Book - A is for...

My 20 books- I was influenced by 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' book, the illustrative style and the overall concept of the book. I thought I would just go with a simple theme and focus on it, typically 'A is for Apple', I decided to draw different apples, and to have it slightly more crisp and 'graphic' I would have a few typefaces cut out of each one. The idea that there is a worm creeping off at the back suggests he is the one that has eaten out the letterforms, this keeps the book sort of playful, but could be seen as a type of stencil? Maybe a mini 'a' typeface library, but that might be milking it a bit. I chose to use a worm because I didn't want it to just become another, smaller, apple version of the caterpillar book, I used it simply as a starting point. Also the book is quite small, and so are the apples, so the idea of a little worm seems to work better than having a big caterpillar crawling across the page.

I was able to squeeze in a slot after college to use the lazer cutter, this was very useful, not only is the lazer cutter unbelievable, it also makes mass production easier, quicker and a lot more professional looking. Learning from my previous project where I hand cut out the word 'see' on my dvd cases, I now know the difference between the two and how much better lazer cutting looks.

I used a stock called 'off-white', I felt this coincided with the colouring pencil/crayon effect illustrations, I also like how the lazer cutter has slightly burnt the paper where it has cut, this sort of looks like it has been eaten/cut by a little worm. The stock was the right thickness to fold it properly, but not too thin so it looked a little loose and floppy. I wanted to print onto a slightly coloured stock anyway, like a beige/yellowey colour, so this stock matched what I wanted perfectly.


I was so impressed with the lazer cutter, I definitely plan to use this equipment in the future.