are taking pre-orders of the book accompanied by the limited edition fabric wraps. Pick a beauty from Emily Green, Lara Cameron or Catherine Campbell  and order away... (you can still pre-order the book until November 14th, but the fabric wrap offer ends at midnight tonight!).

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Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two... the second reveal!

WOW - what an amazing, amazing response Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two received when it was announced last week. Seriously, I was and still am quite flabbergasted at the enthusiasm and volume of pre-orders that have flooded in. And I am very pleased you like the concept of the fabric wraps! How great are they? I'm super-keen to see what you all make from them. So I'm happy to reveal more details about the book's interviewees... so excited to have these ladies on board:

Illustrator, artist and teacher Dawn Tan

Film and television director Shirley Barrett

Artist Christine Cholewa

These talented ladies above join the first announcement of interviewees but there are still a couple to go! The final interviewees will be announced next week.

If you'd like to pre-order and ensure you get a copy of this limited edition book (with a special fabric wrap!), visit this page to find out how.

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Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two pre-order special offer!

Eeek! Did you see The Design Files today? The news is finally out: Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two is now taking pre-orders! Who is featured? Like the much-loved first volume, this new book is a collection of exclusive interviews with some of this countries finest creative minds. The full list of interviewees will be announced over the next couple of weeks, but here are just a few of the stellar creative ladies I had the privilege of chatting to for this book...

Alischa Herrmann of Bespoke Letterpress

Interior designer Anna Spiro

Designer and founder of Nancybird, Emily Wright

Designer and founder of Hobes, Georgia Hobart

Stylist Megan Morton

Photographer Olga Bennett

Designers and founders of Ortolan, Kat Macleod, Chloe Quigley and Simone Elder

mud australia founder and ceramacist Shelley Simpson

Each lady talks about her career path, offers tips and advice, and shares with us details that give us a great insight into the world of a busy, inspiring creative. There's some more info on each of the interviewees on the Volume Two book page. Details of the other interviewees will be revealed in the coming weeks!

The book will be a strictly limited edition print, and officially launched on November 15, but you can pre-order now to reserve your copy.

Pre-order special offer! Those who pre-order before the end of this month will receive their copy wrapped in a beautiful piece of fabric designed by Emily Green, Lara Cameron or Catherine Campbell and printed locally by Frankie & Swiss. After reading the book, I hope you will be inspired to make something from the fabric and share it with us! Find out more and see the designs here. Exciting!

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New eBook: Graphic Design Speak - General advice, technical tips and jargon defined for non-graphic designers

by Tess McCabe It's finally done. If you follow me (Tess McCabe / @tessmccabe) on Instagram you might have seen glimpses of a project I've been working on lately. I'm really thrilled to finally reveal it here: my new eBook Graphic Design Speak.

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Graphic Design Speak is about giving non-graphic-designers a working knowledge of the words and concepts graphic designers commonly use, without explaining the history of graphic design or going overboard with the technical talk.

As a graphic designer, this information is well known to me - but I recognise it's extremely important and useful for non-graphic-designers (meaning makers, interior designers, publicists, writers, musicians, bloggers, performers... anyone in a creative role themselves or who works with a graphic designer) to know as well.

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The 27-page eBook explains:

  • Basic colour terms like Pantone, CMYK, RGB and what they mean
  • Common file types and where you use them (a.k.a. Why can't my printer just get my logo from my website and put it on my business card?)
  • How to distinguish a high-resolution image from a low-resolution one (a.k.a. A journalist has asked for a high-resolution image for a story about me, but how do I know which one of these image files to send?!)
  • The standard paper and envelope sizes
  • Facts about fonts 
  • And over 85 common words and phrases us graphic designers throw around willy nilly.

Those multiple back-and-forth emails with your techy-nerd friend or frantic late-night forum-reading can be avoided with this helpful little handbook! And you will feel empowered with knowledge and enjoy a better working relationship with graphic design professionals as a result.

The book is available to download for the extremely reasonable cost of $11.00 only at our online shop. AND Included is a low-ink-use black and white version for printing at home, if you prefer the paper kind of reference tool.

I hope you find it useful!

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Call out for title page designers - Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two

sdfs Hey everyone, great news: the follow-up to our popular first book, Conversations with Creative Women, is on its way!

Yes, I've interviewed a new bunch of fantastically creative and inspiring ladies and Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two will be released in paperback format later this year.

But we're still in the early stages of pulling the book together, which is what this post is all about.

I'm on the lookout for title page designers for Volume Two.

Conversations with Creative Women: Volume 1 title page designed by Nicola St John

Conversations with Creative Women: Volume One title page designed by Jenny Hipgrave

In Conversations with Creative Women: Volume One, introducing each interview within the book was a title page designed by another local lady. You can see some of the magnificent examples in this post, and you can read these older posts about the designs and the creative minds behind them.

The title pages, inspired by the work the interviewee is involved in, were such a surprising and enlightening addition to the book as a whole, that I am excited to invite a group of new designers to participate this time.

So if you're a designer, illustrator, painter, crafter or anyone who would be interested in participating in this new book, read on.

How to apply to design a title page for Conversations with Creative Women: Volume Two:

The application process is simple, but we would greatly appreciate if you could follow these guidelines exactly:

1. Send an email to Tess  admin<at>creativewomenscircle.com.au with the subject title 'Title page designer'

2. Include a link to your work online in the email and/or attach 2-3 examples of your work as jpegs (under 5mb in total please!)

3. Please note that we cannot accept .zip files or images embedded into Word documents.

If your application is successful:

If your application is successful, you'll be sent a proper brief, plus a list of the women we're interviewing for this book. You'll then have a choice of who you would like to design for!

A few things to note:

  • We may receive a lot of applications, so if you are not contacted to participate please do not be discouraged about the quality of your work. We keep all applications on file and there may be other opportunities to contribute at another time.
  • If you send examples of your typographic-based work, this will really help us gauge if your style is right for the book.
  • The title page can be created in any medium, so even if you're a sculpter, sewer, or someone who works with three-dimensional materials, consider applying!
  • If your application is successful, we will send you the full brief and all the relevant details.
  • This project needs to be completed by the end of June 2013, so please consider if you are going to be away or if June is a particularly busy month for you before applying.
  • This will not be a paid opportunity, but your professional bio and contact details will appear within the book and you will receive a substantial discount if you choose to purchase a copy of the book when it is released.

Applications close 10pm THIS Sunday 26 May 2013.

I look forward to receiving your application!

Conversations with Creative Women: Volume One title page designed by Luci Everett

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